# @uofnh on YouTube

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://youtube.com/watch?v=SsPT4lK3hno
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68110661-uofnh-youtube
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5c04b35773.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-11T04:01:18.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** University of New Hampshire (@UofNH) — https://gondola.cc/UofNH

## Caption

For decades, it has been a part of the folklore shared by those who grew up around Lake Massabesic in Manchester, New Hampshire — a piece of World War II history is rumored to have been lying at the bottom of the lake since the winter of 1945. 

Over eighty years later, a team of researchers, engineers and students from the University of New Hampshire is using state-of-the-art underwater mapping technology to try and locate a missing gun ball turret — a spherical, rotating gun platform designed for firing heavy weapons— that was reportedly dropped into the lake from a B-17 aircraft during a refueling mission. The team from UNH’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM) and the Chase Ocean Engineering Lab, went to work to locate the ball turret in the 2,500-acre lake from a WWII B‑17 aircraft (serial #44‑6694) — known as the Flying Fortress — which belonged to the 99th Bombardment Group that was en route to Tortorella Airfield in Foggia, Italy. 

The gun turret was purposely dropped into the lake after an aborted landing attempt at the Grenier Air Base — now Manchester-Boston Regional Airport — which was home to the 1377th Army Air Force Base Unit during World War II. In collaboration with the Manchester Water Works and the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, the UNH team set up an ocean mapping mobile control van along the shores of the lake. They used a battery powered robotic boat known as an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) that was integrated with an M3 Multibeam Echosounder and a small Garmin sidescan sonar to collect data for 3D topographic maps and acoustic shadows of objects to characterize any potential finds.

WWII footage courtesy: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4523496
Manchester Airport photos courtesy: Aviation Museum of N.H.

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,914
- **Likes:** 16
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 2

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