A vessel called Montevideo Maru has been found off the northwest coast of the Philippine island of Luzon at a depth of more than 4,000 meters in the South China Sea. The ship was carrying around 1,060 prisoners from 16 countries, including 850 Australian soldiers, from the former Australian territory of New Guinea to the Japanese-occupied island of Hainan. Then, on July 1, 1942, an American submarine attacked and sank a ship that was not marked as carrying prisoners of war.
The discovery ended “one of the most tragic chapters in Australia’s maritime history”, the Australian Department of Defense said. Authorities thanked deep-sea search specialists and military personnel for their participation in the search. The preparation of the research expedition of the ship Montevideo Maru took five years.
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