YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, May 24. /TASS/. An expedition from the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) has installed a memorial plaque at the bottom of La Perouse Strait to commemorate the US submarine Wahoo sunk here in 1943 by Japanese aviation, a TASS correspondent reported.

The expedition was organized by the RGO and the People of the Sea foundation. Its participants, onboard the multipurpose Lamantin vessel, headed to the site where Wahoo sank on October 11, 1943. Specialists from the Fertoing marine engineering company using a Triton remote-guided underwater device, lowered a plaque and a wreath with the “Russians remember” ribbon 60 meters below the water’s surface.

“Ships, like people, also need glory, respect and immortality. May their memory live forever! Even those ships that sank have a future,” the inscription on the plaque said.

In addition to research in La Perouse Strait, in 2024, the project participants will organize expeditions to the Caspian and Baltic Seas, the Gulf of Finland and the Kuril Islands.

About Wahoo

USS Wahoo was a submarine in service with the US Navy during the Second World War. The sub was among the first ones to enter the Sea of Japan. During its service it sank 20 vessels. On October 11, 1943, in La Perouse Strait, it was attacked by Japanese aviation and sank with 80 sailors onboard.

The submarine was discovered by the Iskra marine search center of Russia’s Pacific Fleet during the search for a Soviet L-19 submarine which sank on August 23, 1945 presumably near La Perouse Strait. Those materials have been handed over to the submarine’s memorial foundation headed by the grandson of its Commander Dudley Morton, the press service of the RGO told TASS.

Continued search for L-19

Speaking of other tasks in La Perouse Strait, Natalia Belyakova, head of the RGO’s department for expeditions and tourism, in a conversation with a TASS correspondent pointed to the importance of continuing the search for the Soviet L-19 submarine.

Head of Fertoing’s hydrography group Pavel Kovrov noted that despite intensive maritime traffic and the vast search zone, “finding the L-19 is well within the realm of possibility. We have all the technical means to do this. It is just a matter of time.”

L-19 story

A Soviet submarine which joined the Pacific Fleet in 1939, the L-19 departed for its first and last combat sortie in 1945. While crossing La Perouse Strait, the L-19 reported sinking one enemy vessel and damaging another. On August 24, the sub stopped communicating.

The L-19 crew numbered 62 sailors. The exact causes and site of the submarine’s demise still have not been established. Among the possible scenarios are the submarine encountering Japanese minefields in the strait, an attack by an unidentified submarine or a collision with a Japanese vessel in the fog, the RGO said.