This is the port side V12 engine from the German Messerschmitt Bf110 WWII fighter-bomber lying off Worbarrow Bay in Dorset. It sits with the rest of the wreck in ~21m of water around one mile from shore. The plane was shot down on 7th October 1940. After taking a direct hit from Spitfires, the pilot ditched the plane in the sea. The ditching of the plane is borne out by there still (after 80 years) being some structure left. Had the crew bailed out leaving the plane to crash it would have broken up on impact. The pilot and radio operator/rear gunner (known as the bordfunker) were both picked up by a rescue launch and spent the remainder of the war as PoWs. From their interrogation report, it sounded like a rough landing because the pilot commented that he could (and should) have landed on the ground.
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