This summer 12 members of NACSAC, the umbrella organisation that oversees sports diving conducted by the Fleet aviation communities based at Yeovilton and Culdrose, travelled to Normandy for its 2004, and 41^st, annual major expedition. The team included one member of the RNR.

The objectives of the expedition were numerous, but fundamentally to dive wartime wrecks in the vicinity of Cherbourg and to the east in the Baie de Seine, and to provide updated information to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office.

During the expedition 120 dives, totalling 4098 minutes, were made onto 8 different wrecks, all of which had been sunk during WWI or WWII. Two days were lost to bad weather when the divers took the opportunity to visit Omaha and Utah beaches and various D-Day museums.

All of the wrecks visited were fascinating in their own right and being war graves were afforded the appropriate respect at all times. The wrecks, which varied from almost complete ships to piles of metal plates and girders, now provide natural havens and were embellished by the profusion of the wildlife encountered – at times the wreckage could not be seen for the shoals of fish!

However the most notable wrecks of the expedition were the Landing Ship Tank (LST) 523, complete with its Sherman tanks destined for the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach, and the SS Leopoldville that was sunk by enemy action on Christmas Eve 1944 with the loss of over 800 US Servicemen. The Leopoldville lies at approximately 50m, the deepest allowed by Joint Service Sub Aqua Diving Regulations, and requires a special permit to dive from the French Authorities.

Towards the end of the expedition, and as a mark of respect to all the Allied Servicemen that had died in that part of the English Channel, a wreath was laid over the wreck of the Leopoldville.