They found a sunken ship from World War II in which more than a thousand prisoners died

A Japanese ship torpedoed during WWII and in which more than a thousand prisoners diedmostly Australians, it has been localized in deep waters off the Philippinessaid the Silentworld marine archeology foundation.

The vessel Montevideo Maru was found more than 4,000 meters deep in the South China Sea on Tuesday, 110 kilometers off the Philippine island of Luzon, Silentworld said.

The ship Discovery, sunk on July 1, 1942 by an American submarine whose crew did not know was carrying prisoners of waroccurred after 12 days of research with an underwater drone equipped with sonar.

“We believe it was hit by two torpedoes,” Captain Roger Turner, the expedition’s technical director, told AFP news agency. The vessel broke in two, with the bow and stern lying on the seabed about 500 meters apart, the expert added.

The sinking of the Montevideo Maru is one of Australia’s worst maritime tragedies.

According to the Silentworld Foundation, nearly 1,060 people of 14 nationalities were killed, including 979 Australians, including 850 in the military.

They had been captured a few months earlier by Japanese forces in the fall of the coastal town of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.

“The resting place for the lost souls of the Montevideo Maru has finally been found. We hope the news brings some comfort to loved ones who have had a long vigil,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Silentworld claimed that the remains of the Montevideo Maru, which They are deeper than those of the Titanicno objects or human remains will be removed, out of respect for the families of the victims.

“The discovery of the Montevideo Maru closes a terrible chapter in Australia’s military and maritime history,” said John Mullen, director of Silentworld, which led the research together with Dutch offshore exploration company Fugro and the Australian military.

“Families waited years for news of their missing loved ones before learning of the tragic outcome. Some have never fully accepted that their loved ones were among the victims.“he counted.

This incident alone lost twice as many Australian soldiers and civilians as in the entire Vietnam War, and surpasses the sinking of HMAS Sydney in 1941, with 645 fatalities, and the 1943 hospital ship Centaur, with 268 fatalities.

Among the dead aboard the Montevideo Maru were 33 sailors from the Norwegian freighter Herstein – who were also taken prisoner by the Japanese at Rabaul – and about 20 Japanese guards and crew members, according to Silentworld.

According to the same source, the victims of the sinking also included citizens of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Sweden and the United States.