A team of divers from Southsea SAC has finally solved the mystery of how Second World War armoured vehicles and a field gun ended up 13km off the south coast.
A team of divers from Southsea SAC has finally solved the mystery of how Second World War armoured vehicles and a field gun ended up 13km off the south coast. The two tanks, two bulldozers and gun lie at 20m on the sea floor in Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex; however, there is no associated wreck nearby.
A long-held theory was that the equipment was lost from a section
of one of the artificial Mulberry harbours towed across the English Channel to support the D-Day landings. However, it has now been confirmed that the vehicles were lost from a landing craft tank from which they were to use their powerful Howitzer 95mm guns to take
out enemy gun positions.
The team of 12 divers from Southsea SAC spent five days surveying the site to try to solve the mystery. Measurements, photographs and video of the site were used to record the location, orientation and condition of the military vehicles.
Using the photographs, experts at the Tank Museum in Bovington were able to confirm the tanks as Centaur CS IV. Until now, only two were believed to have survived as war memorials in Normandy.
'The project has been hugely successful thanks to the hard work of Southsea SAC divers and its supporters,' said Alison Mayor, Southsea SAC member and survey organiser.
'These wrecks have been dived for many years, but it is only when you start looking at the story behind their sinking that you begin to appreciate their true historical significance.'
