On August the 24t of this year, a whole seven years
after the original search had begun, the wreckage of the German
submarine U-576 was found a mere thirty miles off of the coast of
North Carolina, 72 years after it was sunk.
The submarine went under in the midst of a battle that occurred
off of the Outer Banks on July 15, 1942, during the Second World
War. Inside the ruined hull, the remains forty-four of its crew
were found.
The NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and the
University of North Carolina’s Coastal Studies Institute and the
federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have been looking for
this shipwreck since 2009.
The ship’s wreckage is in an area where German U-boats operated
during WWII, hunting merchant vessels to disrupt the USA’s
economy.
The ship does have some structural damage, which is to be
expected as it has been under the water for more than a half a
century. The wooden deck has rotted away, which should be of
surprise to no one. On the bright side, though, the hull, gun deck,
and the hatches that lead to the bodies are still visible.
The fact that the crew embers are still aboard the wreckage of
the ship does leave a lot of unanswered questions, such as if there
was any attempt to escape the ship using the escape hatches, if the
ship was flooded in such a catastrophic way that the crew did not
even have time to exit the ship, or if there was some sort of
damage to the submarine that allowed them to be on the seabed for a
period of time while still having air in the ship.
During World War II, it was very common for merchant vessels to
be the victim of attacks, and while the official tally of deaths
that occurred as a result of the war is unknown, it is fair to say
that the merchant marines suffered thousands of lost lives.
The sub was already in bad shape when it attacked the merchant
vessels, having been in the process of heading back to Germany for
repairs. Before this attack could be carried out, though, it was
thwarted by the fact that the Coast Guard picked up the ship on
sonar contact and then proceeded to attack the sub.
The captain of the German ship was still determined to continue
the attack, firing four torpedoes that sunk one of the merchant
marine ships and also caused some damage to two other ships. Still,
the sub was eventually sunk by the US coastguard.
According to U.S. policy, the U-576 sub is technically
considered to be under the ownership of Germany, because it is
international custom to view the wreckage of land, sea, and air
vehicles that are presumed to hold the remains of fallen soldiers
or sailors as war graves.
Because of this international custom, the site where the ship
was found should be under the special protection, and it should
remain there to allow the dead to rest in peace.