After 77 years: A submarine was found in the depths of the sea Israel today

For hours, American fighters tried to save the vessel, which was hit by a torpedo.

• The search for the lost submarine

  Photo: 

  AP

77 years after it disappeared into the depths of the sea, four divers apparently managed to identify the last resting place of the American Navy submarine Grandir.

It is one of the 52 submarines that the United States lost in World War II in the various battlefields.

The team of divers, which included Jean-Luc Ribouver, Benoit Lavori, Lance Horowitz and Ben Riemantes, who participated in the rescue of the young football team and their coach captured in Thailand two years ago, dived in the Strait of Malacca, about 150 km from the Thai island of Phuket. For many years searching for shipwrecks, he spotted the submarine last October at a depth of 82 meters, and made several dives to it in an attempt to identify it, but to no avail.

So they measured its length and compared the information they have to lists of lost ships at sea.

The measurements showed that it was probably the American submarine Grandir.

Now the US Navy history industry will conduct its own tests to confirm these findings.

Dr. Robert Nailand, head of the U.S. Navy History Division team, noted that "tests will now be conducted and the process of confirming the findings takes between several months and a year."

The Grandier set out for the first voyage from Pearl Harbor Base on February 4, 1942, she sailed towards Japan and sank six ships and hit two more.

On March 20, 1943 she set out on a tour from Australia to the Gulf of Malacca and the Andaman Sea.

The submarine tracked down two Japanese transport planes during the night.

The next morning a Japanese fighter jet that recognized the submarine hit it before it managed to descend to the depths of the sea.

The submarine was hit very hard and the crew struggled for 13 hours to allow it to function to return home.

Eventually the entire crew abandoned the submarine on the orders of its commander John A. Fitzgerald.

A Japanese destroyer captured the 76 fighters and led them to a prisoner base, where they were severely abused for two years.

Four of the fighters did not survive the difficult conditions.

Over the years, the submarine's fighters tried to identify its place of sinking, in order to close the circle, but to no avail.

Now, her last resting place has apparently been identified.