Scientists have created a 3D model of the destroyer that sank in Dunkirk in 1940 (11 photos + 1 video)

During World War II, in 1940, the Dunkirk evacuation occurred, during which the Allies managed to save more than 338 thousand of their soldiers surrounded by German troops in a port in northern France. Then many ships perished - from warships to fishing boats. Today, scientists are trying to find and identify them all in order to get a complete historical picture.





It has been more than 80 years since the British destroyer HMS Keith sank in what Winston Churchill called a “miracle of salvation.”

The 100-metre-long vessel was among 1,000 military, merchant, fishing and civilian "small craft" that helped rescue 338,226 Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk. It managed to evacuate 992 soldiers to Dover, but upon returning to the shores of France it came under German bombing and sank to the bottom of the English Channel.



Now, almost nine decades later, this World War II warship can be seen again: scientists used sonar to create a 3D model of it lying on the seabed.

This was made possible thanks to a project involving Historic England and Drassm, the French Department of Underwater Archaeological Research.





The purpose of the study was to search for unknown shipwrecks associated with the Dunkirk Operation (also called Operation Dynamo). During the evacuation, 305 ships and more than 30 thousand military personnel were killed.

Scientists were able to discover and study a total of 27 sunken ships. The location of 12 of them was unclear before the start of the study, and four were destroyed or covered with sand, so they could not be found.

Experts believe that they may have discovered three more ships related to the evacuation from Dunkirk and previously unknown.

“It is so moving to see new details emerge for the first time since Dunkirk in the Second World War about the thirty shipwrecks associated with Operation Dynamo,” says Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England. “The findings give us amazing insight into our shared heritage, which still lurks beneath the waters off the coast of Dunkirk.”

The scientists used a multibeam echo sounder as their main instrument.

A multibeam echo sounder mounted under the hull of the research vessel André Malraux helped create a colorful 3D image



It emits a fan of sound that is recorded as it bounces off the seafloor, allowing geophysicists to create colorful 3D images of objects such as shipwrecks



As part of the study, scientists were able to discover and study a total of 27 sunken ships



The level of detail provided by sonar is so high that scientists can match the features and dimensions of vessels with historical photographs.



For example, from the davits on which lifeboats once hung, it was possible to establish that one of the sunken ships was the Normannia (pictured), which was sunk as a result of an air attack on May 30



The data also showed that previous research had confused the French auxiliary minesweepers Denis Papin (pictured) and Moussaillon, which were sunk in an air attack on 1 June 1940



Drawing of the French destroyer Moussaillon, which sank in 1940



Between May 27 and June 4, 1940, 338,226 Allied troops were taken and rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk on military, merchant, fishing and civilian ships.