Wreck is found of torpedoed US ship that played a part in Hiroshima bombing

RESEARCHERS HAVE the wreck of the USS

the Second World War heavy cruiser that played a crucial role in the Hiroshima atomic bombing before being struck by Japanese torpedoes. The sinking of the remains the US navy’s single located worst loss at sea. The fate of its crew – nearly 900 were killed, many by sharks, and just 316 survived – was one of the Pacific war’s more horrible and fascinating tales.

The expedition crew of Research Vessel Petrel, which is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, said it found the wreckage of the on the floor of the North Pacific Ocean, more than 18,000 feet below the surface.

“To be able to honour the brave men of the USS and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling,” Mr Allen said.

The with 1,196 sailors and marines on board, was sailing the Philippine Sea between Guam and Leyte Gulf when two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine struck just after midnight on July 30 1945. It sank in 12 minutes, killing about 300. Survivors were left in the water, most of them with only life jackets. There was no time to send a distress signal, and four days passed before a bomber on routine patrol happened to spot the survivors in the water.

By the time rescuers arrived, a combination of exposure, dehydration, drowning and constant shark attacks had left only a quarter of the ship’s original number alive.

Over the years numerous books recounted the ship’s disaster and its role in delivering components of what would become the atomic bomb “Little Boy” to the island of Tinian, the take-off point for the bomber Enola Gay’s mission to Hiroshima in August 1945.

The wrecked ship remains the property of the navy and its location is both confidential and restricted, it said.