Naval Battlefield Reconstruction as a Predictive Model for Deep Water Remote Sensing:Search for Bluefields and U-576

Summary

In 2011, the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program awarded a grant to East Carolina University and NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary to conduct a battlefield analysis of a naval action which occurred off North Carolina during the Second World War. Specifically, researchers investigated action initiated against convoy KS-520 by German U-576 in July, 1942. Though the primary objective of the grant was to conduct historical and archeological evaluation of this naval engagement, it also resulted in a geospatial model that NOAA subsequently implemented in a remote-sensing search for two of the battle’s casualties: merchantman Bluefields and U-576. Combining a suite of remote sensing technology, researchers on the NOAA-led Battle of the Atlantic Expedition have tentatively located and identified both vessels in nearly 700 feet of water during the 2012, 2013, and 2014 field seasons. This paper explores both the predictive model and the remote sensing data collected therein. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Battle of the Atlantic: Seven Years Expanding the Horizons of Collaboration and Research   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 417