To talk about the famous shipwreck in history, I am afraid that there is also one offshore China, that is, the Awamaru merchant ship, which is known as the "undersea treasure house".
阿波丸
Awamaru is a large-scale commercial ship of 10,000 tons built by Japan during World War II. It can carry troops and cargo. . In 1944, the Allied and Japanese forces reached an agreement through a third country, and the Awa Maru was used as a humanitarian rescue ship. The Allied naval and air blockade network will open up its net to ensure that it will not sink the merchant ship and allow it to supply supplies to the Japanese-occupied prisoners of Southeast Asia and improve the living conditions of the local Allied prisoners. In return, the Allied forces also allowed the ship to transport severely wounded back to Japan and become a medical ship. The Awamaru immediately changed its painting and painted a large cross on the ship to indicate its identity.
became the "medical ship" Awawan
However, the American submarine captains who have killed the red eye do not care so much. . In April 1945, the Awa Maru was sunk by a US military submarine in the coastal waters of Fujian, China. The captain of the US did not have time to identify what kind of medical ship, such a large ship appeared in the waters controlled by the Japanese, it must be Japanese, and it was sunk. That's it!
U.S. submarine in the ocean
However, after the war, the U.S. military was surprised to find that they were being played by the Japanese through the captured Japanese files. Up. The Awamaru has never performed any humanitarian transport mission. As a medical ship, she believes she holds a gold medal for immunity from death, and has undertaken the mission of transporting weapons to Southeast Asia and transferring precious and scarce supplies to the mainland.
The Awamaru ship bell that China salvaged
The Awamaru ship at the moment of its sinking was actually loaded with 50 tons of gold, a large amount of gold. Materials such as rubber, tin and copper, as well as cultural relics plundered from Southeast Asia. The total price of these items is roughly equivalent to today's 15 billion U.S. dollars, more than 100 billion RMB!
Salvaged the tin ingots of Awamaru
The ship also carried 2000 Japanese soldiers, who will return to Japan and become the mainland Reinforcements for the decisive battle.
Because it sank too fast, the 2000 Japanese soldiers and dozens of crew members of the Awamaru were all killed in the ocean except for a cook who was smoking by the railing and was thrown into the sea by the blast wave.
After Sino-US relations and Sino-Japanese relations warmed up in the 1970s, both the US and Japan provided my country with a list of Awamaru supplies. Our country has decided to salvage the Awa Maru in our waters.
The air force near the Awamaru salvage area entered a high-density cruise.
In 1977, the salvage operation began. The salvage task is jointly undertaken by the local salvage bureau and the navy diving force, of which the navy force is the absolute main force. Because it is in a hot spot, our navy and air force dispatched a large number of ships and fighters to protect and salvage operations. More than 40,000 navy and air forces are involved. Fighters frequently dispatched patrols, ships were on duty near the salvage point, and coastal defense artillery units and coastal defense missile units were waiting for them. In 1980, the three-year salvage operation ended, and many precious and scarce materials were recovered, as well as the relics of the Japanese on board. Our country auctioned the materials, obtained valuable foreign exchange, and returned the relics to Japan. However, the legendary Awa Maru gold does not reveal its true face.
