Great Japanese Battleships...

Does my memory serve me right that at the surrender ceremony was the only time either the MO and NJ saw a Japanese battleship which was the Nagato at anchor because of a lack of fuel oil?

You nailed it Bosco...it's ironic, that the modern battleships were running around with the carriers, and it was the old ladies from Pearl Harbor that slugged it out at Surigao Strait.

Have a friend of mine who dove on the Nagato a couple of years ago at Bikini. I have a sliver of rust from her and one from Prinz Eugen's hull. About the size of a 50 cent piece, but still very cool.

At low tide, most of Prinz Eugen's stern sits out of the water. The dive boats usually tie off on her prop shaft.

That's one of my goals in life, to dive at Bikini and Truk....

Jeff

& maybe glow at night !!!

Nah, most of the radioactivity from the ships is gone. My buddy told me, that the divemaster at Bikini told the group that 'you'll get more radiation from talking on a cell phone while standing in the middle of Times Square in NY'.

They do have restrictions on eating anything from the island. It's the old food triangle thing...the radiation is in the soil, which is absorbed by the plants and ground water, the plants are eaten by animals, and then the animals are eaten by people...so I'm told that everything on the island is flown in, water, food, etc.

Jeff

Does anyone have a 1/350 kit of Prinz Eugen? She was considered a lucky ship and was in a few significant actions, but you don't see so much about her as Scharnhorst, Gneisnau or Graff Spee. I read an article years ago that claimed photos from the Hood sinking proved that Prinz Eugen, not Bismark, actually scored the hits that sunk Hood, but the Brits and Germans preferred to make it Bismark's kill for assorted reasons. Anyone ever hear that one before?

A long argued topic, I think we covered it in this thread a few pages ago...

As for kits of Prinz Eugen in 1/350, your only choice at present is the Iron Shipwrights resin kit. It's about $325 though.

There have been rumors that Trumpeter might come out with one...but I've heard nothing on the particular front.

Jeff

I went back and found the page ... I tend to agree with your assessment.