In Part I of our Maloelap’s WWII Remnants we explore Japanese bunkers, anti-aircraft guns, coastal defense guns, the command center, two ammunition depots and more. In this blog post we will share with you several airplanes including a zero and parts of a Betty Bomber.
Arry, our tour guide, first takes us to a field where the land owners literally tossed airplane remnants in a pile. It is such a shame as it would have been nice to see them where they landed. But then who would want that reminder of past relatives horrific demise? You can see several props sticking out of the vegetation and the body of a Zero in the top left photo.
Airplane Grave Yard
It was a little tricky walking in the airplane graveyard as there are iron and metal parts strewn all over, hidden under the tall grass and coconut shells. We find the tail of a Betty Bomber (we think) in the top right photo, several props (top left with white arrows), and a few cockpits from different zero airplanes.
WWII Buildings
We are not 100% certain what this facility was used for but it is a huge long square building with immensely thick walls. The door and wall had to be close to 1 meter thick!
Several buildings are now buried and or they were built below ground. You never know if you are walking on solid ground or the roof of a dilapidated building (unnerving, yes). The laundry facilities (where they watched items for over 3,000 people) is partially underground. Just outside are 3 large boilers.
Torishima Maru
The Torishima Maru (also spelled Terushima Maru) was built in the late 1920s and started its life as a transport freighter. This ship was approximately 90 meters long, 10 meters wide and sits upright in about 12 meters of water off the shores of Taroa in Maloelap. She was outfitted with anti-aircraft guns when she was converted for military action during WWII.
Torishima Maru was the last supply ship to arrive in the Marshall Islands. She was hit and was able to barely limp to Maloelap where she was bombed again and sank in the shallow waters in 1943. The troops spent 1 ½ years without reinforcements or supplies, leading to disease & starvation.
One of her two masts stands tall to this day indicating where the shipwreck is in the lagoon.
The entire ship sits upright in the water with the stern being relatively intact. However, the bow is a mangled mess of metal. On deck we find a few cool boat parts including a windlass, rope guide, and cleats.
Matt dives down and finds the massive prop and rudder. We also find a staircase the used to lead up to the pilot house. The aft mast is still standing up, albeit crooked. The aft mast fell a few decades ago and lies on the bottom of the sea bed.
Pretty amazing how the sea just takes over and provides homes for millions of fish and new sea life.
Random WWII Relics
Surely someone knows what these buildings are? Maybe a WWII pillbox? We found several along the coast. They are round with 1 meter thick windows and flat rooves. We went inside and there used to be a gun that popped up out of the roof. It had a 360 radius. Below the gun was a locked, round room for the ammunition (bottom left two photos). The pulleys that raised and lowered the steel plate that covered the windows were intact (bottom right photo).
On the southern end of Taroa were lots of these pillboxes. A pillbox is a type of blockhouse or concrete guard post with small windows which defenders can fire weapons. Typically they are camouflaged and raised for better aim. We assume these were much higher onshore but due to erosion they are now on the reef.
We found a random coastal defense gun off the beach covered in vegetation. An old bomb shell and a pillbox on the shore. In addition, we discover the crater remnants of the hospital (bottom right picture).
I found a really great blog post that help confirm the type of artifacts we were looking at and viewing. It is a cruiser who visited awhile ago, visit Nothing Unknown.
Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events. We did the WWII tour on Taroa, Maloelap in early November 2024. Be sure to read WWII Part I where we find bunkers, ammunition depots, anti-aircraft gun, coastal defense gun, the command center and more.
