U-boat crew body recoveries

[Alec Trevelyan 006]

When a U-Boat would sink at the end of the war how would they recover the bodies?

[ballack1301]

my guess is that they wouldn't! it isnt possible to firstly find the exact location of the u-boat, if they did they would have to go down kilometers and kilometers of ocean to get to it and by then the bodies would have been decomposed.

remind you, this is just a guess of mine.

[MAX_theHitMan]

As far as I have read it, U-boats are ALL now considered "off-limits" to all divers unless with a special permit from germany. You must remember that at that time it was almost completely impossible to recover the bodies from a sunken submarine.
So in a way, they have become that sub´s crew "coffin".

Throughout the ages there have been several designs of "diving bells" to recover treasures and other artifacts from the bottom of the ocean when a ship was sunk. This could also have been done with subs (in fact it was done with US sub-crews, but not in the middle of war).
Once a sub was sunk during war time, it was quite impossible to search the oceans floor just to find that "one" sub. They would have to search ALOT of square miles of Ocean-bed.
By the time they would find the sub, all the crew would have been without oxygen. R.I.P.

Life as a sailor is not easy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I am just adding this bit of information I have found in Davis Miller´s book" U-Boats"...

When a U-boat sunk in shallow waters sometimes some of the crew was able to escape using a "Dräger" apparatus.
Unfortunatly not many of the men were able to escape the sunken U-boats.

[Alec Trevelyan 006]

But you could still dive even without the germans knowing about it?

[varjag]

But you could still dive even without the germans knowing about it?

U certainly could - but it will be damned difficult to penetrate the rusted carcass of the pressure-hull to recover - what? A few bones....the Atlantic eels were quite fat and juicy well into the fifties....

[Madsen]

But you could still dive even without the germans knowing about it?

of course you can. everything is possible. but remember that the sunken ships are wargraves. so in respect for those fallen heroes they should be able to rest in peace.
We have allot of wartime ships sunken her in Norway, and many of them are war graves and forbidden to dive on.

[Peter]

Regrettably US sports divers have dived into at least 2 u-boats off the Eastern Coast of the US and they have brought up rusted iron crosses, cutlery and even human bones as souvenirs.

It is VERY wrong to do this.

[Madsen]

that is just as wrong as if they dig in to Gen Pattons grave and take his bones as a suvernir...

[Peter]

Yes you are right Madsen

It was U85 and U865 I think, I have a divers book with the photos in it. Now I understand why the diver who located U1195 in the English Channel did not tell people where it is.

These men died at war and it is as wrong to disturb their remains on bottom of the sea as it is to go and dig up war cemeteries in Russia.

[Yevgeniy B.]

Well i would say they wouldn't because the sunk submarine is a gravesight. Like Titanic, is forbidden for divers, even though now we have technology to get there

Yev

[Eden Zhang]

Could the fact that submarines have torpedos and other live munitions aboard it have anything to do with the restriction placed upon searching them?

[Peter]

I would sincerely hope that its got far more to do with the fact its got the remains of fallen sailors aboard.

Pete