An American World War II warship that played a key role in Allied campaigns in the Pacific has been discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean more than 80 years after it was sunk.

The U.S.S. Edsall was found 200 miles east of Christmas Island, south of Java, by the Royal Australian Navy. The discovery has revealed the final resting place of more than 200 servicemen who died when it was sank by Japanese forces on 1 March, 1942, three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"Captain Joshua Nix and his crew fought valiantly, evading 1,400 shells from Japanese battleships and cruisers, before being attacked by 26 carrier-dive bombers, taking only one fatal hit," Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, said in a joint video statement recorded with Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, head of the Royal Australian Navy.

"This is part of our continuing efforts to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We will now be able to preserve this important memorial and hope that the families of the heroes who died there will know their loved ones rest in peace," Kennedy said.

The discovery was made in 2023, but the announcement was held back until Monday, which was Veterans' Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Australia and Britain.

Hammond said the 314-foot destroyer held a special place in naval history. "The U.S.S. Edsall served valiantly during WWII, most notably in the early Pacific campaign. She operated alongside Australian warships protecting our shores, and played a role in the sinking of the Japanese submarine I124 off Darwin," he said.

The Australian navy made the surprise discovery while conducting an unrelated and unspecified mission in the area. Its staff used "advanced robotic and autonomous systems normally used for hydrographic survey capabilities to locate the U.S.S. Edsall on the seabed," Hammond said.

"The wreck of this ship is a hallowed site, serving as a marker for the 185 U.S. Navy personnel and 31 U.S. Army Air Force pilots aboard at the time, almost all of whom were lost when Edsall succumbed to her battle damage," Lisa Franchetti, the U.S. Navy chief of naval operations, said in a statement.

The Edsall managed to evade shells from Japanese warships on the day of its sinking by undertaking some extreme maneuvers and using smokescreens — this led at least one Japanese combatant to describe the Edsall as a "Dancing Mouse," according to the U.S. Navy's official history of the ship, referring to a popular pet at the time.

A famous photograph was taken on board a Japanese ship of the Edsall being blown out of the water, later to be used in Japanese propaganda.

The ship's captain, Lt. Joshua Nix, was 33 when the ship went down. His grandson, Jim Nix, from Dallas, told the Washington Post: "When we asked about him as children, all we would get was, ‘He died in the war. Nobody really knew. … It’s bad that I didn’t get to know him. But that’s life."