Friday, August 21, 2009

Looking for World War II Wrecks Off North Carolina Coast

When people thing of World War II wrecks, they think the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic closer to Europe and Africa. But quite a few ships met their end off the east coast of the US, especially in the waters off North Carolina.

The August 7th Wilmington Star News had an article "Expedition aims to find and preserve lost WWII wrecks."

A three-fourths-size replica of the German submarine U-352 is part of the Living Shipwreck exhibit at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Local historian Wilber Jones remembers finding war debris washed ashore at Wrightsville Beach.

These wrecks and their remains are being lost very quickly as 60+ years under water are taking their toll.

An expedition has a three week mission to survey what remains.

U-boats found easy prey along the Carolina Coast, so much so that the stretch from Cape Fear to Norfolk became known as "Torpedo Junction. Ships were torpedoed frequently, often within sight of the coast.


WRECKS

Some of the wrecks:

Tanked John D. Gill sunk March 1942 off Southport. I wrote quite a bit about it over the last few days.

U-353-- sunk off Cape Lookout

Three other U-boats

Several British merchant and military vessels

HMT Bedfordshire sunk off Ocracoke Island in 1942

It will be interesting to read about what they found. I'll definitely write about it.

Always Interested in Sunken Ships. --Cooter

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