WWII (Other Keyword)
26-42 (42 Records)
This paper will examine the sinking of HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean on 19 November 1941, by the German raider, SV Kormoran. All hands on the Sydney were lost, a total of 635 men, one-third of the nation’s Navy. The fate of the Sydney has always remained controversial, due to the lack of survivors. Despite numerous attempts, investigators consistently failed to trace the wreckage of either ship until 2008, when the crew of SV Geosounder located both vessels, thus closing one of the most tragic...
The SS James Eagan Layne; The Liberty 70 Project, a Catalyst for Conversation in Submerged Cultural Heritage (2015)
The wreck of the SS James Eagan Layne (JEL) has been a diving site since 1954, due to her masts still visible above the water. She is known to be the most dived wreck in the UK and was subject to early salvaging from divers who thought it fair game. Which is a frame of thinking in British diving culture then and today. Plymouth, the location of the JEL is the birthplace of South West diving at Fort Bovisand, and as such the SHIPS Project, a non-governmental organization started the Liberty 70...
Subsea Mudflows and Moving Shipwrecks: Submerged Cultural Resource Management on the Mississippi River Delta Front (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. On May 12, 1942, the 500-foot-long, steel-hulled tanker Virginia was sunk by the German U-boat U-507 off the Mississippi River’s Southwest Pass. The shipwreck was discovered in nearly 300 feet of water during a 2001 oil and gas survey and was investigated by a remotely operated vehicle in 2004. A 2006 geophysical survey found that the shipwreck had moved more than 1,200 feet...
Sunken Aircraft of the Battle of Midway (2017)
In June of 2017, the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway will occur as archeologists begin the first dedicated project to discover the sunken aircraft at the atoll involved in the battle. Often considered as the turning point of the Pacific Front in World War II, Midway has been difficult to study archaeologically because of the remoteness of the location, and the difficulty in surveying around the treacherous reefs that surround it. Efforts to locate submerged aircraft have been made...
Sværholt, World War II History, and Archaeology (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. What difference does an archaeological approach make to a period saturated by historical documents, photographic archives, and recordings of eyewitness accounts? Since 2011 a group of archaeologists have undertaken fieldwork at a World War II prisoner of war camp at Sværholt in Norway’s far north. The labor camp for Soviet prisoners was established in 1942 as...
Technology for Underwater Heritage: Mapping World War II Sites in the Pacific (2015)
The National Park Service is investigating large scale yet highly accurate distributed models that could assist preservation activities across the Pacific. Recent innovations regarding reality capture and computer modeling technologies specific to the marine environment, including LiDAR, SONAR and photogrammetry are providing value to heritage projects in the Pacific. The first comprehensive survey of the USS Arizona ship and memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii since 1984 began in November of 2013...
"Top Secret" Maritime Archaeology: Preliminary Investigations on the San Pablo, Sunk During an OSS Operation in Pensacola, Florida in 1944 (2013)
As one of the many popular diving spots in Northwest Florida, divers have been visiting the site of the San Pablo for decades. Little was known about the vessel's history until recent research revealed the large, steel-hulled freighter was sunk in a top secret OSS operation known as Project Campbell. The project involved the development of a disguised, remote-controlled vessel carrying explosives capable of attacking and sinking enemy vessels, and it was intended to be deployed during the...
"Unidentified Planes Sighted": The Application of KOCOA Military Terrain Analysis to Aerial Combat (2018)
KOCOA military terrain analysis is a tool used to interpret and analyze terrestrial, and more recently, naval battlescapes; however there has been little experimentation with the application of KOCOA to aerial combat. Renewed interest in the June 1942 attack on Midway atoll (coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the attack) presented researchers with an opportunity to expand KOCOA definitions to incorporate aerial combat into terrain analysis. The resulting terrain features were used to...
USS Arizona Preservation Project- Corrosion (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Hard Science on Hard Steel: Scientific Studies of the USS Arizona" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During a visit to the USS Arizona Memorial in 1998, samples from Wapio Point, Pearl Harbor were provided the author and delivered to the UNL Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering for metallurgical examination. Subsequent field operations in 2002 focused on potential/ pH measurements and...
USS Indianapolis Discovered! Now What? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Developing Standard Methods, Public Interpretation, and Management Strategies on Submerged Military Archaeology Sites" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The 2017 discovery of USS Indianapolis, one of the Navy’s most storied ships and sought-after wrecksites, propelled the vessel back into the public eye and highlighted a string of deep-water WWII shipwreck investigations. After the media hype subsided, the Naval...
USS Wolverine and USS Sable: Uses and Overall Impact on WWII (2022)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During World War II, over thirty US aircraft carriers supported the war effort but none were more unique than USS Wolverine and USS Sable. Converted from the luxurious Great Lakes passenger steamships, SS Seeandbee and SS Greater Buffalo, into aircraft training carriers, the ships underwent remarkable transformations at a time when America was facing material shortages and desperately...
War On Our Doorstep: U-boats Off The Mid-Atlantic Coast (2018)
More than any other place in the United States, coastal Virginia and North Carolina serve as a uniquely accessible underwater museum and memorial to WWII’s Battle of the Atlantic. Since 2008, NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and partners have documented and surveyed this unique collection of WWII Allied and German vessels. NOAA’s goal is to protect these fragile historic resources for future generations, and to preserve the memory of the brave Allied service men and U.S. merchant...
War on the Homefront: National Division and South Africa's Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1945 (2018)
In 1939, the Union of South Africa was caught unprepared for war. Lacking a servicable navy, the Union Defense Force was neverthelss tasked with protecting Allied supply lines through the Southern Ocean. Despite establishing a series of coastal defenses and RADAR stations to this end, Allied merchants rounding the Cape continued to suffer heavy casualties. As these losses mounted, competing ethnic, cultural, and political factions within the Union began using the U-boat war as fuel for their...
World War II Aircraft Training Crashes at the Tonopah Army Air Field, Nevada (2010)
This study examines the crashes that occurred at this training facility from 1942-1945. Most that are discussed are categorized as Notable Accidents, which include fatalities, major damage to aircraft, and atypical crashes. There were 59 Notable Accidents with 134 fatalities which are discussed in individual crash sections. Official accident reports follow. There were 134 minor accidents categorized as Incidents. They are situations that resulted in only minor damage to planes and humans. The...
World War II Shipping in the Gulf of Mexico and the Impact of the German U-boat Threat: the Archaeological Evidence (2016)
An estimated 56 commercial vessels were sunk by German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico during targeted campaigns conducted between 1941 and 1943. In the years since, an estimated 14 of these wrecks have been located and identified with a high degree of confidence. A number of these sites have undergone varying levels of archaeological analysis, although very few have been scientifically excavated, resulting in little related material culture. This paper will review the archaeological evidence...
WWII Battlefield Archaeology of Tarawa (2017)
A central tenant of military philosophy is "adapt, improvise, and overcome". Navigating battlefields requires constant adaptation to dynamic surroundings due to the interplay of several variables such as 1) pre-existing landscape and terrain, 2) enemy defenses, 3) enemy opposing forces, and 4) friendly and enemy fire. To successfully navigate the archaeology of a historic or prehistoric battlefield, archaeologists must attempt to understand the variables (such as those listed) that contributed...
WWII-Related Caves, Community Archaeology and Public Service Announcements: A Community Approach to Raising Awareness and Protecting Caves (2016)
A recent ABPP-funded project explored community consensus building for the protection of WWII-related caves on the island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The project utilized radio and television public service announcements for the purpose of sharing a local message of protection and preservation of caves with the island community. This paper outlines the process of community engagement and involvement, recording privately owned WWII cave sites, developing a...