Chuuk Facts

Truk facts
For those of you who don't know, and if that's the case what the hell are you doing here? Chuuk or Truk is a small Atoll in the south west Pacific. It's about. 49sq miles of nothing in the middle of nowhere.

Chuuk is a little over 8000 miles and to get there takes about 36 hours from the UK or nearly 48hours if you include the time difference. The main issue is there is no real direct route so there are always flight changes & stop overs.

How to get there. There are a few routes. Via Tokyo or Manila are the common ones. My flight is Heathrow - Kuala Lumpur - Manila - Guam & Chuuk, the traveling is all part of the adventure, well that's what I keep telling myself.

Ok so why go there? Well in January 1944 this little piece of paradise was the anchorage For the main Japanese Pacific fleet a vast collection of warships, transports and cargo vessels were anchored inside the atoll protected by shore based aircraft and gun battery's. In inpregnable fortress or so they thought. The collection of vessels was identified by an American reconnaissance aircraft and plans were put in place to send them to the bottom.

In February 1944 an American task force of over 50 ships including 9 carries and 7 battleships launched an air attack on Truk. As with many things in war things did not go quite according to the plan as suspecting an a attack following the American reconnaissance flight most of the warships had slipped away, but over the next two day the American carrier aircraft sent over 40 ships to the bottom.