The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Missing D-Day Ship Found

From the Sept. 19, 2011, BBC "Missing D-Day shipwreck LCT 427 found in Solent."

The LCT 427 (Landing Craft Tank) was returning to Portsmouth in the early hours of June 7, 1944, after successfully delivering a cargo of tanks to Sword Beach.

Four miles from short, it collided with the battleship HMS Rodney and was sliced in half with all twelve crew members dying.  Divers from the Southsea Sub-Aqua Club have located the two halves of the ship.

Because of the scale and magnitude of the Normandy invasion, the incident went unreported for two months.  The two parts were discovered in 100 feet of water standing upright several hundred meters apart in the main shipping channel opposite Portsmouth and Southampton, which is normally off limits to divers unless they get special permission.

The ship is in remarkable condition with AA guns and ammunition boxes apparent.

There are many unidentified WW II wrecks along Britain's south coast..

The 427 was a British ship that had been built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey, that had come over to Britain in the Lend-Lease Program.

Just One of Those Stories You Don't Hear.  --GreGen

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