The wreck of the Montevideo Maru ship, which was accidentally sunk by the Allied forces during World War II, costing the lives of more than 1,000 POWs, mostly Australian soldiers, has been found.
During World War II, the Japanese transport ship Montevideo Maru, carrying more than 1,000 soldiers and civilian POWs aged between 15 and 60, was sunk by torpedo on July 1, 1942, unaware that it was carrying prisoners of war by the allied US force. There were 979 Australian soldiers and civilian prisoners of war on the ship, which sank in 10 minutes with 4 torpedoes, and the event went down in Australian history as ‘the worst maritime accident of all time’.
The Australian-based non-governmental organization Silentworld Foundation, which carries out the search, announced today that the shipwreck was found near the Philippine coast, at a depth of 4,000 meters. “The wreckage lies deeper than the RMS Titanic, at a depth of more than 4000m, and no effort will be made to remove the remains or human remains,” the press release said. “I am proud to be a citizen of a country that does not forget its loss in duty, even after many years, and does not stop searching,” said John Mullen, the leader of the team that found it and the Director of the Foundation.