Find Spot MPM2092 - Military aircraft engine, entrance to Portsmouth Harbour

Remains of a military aircraft engine recovered from near the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour during the Queen Elizabeth Class Capital Dredge Project.

V-12 steel and aluminium composite engine found during the investigation of a sonar anomaly. Heavily corroded and only partially intact. Thought to be a Jumo 211 (inverted V-12 German aero engine) used to power Second World War Luftwaffe bombers including the Junkers Ju 87 and Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111. The aircraft the engine belonged to has not been identified.

It was unclear whether any associated aircraft wreckage was present near the location of the engine/anomaly. The engine may have been an isolated find, possibly from an aircraft breaking up in the air, or it may have been dumped. It is possible that it had been moved from its original location (aircraft crash site) by another vessel as fragments of fishing net were found to be entangled with the cylinder liners and a heavy rope was coiled around the engine.

UID: BWL1_0050 in Queen Elizabeth Class Capital Dredge Project report.

Wessex Archaeology, 2018, Queen Elizabeth Class Capital Dredge Project Her Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth: Archaeological Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SPM646.