Unterseeboot 869

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Unterseeboot 869 (U-869) was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of the Kriegsmarine whose wreck was discovered off the coast of New Jersey in 1991.

Her keel was laid down April 5, 1943 by AG Weser of Bremen. She was commissioned on January 26, 1944 with Kapitänleutnant Hellmut Neuerburg in command. Neuerburg went down with his boat.

U-869 conducted one war patrol without success. She suffered no casualties to her crew until she was lost in February 1945, with all 56 crew members dead.

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[edit] "Attack" off African coast

On February 28, 1945 the American destroyer escort USS Fowler and the French submarine chaser L'Indiscret conducted a depth charge attack on a submerged contact in the Atlantic near Rabat and reported a kill, although little visible evidence was presented to confirm the kill. Based on the information provided, U.S. Naval Intelligence rated the attacks "G—No Damage." U-869 had been previously ordered by Karl Dönitz to move her area of operations from the North American coast to the Gibraltar area, and for many years this attack was assumed to have been her end. Following the end of World War II, postwar investigators upgraded the rating from "G—No Damage" to "B—Probably Sunk," leading to an erroneous historical record that U-869 was sunk near Gibraltar.

[edit] Wreckage off U.S. coast

On September 2, 1991, an unidentified U-boat wreck was discovered 73 meters (240 feet) deep (a hazardous depth for standard scuba diving) off the coast of New Jersey. Nicknamed the U-Who, the exact identity of the wreck was a matter of frequent debate, and initially the wreck was thought to be either the U-550 or the U-521. The discoverers of U-Who, John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, continued to dive the wreck for the next several years, taking considerable risks (three divers, Steve Feldman, Chris Rouse and Chris Rouse, Jr., died exploring the U-869). Eventually, the team recovered a knife inscribed with "Horenburg", a crew member's name. However, they learned at the U-boat archives that U-869 was supposedly sent to Africa, so this piece of evidence was initially discarded. A few years later, they found part of the UZO torpedo aiming device, and spare parts from the motor room engraved with serial and other identifying numbers. On August 31, 1997 they concluded that the boat they found is the U-869.

In the underwater search for answers, some of the divers began using a then unproven and experimental breathing gas mix called "trimix" for underwater breathing instead of the standard compressed air.

The men who found U-869 believed that it was a victim of her own torpedo, which may have become a "circle-runner" if a defective steering mechanism caused it to change direction in the water and head for its origination point. At least two other U-boats are known to have been lost to their own torpedoes: U-377 in 1944 and U-972 in late 1943.

However, the U.S. Coast Guard, in its official evaluation of the evidence, discarded this theory. Among other problems, there are two holes in the wreck of U-869, though an errant torpedo would have made only one. They believe that the boat was destroyed on February 11, 1945 by two U.S. destroyer escorts, the Howard D. Crow and the Koiner.[1]

Only one crew member survived by virtue of not having been aboard. Second Radio Officer Herbert Guschewski came down with pneumonia and pleurisy shortly before the boat's departure. Like the families of the crew, Guschewski did not know what happened to his fellow sailors until informed by Richie Kohler.

The story of the U-869 and its discovery is also told by Robert Kurson in his best selling work Shadow Divers and the NOVA episode "Hitler's Lost Sub." A film version of Kurson's book has been announced.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Harold Moyers, "The Sinking of the U-869"

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Coordinates: 39°19′48″N, 73°12′00″W