Paul Allen exploration on WWII wrecks in Asian Pacific

[Kay Dee]

It was NOT an "Russian Expedition"! I believe Cedric Verdier is French and Mark Konefe is American but not sure about the third person.
I would not say the dive was a hoax but there was always question mark on Verdier claim that he had dived Yamashiro/Fuso.

Hi Centrals,

Resurrecting a rather old thread I know, but seeing as I was in the 'neighbourhood' posting in another thread I thought now was as good a time as any to elaborate on your above.............................................so, while it may not have been a Russian expedition per se, the dive and documentary re same had 'Russian' monetary backing / involvement as it were.

And while the attempted dive may not be a 'hoax', any claim that Mr Verdier actually dived Yamashiro is total BS. That is, while he did attempt the dive, he never reached or even saw Yamashiro or any other wreck on the dive when he supposedly reached Yamashiro, and the very brief footage supposedly shot by him of Yamashiro's wreck in the subsequent documentary is totally, repeat totally, bogus. (As was pretty obvious at the time, and proved definitely so later when Yamashiro was actually discovered orientated very differently on the seabed by Paul Allen's group.) It seems having 'attempted' the dive was not good enough for him (although I for one certainly give kudos to Mr Verdier for having at least made the attempt), unfortunately only "I succeeded" whether true or not seemed more important to him.

But hey, as the saying goes "never let the truth get in the way of a good story", especially if there are no witnesses (he eventually descended solo on that dive) and the supposed result boosts ones profile in the dive world (although that spectacularly backfired) and the doco revolved around / had to have the result of having actually found and dived Yamashiro.