Battle of the Atlantic Expedition
Archaeology of an Underwater WWII Battlefield

Sept. 2016

How can archaeologists chart a World War II battlefield resting 700 feet down on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean? Maritime archaeologists from Monitor National Marine Sanctuary recently teamed up with the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Project Baseline, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the UNC Coastal Studies Institute and SRI International to use manned submersibles to survey shipwrecks from a World War II battlefield off the coast of North Carolina. Check out what they found in our video!

More Information

Battle of the Atlantic: Archaeology of an Underwater World War II Battlefield

Exploring World War II's Battle of the Atlantic (pdf, 478 kb)

Outer Banks Maritime Heritage Trail

SS Bluefields

U-576

Graveyard of the Atlantic Shipwrecks and U-boats

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

Monitor

National Marine Sanctuary Proposed Expansion

Transcript

Battle of the Atlantic: Archaeology of an Underwater WWII Battlefield (use trajan pro font for this text only)

Marine archaeologists recently explored the remnants of a historic World War II battle

off the coast of North Carolina.

During a battle on July 15, 1942

German U-boat U-576

and Allied freighter SS Bluefields

were lost to history.

Using sonar imaging, maritime archaeologists from Monitor National Marine Sanctuary located these wrecks

35 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras.

Now, using manned submersibles, maritime archaeologists are collecting data to visualize this underwater battlefield.

This study will provide data to tell an incredible story of this World War II battlefield.

Learn more about the expedition