Why finding Pacific destroyer wrecks matters

Which missing naval wrecks should be found next?

Pacific destroyers, because their locations and damage could clarify what they were doing in confused battles.

Destroyer actions in the Pacific often produced confused and incomplete reports. Eyewitnesses could record only what they saw from their own ships during fast-moving night engagements. A wreck adds physical evidence about the destroyer's final position and combat damage, once later damage to the wreck is separated out. Historians can combine that evidence with competing reports to reconstruct the battle more confidently.