During the second world war this tiny mile square speck of sand in the middle of the Pacific was one of the stepping stones for the Americans to Japan. At the very north part of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshal Islands, its airfield is now part of the Star Wars bases set up by Ronald Ragan in the 80s.
However hidden beneath the sheltered waters of the lagoon is another secret. At the end of the war when the troops pulled out and the air field was abandoned any aircraft that were scrap or not fit to fly were dumped from barges into the lagoon. It's not easy to get to, first you fly into the US base at Kwajalein then it is about 8 hours steaming north. You can't stay on Roi-Namur so all the diving must be done from a liveaboard dive boat. More functional than luxury in this case.
Several North American Aviation Mitchell B25, famous for the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in 1942, and used during the island hopping war in the Pacific sit upright as if they had just landed.
Close up it's clear the did not suffer much damage when they were dumped in the Lagoon.
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Mitchell B25 tail gunner must have been a lonely job
This carrier based Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive-bomber nosedived into the soft sand.
While others seem to have settled a bit more gracefully
This Curtiss C46 seems to have lost its wings somewhere along the line.
But inside it is still a big aircraft
Unfortunately I didn't manage to find any Grumman F4F Wildcats or Vought F4U Corsair fighters that are also supposed to be among the planes, who knows one day I may get to go back for another look. So here is one last image of my buddy inspecting the tail of a Dauntless.
Hope you enjoyed a short dive into the undersea museum that is Roi-Namur.