20 replies to this topic

[Mitch0129]

Actually, it is suprising that there weren't more U-Boats sunk in the gulf. Operation Drumbeat basically attempted to choke off all of our merchant shipping. Good chokepoints to put a group of submarines were North Carolina, New York, and especially the mouth of the Mississippi river (ie. the Gulf of Mexico).

I would think that the reason there are not more U-Boats sunk in the gulf is because the U-Boats operated in the gulf in the early parts of the war before US anti-sub tactics started to improve. In early 1943, Donitz pulled all U-Boats out of the gulf and into the Atlantic. It was shortly after that when U-Boat losses began to mount due to improved Allied anti-sub tactics.

I would like to recomend to everyone the web site UBoat.Net. This is an awesome resource for any and all information on the German U-Boat service.

[Bubble2Bubble]

I dove the U-352 with WW and a group she put together back in 2002.
At the time there was talk about only a few U-boats in North America.
so I am surprized to see so many of them found or to be found off the East Coast/Gulf area.

I guess I will need to start putting some money back so I can do another tour of the Grave Yard of the Atlantic!

Great Thread

Thanks ScubaGypsy


B2B

[madlobster]

SG, living in southeastern MA I am looking toward diving the U853 this summer. Is there a regular dive boat the frquents the site or should I put a group of 4-5 together for this? Did you get nay pictures of her when you dove her, if so I'd love to see them.

[ScubaGypsy]

Great Thread
Thanks ScubaGypsy

Thanx Mike, I didn't really know how much interest that folks would have in this! I've also collected some local information on a number of early US subs that perhaps I'll post in the future as I want to touch up some of it.

SG, living in southeastern MA I am looking toward diving the U853 this summer. Is there a regular dive boat the frquents the site or should I put a group of 4-5 together for this? Did you get nay pictures of her when you dove her, if so I'd love to see them.

My LDS stopped doing charters late last summer as a guy from NJ had a heart attack and died on the U-853 during one of their trips. This summer they are planning to work with the Seeker which now docks in Newport. You might recognize the name of this boat as it is the same boat (with new ownership) that was used in the book Shadow Divers by John Chatterton for his dives discovering the U-869. I've never dove from this boat before but have heard very good reviews. Perhaps if there is enough interest we can put together a SD charter? We could also include the Black Point tanker which was sunk by the U-853 within Narragansett Bay.

I'm sad to say that I haven't gotten any pics as I rarely take pics (my oldest son is my u/w photographer but this boat is still too much for him although he is pushing me to come!). You only have about 20 mins on her which is about enough time to circle around and then over before you need to come up so I hate to screw around with anything extra that diverts from the experience.

[Diverbrian]

Actually, it is suprising that there weren't more U-Boats sunk in the gulf. Operation Drumbeat basically attempted to choke off all of our merchant shipping. Good chokepoints to put a group of submarines were North Carolina, New York, and especially the mouth of the Mississippi river (ie. the Gulf of Mexico).

I would think that the reason there are not more U-Boats sunk in the gulf is because the U-Boats operated in the gulf in the early parts of the war before US anti-sub tactics started to improve. In early 1943, Donitz pulled all U-Boats out of the gulf and into the Atlantic. It was shortly after that when U-Boat losses began to mount due to improved Allied anti-sub tactics.

I would like to recomend to everyone the web site UBoat.Net. This is an awesome resource for any and all information on the German U-Boat service.

The German radio logs for 1942 make for some interesting reading. Basically, they pulled the subs out some time after Donitz told the German High Command that the losses were becoming very possible. Translation was the messages to German High Command indicated that the German Navy figured that the improvement in ASW was coming.

Actually, as far as diving U-Boats, I really am interested. But that one would be a long trip to have to deal with cold water and salt on my gear . Anything else in that area?

[madlobster]

Great Thread
Thanks ScubaGypsy

Thanx Mike, I didn't really know how much interest that folks would have in this! I've also collected some local information on a number of early US subs that perhaps I'll post in the future as I want to touch up some of it.

SG, living in southeastern MA I am looking toward diving the U853 this summer. Is there a regular dive boat the frquents the site or should I put a group of 4-5 together for this? Did you get nay pictures of her when you dove her, if so I'd love to see them.

My LDS stopped doing charters late last summer as a guy from NJ had a heart attack and died on the U-853 during one of their trips. This summer they are planning to work with the Seeker which now docks in Newport. You might recognize the name of this boat as it is the same boat (with new ownership) that was used in the book Shadow Divers by John Chatterton for his dives discovering the U-869. I've never dove from this boat before but have heard very good reviews. Perhaps if there is enough interest we can put together a SD charter? We could also include the Black Point tanker which was sunk by the U-853 within Narragansett Bay.

I'm sad to say that I haven't gotten any pics as I rarely take pics (my oldest son is my u/w photographer but this boat is still too much for him although he is pushing me to come!). You only have about 20 mins on her which is about enough time to circle around and then over before you need to come up so I hate to screw around with anything extra that diverts from the experience.

great info SG, thanks for your input