D-Day 78 Special - Forgotten Normandy Tank Graveyard 

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My Aunts sweetheart died on Omaha in the first wave. She remained a spinster then her entire life. Even when I was a kid in the 70’s she spoke of him often.

"For the very BEST in History programming, choose Dr. Mark Felton*" Nothing is forgotten with him around, I digress.

I regularly walk a part of the South West Coastal Path walk between North Hill, Minehead, Somerset and the small village of Bossington. During WW2 North Hill was used by American forces for live-firing practice prior to D-Day. In 2015 I noticed some rusting metal objects that I believe are bogie wheels and suspension parts of am M4 Sherman tank. I took some photos and when walking recently they were still there. I did a bit a research and found out that the Americans used to drive the tanks up to the top of North Hill because the roads were too narrow for the tank transporters. They obviously left some parts behind. Rumours have it that rather than take them home, a couple of Sherman's were buried somewhere on the hill 🤔 In the 2010's, when I worked in the police as an Authorised Firearms Officer, I got tasked to make a weapon safe that had been recovered from Galmington stream, Taunton, Somerset. To my surprise I found the weapon in question was an M1 Carbine, it had lain in the water since WW2. Although the metal was a bit rusty and some of the butt was missing and the remainder waterlogged, the action still cocked with surprisingly little effort. Next to the stream is Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset which was originally built by the Americans as a military hospital. Although almost fully re-developed over the last few decades there are a few of the original brick structures remaining. It's surprising how much remains from the war. Oh, and the M1, although fitted with a magazine was empty of rounds!

I work for a tugboat company that runs a tug from 1943 currently named the SUSAN L. I believe it worked in the staging areas across the channel during the buildup and invasion. Her original Enterprise DMG38 engine just came through a light overhaul this winter and is happily thumping away at 200 RPM to this day underway. We are still profiting and trusting machines built during this time and that makes me feel a living connection to history. Thanks for another winner Mark!

My mother, Louise, welded those Sherman tanks together here in Detroit during the war. She was born in 1924.

I knew a friend of the family's, when I was growing up, who had taken part in the Gallipoli Landing in 1915 - thankfully some of the costly lessons learned from that disaster nearly 30 years earlier had at least helped to ensure the success of the Normandy Landings.Most people are still unaware of the meticulous planning and the vast amount of intelligence gathering that took place before the landings.

Mark, are you going to Tankfest this year? I’ll be there on the Saturday, would love to buy you a cup of tea & a sausage roll if you’re there…

My Dad was a barber with lotsa customers with stories to tell. I remember one who had a bald spot on the side of his head despite having a full head of hair otherwise. He would wear it longer to cover the spot. Jim was a giant of a man who laughed easily and loud, but a gentle giant so to speak. When I asked him about it he revealed the cause. He was a 17 year old coal cracker from PA. Large for his age, he convinced his mother to sign for him to enter the service. He trained in England and was on his way to the shore in a landing craft when they got hit. He woke up in an English hospital after his eighteen birthday had passed. He was the sole survivor. He was lucky that somebody grabbed him out of the channel. Jim never saw battle afterwards and counted his blessings...as should we all...because of those who fought that day on June 6,1944.

Hello Mark, the Clip of the marching soldier’s at 3:13 was made in the City of Oldenburg in the North Western Part of Germany, in the Back you can see the characteristic Cäcilienbrücke (Cäcilienbridge) wich was taken out of Service in 2020, i’m from Oldenburg and I’ve never ever seen a video document from the second worldwar of Oldenburg before. Oldenburg was liberated by British and Canadian troops. It hasn’t suffered big air rades during the war. Near by was a big airfield in the small village of Bad Zwischenahn, where the nazis tested the Me163, called „Erprobungskommandos 16“ after the Bombing „Operation Hyro“ on Peenemünde. The airfield is even today visible from google maps with its characteristic triangle shape. During the war two Luftwaffe aircrafts collided and crashed into the Bad Zwischenahner Meer One Ju88 with its crew is still in the Mud of the lake. The wrack of the other one appears to be in there too, but its crew was rescued. It would be very interesting for me learning to know more about this Airfield and its history. I even got one original aerial picture from the Allied forces where you can see a lot of the field, surrounding buildings and hangers heavily damaged closely before the end of the war. Thank you for your great Work, i love you videos. Best regards from Oldenburg 👋🏼

I recall De Gaulle, when France left NATO in the `60`s, telling the US secretary of state that all US sevicemen have to leave French soil. When informed President Johnson said "What? Even those who are buried there.

You do not need to build roads to move the tanks if you dismantle them in the field and sling load the parts out by air.. You could use a CH-47 Chinook to move the tank parts. You could also use a Sikorsky CH-54.

"Don't be ridiculous Pluskat, the Allies don't have that many ships."

Now that's really cool. I used to spend some vacations here with my family when I was younger, and my mother's cousin brought me there. I have vivid memories of these tanks! I remember finding bullet casings in this area too. Might still have them somewhere! It was in the early 1990s. Thanks for your always great content, Mark!

Mark Felton: a history teacher's best friend

Thank you Mark for posting this video about D-Day.

To all those who remembered The 78th Anniversary of DDAY and to all those who were there and those who didn’t come back , Lest We Forget 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇫🇷🇫🇷🇬🇧🇬🇧🇺🇸🇺🇸

I love seeing wrecks like that, it’s an interesting reminder of the cyclical nature of life: we’re born from the Earth and one day the Earth will reclaim us.

Oh man, the first Call of Duty and Medal of Honor in my childhood times left a mist of magic around everything related to WWII. This and the 1990's documentaries of a legendary Polish historian Wołoszański.

That "G" in a shield insignia on the front of the cast hull Shermans means the the hulls were cast by General Steel Casting in Granite City, IL. Granite City, IL is on the East side of the Mississippi river across from St Louis, MO. My Grandfather, other relatives, and their neighbors all worked there during the War. He was involved with the casting of the hull for THAT tank. I am typing this just blocks away from the main casting works where that occurred during the 40s. I have seen that trademark on other videos for the Canadian Grizzly, a Lend/Lease Sherman pulled from a Polish swamp, and now here. No turrents were cast in Granite City, however.

Just makes you wanna cry

Biville ! I use to spend a lot of my weekend playing war with my brother and hiding inside the Shermans.

BTW , everyone that goes to normandy for the ww2 history MUST GO to Overlord museum. by far the best .

I was watching “Otzi” the ice age man who was killed by an arrow in the alps and he had a copper axe…today I watch a tank graveyard with tens of tons of iron. My how far we have evolved.

Those dunes are likely riddled with live ordinance as well. The artillery range on Fort Ord, California had to be cleared of unexploded ordinance before it could be used by the public. Much of which is now set aside as a preserve now.

My uncle landed on the fourth wave on Normandy . He was with a mine clearing unit and was wounded twice from mines other people had tripped. As a result he stayed behind for several weeks to help gather mines while his wounds healed. During the mine clearing truck loads of mine were gathered in areas west of the main beaches and tossed onto huge ever growing piles along a remote beach. In time these were blasted as a way of cleaning them up. I do remember him showing us a photo of one such huge pile of mines that were being stacked from 6x6 trucks. These pile were way west of the on going landing areas so as to not cause issues with landing operations. A old friend on ours also landed on Normandy and never got his feet wet. He was assigned to drive a 6x6 truck that was first loaded with gas cans.. late on the first day of June 6 this truck and himself were lowered onto a landing craft and brought to shore. At no point did he leave the trucks seat until he reached shore. After reaching shore they dropped him of on the wrong beach and he did nothing but make his way along the beach’s for a really extend period of time until he found his unit. This truck was a brand new truck and all he did for the next months was to drive from the beach area to near the front dropping off supplies. This truck was his home for many many months. In the end he told me this truck had 67000 miles on it. He said that low tide he would drive right up to ships that had beached themselves. Trucks would drive right up to be loaded with cargo and then they would drive off to the front. Most of the time he was loaded from ever growing supply piles. Over the summer he built a metal grill around the exhaust system to capture engine heat that could be directed into the cab. When winter came this heated him. In addition he trade with sailors for warm clothing. It was this that kept him from freezing later on. All the time he and this truck never parted company. The only time he did not go to the beach was when a engineering unit loaded a power unit into his box and they used hydraulic powered chain saws to clear huge trees that were cut down to block the roads.

The tanks shown are early M4A1s, with the rounded, cast hulls. Later M4s had angled, sheet-metal, welded hulls.

As always you tell us things many didn't know of.

Can you imagine being a Sherman tanker in Nazi Europe? Knowing any enemy tank you came upon could easily whoop you in a 1 on 1 fight. Not even having the firepower to penetrate the frontal armor of German tanks. Man those troops had big brass ones. Especially the black tankers. Knowing you were fighting for a country that basically saw you as a second class citizen yet still giving your all, willing to lay down your life if necessary. They definitely earned the greatest generation monicker. I was lucky enough to have met and known a great many veterans of the big one. From Navy that fought in the Pacific, to Airborne that dropped on D-Day, to a nurse that survived being a POW on the Philippines, to a pilot who flew supply missions over the Himalayas. Unfortunately, I was very young when my grandfather took me to his conventions and gatherings. I had no idea how privileged I was nor how special it was to be in a room surrounded by those men and women more times than i can remember. To know now what some of them went through (especially that nurse) yet seemed to go on to love normal fulfilling lives shows just how mentally tough they were back then. I have always wondered if it was growing up in the Depression that made them so tough or if it was a natural just get the job done mentality they all possessed.

One of the local vehicle collectors has a a fully functioning M5 Stuart light tank. He brings it over to Fort Snelling on Memorial Day and it is a popular object for people to photograph.

One of my unfulfilled bucket list items is to visit the Normandy beaches. Now Dr. Felton has added another "must-see" area to my adventure. Thank you, sir.

Ah man, 230am here in the US, guess bedtime can wait

Tanks for da memories.

Great tribute to those who fought on June 6th, 1944 - awesome Cameo in “Downfall” as well Dr Felton 😊. Thanks for sharing

Those Shermans have certainly been through the wars, what a waste. Interesting story, thank you Mark! I wonder if this might not be a possibility topic for a future video: After the war the British in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) initiated the failed East Africa Groundnut Scheme during which surplus Shermans were modified and put to use as bulldozers to clear the bush and cultivate the land. Ultimately the Shermans broke down but I always wondered what happened them. Were they left to rust in the reclaimed bush? Are some still there among the thorn trees? Thanks again Mark.

I did a tour of the D Day beaches with Leger 12 years ago, really interesting trip.

Hey Mark, could you maybe discuss about the 2 (or 4) abandoned IS-2 heavy tanks stationed as bunkers in the pacific island(s) of Russia?

I’m going to Omaha tomorrow. I’ve spent the last week in Caen. I’ve never been to Europe before and I love it. The French are a lot friendlier than I expected

Hi Dr Mark Felton

Such a sad end to such vehicle's. Wouldn't cost that much to recover them if you wanted too. Chinnock and straight up no need for roads.

Hindsight is 20-20. Using perfectly good historical tanks for target practice that were worth no telling how much as running vehicles. Almost as bad as cutting the main gun. They should be fully functional and have public viewing of them firing sometimes. Like taking a Colt 45 of Wyat Earps and cutting the barrel. Just ruins a great piece of history.

Thank you!

For all the "thinkers": NO, a CH-47 Chinook cannot lift these tanks. It has a sling load capacity of 26K pounds (11,800 kilos). Sherman tanks weigh between 66k - 86k pounds (30K Kilos).

Happy D-Day 06-06-1944 Young Men sacrificed life & limb to save the World from True Evil. We would be living under very different circumstances, you & I probably wouldn't be alive right now to see this.or this wouldn't be a program we could watch. Thank You to the Greatest Generation of Modern History.

The History Channel but better. Thanks for all of your incredible content Mark I enjoy all of your videos. I may have missed it but haven't seen a video about "Operation Dragoon" the second D-Day invasion of southern France on 15 August 1944. I think this would be your kind of story, mostly forgotten history from WW2. I would love to see a video on this especially with the 78th anniversary of D-Day upon us. Keep up the great work.

78 years have passed... and though the world is still a rough place to live upon, at least it's arguably a better one compared to one that might have happened differently had D-Day failed, if not never came to fruition.

These are top class everyone brilliant

Amazing, time stood still

Your documentaries are top notch every single time I'm always pleased every time I watch keep up the great work well done every single time. God bless you. !!!

Great videos Mark ...Very sad to see the Graffiti on these long lost beauties ..

Grand Moff Felton back with a new video!!

I actually like the graffiti that was added onto one of those tanks, they are only going to rust there, they should hold a competition to paint them as art pieces and it will help hold back the rust a little longer.

I don't know if this is all too important to even tell, but I live within 20 minutes of five WW2 M3 Lee tanks and one 203mm Howitzer, abandoned in a field down here in Southern Brazil. I really don't know their history, but anyways, neat, WW2 Tanks

Cool info !!!

Another graveyard is below the waters of Omaha beach, where you can find various amphibious Shermans, which sunk during the first stages of the invasion

Them tanks rusting!

Fascinating, as always. 👍🏻👍🏻

Visiting all these battlefields covered across Mr. Felton's videos, is on my bucket list.

Another fascinating video

Great documentary. I think the potential environmental adverse effects of recovering these thanks is massively overstated and the environment would it naturally heal quickly from any disturbance. If this wasn’t the case a former live fire range such as this would not even have the natural vale’s that is causing this hand wrangling. Please recover these historical artefacts.

Tank you very much!

Well to be totally brutally fair, FRANCE did not fight on the side of the allies post 1940. France was in an arrangement with Germany post-armistice and it was French dissidents that fought on the side of the Allies, highlighting this division. The French Navy too was split with the RN having to destroy the french fleet at Oran exactly BECAUSE the French would not fight on the side of the allies and looked likely to cave in to German pressure to fight on the side oft he Germans.

Technically it possible to remove the Sherman’s from the dunes. With the use the temporary road mats. Temporary access only no need for extensive Works. In theroy it can be role on roll of and if the french military would be so kind? I wonder if they would help preserve these wonderful tanks! Then with the sort of military precision that gave us the d-day landings. These tanks can be delivered to the front doors of the respective museum. In fact it would be funny to see them collected on to landing craft as an homage to the Normandy landings. I bet there a few mechanics licking their lips at the opportunity to fix them up. The best way to get them would be via landing craft, delivered to a nearby port. For the hvg transfer to the museums door. From a tactical perspective its the best option . as there would be less ground disturbance. Less environmental damaging. Fewest miles to collection points.

Excellent Episode

Protected dunes = can't remove tanks Dunes are armored training ground = tanks used as targets Classic

I really like your videos 💓

I remember my active times all those interesting old tanks as so called hard targets on our tank firing ranges. Sometimes we could visit them when firing was interrupted. So finding e.g. an US M47 with Italian labels on an east German firing range in the mid 90ies was one of the many examples.

You never disappoint amazing story

Never be forgotten as long as we have Mr Mark Felton

Very interesting

I'm a simple man, I see Mark Felton, I watch :p keep up the great videos ! ! !

Just melt them down.

Very cool

*Fascinating information never knew about this thank you very much Mr Felton.*

Thank you for the story.

Nice bit of memorial research.

Mark’s videos come at all hours. I love it!

Thank you.

The fact that the US gave France 600 tanks for free during WW2 speaks to the mind boggling American production capacity back then.

There are many that would make fun of me, but I have always loved the Sherman. I have a large collection of armored vehicles in my model collection. Out of almost 200 vehicles build and not yet built. I have 9 different models of 1/35th scale Sherman tanks and I have more to build.

If damaging the surrounding area is the problem, why not use a super heavy lift helicopter like a Chinook? It would be far less damaging to the surrounding terrain, and ironically might even be cheaper.

I always wonder why the Normandy landings didn’t include a smoke screen as did the landings at Salerno.

It's good you mention that the French fought valiantly, so that the moniker "The Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" will not in my book be as strong. "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys", sometimes shortened to "surrender monkeys", is a pejorative term for French people. The term is based on the negative stereotype of the French that they surrender quickly when faced with wars even if, according to British historian Niall Ferguson, France is the most successful military power in European history in terms of number of wars fought and won. The French and the British have a history of mocking one another. Despite some in the modern day being offended by it, generally both sides take it in the spirit it was meant to be taken, a light-hearted joke. It was coined in 1995 by Ken Keeler, a writer for the television series The Simpsons, and has entered two Oxford quotation dictionaries.

Interesting to start the engine

Are there a couple of french tanks there too Renault's ?

This is very interesting, and I did not know about this. It’s neat to see those Shermans, especially knowing they were targets on a live fire range. Yet another excellent video that teaches some cool history!

One more place where history ground to a halt. It reminds me of "The Planet of the Apes" or any of of a number of such movies.

It's sad to see those tanks has been exposed to taggers

i tried to find thee last year, with no luck :( one is a firefly as far as i can tell.

D Day and Mark Felton. What a perfect match.

Who doesn’t love a tank?

Quickest Mark Felton upload

Could they air lift the tanks out?

Use a hover craft to recover them they won't mess up the land don't require a road

Cor bleeding heck. And bloody Nora. 36mins old. Glued to the screen as usual. Marvellous. Ta mate.

Always very interesting. Thankyou. But please change the intro sound track.

Mark Felton is easily the go to for learning about topics i’ve never heard of as well as ones i’ve heard a thousand times. Always top quality content, love binging your videos

$1.25 a month is a good 👍 value for great 👍 content

Very good.

Early am posting! Love it