In a German U-boat
April 20, 2007 - 9:01pm — mikesscuba
While sitting in History class we got the impression that in the past century war has rarely come to the shores of America. However for those of us who are fortunate to visit the underwater world we know differently. For example, just off the coast of North Carolina the sea floor is littered with wrecks.Some caused by bad weather, bad navigation, or by the intentional sinking from German U-Boats but how about an actual WWII German U-boat.
Three of us went on a dive trip to North Carolina. For me I thought the highlight of the trip would be diving with sand tiger sharks and while that was a lot of fun. Diving on the German U-boat the 352 was by far the most exciting. We were hovering near the conning tower on the old boat. I started to imagine what it must have been like for the German captain, Captain KL Hellmut Rathke, and his crews as they heard the concussion of depth charges rip apart their boat. I stopped to see if I could hear that sound and heard only the bubbles exiting my regulator.
The German U-boat 352 was constructed 1938-1944 and was part of the VIIC class submarine. This meant the sub was slightly larger than its predecessor the VIIB and had a slightly better surface range of 9700 nautical miles as opposed to 9400 nautical miles, with a surface speed of 17-17.7 knots. The boat was designed to carry 60 men, 4 officers and 56 enlisted personnel.
After leaving port on April 7, 1942 from St. Nazaire France, the crew of the U352 tried several time to sink the Swedish ship the SS Freden. The U-boat fired 4 torpedoes but failed all four times to hit or detonate the target. Unsuccessful the U352 headed for the coast of North Carolina where on May 7, 1942 it was spotted by a patrolling aircraft and was aerial depth charged. The U-352 was successful in submerging and escaping.
Then on May 9, 1942 the U-352 spotted another vessel and quickly fired two torpedoes. Both failed to hit the target. It was bad news for the U-352 because the vessel was a US Coast Guard Cutter called the Icarus. The Icarus quickly turned and made an attack on the U-352. The Icarus fired 5 depth charges which critically damaged the sub. Several more depth charges and the U-boat commander decided to surface and abandon ship. The Icarus continued the attack. In the end 17 of the crew were killed and the rest were taken to Charleston, SC as prisoners of war.
The U-352 is a popular dive spot off the coast of North Carolina and for first time dive visitors to the area, this is usually their first dive and it never fails to disappoint. You could still see part of the conning tower and I even got to look into a hatch. How many people can say they have been in a World War II German U-boat? Wreck diving is great not only because of the tremendous aquatic environment but because of the story that accompanies each wreck.
Give scuba a chance. It will change your window (portal) on the world.
Remember Shipwrecks and other such dive sites are special submerged resources, we must remember to approach these sites with the proper level of respect. Remember the motto, “Take nothing but pictures leave nothing but bubbles.”
Comments
FYI-
thanks so much for posting about this. In the next few weeks I will be looking at coral and sponges and simple animal phyla in my classes, and your story prompted me to do more research to 'hook' the darlings and get them interested into new areas of habitat created by man.
I did have a question: how safe are the dives into the actual underwater structure?
thanks for clueing me in to something i had no idea occurred.
Thanks Jess
Going into any structure underwater increases the difficulty of any dive. Shipwrecks are the worst.
Let me know if you need any help with your class. We will occassionally step out of our store and visit a school to do a demonstration of SCUBA.
Good luck with the course, the underwater is so exciting.
Work to Live, Live to Dive
Torpedo Junction
The area where U-352 went down became known as "Torpedo Junction" because the German U-Boat captains could operate with virtual impunity in 1942. Over eighty merchant vessels were sunk in this area alone during World War ll. Along the American Coast, german submarines sunk 397 vessels between January and June 1942. After Pearl Harbor, we were ill-prepared for war and the navy's initial response to these depradations was sluggish and inconsistent. The japanese submarines were attacking merchant vessels and coastal fortifications from Alaske to Hawaii and in fact accomplished the first land assault of America since the war of 1812 by landing in the Aleutians.
Really?!
So, all those battles on the western frontier during the 19th century by American Indians, and all those attacks by Union and Confederate troops on each other -- what were those? Perhaps you'd like to clarify your statement a bit. (Hey, you're the one who always picks on imprecise language. . .) ^_^
Duly noted
...first foreign power naval assault... With many confederate and union ancestors, I can't attribute "foreign" status to either group and certainly not to any of the First American tribes. Thanks for noting the inaccuracy. Hope this clarifies my previous imprecise statement. REMEMBER THE MAINE!!!
A great adventure
Thanks for taking us along on your dive. And we didn't even have to get our feet wet!
Wish history was that exciting in school!!!
Wow! That would be amazing to see. Thanks for the history! I had never heard of activity that close to the shore.