TANK WRECKS OF D-DAY - Discovering the Sunken Sherman Tanks of OMAHA BEACH 

I’ve been there. An interesting place with a lot of things to look at. The founder was a French underwater salvage specialist. He was hired to clear the Normandy beach area of all the wrecks. So he was paid to salvage them, kept the scrap, and opened a museum. So he was paid to haul it up and out, and he, or at least his family, is still getting “paid” decades later. Good for him!

OMG thank goodness that somebody took the time to preserve that history. Very sobering. Enjoyed the episode. Stay safe Jon.

Have been here before, the guy working the counter was the main diver - his boat is out front and the massive anchor they used is half grown into a tree. Very cool spot, very nice people there too. Well worth a look around.

Just happened on this museum with my dad touring Normandy about 15 years ago. Great little museum and a must see.

Can you imagine how many tanks, trucks and other assorted vehicles never made on the beaches all along the coast. My grandfather told me a story of a tank that fell over the side of one of the landing craft on Utah Beach. He said the water pressure was so bad, the crew couldn't get out. And it sunk. Just amazing.

According to the historian Sir Anthony Beevor's work on the D-Day and Normandy campaigns, the LCT's were supposed to launch their DD's at a specific distance from the shore. Both the British and Canadian commanders realised that the sea state was far too rough at that distance and would be suicide for the tank crews so they took their ships in as far as they could before launching, risking enemy fire from the shore batteries. The result was that Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches each received around 30 tanks reaching the shore with about 3 lost en route. The American commander refused to follow them in and insisted on launching at the original position - as you mentioned, 3 made it ashore and 30 were lost.

Supposedly during filming of "The Longest day" in the 1960s they found a sherman buried in sand in shallow water. Since they had a large crew of experienced sherman mechanics and crew members at hand, they simply towed it to the motor pool and drained the water, replaced the gaskets, threw on a coat of paint and fired it up. It became one of the tanks shown in the movie.

What a surprise - another great video! Thanks!

Have been watching your videos for some time now and the topics and footage are amazing; really like the Then & Now clips and the stories behind the events, vehicles, and especially people. Cool stuff!

Imagine the courage it took , to get in a tank with an inflated hull around it , and then launch in that Duplex Drive Sherman .... My God ... these men of that age were like IRON.

Good stuff as always, very awesome collection. Another stop I need to make whenever I get to go back over to Normandy. Thanks Jon. 🫡

Excellent video, thanks for bringing this wonderful museum to light.

Nice one. I was at that museum too, back in 2010, whilst doing a tour of the Normandy beaches. Thanks for bringing back the memories👍

Brilliant little tour mate. Thank you

Awesome vid - one of my favorite magazines ever was a National Geographic 60th anniversary special where they went down and took photos of all the wrecks and tanks of Normandy. Love seeing these- like little time capsules

Thanks for sharing!!✌️🇺🇲

thanks for sharing! i visited normandy in 94 but didn't get into the museum, it was expensive even then... I see that the outside tanks have somewhat deteriorate a lot since then

Very interesting pictures and research about D-Day 1944. Thank you for your good and valuable work.

My brother was a recovery diver for the USN, and part of his training was done in Baie de Seine, where there are still over a hundred tanks, landing craft, small ships etc. He has quite the photo album of these historic wrecks, copies of which were sent to several museums. He's retired now, but says that was still his favorite part of training, getting to dive on these historic wrecks.

Awesome place and information of the historical items rescued from the sea..!

First time hearing of this museum. Thanks for getting boots on the ground for us.

Thank you sir for sharing the tour...

Wow absolutely brilliant & very moving,i,m hoping to go to normandy some time next year & hopefully Oradour sur glane aswell,thank you for keeping history alive.

Really nice, I'm glad the familly keeps running it

Great video .Cheers pal 😮😊

very interesting history and thank you for posting. very nice video

This is awesome. Didn’t know this museum existed. Thank you.

Excellent. I'm hoping to visit this year.

Got to get there...bucket list stuff

Thanks for sharing this story

Thanks for sharing, fascinating! I will be in PeB around the 6th for the C47 memorial walk, and definitely visit the museum. I did not know of the museum - its very unique, but important. Great!

Another excellent video on a museum that most would bypass. Thanks Jon..

Thank You so much Very interesting 🤔

Excellen6t. Thank you.

When those tanks go down (sink) they go fast and the water rushing in makes it impossible to escape. Sad end for those young men. I wonder why they didn't have a few expendable LST's that could run right up to the shore and expel the tanks.

Thanks for the tour mate, nice one 😉👍

Amazing Work Brother, Thank You.

My uncle was in the 1st. wave. He was wounded but survived. My grandmother was informed he was KIA and did not know he survived for 2 months when he sent a letter home

Very cool 👍

AWESOME !

merci pour la vidéo, on se croisera peut-être dans 15 jours en Normandie!!!

I have never understood what advantage the Allies thought they would have by launching the tanks 4 miles out to sea instead of landing them on the beach; the only thing I can think of is they were afraid the LCT would be hit and they would lose all the tanks at once.

Outstanding! Very interesting video! I’d love to visit there. Maybe oneday.

After ww2,the french government divided the normandy landing beaches into three plots and sold each plot to three french scrap dealers ,giving them the right to clear wreckage and saving the government the job of doing it.

This museum was closed when I was in the area a few weeks ago. Must go there again one day.

Your videos are so touching, heartfelt and emotional, well done indeed.

Great Vid.

Been there in 2013, they didn't had a toilet for the visitors.

Big kudos to this museum for preserving a part of D-day history. Knowing the harshness of saltwater these artifacts are in amazing condition, particularly the engines. Enjoyed the guided tour. Thank you

Wow that's very good indeed nice 😊

Grandfather was part of a crew in ether a Sexton Or priest tank well after the D-day waves on Juno beach He told us Those poor buggers that were in the Sherman's had a tough time of it If they did not sink They had to deal with mines If it wasn't mines It was Panzerfaust Or Hedgerows Yup we got stuck in a ditch after blindly pushing threw the "Thickets" The Americans were taking the metal bars from the beach And welding them onto the front of the tanks like scissors Cutting threw the hedges instead of exposing the belly of the tank by climbing over the brush Pretty smart idea But I am betting they learn from a few destroyed tanks first ..

Near the PLUTO lines? Reminiscent of Virginia where there are a number of small but remarkable private CW museums.

US army M7 Priest : identification of the driver John H. Glass and the reconstruction of its incredible journey from North Africa to the Normandy Landings.'

Great video again and well narrated! Would love to see this small museum, which I missed on previous visits to Normandy/D-Day sites. Are any of the Shermans lost off the beaches stil there on the seabed? I heard there were some still facing the beach, sat on the ocean floor. The British suffered the same fate with several tanks, due to the stormy seas and fear of the LCT crews to go in closer to the beaches.

Bloss das Pro Abschnitt von 21 Panzern die zu Wasser gelassen wurden,es nur 2 Panzern es ans Land geschafft haben..19 Panzer gingen vorzeitig unter,weil zu viel Wasser in den Panzern rein kammen,und der Motor abgesoffen ist..

From your highlighted paragraph: _"No contact has since been made, however, with the command of the 741st Tank Battalion, so no accurate figures are available. It might be observed at this time that the action reports of all officer-in-charge of "DD" LCT's in Force "0-1" submitted to this command state that they were amazed when the order came to launch. They were all ready go to the beach and unload there."_ So - it was not *_LIKE YOU SAID_* that the Navy Crews of these LCT's didn't want to go in to the beach. Maybe that is why you included the highlighted part of the report? Did you realize the error you had made after getting the video done and tacked this on to make up for it? The LCT's for the other Battalion did all go to the beach and their commander had been amazed when he saw the other LCT's launch. The Army Officer who was in command of both battalions - was with the other battalion - and maybe that is why they launched. So - this was NOT the Navy Crews being afraid to go to the beach. It was the Army Commander of the tanks that chose to launch - and - the first ones off the ramps didn't all immediately sink. In fact I am under the general impression that most of them did not immediately sink and were trying to swim ashore. The one LCT that did deliver it's tanks to the beach - DID have the first one immediately sink - and so the Officer commanding that LCT - decided not to launch the other 3. So - the problem as I understand it - was not with the Launch - but with the journey to the beach. There were in fact 2 or 3 of these tanks that swam ashore. All of these DD Tanks that were able to swim in - were commanded by people who had Small Boat Experience - and knew how to steer the tanks diagonally into the current so it didn't catch them from the side and sink them. None of the other swimming DD Tanks of this battalion had commanders with Small Boat Experience - and thus did not know how to deal with the water conditions - and their tanks all sank. That some of these Tank Commanders had Small Boat Experience - was purely coincidental - and I would imagine from their Civilian Lives before the war. There was no training in Small Boats that was given to any of the Tank Commanders and all the practice runs - and they did practice swimming these tanks - were in calmer water. The real mistake here - was in allowing the Army Officer to make the decision to launch - when the Navy knew better. Where that decision was made - I don't know - but that was the real mistake. The decision to launch should have been with the Navy Commander of that Boat Unit. Now - the problem with Omaha Beach - was that it had a very strong current that was sweeping along the coast. That Current is what sank these tanks. It caused the rough seas to hit these vehicles from the side and swamp them. That is why the Tank Commanders with Small Boat Experience knew to steer into the current rather than let it hit them from the side. When they practiced landing these tanks - they were not in such a current - this was only on Omaha Beach - so the other Beaches did not have this problem - and - they planners may not have realized the trouble this current would cause. This current also played a part in the wrecking of the Artificial Harbor that was erected off Omaha - though - the main reason for that - was the inaccurate weather report it received. The British got an accurate weather report of what was coming - and pulled in all their small boats used by the harbor. The Americans - with that bad weather report didn't pull their small boats in - and these boats were slammed into the piers wrecking them. That said - yes - I can see that it occurred to someone that there was a lot of wrecked equipment off that beach and they should go out and salvage it. Overall this was a very good video and I'm glad to see the mention of this museum which I did not know about. I was just not happy at the apparent slight against the courage of the Navy Boat Crews ... . There were a lot of those guys that got killed in WWII. The closest thing those landing craft had to any armor at all - was the steel ramps on the bow. Those had to be steel as driving a vehicle down a plywood ramp - like what the rest of the boat was made of - would have just collapsed it. If you want to watch a good movie on the Navy people that did things like this - watch _Away All Boats_ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_All_Boats This movie was based on a book by the author Kenneth M. Dodson who served on a Navy Attack Transport in WWII. Oh - and OMT ... the Navy offered the Army Amphibious Tractors but since there were no Coral Reefs - just sand beaches - the Army said they didn't need them. The Navy - needed all it could get in the Pacific so that was that. Montgomery did use some in crossing the Rhine though - as well - I believe - as some DD Tanks. .

Other Normandy D-Day beaches are available.

We now live in the most evil point in history.

Do you by chance offer tours of the Normandy battle ground area?