Thank you both for the story and adjustment. Missed it, when first posted.
Adolf Hitler's 'lost fleet' found in Black Sea
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/03/whitler103.xml
Adolf Hitler’s ‘lost fleet’ found in Black Sea
By Jasper Copping
Last Updated: 1:52am GMT 04/02/2008The final resting place of three German U-boats, nicknamed “Hitler’s lost fleet”, has been found at the bottom of the Black Sea.
In pictures: Hitler’s lost U-boats
The submarines had been carried 2,000 miles overland from Germany to attack Russian shipping during the Second World War, but were scuttled as the war neared its end. Now, more than 60 years on, explorers have located the flotilla of three submarines off the coast of Turkey.On the road: One of the U-boats being taken to Ingolstadt
The vessels, including one once commanded by Germany’s most successful U-boat ace, formed part of the 30th Flotilla of six submarines, taken by road and river across Nazi-occupied Europe, from Germany’s Baltic port at Kiel to Constanta, the Romanian Black Sea port.
In two years, the fleet sank dozens of ships and lost three of their number to enemy action. But in August 1944, Romania switched sides and declared war on Germany, leaving the three remaining vessels stranded.
With no base and unable to sail home - the Bosporus and Dardanelles were closed to them because of Turkish neutrality - their captains were ordered to scuttle the boats before rowing ashore and trying to make their way back to Germany. However, all three crews were caught and interned by the Turks.
Now the submarines’ hulls have been discovered by a team led by Selçuk Kolay, a Turkish marine engineer, who will present his findings to a shipwreck conference in Plymouth this week.
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Mr Kolay established the boats’ positions through research in German archives, interviews with surviving sailors and by sonar studies of the seabed.He has already completed successful dives to the wreckage of one vessel, U-20, two miles offshore in about 80ft of water. He believes he has discovered another, U-23, at twice that depth, three miles from the town of Agva, but bad weather forced him to suspend diving until the spring.
He thinks he is also close to pinpointing the third boat, U-19, thought to lie more than 1,000ft down, three miles from the Turkish city of Zonguldak.
“It’s one of the least well known stories of the war but one of the most interesting,” said Mr Kolay.
“It is a quite incredible story. To get to the Black Sea these boats had to be taken across the land, and once they got there they had no way out.”
All three U-boats had been operating against British shipping in the North Sea. U-23 gained notoriety for scoring one of Germany’s earliest successes, sinking a British ship off the Shetland Islands days after war began. It was later commanded by Otto Kretschmer, known as “Silent Otto”, the most successful U-boat ace.
In 1941, Germany invaded Russia and decided it needed a presence in the Black Sea to harass Soviet shipping there. Unable to use the Bosporus, the only shipping route into the Black Sea, the boats were dismantled at Kiel and taken by canal to the River Elbe, and upstream to Dresden.
Here, they were partly dismantled and taken by lorry to Ingolstadt, on the Danube, and then ferried downstream to the Black Sea and Constanta, where they were re-assembled.
When Romania switched sides the crews were ordered to scuttle out of sight of the Turks so the submarines’ locations would remain a mystery. Mr Kolay was helped by a map drawn by Rudolf Arendt, 85, the former captain of the U-23, showing where his crew came ashore.
Mike Williams, secretary of the Nautical Archaeology Society, said: “This is a significant find because these U-boats were all scuttled, so they should be intact, like a sealed tube. They are unique survivors of the war.”
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This is freaking weird… a friend of mine emailed me this same link today, but he has no knowledge of this site and does not even know what Axis and Allies is. Strange coincidence
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@Imperious:
This is freaking weird… a friend of mine emailed me this same link today, but he has no knowledge of this site and does not even know what Axis and Allies is. Strange coincidence
There’s this thing called news that most people know about. Maybe you’ve heard of it? :-P
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Theres also a thing called news that is so marginal that only a few sources will report it. Perhaps you may consider this story as not really such a newsworthy “event” perhaps not. You may have taken the day off from work to reflect on its significance. Most of us don’t really care.
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It’s very interesting news and would be incredible if one of the U-boats was in good enough shape to possibly be raised. From my understanding there is only one U-boat left in the world that is displayed to the public and it is in dry dock. I think it would be amazing if a U-boat was made sea worthy again for studies. There are quite a few German tanks left from WW2 that are in working order and are used every year at various demonstrations throughout the world, why not a U-boat.
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There’s only one in the US, there are a few in Germany. In fact the U-2540 was only decomisioned in 1982 as far as I know it could still work today.
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There’s only one in the US, there are a few in Germany. In fact the U-2540 was only decomisioned in 1982 as far as I know it could still work today.
Based on the ship number, I do not think that was a WWII era unit.
U-1062 was the highest number UBoat in WWII according to Hitler’s U-Boat War by Clay Blair.
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I was in error.
2540 was indeed completed, but never sailed on patrol, during WWII
And the above referenced book only covers through 1942.
My apologies.
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Is the U-2540 still in the US? Or has it been shipped to another country for display or storage? I would love to visit the ship and get a small feeling for what life on board must have been like. I know for the movie U-571 a working WW2 era submarine was actually built for shooting. I am not certain of the model of sub it was based off of, does anyone know?
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The U-505 is the only German WWII German Sub in the US it’s in Chigago.
The 2540 is in Germany I believe.
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Thank you. Hopefully I will be able to make it out to Chicago and check it out someday. I would really like to visit Germany and see the various places of battle, along with any other history preserved.
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Subs rule! :wink:
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They kick some serious butt.
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There is a correctly built model built by Bavaria Film Studios for Das Boot that was at one time and probably still open for tours. That model is for a Type VIIC. I am not sure if it was used for U-571 if it was that would be that movies ONLY redeeming quality.
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From what I have read the boat in U-571 was built for that movie. There were actualy 5 subs built for Das Boot 2 full size and 3 scale models. The scale models were used in Raiders of the lost arc.
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Speaking of Raiders, I always wondered where Indy was hiding on the U-boat, after he swam to it. They show him on the deck of the U-boat and then you just see him on the docks of the U-boat pen. I’m probably too picky, but it would be nice to know what he did aboard the sub.
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There is a deleated sceen where Indy clings to the periscope of the submarine all the way to the secret base by wrapping his whip around it and himself.
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That’s pretty crazy. I’m guessing that they never submerged, or the world would have been out an action packed, archaeologist. Do you know if that clip can be found online? I haven’t seen it in the Indiana Jones DVD box set.
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This is the best I can do for you I’ll keep an eye out though :-o
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I guess the link would help:
http://jamesgroome.com/pages/personal_site/raiders.html
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