Nazi WW II U-boat and ship it sank found off U.S. coast

Lodged beneath sand and silt, scientists have uncovered two vessels off the coast of North Carolina that provide new insight into the events of World War II. The German military submarine, the U-576 Hans-Dieter Heinicke, and the American merchant ship, the tanker Bluefields, were lost for more than 70 years. In August, archaeologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found the ships in an area known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” The two ships were less than 300 yards apart. This discovery opens a window on a little-known chapter of the war’s Battle of the Atlantic, one that most people at the time knew nothing about. And for good reason: In the wake of the 1941 attacks on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military did not want Americans to panic over battles raging on the country’s doorstep, says David Alberg, superintendent of the NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Few people realize that early in the war, U boats were moving into the East Coast to disrupt shipping … even today there are people who can recall finding sailors who had been killed in these actions washing up on the outer banks of North Carolina.

David Alberg, superintendent of the NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

All 45 men aboard the U-boat died and are believed entombed in the shipwreck; no one on the Bluefields was killed, Hoyt said. NOAA delayed releasing information about the discovery until Tuesday to give the German time to track down and notify any survivors of the 45 men. Germany’s foreign ministry appealed for the wreck site to be treated as a war grave to “allow the dead to rest in peace”.

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