U-869

  

German submarine U-869 was a German Type IXC/40 U-boat of the Kriegsmarine during World War II. The wreck of the U-869 was discovered off the coast of New Jersey in 1991.

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

On February 28, 1945 the American destroyer escort USS Fowler (DE-222) 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.  There was 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 its area of operations from the North American coast to the Gibraltar area. 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. For many years this attack was assumed to have been its end.

In 1991, Bill Nagle, a former wreck diver and the captain of the Seeker learned about a wreck outside New Jersey and decided to mount a diving expedition to the site. On September 2, 1991, an unidentified U-boat wreck was discovered 73 meters 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. Initially the wreck was thought to be either U-550 or U-521. The discoverers of U-Who, John Chatterton, Richie Kohler, Kevin Brennan 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 was the U-869.

The men who found U-869 believed that it was a victim of its own torpedo, which may have become a "circle-runner". Torpedoes manufactured later in the war had acoustical seeking capability. It was theorized that the torpedo was initially fired in a turning pattern and when it missed its target. It picked up the sound of the submarine's propeller. 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. Chatterton and Kohler based their theory largely on a lack of other evidence to support other causes for sinking. They claimed there was no reported naval activity in the vicinity thereby ruling out a sinking by attack. Also, the damage to the hull was from the outside and thereby ruled out an internal explosion. This problem also affected the US submarine force at least twice, as seen with USS Tang (SS-306) and USS Tullibee (SS-284).

Gary Gentile, a noted wreck diver, researcher, and author, sharply refutes Chatteron and Kohlers theory. He cites attack logs and eyewitness accounts from the crew of two destroyer escorts suggesting that the U-boat was initially damaged with a hedgehog launched by the Howard D. Crow (DE-252) and then subsequently damaged with a depth charge by the accompanying Koiner (DE-331).

The United States Coast Guard, in its official evaluation of the evidence, discarded the circle-running torpedo theory and awarded the sinking to the two destroyers. Contributing to their findings was the fact that there are two damage holes in the wreck of U-869. This was more consistent with the attack reports that cited two explosions versus the circle runner theory which would only explain one hole. The official records state that U-869 was destroyed on February 11, 1945 by two U.S. destroyer escorts, Howard D. Crow and Koiner.^[4]

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 1999. He watched a program which eventually became the NOVA episode "Hitler's Lost Sub" and contacted the producers shortly afterwards, who interviewed him and kept a portion of it in the 2000 American broadcast.