Wreck Of World War II Warship 'Dancing Mouse' Found In Pacific Ocean

The wreck of a US warship that sank in a battle during the Second World War has been discovered in the depths of the Pacific.

The destroyer, USS Edsall, went down in 1942 off the coast of Australia. At the time, it was under the command of Lt. Joshua Nix, and it was called the "dancing mouse" due to its slippery movements in the fatal fight with the Imperial Japanese Navy, CNN reported.

Announcing the discovery of the wreck, US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy on Monday said that Nix and his crew fought valiantly and were able to evade 1,400 shells from the Japanese battleships and cruisers. They were later attacked by 26 carrier dive bombers, taking only one fatal hit.

The wreck was found by officials with the help of advanced hydrographic survey capabilities aboard the naval support ship MV Stoker, Australia's chief of navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said.

Hammond praised the Edsall crew for their major efforts in different battles to help protect Australia during the early days of the Second World War before it sank on March 1, 1942.

Per the official website of the US Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), on the day of battle, the US destroyer was spotted by a Japanese carrier-based plane around 200 miles south-southeast of Christmas Island.

The presence of a US warship within 16 miles of his forces is said to have “incensed” Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, who soon ordered to intercept it.

The old Edsall, commissioned in 1920, and its 4-inch guns were no match to the latest Japanese fleet having bigger guns and dozens of aircraft that could easily carry 500-pound bombs.

“Nix's position was hopeless from the moment Edsall was sighted,” per the NHHC account by director Samuel Cox.

Cox said that as a last gesture of defiance, "like the famous cartoon of the little mouse flipping the bird at a huge screaming eagle, Lieutenant Nix chose to make a fight of it".

With Edsall evading over a thousand 14-inch and 8-inch shells, the Japanese commanders ordered dozens of dive bombers from their three aircraft carriers to strike it. During the attack, at least one of them hit the US destroyer and the ship started to lose its ability to maneuver.

Cox wrote that as the fire raged and the ship lost its way, "Nix pointed the bow of Edsall at the Japanese surface ships in his last act of defiance".

Thereafter, the Japanese warships turned the big guns on it and finally sank it.