The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a move of unprecedented aggression that shakes America out of its peaceful slumber and into World War II. But even decades after the war, few realize that it was Americans who fired the first shot. For sixty years, veterans of the destroyer U.S.S. Ward stick to their claim that they sunk a suspicious enemy submarine outside the harbor more than an hour BEFORE the aerial attack began.
That morning, the incident is reported to Navy headquarters, but its urgency loses momentum on the way up the chain of command. As officers speculate on its significance, hundreds of Japanese attack planes dash toward Oahu, and the only evidence of any advance warning - the midget sub - settles in 1200 feet down, the victim of a single shot at the base of its conning tower. After the war, the legend of the Ward's encounter grows, but without the midget sub it can't be substantiated. Searches by the U.S. Navy, National Geographic and even Bob Ballard himself come up short, casting greater doubt than ever on the sailors' story.
Then in August 2002, a dive team from the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) sheds light on the sub for the first time in 61 years, when they cross its path during a training dive. Before the divers even make it back to dry land, their find is making headlines worldwide, and a gaggle of TV cameras are waiting for them at the dock. They have found the first casualties of World War II, and historians call it the greatest marine archeological find ever made in the Pacific. But the discovery produces as many questions as it does answers.
DEEP SEA DETECTIVES: Midget Sub Mystery takes the audience to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to investigate the role this wreck played in the day that lives in infamy. How did it get within three miles of the U.S. fleet? What was its mission? Why was its sinking ignored by the Navy brass? What difference would the Ward's warning have made if it were heeded?
In this hour, we'll trace the events that led to its sinking, and the decades of speculation that followed. We'll reveal fantastic underwater footage of the wreck, and our hosts will go out on the water with the search team and a veteran who witnessed the sinking. Interviews with Terry Kerby, the leader of the search, members of his dive team and prominent historians will help us unravel the secrets the sub has yet to tell.