Australian and New Zealand warships found it while working in the area to clear WWII-era explosives Thursday. Simpson Harbour is in the town of Rabaul, which was a major Japanese military base on the northeast coast of the South Pacific nation.
New Zealand Navy Lt. Commander Matthew Ray told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio the find was initially identified as "a 20-metre (66-feet) long solid, man-made object." Closer inspection confirmed it was a submarine, although its nationality was not yet known, he said.
The only submarines involved in fighting around Rabaul were US and Japanese, and both sides have accounted for most, if not all, of their subs in the area, said Gary Oakley, an Australian War Memorial curator and a former submariner.
As Rabaul was Japan's major base in the Southwest Pacific for most of the war, most of the submarines in the harbour had been Japanese. Previously known submarine wrecks in the harbour were also Japanese, he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...marine-found-in-Papua-New-Guinea-harbour.html
New Zealand Navy Lt. Commander Matthew Ray told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio the find was initially identified as "a 20-metre (66-feet) long solid, man-made object." Closer inspection confirmed it was a submarine, although its nationality was not yet known, he said.
The only submarines involved in fighting around Rabaul were US and Japanese, and both sides have accounted for most, if not all, of their subs in the area, said Gary Oakley, an Australian War Memorial curator and a former submariner.
As Rabaul was Japan's major base in the Southwest Pacific for most of the war, most of the submarines in the harbour had been Japanese. Previously known submarine wrecks in the harbour were also Japanese, he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...marine-found-in-Papua-New-Guinea-harbour.html