Original subtitles

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The debris of the merciless battles of World War II

is still strewn across the remote islands of the Pacific.

Below the waves,

ghost fleets and their cargoes

bear silent testimony to the battles above.

All types of aircraft are scattered on the seafloor,

and on land, the remains of savage and bloody conflicts.

A tangible museum of the weapons of war,

frozen in time, charting the track

of one of the planet's grimmest

and most far-reaching military campaigns.

For the protagonists,

the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean were the prize.

Today, history tells its own story through these remains of war.

In 1940,

Japan had its own plans for an empire dominating the Pacific.

It had already annexed a number of territories.

The main obstacle to Japanese expansion

was the United States,

which had been pressuring Japan to halt its military expansion

in Asia and the Pacific.

So on December 7th, 1941,

the Japanese military launched a surprise attack

on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii,

intended to neutralise American naval power in the Pacific region.

The Japanese believed that their only chance for victory

was this surprise attack

that would cripple the American naval forces in the Pacific

and force the United States into a negotiated peace.

They achieved quite the opposite.

The attack triggered America's entry into the war the very next day.

Since the unprovoked and dastardly attack,

a state of war has existed

between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

Pearl Harbour was the opening salvo

of a Japanese offensive throughout the Pacific,

incredible in its scale,

and by June 1942, they dominated much of the region.

The Imperial Japanese Empire's conquest of the Pacific

appeared unstoppable.

Indeed, at its height,

Japan's empire stretched across 7 time zones

and controlled 516 million people.

That's 50% more conquered people than Nazi Germany.

But they wanted more and saw both Australia and New Zealand

as being within their grasp.

And the key to that conquest

was a small town on the island of New Britain

in the Bismarck Archipelago.

Part of Australia's New Guinea Territory,

Rabaul is a unique deepwater natural harbour.

Japanese forces landed there in January 1942

and quickly established a massive military presence.

At its height,

the town and its surrounding encampments

served 100,000 military personnel.

The Manko Maru was one of the many ships

that became victim of the ferocious battles for Rabaul.

Today she lies deep in the murky waters of the harbour,

rarely visited, almost forgotten.

One of around 50 sunken ghost ships haunting the ocean here.

Following the capture of Rabaul,

it became the largest Japanese base in New Guinea

and the linchpin to their defences in the region.

Sustained air raids by American bombers

and fighter planes in late 1943

were to eventually neutralise its importance and strategic value,

committing many ships like the Manko Maru

to their watery graves.

But until then, Rabaul's strategic location,

multiple airfields, and large natural harbour

made it the ideal staging post for ships,

aircraft, troops, and supplies

during the New Guinea and Guadalcanal campaigns.

Two major protagonists were to shape the course of this war.

Admiral Chester William Nimitz

played a major role as Commander-in-Chief,

Pacific Ocean Areas,

commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces.

While the equally brilliant strategist

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

was the Commander-in-Chief

of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet.

By late 1941,

Rabaul was the largest and most strategically significant

Japanese forward base in the region.

It was inevitable that Admiral Yamamoto

should establish his headquarters there.

Under a thick slab of steel-reinforced concrete,

Yamamoto's bunker in Rabaul is still intact.

The underground command centre

from where he controlled the Japanese naval campaign.

It was heavily camouflaged from the air,

and any lucky bombs would never have penetrated the reinforced roof.

The whitewashed interior still bears a plotting chart

to track incoming Allied raids.

In the yard outside,

locals have gathered salvaged weaponry from the surrounding area.

From Rabaul, the Japanese military planned their campaign

to invade and ultimately conquer the huge Australian landmass.

A two-pronged attack was planned:

a seaborne assault on the Solomon Islands,

which would strangle any chance of America

coming to Australia's aid with men and supplies.

And a land assault on Port Moresby

over the mountains of New Guinea on the south coast,

where, at its closest point,

Australia is less than 100 miles away across the Coral Sea.

An air raid on Darwin by more than 200 Japanese planes in 1942

left hundreds dead and wounded

and most of the city's civilian and military infrastructure destroyed.

It was the first of almost 100 similar raids

on northern Australian towns and cities.

The attack on Port Moresby was along a narrow 55-mile trail

over the Owen Stanley mountain range

known as the Kokoda Trail,

little more than a single-file footpath

linking the mountain villages.

Every item had to be manhandled along most of its length.

At first, the Japanese forces made quick progress,

but a series of hard-fought encounters slowed their attack.

The initial defence of the Kokoda Trail

fell to just a few hundred Australian militia.

Despite being poorly armed, poorly equipped, poorly supplied,

and lacking in combat experience,

they forced the Japanese to fight for every step of their advance.

Hot and humid days,

intensely cold nights,

torrential rainfall, and rampant malaria

afflicted soldiers on both sides.

Finally, it was resupply that became the deciding factor.

While the Australian supplies could be trucked most of the way forward,

Japanese supplies had to be carried all the way from the north coast.

The Japanese advance finally ground to a halt on a ridge

where they could actually see the lights of Port Moresby,

but their supply lines were in chaos.

And their surviving troops starving and exhausted.

In a gruelling 4 months of intense mountain jungle warfare,

more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers had died.

Not only was Rabaul crucial in the struggle for Port Moresby,

from there the Japanese could also send troops and supplies

to their forward positions in the Solomon Islands.

Shipwrecks scattered on the ocean floor

around the Solomon Islands

bear witness to the military significance of these islands.

as crucial to the battle for the Pacific.

Every type of ship, not only American and Japanese,

but also from New Zealand and Australia,

found their final resting places here.

If the Japanese could control these strategically crucial islands,

they would put a stranglehold on any possibility of American forces

coming to Australia's aid.

The Americans too saw the importance of the Solomons

if they were to contain Imperial Japanese forces

advancing across the South Pacific.

These remote and until then insignificant tropical islands

were to take centre stage in a titanic struggle.

Not only was dominance of the sea important,

dominance of the air was equally vital for both sides.

The sea floor around the islands is littered with the remains of planes

that tell their own story

of how fiercely control of the skies was contested.

Because whoever controlled the sky

could ensure maintaining supply chains to their troops.

And whoever lost the battle for the skies

would almost certainly lose the battle for the land.

So when the Japanese began constructing a large airfield

on Guadalcanal Island,

American concerns grew.

From there, long-range bombers and fighters

could provide air cover for Japanese naval forces

advancing further into the South Pacific.

Admiral Nimitz made stopping them a top priority.

So on the 7th of August, 1942,

America mounted its first major amphibious landings of World War II.

On Guadalcanal,

the largest island of the Solomons chain,

the Americans at first met little resistance on their way inland

to secure the airfield.

But almost immediately,

Japanese ships and aircraft launched a counterattack,

and Japanese reinforcements arrived in the area.

It seemed that every time the Americans inched closer to victory,

Japanese ships would resupply Guadalcanal by night

and be ready for more fighting the next day.

These ships on Bonegi Beach

were part of what became known as the Tokyo Express Convoy,

the regular nighttime shuttle

resupplying the Japanese on Guadalcanal.

Under cover of darkness,

the ships had been beached to allow men and materials to be unloaded,

but some stayed too late.

And caught close to shore,

the Americans' response had been quick and brutal.

At dawn, they were spotted by the Americans

and attacked by land artillery,

from the sea by an American destroyer,

and from the air by B-17 bombers.

Overnight,

these ships had landed some 2,000 men,

plus ammunition and supplies.

But it was to be their last voyage.

Shells and bombs ripped through the steel plates of the ships.

By noon, all 4 transports had been sunk

along with most of their remaining cargoes.

The fight for control of Guadalcanal, its critical airfield,

and the seas around them continued for months,

with both sides losing colossal numbers of men, ships, and aircraft,

and with neither side able to drive the other off the island.

The ultimate prize was Henderson Airfield.

Japanese planners

knew that the airfield was of vital importance to them.

Hold it, and the battle was won.

So did the Marines,

who eventually, having taken control of the airfield,

stubbornly defended it.

Difficult jungle terrain,

inhospitable weather

and a foe that fought to the death

gave the United States its first taste

of what was to come throughout the Pacific War.

For the Americans, the logistical challenges of transport and supply

thousands of miles across the Pacific,

an ocean dominated by the Imperial Japanese Navy,

were also immense.

And in the skies above,

there was almost continuous air combat.

These are the remains of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

This particular plane went down amid fierce fighting in early 1943.

Much of the structure is still intact.

More bombs were dropped by these planes

than by any other American aircraft in the Second World War.

The huge bomber was armed with 13 machine guns.

It carried almost £18,000 of bombs.

It was manned by a crew of 10.

By 1944,

American factories were churning out these mighty aircraft

at the rate of 16 per day.

These are the twin steering columns

where pilot and copilot would be seated.

The plane lies on the sandy sea floor,

100 feet down,

and has become bedecked in hard corals and encrusting sponges.

And today provides a safe haven for fish.

Wherever you go in the jungle on Guadalcanal,

it's hard not to stumble into the remains of World War II.

There's military hardware abandoned everywhere.

For local kids, it's become just a playground.

Used for the first time in the Pacific theatre at Guadalcanal,

the Amtrak was an amphibious landing craft.

It was one of the most versatile amphibious vehicles of the war,

capable of dealing with most conditions and terrains.

This is the final resting place

of some of the Amtraks that brought the Marines ashore.

A crucial workhorse in all the landings

that followed Guadalcanal throughout the Pacific.

Now being absorbed by the jungle.

The Catalina was a flying boat,

an aircraft with a long operational range,

able to locate and attack enemy transport ships at sea.

Flying boats had the advantage of not requiring runways,

in effect having the entire ocean available to land on.

Although the Catalina was slow and ungainly,

Allied forces used the aircraft for a wide variety of purposes.

In their rescue role,

they saved the lives of hundreds of aircrew downed over water.

Catalinas were also the most extensively used

anti-submarine aircraft in World War II,

and their duties even included escorting Arctic convoys

to the Russian city of Murmansk.

For the Marines,

the campaign on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands

was synonymous with misery.

A constant day-to-day battle of life and death.

A man could die from tropical disease and malnutrition

just as easily as being killed by enemy fire.

Because of the ferocious and costly battles at sea

making resupply virtually impossible,

the men ashore were left without sufficient medical provisions

and food.

Even finding drinking water was a major challenge.

Combined with the heat, the stress of combat,

and daily rations consisting

almost solely of maggot and worm-infested rice,

it was not uncommon for men on Guadalcanal

to lose as much as 20 kilos in weight due to malnutrition.

And the hot, humid weather and wet jungle terrain

created a perfect breeding ground for disease.

Malaria cases were rampant.

By the time they were relieved in December 1942,

tropical diseases had disabled twice as many

as had been disabled by enemy fire.

Lying close to shore is the wreck of a Moa,

which had a disproportionately huge impact on the outcome of the war

for such a small vessel.

An apparently minor engagement between two New Zealand minesweepers

and a Japanese submarine

was to turn the whole tide of the war in the Pacific.

On the night of 29th January 1943,

two New Zealand minesweepers, Kiwi and Moa,

were patrolling on the northwestern corner of Guadalcanal

when Kiwi detected a submarine.

These are the remains of that sub.

It was a formidable opponent,

1.5 times bigger than Moa and Kiwi combined.

Its captain and crew were highly experienced.

It had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbour

and since been responsible for sinking many ships

in the Indian Ocean.

They wouldn't give in without a fight.

Its gun had greater range and hitting power than the New Zealand ship's,

and it also had powerful torpedoes.

And it was fast.

The sub could outrun the minesweepers by 5 knots.

Both ships continued attacking the submarine

until it ran aground on a reef.

But after her crew had escaped,

surprisingly, the Japanese bombed and shelled the stranded sub.

Curious as to why,

the New Zealanders went aboard the submarine

and retrieved Japanese codebooks,

with massive repercussions for the future of the campaign

and also far-reaching implications

for the fate of Japan's foremost military leader,

and the mastermind of their Pacific campaign,

Admiral Yamamoto.

The chain of around 80 islands, then called the New Hebrides,

now the nation of Vanuatu,

played a critical role

in the Americans' conduct of the Pacific War.

The Americans had already realised the logistical difficulties

of fighting a war over 6,000 miles from mainland USA.

They needed a secure base closer to the battlefields,

and Vanuatu was perfect for that role,

just 750 miles away.

The sheltered deepwater harbour

became the principal forward supply base

for the whole South Pacific campaign.

Without the supplies funnelled through here,

the battle for the Solomons would have been unsustainable.

And the outcome of the war in the Pacific very different.

Today's town is built on the land that the Americans reclaimed

in order to create an immense wartime military base.

It was the staging post for men, supplies, and war materials

transported across the wide Pacific

from the American West Coast and Hawaii.

Every item passed through here.

After Pearl Harbour,

Espiritu Santo

became America's largest naval and military facility in the Pacific.

And although no naval battle was fought here,

two major shipwrecks lie on the sea floor.

Like so-called friendly fire,

there's no such thing as a friendly mine.

Strike it and it sinks you.

Yet two ships lie on the seabed here due to so-called friendly mines.

This is what remains of the USS Tucker,

a destroyer.

On the 1st of August, 1942,

Tucker was escorting a cargo ship

into the port of Luganville in Espiritu Santo.

As she headed into the western entrance,

she struck at least one mine.

The explosion ripped through the heart of the Tucker.

shrouding it with clouds of blinding smoke,

while torrents of seawater rushed in through the gaping wound amidships.

The blast killed 3 men instantly,

while breaking the back of the destroyer.

All power lost due to flooding of the boilers,

the crippled ship drifted helplessly back through the minefield.

The mines had been laid only the day before

to prevent prowling Japanese submarines

from secretly entering the harbour.

But the Tucker's captain had received no information whatsoever

about the minefield.

Broken in two,

the ship's stern sank the following morning,

and divers scuttled and submerged her bow.

Tucker's loss was a major setback to the Pacific Fleet.

Which was trying to assemble every available ship

for the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Onshore, a massive military supply base was created.

Three hospitals handled casualties from the fighting across the region.

A giant fuel tank farm was built on Aore Island,

immediately across the sand.

The base housed supply dumps, ammunition stores,

and repair facilities,

and even a giant floating dry dock

capable of taking the very biggest ships.

Seven airfields were carved from the jungle and coconut plantations.

Sorties ranged to Guadalcanal, Rabaul, and Truk.

Corrugated steel Quonset huts,

intended as temporary wartime utility buildings,

are still scattered throughout the islands.

Some are abandoned in the forests.

Others in town

are still used for their original workshop purposes, 80 years on.

Fighting never touched these islands, yet they still have their relics.

A garrison of 50,000 troops was stationed permanently here,

but probably well over a million U.S. service personnel

passed through on their way to the killing grounds of the Pacific.

Many never returned,

and most of those who did were permanently scarred,

physically and mentally, by their experiences.

A so-called friendly mine also sank the President Coolidge,

a massive luxury liner pressed into service as a transport ship

for the reinforcement of garrisons in the Pacific.

One of the largest shipwrecks in the world.

En route from San Francisco carrying troops and equipment to Guadalcanal,

two friendly mines struck the Coolidge.

Like the Tucker,

the Coolidge's captain had been given no warning

of the mining of the harbour approaches by his own Navy.

Incredibly, 5,340 men got ashore safely,

and there were only 2 casualties in the sinking.

Fireman Robert Reed,

working in the engine room, was killed by the first mine blast.

And Captain Elwood Joseph Euart had safely left Coolidge

when he heard that there were still men in the infirmary

who couldn't get out.

He returned, successfully rescued the men,

but then, unable to escape himself, went down with the ship.

The huge, almost cathedral-like spaces of the vessel

are daunting in their size.

For today's explorer,

internal corridors seem to stretch forever.

And because the ship lies on its side,

orientation can be confusing.

A barber's chair appears to be hanging horizontally from the wall.

But inside this wreck,

floors are walls and walls become ceilings or floors.

Rows of toilets

installed for the military when she was converted for troopship use

appear again to be randomly hanging from the ceiling

and growing from the apparent floor.

In her number one hold is a cargo of Army Jeeps and trucks.

Their distinctive grills clearly identifiable.

The jeeps were originally packed in wooden crates,

which have long since rotted away.

In fact, the ship had over 10,000 tons of equipment on board,

including field guns,

artillery pieces, and ammunition

that had all been destined for the besieged troops

fighting on Guadalcanal.

Another hold, known as the Gunhold, contains a large 155mm howitzer.

It was a powerful weapon with a range of up to 15 miles.

These are drop tanks for aircraft.

In an area like the Pacific,

where pilots had to cross wide expanses of ocean

to reach their targets,

use of these disposable fuel tanks

could considerably increase the range of a plane.

Perhaps the most iconic treasure on board

is this relief of the Lady and the Unicorn,

which hung on the wall of the first-class smoking room.

The sinking of the Coolidge

had a devastating impact on the Marines fighting in Guadalcanal.

The Coolidge had been carrying 268 kilos of quinine,

all destined for Guadalcanal,

almost the entire American stock of malaria medication.

Without the reinforcements

and supplies of ammunition, food, and medication,

the situation of the Marines on Guadalcanal

became even more desperate.

There's a Titanic-like sensation to exploring the Coolidge.

Swimming along the exposed side of the ship

gives a true sensation of its size.

Divers are dwarfed by the megalithic structure.

There's no escaping the thought

that the loss of this proud ship could so easily have been avoided.

And also, had her captain been warned of the mining of the harbour,

the supplies and troops that she was carrying

could have made such a major difference

to the campaign on Guadalcanal.

Off Guadalcanal, major naval battles continued.

So intense were these encounters

that the sea between the islands

has since been known as Iron Bottom Sound

due to the colossal number of wrecks.

One of these

is the huge 450-foot-long Japanese transport Toa Maru,

lying on her starboard side in just 40 feet of water.

Critically damaged by an American attack,

she was abandoned by her crew

and drifted for 3 days before finally settling on the sea floor.

Like the Coolidge,

she too had been carrying supplies

vital to the ever more beleaguered Japanese forces.

Her cavernous holds and sheer size are awe-inspiring.

They are powerful and intriguing silent monuments

to the thousands who died on board them.

A living underwater museum.

But back in 1942,

the naval battles were drawing to an end

as both sides prepared for the final roll of the dice.

Determined to achieve a decisive victory,

Japanese forces massed for a last-ditch, all-out attack.

But the Marines had finally received fresh reinforcements and supplies.

As one Japanese officer noted, this was the fork in the road.

While fighting continued on Guadalcanal,

the Japanese eventually withdrew their final men

and left the island to the Allies in February 1943.

But the price paid was a high one.

In total, the campaign cost the Allies 29 ships,

around 600 aircraft,

and over 7,000 men killed.

Japan's losses on the island were equally devastating.

Starving Japanese soldiers called it the Island of Death.

They lost 38 ships, almost 700 aircraft, and 31,000 men.

But the Japanese juggernaut

that had whirled through Asia and the Pacific had been halted.

Guadalcanal was America's first major ground victory against Japan

and, most importantly, the Pacific War's turning point.

The Guadalcanal campaign ended in February 1943,

and another hugely significant event

changing the course of the war occurred just a few weeks later.

Admiral Yamamoto was commander-in-chief

of Japan's Combined Fleet,

the mastermind behind the raid on Pearl Harbour,

and unquestionably their greatest naval strategist.

And that made him the number one target for the American forces.

Thanks to codes recovered by the New Zealand minesweepers Kiwi and Moa

from a Japanese submarine in the Solomon Islands,

Navy codebreakers had intercepted Japanese radio traffic

indicating that the Admiral would fly from Rabaul on New Britain

to Bougainville's Balalae Island

early on April 18th, 1943.

A squadron of United States Army Air Force

Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft

were assigned to intercept and shoot down Yamamoto's flight.

Even equipped with extra fuel tanks,

the 1,000-mile return flight

was the very limit of operational range for the planes,

allowing them just minutes at the intercept point

before they'd have to return home.

Flying from Guadalcanal,

the planes had to skirt around Japanese-occupied territory,

staying 50 miles offshore

to avoid observation from lookouts

and flying at just 50 feet above the waves

to avoid radar detection.

It was an incredible feat of navigation,

flying by dead reckoning over the ocean

and using just an onboard compass and the pilot's chronometer.

As they arrived at the coast of Bougainville,

the pilot spotted Yamamoto's plane

and its escorting Zero fighters above them, exactly on schedule.

It was the longest interception mission flown in World War II.

In the ensuing dogfight, Yamamoto's plane was hit

and, spewing smoke from its engine,

lost height and crashed into the jungle.

And it was all thanks to the courageous actions

of the two New Zealand minesweepers,

Kiwi and Moa, and their crews

on that January night off Guadalcanal.

In the next episode,

landings on New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago,

the neutralisation of Rabaul,

and America's revenge for Pearl Harbour,

the Ghost Fleet of Truck Lagoon.