Shipwreck fragment linked to one of WWII’s strangest rescue tales
A few flecks of residual paint and an engraved anchor were enough to link mystery wreckage at the bottom of the South Pacific to the saga of the USS New Orleans. Researchers aboard the NOAA Ocean Exploration Trust’s Nautilus vessel accidentally discovered the World War II heavy cruiser’s nearly 100-foot-long bow section while remotely mapping the Iron Bottom Sound near the Solomon Islands earlier this week. Allied and Japanese forces fought five major naval battles in the region between August and December 1942, resulting in the loss of over 20,000 lives, 111 naval boats, and 1,450 planes. But on November 30, 1942, one more ship nearly brought the total number of downed ships to 112. During the Battle of Tassafaronga, the USS New Orleans was struck by a Japanese torpedo that detonated its forward magazines, killing 182 men and ripping away a large forward section of the cruiser. Instead of abandoning what...