via News.com.au, 21 August 2023: Australian divers have found the long-lost USS Ommaney Bay, a US aircraft carrier sunk during World War II off the Philippines, with 95 lives lost, and have explored its wreckage, revealing the extent of the attack and the war grave within.
The USS Ommaney Bay had been on its way to liberate Manila from the Japanese during World War II when it was struck in a kamikaze attack in the Sulu Sea, and then torpedoed.
There were 95 lives lost in the attack, including two men on board the escort Eichenberger who were killed by flying debris. The USS Ommaney Bay was carrying 27 aircraft at the time it sank, and was packed with munition.
“I hear a big boom and the lights went out and smoke started coming out of the bulk heads,” Joe Cooper, who was 22 when the suicide plane hit his warship, said of that terrifying moment of impact. He’s now 101 years old, living in North Carolina, US.
Source: Australian divers’ remarkable underwater discovery | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
