That's right Dachief. The book is called The Forgotten Dead by Ken Small. Basically the aurthors friend, a local fisherman snagged his net on something which revealled a Sherman Tank. The author revealled a U.S government coverup as it would of been bad for morale and a boost for the Germans to know over 700 lives were lost rehearsing for the D-Day landings. His research took years to complete, but the president at the time ( Reagan) wrote him a personal letter of thanks for his work and every year a memorial service is held by the tank in memory of those who lost their lives in the incident.
The rehearsals were so secret, that all the villages for miles around were evacuated with service personell billeted in their homes. Also, some were killed on the beach during other exercises, as live ammo was used.
The aurthor prior to the tank being found, used to beachcomb along the same beach and find U.S class rings, coins, ammo etc which also roused his interest in why they were on the beach. He then purchased a detector (this was the early 70's) and went on to find hammered gold and silver coins 400-500 years old.
