A warplane encrusted with coral lies upside down on the seafloor of Saipan’s harbor, its landing struts thrust awkwardly upward as colorful fish weave in and out of the exposed fuselage, engine and gun turret. The wreckage is slowly being subsumed by the reef in the shallow blue waters of the tropical lagoon, but its story is far from over.

Three crew members had been aboard the Grumman TBF Avenger as it went down, likely during or after the 1944 Battle of Saipan, when US forces launched an assault to secure the Northern Mariana Islands during World War II.

American military officials viewed Saipan, the largest island in the Mariana archipelago, as a key base for operations in the Pacific, and the battle marked a pivotal victory for the US. Only one of the downed plane’s crew , howev

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