Unit/ Formation: RM ASG
Location: Off Solent Water
Period/ Conflict: World War II
Year: 1944
Date/s: 5 June 1944
On the night of the 5th/6th June 1944, LCT(A) 2428 broke down in the south-eastern approaches to the Solent while on route to the D-Day landings in Normandy.
The vessel was taken under tow but subsequently capsized, spilling its cargo of tanks and armoured bulldozers, intended to support the landings, into the sea.
Sometime afterwards the vessel was deliberately sunk by gunfire from its tug, several miles to the east.
Tuesday 05 August 2008 - Portsmouth News:
TWO Second World War tanks have been found on the seabed – a pair of only four left in the world. More than 20 frogmen from Southsea Sub-Aqua Club spent five days examining the tanks, two bulldozers and a field gun on the sea bed eight miles off Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex.
They now know they are Centaur CS IV tanks, which were assigned to the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group, part of an 80-strong contingent bound for France on D-Day. There are two others in France, but no others are known to exist. Alison Moyer, who led the dives, said: 'The photos we took of the tanks allowed experts at the Tank Museum in Dorset to confirm them as Centaur CS IV – the type used exclusively by the Royal Marines for Operation Overlord.'
The tanks sit 20m below the surface off West Wittering but divers could not find a ship wreck. But photos matched with entries from the Royal Marines War Diaries seem to confirm the vessels were lost from a landing craft.
