Silent Wrecks of Kwajalein Atoll, The (DVD)

In a perfectly executed World War II mission that took place at the end of January 1944, U.S. forces defeated the Japanese at a little-known outpost in the Marshall Islands called Kwajalein Atoll. As part of the effort to win control of this crucial gateway to the Japanese empire, U.S. aircraft bombarded Japanese supply ships in the lagoon at Kwajalein for several weeks prior to the attack, sinking most of them, some still at anchor, and others as they attempted to escape. Little is left of the battle of Kwajalein except these silent wrecks still lying at the bottom of the lagoon where they were defeated, out of sight and forgotten until now. After the war, the lagoon at Kwajalein was the dumping ground for World War II era American war planes including Corsairs, B-25s, C-46s, and the SBD Dauntless. Few people have ever seen these wrecks because Kwajalein has been a restricted military base since the end of World War II. Now, for the first time, the U.S. military has granted permission to an outside film crew to document the wrecks for posterity, before they are lost forever to the dusts of time.

• history