What would I find at the bottom of the channel at Normandy Beach?

by nakens07

Just saw Saving Private Ryan (again) on TV yesterday. It seems like a lot of equipment/vessels were sunk and lost in the channel during the invasion, especially the initial waves. Would any relics have survived to today? Would they be buried in the sand at the bottom? Have there been expeditions to recover any remaining items?

spetsnazcats

Yes, of course but a lot of it would have been collected by now but you could find some metal scraps, maybe bullets but not anything big like a helmet. The majority of the stuff would be rusted especially because of the salt.

If you went to Normandy, you would also find some bunkers. I went to a French beach and I visited some bunkers that were fairly kept together. All the important documents and artifacts were taken to be studied.

davratta

Any scrap metal or off shore beach obstacles that were visible at low tide were removed in July and August to fit rhino tusks to Sherman tanks. These tusks allowed Sherman tanks to cut right through the Hedgerows that were hindering the progress of the Allied armies in the early stages of the Normandy Campaign. A British soldier with the last name Roberts in the British 79th Armored division and Sargent Curtis Culin of the US 2nd Armored division independently invented these devices. After demonstrating these metal tusks to General Omar Bradley on 7/14/1944 and showing how they cut through hedgerows, like a knife through butter, Bradley ordered all the scrap metal that was visible on the Normandy beaches at low tide to be recovered and used to weld tusks onto Sherman tanks.

Spark_77

The Allies had learnt from the disastrous Dieppe raid that attacking an established port was too difficult, because it would have too many defences. After much research the Normandy area was selected for the landing zones. This posed a problem, with as many as 150,000 troops landing on day one with millions more to follow how can an army continue to operate ? Logistically it was a nightmare - an army needs food, ammunition, vehicles, medical supplies, evacuation routes for the injured and many more things. How could the Allied army be supplied after the invasion ?

The answer was the mulberry harbour. This was a man made harbour made of concrete sections that were towed across the channel and then partially sunk some distance from the shore, a floating jetty connected the harbour to shore. Here is a picture: http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/costelma/Models/Mulberry%20Harbour/MulberryB1.jpg On the far right you see some old ships there were dragged in to place and sunk to provide a bit of protection (known as a block ship). Moving leftwards we see the harbour itself with the jettys running off to the beach. Two mulberry harbours were constructed following D-Day, one on Omaha and the other at Gold beach. They were up and running by 9th June. The one at Omaha was destroyed by bad weather on 19th June, but the one at Gold beach (Arromanches) operated for eight months even though it was only meant to be used for three.

The remains of the mulberry at Arromanches can still be seen, I believe that at low tide its possible to walk out to them. Have a look here: https://goo.gl/maps/uMJbO

Aside from that there are many german bunkers/emplacements and defences still left along the Normandy coastline - do a google image search and you should find many pictures of them.

A final note, you may be aware of Operation Deadstick, the operation to capture the BĂ©nouville and Ranville Bridges. The BĂ©nouville bridge is now better known as "Pegasus Bridge". The original bridge is no longer used, but remains at the side of the river it used to cross, along with a museum about the operation. Its visible here: https://goo.gl/maps/EAvav along with a mock up of a Horsa Gilder that was used in the operation.