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August
8, 2001
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an
online newsletter for and by NOAA employees
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Mark Evans, Texas Sea Grant science editor, filed this report about uncovering D-Day wreckage off Normandy's coast. Supported primarily by NOAA, Sea Grant partners with government, universities and industry to strengthen understanding and use of marine resources. GRANDCAMP MAISY, France -- Fifty-seven years after the Allies landed at Normandy and liberated Europe, a team of nautical archaeologists is surveying wreckage off the Omaha and Utah beaches. Designated as Project Neptune 2K, this three-year initiative is designed to learn more about what happened on D-Day and its naval operations. Soon after the project began last summer, six to eight Sherman tanks and more than two dozen World War II wrecks were identified off the Normandy coast. Some of these wrecks are believed to be from vehicles that ferried troops and tanks from larger offshore ships to the beaches. The team also found several tanks rigged to float. But these sank as soon as they left ship, taking their crews down with them. On a tank discovered this summer, the team discovered remnants of a structure that was supposed to keep the tank afloat. They found machine guns in place on the front hull. And the tank hatches open. This summer researchers also identified a landing craft-tank that carried troops and equipment to shore, and five amphibious British-made Duplex Drive Tanks that carried American troops. They found one tank heavily encrusted, overgrown with marine life and covered with a fishing net. Its guns are still partially elevated and facing forward in the travel position that marked its D-Day launch. 
A landing craft lies on the seafloor off Normandy. Landing crafts ferried tanks between larger, offshore ships and the beaches. This image was taken with a side-scan sonar. Project leader Brett Phaneuf, of Texas A & M University, said that while the team initially faced typical weather and equipment blues and poor underwater visibility because of plankton blooms, everything came into alignment, with increasing visibility and absolutely beautiful seas. Members of Project Neptune 2K use a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to survey and photograph D-Day wrecks, many of which were identified last summer with side-scanning sonar and magnetometers. These help locate wrecks by measuring magnetic fields. "It's hard to describe how exciting it was, how thrilling it was - after five years of preparation and fundraising - to finally get on the bottom and see these tanks," Phaneuf said. By identifying the wrecks, he hopes American and French officials will use the information to increase the policing and protection of the historic sites. Featured on a D-Day anniversary broadcast on the Discovery Channel, Project Neptune 2K is a project of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, headquartered at Texas A&M University. 
Looking east at Pointe du Hoc. Ranger monument upper right. 
Looking from east at Pointe du Hoc through German barbwire. |
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