The final resting place of U576: German U-Boat is found 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina

[Siwsan]

Some people may not realize how close the war came to the continental United States. (photos and video at link)

The final resting place of U576: German U-Boat is found 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina 72 years after it sank during Nazi campaign of terror - and 44 sailors are entombed inside


A German U-Boat has been spotted 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina - 72 years after it sank during a Nazi mission.
Wreckage of the submerged U-576 submarine was discovered by sonar near Ocracoke on August 24, seven years after the search began.

The vessel went down during a battle off the Outer Banks on 15 July, 1942, during the Second World War.
It is believed the 44 sailors who were on board at the time are entombed inside.

Video footage shows the U-Boat resting on its side on the ocean floor.

It lies below an area where Third Reich sailors destroyed merchant ships and caused chaos on trade routes, eight months after the United States entered the war.

They killed hundreds of people in the process.

The wooden decking has rotted away after more than half a century under water.

But the hull, gun deck and the hatches leading to where the bodies likely lie are still visible.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3774630/The-ghosts-U576-German-U-Boat-30-miles-coast-North-Carolina-72-years-sank-Nazi-campaign-terror-44-soldiers-entombed-inside.html#ixzz4JPL6ySUS

[SCantiGOP]

1. My father-in-law

Was on a British sub in WWII. His sub was badly damaged off the Carolina coast and had no chance of getting back to their territory. The US was still neutral and therefore could not provide any assistance, so they were told to get to the entrance to the Charleston Harbor and then (wink, nod) if they lost power they would have to tow them into the Port as a "hazard to navigation."
While his sub was being repaired at the Navy Yard in Charleston he met his future wife and returned after the war and lived the rest of his life in SC.
He was always grateful that his post-war experience did not involve returning to his family's sheep farm on the north coast of Scotland.

[elleng]

2. Great story!

Welcome and thanks to him!

[Siwsan]

3. Ok, you just gave me chills!

Thank you for sharing that story.

[JonathanRackham]

8. Awesome story.

The British navy had some tough sailors WWIi.

[Eleanors38]

13. Indeed. Unlike their anti-sub Axis counterparts, they were Dogged...

The Brits originated the 2 on 1 attacks when enough vessels were finally available: One ship would track the U-Boat on sonar; the other would deliver a spread of hedgehog or squid explosives over the sub. A devastating tactic. When "Woolworth Carriers" (small converted merchant ships with a flight deck and a few aircraft) could accompany the convoy across the Atlantic, and high freq. radar came on line (could detect even snorkel wakes), it was all over for the Germans.

[TheDebbieDee]

34. I read alot and I used to watch the History Channel alot...

I learned that most Americans were completely unaware that enemy submarines frequently lurked off the Gulf Coast, Florida and South Carolina coasts... They monitored these areas for Gosh-knows-what.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "Some people may not realize how close the war came"

My father was in WWII and my mother was in high school during WW2 and anyone in this area (Philadelphia/New Jersey) became aware (often via word-of-mouth) of the possible "U-boats" stalking just off the coast. Philadelphia (at its general closest distance) is 50 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and had a huge Navy Base and Naval shipyard and apparently at least one captured one was stored there. My mom would talk about the air raid drills and blackout curtains and being told that a match light could be seen from an enemy plane (so the kids had the fear of God put in them)! I remember the last of the blackout shades while in elementary school in the late '60s and the "detention drills" (what the era of duck and cover morphed into).

An interesting article from 25 years ago about the U-boats off the east coast and another from '93 about WW2 air raid drills in the Philly area.

[Siwsan]

7. I was stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard

As much history as I took in, there was so much I just wasn't there long enough to appreciate. It is on my list of place I definitely want to go and visit, again.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. It's gone now

Part of the base closures 20 years ago. The "base" part is now the "Naval Business Center" (basically a giant office park) and has a bunch of businesses there now including Taskykake -



and the shipyard was sold to Kværner and later renamed to Aker and as of last year is now the Philly Shipyard, Inc. (didn't realize they just renamed it ...lol). A pile of old ships are still there though - pretty imposing!

[Siwsan]

10. Sadly, all of my duty stations are now gone!

NAS Keflavic in Iceland, the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego (I was an "A" school instructor), and the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Even the training base in Orlando, where I went to basic training. Guess I'm old.

In Philadelphia, I lived in an apartment, on Broad Street by Tasker, in a big old brownstone. My landlord was a City Councilman, as I recall, and he later went to prison. I remember his name but I don't remember the charges. Anyway, it was the perfect location. Lots and lots of wonderful memories.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. I used to work with a Navy guy

who had been stationed in Iceland and also Japan (also a Vietnam Vet).

Am wondering if the Councilman you're talking about was Jimmy Tayoun who owned the old Middle East Restaurant in Old City. Probably!

Glad you enjoyed the stay in Philly!

[Siwsan]

16. Yes! That was my landlord!!!

Funny little world, isn't it. The Tayoun's were such wonderful people. One night I came home and had a bad, bad cold. Mrs. Tayoun saw me come in, and a few minutes later knocked on my door with a tray of food, and a glass of wine. She said she noticed I was sick, and worried I wasn't eating.

I experienced Philadelphia during part of the Atlantic City Mob war. I was there when "Chickie" Narducci and Phil Testa were 'hit', and the several times they tried to take out Harry 'The Hunchback' Riccobini. Exciting times, that's for sure. There was a funeral home a few doors down that had a variety of interesting flower arrangements delivered.

All that aside (haha), not staying in Philadelphia, when I left the Navy, will always be one of my big regrets.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. Old school folks

That was pretty cool and moms always find ways to make you feel better!!

He battled the city for his restaurant to keep its extension into the sidewalk but lost and then had the legal troubles. Now most of the restaurants in the area have chairs and umbrellas out in front.

Since you mention the mob stuff, that is why I used to watch Boardwalk Empire on HBO. That stuff has been going on a LONG time!

[Siwsan]

30. I have so enjoyed this exchange! Brought back so many wonderful memories

Ok, maybe the mob stuff wasn't so wonderful, but it sure was interesting! It got me hooked on mob related documentaries and shows like Boardwalk Empire.

I used to go walking around some of the historic areas, early Saturday mornings when hardly anybody was out. One morning I came across a fully costumed Ben Franklin impersonator. That was very surreal. (At least I THINK he was an impersonator!)

[BumRushDaShow]

36. That Ben Franklin

was probably this guy who married Betsy Ross in front of Independence Hall on July 3, 2008 -

(both play these characters around the historic area - where he has done so for decades)

[Siwsan]

37. Could be!

It remains one of my favorite 'celebrity' sightings, close to the time I THINK I saw Andy Warhol in London, at the Serpentine Tea House in Hyde Park. That was pretty surreal, too.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. He has been doing the role since the early '70s

I remember having the opportunity to get tickets to be in the audience for the Mike Douglas Show back in 1976 (the bicentennial year) and the studio was a block north of (and overlooked) Independence Hall (the Jewish American History Museum is there now). And he was out and about as part of the festivities at the then-newly renovated Independence Mall area (with the Liberty Bell having been taken out of Independence Hall and placed in a glass pavilion). The location has been redone twice since then.

[Kaleva]

51. I was stationed there twice.

My first ship was there for an overhaul and then my second ship was home ported there as part of the NRF Philly is also on my list of places to visit. It's been close to 30 years since the last time I was there. My favorite bar:

http://www.khyberpasspub.com/

[Siwsan]

52. We used to go to a place called 'Walt's King of Crabs'

A bucket of mussels and some beer - heavenly. And a place in New Jersey for crab legs. I think it was called Jacobys. They had a crab leg special on Friday's and we would gorge. Unfortunately, it is gone. When the Brits were in town, it was Winston's.
And I can't forget the cheese steaks.

[Kaleva]

54. I enjoyed going to places like Geno's and Pat's for cheese steaks!

I could hit either on when walking back from Center City to the base.

[Siwsan]

55. The day I arrived at the base, they immediately took me out for a cheese steak

I don't remember, now, which place we went to and they wouldn't even tell me what they were buying for me to eat. They said it was a 'test' to see how I'd fit in - I had to eat the whole thing. No problemo!

[Kaleva]

56. I had forgotten the names until I saw this Geico commercial

[mnhtnbb]

5. There are three other U-Boats sunk off the North Carolina coast

It's a real graveyard out there for ships of all kinds.

For a list of shipwrecks off NC, see here--including the names of ships torpedoed/sunk by U-boats during WW II--as well as U-352, U-701, and U-85 that are all resting
on the bottom of the Atlantic off NC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_North_Carolina

[JonathanRackham]

6. Visit this museum if in the Outer Banks.

http://www.outerbanks.com/graveyard-of-the-atlantic.html

They detail the research done on sunken ships in this area including WWII submarine warfare. But shipwrecks go back way beyond that era as well. They talk about the research methods involved.

[malthaussen]

11. During the "Second Happy Time" after the U.S. entered the war...

... the handful of U-Boats that could make it to the East Coast had a field day, not a little because merchants refused to black out the coastal cities because it would reduce tourism, thus silhouetting the coastal shipping (which mostly did not travel in convoys) nicely. Oil tankers were the favorite target.

Wikipedia has a useful summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Happy_Time

-- Mal

[mnhtnbb]

15. It was more than a "handful" of U-Boats sinking ships (off NC, anyway) I count 25 U-Boats

identified with torpedoing/sinking other ships-or themselves sunk-- off the NC coast in the list I cited here--and only 4 of them were sunk themselves
off the NC coast

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_North_Carolina



U-66
U-106
U-158
U-402
U-155
U-123
U-552
U-332
U-588
U-576
U-432
U-71
U-124
U-203
U-160
U-571
U-404
U-140
U-117
U-130
U-754
U-125
U-701

U-85 and U-352 are themselves sunk off NC, but have no credits on the list for sinking other boats off NC--which is not to say they didn't sink some others elsewhere or the ones they
sunk off NC aren't on the list (Wiki says the list is not complete). The reference about Torpedo Alley on wikipedia says

Almost 400 ships were sunk, mostly during the Second Happy Time in 1942, and over 5,000 people were killed, many of whom were civilians and merchant marines."

The area was known as "torpedo alley" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_Alley

[malthaussen]

18. A handful at a time.

They were sent in batches of six, as I recall. Remember, with subs you have one group on station, one group going home, and one en route.

Only the Type IX had the requisite range, and there weren't a lot of those in 1942. I think after they converted a few subs to "Milch Cow" status, Type VIIs could make it. Which made the Milch Cows primary targets (and somehow, the Germans never worked out that our uncanny ability to find the cows was because their Enigma was compromised).

-- Mal

[mnhtnbb]

47. I saw in the link to the museum on the Outer Banks they will have an Enigma on display

that was salvaged from U-85.

http://www.outerbanks.com/graveyard-of-the-atlantic.html

We've seen one in a London museum. I don't know if there are others on display in the US.

[marble falls]

28. They also patroled in the Gulf of Mexico and sank shipping off the coast of Galveston.

[gladium et scutum]

46. In the Military cemertary in Hampton VA

are the graves of several U-boat sailors whose bodies were recovered or washed ashore along the Tidewater coast. Every year a party of German military personnel come down from Washington DC and decorate their grave on the German equivalent of our Memorial Day.

[Eleanors38]

12. Velly interesting. A friend of the family said coast watchers in FL used to watch

Torpedoed tanker fires off Jax Beach. One U-Boat landed a team of saboteurs in the same general area; the civilian coast watcher was immediately suspicious of the out-of-place Germans, who were rounded up. They were allegedly given a secret trial, then executed. U-Boats commonly penetrated the Gulf of Mexico, and patrolled off N.O. to prey on tankers (big refinery in Baton Rouge). The Germans called this period the "happy times" when targets were abundant and anti-sub patrols meager. One cannot imagine the industrial capacity and managerial flexability of American business culture without reading how in short order U-Boat missions became suicide missions.

[struggle4progress]

17. There were German landings at Amagansett NY and Ponte Verdra Beach FL

Operation Pastorius put eight would-be saboteurs into NY but the operation was exposed by two of them, one of whom became anti-Hitler, after having been confined for about a year in a concentration camp for writings critical of the Gestapo. All were sentenced to death by military tribunal, but Roosevelt commuted two of the death sentences. The other six were electrocuted in DC after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal of the verdict

Operation Magpie inserted two spies into FL; in NY, one turned himself and the other was captured. The military tribunal awarded death sentences, which Truman commuted

[Eleanors38]

19. Good info. It sems this type of operation only has a chance if there is sufficient

Popular sympathy for the saboteurs, enough to where safe houses and communication can be used. Not much symoathy in FL, despite all that coast line.

[marble falls]

20. Its in amazingly good condition. I am a former submariner and I hope the wreck is left alone.

[Siwsan]

21. I would hope they do since it is as much a crypt as it is a ship, now

I would guess that unless someone requests the return of the remains of a family member, they would not want to disturb things any more than necessary.

[marble falls]

23. All bubble heads are brothers. I would really hate to see what happened to the Russian sub K-129....

Last edited Mon Sep 5, 2016, 06:30 PM - Edit history (1)

when the Glomar Explorer tried to bring her up, happen to this tomb. I believe most families would want to leave these brothers resting together. I know if I were to have been taken while in "peril from the sea", I would have wanted to be left with my shipmates at rest.

[Siwsan]

27. Absolutely agree

As memory serves, when they found the Edmund Fitzgerald, they did not disturb any of the remains. And that cold, cold water would have served as a relatively efficient preservative.

[marble falls]

29. Its a good call. I still get shivers when they toll the bell and read the names.

[Siwsan]

31. Me too. A whole lot of Navy still resides in my soul.

[marble falls]

32. I know. I will always be a salt. 'Anchors Aweigh' gets my heart pumping. I used to think my Marine..

dad was goofy about the Corps. I may have surpassed him.

[Siwsan]

33. My Dad was a Marine, too.

He came to visit me in Iceland and I took him to the Marine Club (which was the best gathering place on the base). Within a few seconds, he was surrounded by my Marine friends and they were talking like they'd known each other for ages.

Dad was in Truman's Honor Guard, and at one point served with Ira Hayes.

He was always very proud of his 'swabbie' daughter and I was proud of him.

[FailureToCommunicate]

40. Is there a better thing, than to have a parent proud of you and you of them?

I've been reading your posts here with admiration...of your viewpoint, your service and your family.

[Siwsan]

42. Now I have my nephew (my late sister's son) for me to be proud of. He's in the Air Force

He wrote me a long letter, telling me how much I mean to him and how glad he is to have me in his life to fill in for his Mom. And how he always admired me for serving. I never had children so my heart melted.

And thank you so much for the compliment. I take such things very much to heart.

[MicaelS]

53. What a wonderful story.

Thanks for your service, and those of your father and nephew.

[gladium et scutum]

48. In the case of K-129

The bodies of Soviet sailors recovered from her were given a proper military funeral and committed to the deep as the custom of sailors. The funeral ceremony was filmed and a copy of that film was given to the authorities in the Soviet Union.

[marble falls]

49. Meanwhile the hulk fell apart and the rest of the complement scattered onto the sea bed like so....

many Bud Lite cans in the wreckage when the aft 2/3 of the boat came away. Just to try to grab two nukes we already had all the dope on we needed including tech manuals, prints, photos, specs etc. It was a shameful end to a needless operation just to prove how clever we were.

They were respectful to only four of the crew and I can tell you that a lot of this nation's silent service were not happy to hear about the whole operation. And we knew about it before the public did.

We had intelligence at that time that was so sophisticated we could tell which crew was on which Soviet boat just from the sound signature. We did not need to salvage that boat and desecrate a tomb just to pull off a stunt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Underwater_Reconnaissance_Office

[gladium et scutum]

57. The bodies of six Soviet sailors was recovered

from the subs wreckage. We have recovered remains of warships. Less than 5 miles from where I live, is the turret and some of the machinery of the USS Monitor. The turret had the remains of two crewmen. Farther South, they have recovered the CSS Hunley, with the remains of its entire crew on board. We are not the only ones to do this. The Swedes recovered the Vasa and the Brits have recovered the Mary Rose. If the Soviets had had the technology, you can bet they would have tried to recover the Scorpion if they thought they could.

[marble falls]

58. So situational ethics works for you? Grave robbing is grave robbing and I don't recommend ....

doing anything purely "because what the hell - the Soviets would have done it."

You don't get it and there's no point discussing it. Pulling up the K-129 was a stunt and any "respect" of four dead or fifty was after the fact and secondary to a needless and grossly expensive stunt: we spent a half billion dollars to recommit some brave souls back to the sea.

I understand and support fully native American efforts to reclaim the "museum relic" remains of their dead, too. What if your grandparents' graves were salvaged for their cultural relevance to the present? Why do we need to confirm what we already know about 16th century by confirming it with the bodies of centuries resting seaman? While I don't recall all the details of the Vasa. the Mary Rose was mostly cleared of the dead during operations to recover the guns contemporary to the sinking.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Should that be considered their final resting place?

[marble falls]

24. Absolutely without question.

[Siwsan]

25. I think it should

Isn't that the usual practice, when a ship is recovered after so many decades? Not to be gruesome or flippant, but at that point, I would think that recovery would be a bit of a human jigsaw puzzle exercise.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Microorganisms in sea water consume almost everything....

Even the uniforms except for the metal and leather.

[marble falls]

43. Thats part of it and the way it should be - ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

[IronLionZion]

35. Not enough people know how close the war came to home

I suspect it was deliberately to avoid panic at the time, but why not teach it in history classes now? Germany and Japan launched several submarine attacks on both coasts of the US. It was crazy.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20344_5-famous-wars-that-showed-up-in-last-place-youd-expect.html

[rug]

41. Did you see this?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/05/wreck-second-world-war-british-submarine-hms-tarpon-denmark

[Siwsan]

45. The stories that bring to life the family connections/losses are so touching

My family was lucky. We didn't lose anyone in the first or second world war. Or Korea. Or Viet Nam. It came VERY close, during the 2nd world war - one Uncle fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and another was on two ships that were hit, in the Pacific war.

But to read about a 77 year old who never knew her father, and now knows his remains have now been found - well I just can't even begin to imagine what that must feel like.

Thank you for the link!

[underpants]

44. Torpedo Alley - Germans sunk about 400 ships off the Outer Banks

I read an incredibly detailed book on this 20+ years ago (when you are pulling guard duty in the Army you wil read anything you can find).

Wikipedia

[marble falls]

50. Even if its about the Navy?