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Two Tanks found complete with heavy guns

Scuba divers have discovered two Centaur CS IV tanks complete with their heavy guns eight miles off the West Sussex coastline. Alison Mayor, a diving instructor,has been involved in more than eighty dives to the site and done researched archives to confirm that the two vehicles fell overboard on June 6, 1944 from a capsized landing craft…

The tanks (two of only eighty ever made) should have provided cover for Royal Marines and Canadian troops at Juno Beach but instead they ended up 65 foot down on the seabed. Exoerts say they are amazed at how well preserved the tanks are, one of which is still in possession of it’s 95mm Howitzer gun, machine guns and tracks. There are only two other surviving centaur tanks, both in Normandy where they are placed as war memorials.

Mrs Mayor, 46, from Havant, Hants, said: “You might expect to find sunken ships or even aircraft but these tanks were just so out of context out there on the seabed. “It was a complete mystery as to how they got there so I was inspired to take up the challenge and find out why.” Mrs Mayor, a senior commercial officer for the MoD, added: “It was very eerie diving down to the tanks once we knew how they had got there. It must have been a terrifying experience when the tanks went overboard and it was a great relief to find out that nobody died. But I was really shocked to see what fantastic condition the tanks are still in despite spending all those years underwater. One of the tanks still has its Howitzer gun, machine guns and ammunition all in perfect order. It’s just a pity that the tanks are upside down.”

Source: The Telegraph

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