Off N.C. coast, NOAA searches WWII battlefield, largest in history

[BEAST]

From USATODAY

 

For decades, the dead lay silently, undisturbed and resting on the cold, dark ocean floor.

 

Now, for the first time, explorers have scoured the Atlantic Ocean graveyard, the site of some of the battles fought closest to the U.S. mainland during World War II.

 

In 1942, Allied and German navies dueled in the Battle of the Atlantic, in "arguably the largest battlefield in human history," said David Alberg of NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, which led the expedition.

 

The war arena stretched across the north and south Atlantic, from Iceland to southern Africa as German submarines sank hundreds of Allied ships.

 

Some skirmishes came within just a few miles of North Carolina's Outer Banks, where a NOAA submersible dived for the past few weeks, taking a close look at the wrecks of the Allied Bluefields freighter and the German U-576 submarine. The two vessels, submerged under 750 feet of seawater since 1942, weren't spotted by sonar until 2014.

 

 

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/09/08/off-nc-coast-noaa-searches-wwii-battlefield-largest-history/90009606/