PAPUA NEW GUINEA #4: Once upon a time there was underwater exploration ...!

Let those who can remember it ... There was a time when our eyes marveled at the very first images of the adventures of Commander Jacques Cousteau. This time, when everything was yet to be discovered in a world whose access finally became possible, is not so far away. Thousands of kilometers of coastline were to be explored, hundreds of new species were to be discovered, and virgin underwater landscapes remained to be ignited by our first autonomous scuba. Enough to occupy our minds as explorers for several centuries, one would have thought... It was not counting on our incredible economic machine, which seized the exploration dive, to make real guided tours, legislated, and survised. So now, very few countries can boast of having, to this day, underwater funds where the words "underwater exploration" have kept their meaning. Papua New Guinea is one of those rare countries. An immense country, with totally isolated regions, lost atolls, uninhabited islands, and a history of warfare, which still allows some autonomous divers and exploration enthusiasts to engage in their favorite activity.

A war... A War, which by the game of the colonies came here, in the middle of the Pacific, to occupy the lands and seas of Papuans who have never seen Europe, and give themselves to the greatest naval battles and of History. Sixty-five years later, the remnants of this war are still apparent. How many carcasses of damaged aircraft, abandoned military bases, roads and bridges ever renovated, are still visible in most of the islands and coastal areas of the country ... Underwater, the record is even more impressive. Aircraft carrier wrecks, submarines, requisitioned cargo ships, sunken aircraft, abandoned batteries of ammunition, frigates and other military vessels number in the hundreds. Each village, even isolated, knows a story of air crash or lost ship that the locals are happy to report to visitors. But history is still better kept deep in the ocean. Some wrecks have never been found and do not really awaken local interest. A real playground for explorers who are passionate about history and diving. Rod, a retired Australian farmer who grew up in Rabaul (north of New Britain), spent his life as a diver looking for plane wrecks in the country. "When I stop in front of the villages, I always ask the elders if they do not have old war stories". In this way he was able to locate dozens of shipwrecks, and regularly returns to the surface, submachine guns, ammunition, helmets, propellers and other remnants of war, to donate to the local museum. At Jacquinot Bay (New Britain), the village of Sallel experienced its episode of war. It is from here that took off the American planes parties to Rabaul take back to the Japanese in 1942. All the inhabitants know this story of Japanese aircraft come countered but quickly shot by the Americans. "The wreck is somewhere in front of the village of Baen," said Ignitius, a customary representative. After a little research on the surface, the wreck turns out to be in the indicated location. A Japanese A20, taken by the coral, which one can still recognize the locations of the two pilots, the two intact wings, and some various objects like a support with extinguisher or a handle of control. More unusual, the bombs carried by the plane are placed a few meters in the waves of the reef. The access is difficult and not really reassuring ... I make the photographs that Rod asked me to read his book. This will give him another chapter to tell, and allow us to talk about all this in front of a good beer. Leaving the water, seeing that I express a lot of interest for this kind of adventure, my guide tells me another story that the elders have reported the testimony, and that would concern several aircraft that would have stranded at sea, "over there ...", pointing to the middle of the bay that sinks to several hundred meters deep ... It may be for other explorers better equipped ...! But in all likelihood, many war stories are still coming to the surface ...

The lagoon of Kavieng has also experienced its war period. A labyrinth of islands, which was at the time little or not mapped, which was the scene of many battles. All means are good to surprise the enemy. This small Japanese submarine of about thirty meters surprised his lot of American ships by the discretion of his modest size. Flying a gigantic freighter for a return home, a B25, twin-engine bomber of the US Army, came to avenge his own by unloading his cargo and drowned submarine, cargo and crew in front of the island of Danou. "I was told he was 20m to the right of the ship," said Phil, chief of customary Danou Island, pointing to the wreckage of the cargo visible a few meters below the surface. The research is complicated by cloudy water that leaves too little visibility. After half an hour of fumbling around the freighter, I hesitate to give up and then head again based on the fact that Phil was wrong ... I found the wreck of the submarine opposite the indicated place ! By 20m of muddy bottom, the tubular wreck is perfectly preserved. The narrowness of the entrance hatch immediately discourages visiting the interior of the building. At the front, the two barrels of torpedo launchers are still visible. At the other end, the propulsion propeller is still intact thanks to this muddy soil ideal for the conservation of wrecks. How many shipwrecks does the Bismarck Sea still hide ...?