The wreck of a military transport ship that was mistakenly torpedoed during the Second World War, killing nearly 1,000 Australians, has been found at the bottom of the South China Sea after 81 years.

The shipwreck was discovered lying more than 2.5 miles beneath the waves, a depth greater than that of the Titanic.

The sinking of the SS Montevideo Maru was the worst maritime disaster in Australian history - the number of deaths far exceeded the country’s losses in the entire Vietnam War 25 years later.

The Japanese ship was transporting soldiers and civilians who had been captured by Japanese forces in New Guinea, which was then an Australian territory.

They were being taken to the Chinese island of Hainan when the ship was spotted by an American submarine, the USS Sturgeon, on July 1, 1942.

The submarine’s crew did not know that the vessel was carrying Allied POWs and sank it with four torpedoes.

The ship, which was carrying 850 Australian soldiers and 210 civilians from 14 countries, sank within 10 minutes. There were no survivors.

Continue reading full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/22/ss-montevideo-maru-ww2-shipwreck-found/

Subscribe to The Telegraph with our special offer: just £1 for 3 months. Start your free trial now:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/customer/subscribe/digitalsub/3for1/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_pvid_conversion-subscription_editorial-iniative_03-22_EGW-13_organic_youtube

Get the latest headlines: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.
#Australia #Shipwreck #WW2