Amazing photos reveal the tons of expensive military equipment dumped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean after World War Two
The wreckage includes bulldozers, jeeps, fork lifts, clothing and even old Coke bottles
THESE stunning photos reveal the hoard of machinery and vehicles abandoned underwater by the US military after World War Two.
The treasure trove of WWII relics was left in the Vanuatu waters after the war as it was deemed cheaper to dump in the ocean rather than transport it all back to the US.
The wreckage includes jeeps, trucks, bulldozers, fork lifts, tractors, clothing, corrugated iron and even Coca Cola bottles.
This dumping ground, which is appropriately named Million Dollar Point, has become a popular tourist attraction and many divers visit the site to see the goods.
During the war the United States had two military bases, Buttons and Roses, in the Vanuatu islands.
Buttons, on the largest island Espiritu Santo, was used as a base for their attacks against the Japanese.
The US military conscripted island natives to build the bases.
Upon leaving the island, the US failed to make a deal with the locals to buy their equipment.
They used bulldozers to dump it into the water, resulting in millions of dollars worth of goods being destroyed.
Some have questioned this process and wonder why the items were not simply given to the Vanuatu people.
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Writer Thurston Clarke suggests, in America's , that the property was sunk because the American economy could not have recovered from an influx of lower-priced, almost-new goods.
Clarke also described the scene as the US soldiers dumped the goods into the ocean in front of the Vanuatu locals.
He wrote: "The Seabees built a ramp running into the sea and every day Americans drove trucks, jeeps, ambulances, bulldozers, and tractors into the channel, locking the wheels and jumping free at the last second. Engine blocks cracked and hissed.
"Some Seabees wept. Ni-Vanuatu witnessing the destruction of wealth their island would never see again, at least in their lifetimes, thought the Americans had gone mad."
Similar dumpings and burnings happened at the nearby Solomon Islands, which were also being used by the US military.
These new photos, taken by Canadian photographer Christopher Hamilton, show how tourists now flock to the site to explore the underwater ruins some seventy years after the equipment was dumped.
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