A visual history lesson from WW II lies at the bottom of Truk Lagoon. The lagoon hosted Operation Hailstone on Feb 16/17, 1944.
 | American planes launched an aerial attack on anchored ships. Truk Lagoon was a major naval base with an extensive infrastructure for the Japanese Imperial Navy. Because of this, the base was called the "the Gibraltar of the Pacific."
Truk Lagoon was considered the most formidable of all Japanese strongholds in the Pacific. | 
Truk was Japan's equivalent of the Americans' Pearl Harbor, it was their largest forward naval base. |
 | The Japanese fleet lost an estimated 10 warships, over 30 supply vessels, 275 aircraft, light cruisers, and destroyers, and an estimated 4,500 military personnel during the two-day strike. |  |
 | Forewarned by intelligence a week before the US raid, the Japanese had withdrawn their larger warships (heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers) to Palau. |  |
