Today marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the Battle of Normandy in World War II. During the intense battle, thousands of soldiers and civilians perished. More than 200 ships were also lost. And over the entirety of World War II, more than 20,000 ships were sunk.
This interactive map from Esri chronicles the locations of more than 14,500 ships sunk during the war. It’s based on data that cartographer Paul Heersink has carefully curated over a decade of research.
The map begins with the story of the Kinugawa Maru. It’s one of 50 ships sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. From there, the map zooms out to the broader Pacific theater, and then to the entire planet. Glowing blue markers representing sunken ships dot oceans and coastlines around Earth. From Norway and Russia in the north to Argentina and New Zealand in the south, you can see the global extent of World War II.
The map then teases out a few stories from the expansive database of sunken ships. An animated map and chart shows how 1943 was an inflection point during the war. Prior to March 1943, significantly more Allied ships were sunk than Axis ships. After that point, the trend reversed, and Axis forces lost more ships every month until the end of the war.
You can also filter ships by year to see how and where the war progressed over time. From 1939 to 1941, most sunken ships are near Europe and Africa. In 1942, the conflict explodes across the globe and sunken ships appear on the map across the Atlantic and in Asia. By 1944 and 1945, most ships are shown as lost in the Pacific theater and directly off the coasts of Europe.
While more than 20,000 ships were lost during the war, the overwhelming majority of them were non-combat ships. The map highlights Venezuela, the Cape of Good Hope, and the western Pacific as places where non-combat ship losses were particularly high.
Overall, this map acknowledges the scars of war and the human impacts of lives lost. World War II touched all corners of the globe; few places were spared from the conflict. But this map has more than just historical value. These sunken ships still pose environmental and navigational risks to our oceans and waterways. This map honors the past while also helping us understand where and how this conflict still impacts humanity today.
Resurfacing the Past
More to Explore
- Take a deep dive into Paul’s live dashboard of the sunken ships.
- Explore pre-WWI shipwrecks around Alaska.
