In July 1942, German submarine U-576 sank the freighter SS Bluefields during the battle of Convoy KS-520 off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The convoy and its U.S. military escorts fought back, sinking the U-boat with return fire from a U.S. Navy Armed Guard crew and an aerial depth charge attack.
In 2016, NOAA and its research partners surveyed, for the first time since they sank more than 70 years prior, the remains of the two ships. The Battle of the Atlantic: Archaeology of an Underwater World War II Battlefield expedition was part of an ongoing research project to document and highlight a little-known, but important, chapter in the nation’s maritime history.
Scientists conducted a comprehensive characterization and interpretation of the shipwrecks and the surrounding battlefield, along with related World War II shipwrecks lost in the area, using advanced data acquisition and visualization technologies. This study provided data to tell an incredible story of a World War II battlefield just a few miles off America’s coast.
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Video courtesy of John McCord, UNC Coastal Studies Institute/NOAA, Battle of the Atlantic expedition.
Battle of the Atlantic Expedition Summary