Diver UK – August 2019

DIVER NEWS

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UBMERGED VALENTINEand

Centaur tanks, Caterpillar D

armoured bulldozers and

Mulberry floating harbour

components, many of which have

long been attractions for Channel

divers, were given protected status at

the start of June to mark the 75th

anniversary of the D-Day landings.

The WW2 remains in Dorset, Devon

and West Sussex were designated for

protection as Scheduled Monuments

by the Department for Digital, Culture,

Media & Sport on the advice of

Historic England (HE). Recreational

diving is still permitted on a look-

don’t-touch basis, but any other

activities require licensing.

The landing in Normandy of

156,000 Allied troops with vehicles,

equipment and supplies on 6 June,

1944, is recognised as the greatest

amphibious operation in history.

Contributing to its success were

the many rehearsals and training

exercises carried out along the

South Coast of England and the

British engineering achievement

of the Mulberry harbours, says HE

which, 75 years on, has now stated

that: “It is vital that we protect them

as a memorial for future generations.”

The Duplex Drive (DD) Valentine

tanks were taking part in the Exercise

Smash rehearsal at Studland Beach in

Dorset six weeks before D-Day.

Modifications that should have

enabled them to float failed to work

in rough seas, and seven sank on

leaving the landing craft, with the loss

of six men. As a result, during the D-

Day landings Valentines were released

only in shallow water closer to shore.

Two Centaur tanks and two D

armoured bulldozers located off

Selsey Bill in West Sussex are also now

Scheduled Monuments. As part of the

Operation Neptune assault on Juno

Beach of 5-6 June they had been

loaded onto landing craft LCT(A)2428,

but it broke down in the Solent.

After being taken in tow it capsized,

spilling its load, and was later scuttled.

The submerged vehicles are the only

surviving group of their type in north-

west Europe.

The four major components of

Mulberry artificial floating harbours

were towed by tugs across the

Channel to be assembled, and then

sunk to form sheltered structures able

to protect ships as they unloaded.

The Outer or Far Mulberry off

Pagham Harbour that has now been

protected is a rare type of steel-

reinforced concrete unit that

functioned as a sunken breakwater.

It had been awaiting passage to

Normandy but was badly damaged in

a storm and left in place.

Also now protected and lying in

shallow water off Pagham is the Inner

Mulberry, a rare steel reinforced

concrete pier designed to connect to

offshore pontoons.

Five other Mulberry components lie

in the sea at Pagham.

Meanwhile HE says that through

Wessex Archaeology it has been

carrying out underwater surveys of

two large US LSTs (Landing Ship,

Tanks). These were sunk by German

E-boats during the Exercise Tiger

D-Day practice landings at Slapton

Sands in Devon.

The ships were carrying hundreds

of US servicemen as well as tanks,

vehicles and trucks, and some 800

men died in the attack.

Working with the US Navy and

Royal Navy, HE says it hopes that

the survey will decide whether the

wrecks should be granted protection

later this year. n

TARA LAMBOURNE / SEA SHEPHERD

D-Day diver attractions

protected – 75 years on

Clockwise from left: One of the

Valentine tanks in Poole Bay;

another view of a Valentine tank;

a Caterpillar D7 armoured bulldozer

off Selsey Bill; diver inside the Inner

Mulberry off Pagham.

PAUL PETTITT

PAUL PETTITT

MARTIN DAVIES

MARTIN DAVIES

THE PARENTS OF Bethany Farrell,

the British 23-year-old who died on

her first dive on Australia’s Great

Barrier Reef four years ago, have

been told by Queensland’s Office

of Industrial Relations (OIR) that

there is “no reasonable prospect

of securing a conviction” against

a diving instructor, skipper and

crew involved in the incident.

Patrick & Caron Farrell from

Colchester have remained insistent

that their daughter’s death was

“completely avoidable”. The gap-

year student had been on an

introductory scuba session on a

Wings Diving Adventures charter-

boat in 2015 when instructor Fiona

McTavish lost contact with her.

An inquest last May noted

“various failings” including lack of

training in buoyancy control or

emergency-ascent procedures and

failure to test trainees’ competence.

Wings was fined some £100,

by a Queensland magistrate who

said that McTavish, skipper Steve

Croucher and crew Peter Hall might

have committed offences under

workplace legislation, but no

convictions were recorded.

The Farrells later complained to

the Commonwealth Ombudsman

but have now been told that the

Coroner referred the matter to the

OIR, which carried out a review

before passing it to the Director of

Public Prosecutions’s office, which

in turn advised the Workplace

Health & Safety prosecutor.

No prospect of securing a

conviction had been seen at any

stage, so no prosecution would take

place, the Farrells were told. n

Farrell death: no chance of conviction