Sonar images of an American merchant tanker the "Bluefields" (TOP) and a World War II U-boat "U-576" that have been discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic, some 30 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. (AFP Photo)

Washington (AFP) - Two sunken ships from World War II -- a German U-boat and an American merchant vessel -- have been found deep in the ocean off the coast of North Carolina, officials said Tuesday.

The ships clashed in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942 and were lost for more than seven decades in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Researchers led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries discovered the vessels about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from shore.

The discovery of the German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields offers "a rare window into a historic military battle and the underwater battlefield landscape of WWII," NOAA said.

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It's good to see the wrecks have been identified. I didn't see anything about how deep they were, but a little ambiguity is OK if it stops the wreck thieves picking them to pieces. I wonder what the Bluefield was carrying? I wouldn't have thought it would be war gear that early on, but who knows?

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I wouldn't have thought it would be war gear that early on, but who knows?

Look up the "Battle of the Atlantic", both sides were trying to disrupt each other's shipping as soon as the war started in 1939. As far as American merchant ships go, we were providing supplies officially from March 1941--and I'm sure there was still some regular commerce activity throughout the war years.

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