Centaur CS IV tanks found?

[Kyt]

Divers look tosolve sunkentanks mystery - Portsmouth Today

A diving club is set to find out whether Second World War tanks found on the seabed are two of only four left in the world.
On Saturday Southsea Sub-Aqua Club will send divers down to take pictures and video footage of what they think are Centaur CS IV tanks.

And during the dive they will also try to work out the mystery of how they were lost, given there is no shipwreck nearby.

The tanks, assigned to the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group, lie eight miles off East Wittering, West Sussex.

They were part of an 80-strong contingent bound for France on D-Day but sank in mysterious circumstances.

The divers have good reason to think the tanks are Centaurs after pictures were taken during an earlier dive.

The photographs were taken to the Tank Museum in Dorset last month and the suspicions hardened into near certainty.

Alison Mayor, who is leading the diving team, said: 'It's a real puzzle how the tanks and bulldozers came to rest so far off shore when there is no shipwreck nearby.

'These war machines are of significant interest, and we hope to find clues to solve the mystery of how and when they sank.'

David Fletcher, historian at the Tank Museum, said: 'We are 95 per cent sure the tanks are Centaurs.

'When I first saw the photos they both looked like little sponges but it was a question of going through them more closely.'

Mr Fletcher added: 'They are very rare – there are only two, in France, that we know about.'

The rusting tanks lie with two bulldozers and a field gun, but no ship.

The bulldozers are believed to be armoured Caterpillar bulldozers, used by the 79th Armoured Division of the British Army – there are no known surviving bulldozers of this type.

The team of 12 divers will spend five days taking measurements, photographs and video. The divers have Ministry of Defence approval and the project has a grant from the British Sub-Aqua Jubilee Trust and support from Silent Planet in Portland, Dorset.

[Kyt]

D-Day tanks found on seabed - Telegraph

Scuba divers discovered the rusting hulks of two Centaur CS IV tanks, complete with heavy guns, on the seabed eight miles off the West Sussex coast.

After a seven-month investigation, involving more than 80 dives at the site 65ft down and painstaking archive research, Alison Mayor, a diving instructor, has identified them as two vehicles which fell overboard a landing craft capsized on its way to the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.

The were intended to have provided covering fire for Royal Marines and Canadian troops as they charged ashore at Juno Beach but wound up on the seabed instead.

Only 80 of the unusual tanks, specifically adapted for use in the D-Day landings, were ever made.

There were thought to be just two surviving Centaur tanks in the world, both placed as war memorials in Normandy - including one at Pegasus Bridge, immortalised in the film The Longest Day.

Experts said they were amazed by how well preserved they are - one of the tanks still fully equipped with its 95mm Howitzer gun, machine guns and tracks intact.

Mrs Mayor, 46, from Havant, Hants, said: "You might expect to find sunken ships or even aircraft but these tanks were just so out of context out there on the seabed.

"It was a complete mystery as to how they got there so I was inspired to take up the challenge and find out why."

Intrigued after seeing the wrecks off Bracklesham Bay, Mrs Mayor and a team of 12 divers from Hampshire-based Southsea Sub-Aqua Club began taking underwater photographs and videos of the tanks to show to tank experts.

With the guidance of historian David Fletcher at The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, they then did further dives in search of specific tell-tale signs to identify the exact model.

They discovered that the tanks were specially adapted for exclusive use by the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group in Operation Overlord.

Mrs Mayor then trawled through the National Archives and discovered that a landing craft carrying two Centaur tanks capsized in bad weather on June 6, 1944 on its way to battle.

All the Royal Marines and crew aboard were rescued but the tanks, along with two armoured bulldozers and a field gun plunged to the sea floor.

Mrs Mayor, a senior commercial officer for the MoD, added: "It was very eerie diving down to the tanks once we knew how they had got there.

"It must have been a terrifying experience when the tanks went overboard and it was a great relief to find out that nobody died.

"But I was really shocked to see what fantastic condition the tanks are still in despite spending all those years underwater.

"One of the tanks still has its Howitzer gun, machine guns and ammunition all in perfect order. It's just a pity that the tanks are upside down."

[Brian S]

Originally Posted by Kyt

D-Day tanks found on seabed - Telegraph

Perhaps they could do with my copy of the Service Manual for the Tank.

[Kyt]

Centaur IV
Centaur armed with a 95 mm howitzer (with 51 rounds of ammunition). This is the only version of the Centaur known to have seen combat, in service with the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group. The vehicles were fitted with wading gear to get them ashore. Trunking waterproofed the engine inlets and covers were fitted to the guns. 114 produced.



Uncat Record

[Antipodean Andy]

Interesting. Would be cool if the waterproofing has remained intact!

[scarface]

Revealed: The astonishing D-Day tanks found at the bottom of the English Channel

By Debra Killalea
Last updated at 2:56 PM on 05th August 2008

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Scuba divers searching for hidden treasures at the bottom of the English Channel got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across two massive army tanks on the ocean floor.

The divers, who were eight miles of the West Sussex Coast, were left baffled as to how the Second World War tanks came to be at the bottom of the Channel.

But the mystery was soon solved after a length
Drivers stumbled across two tanks, destined for battle during the D-Day landings, at the bottom of the English Channel
Divers found the massive vehicles were relatively well preserved with guns still intact even after more than 64 years under sea.

And by painstakingly checking minute details on the sunken vehicles against historical records, investigators managed to identify them as rare British Centaur CS IV tanks.

The historic weapons were destined for battle during the D-Day landings but never arrived.

Historians discovered the tanks fell overboard when a landing craft capsized on its way to the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.

[martinww2]

Are they going to take them up and display them in a museum ?

[Kyt]

Scarface, I have merged your post with the existing one

[scarface]

yes i have noticed that i didn't realize there was a thread already available
quite a few years ago there was 1 of the prototype duck tanks found in shallow waters i can remember were but they tried to raise the tank but due to tides and weather were unable to also the weight of it so i dare say i highly doubt that they will be raising this tank although it would be great if they did i reckon there still would be tones of war materials on the ocean floor in shallow enough water for diver to find makes me wish i lived in Europe not Australia