Talk:German submarine U-869

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The German U-boat 869 was supposly sunk off the coast of Africa. It was latter found by some deep sea divers off the coast of New Jersey. It was at a depth of 230 ft, 100 ft. below the safe diving depth. The crew of divers that found it lost three memebers while trying to identfy it. It took them the better part of seven years to even find a clue as to which boat it was. The first clue was a knife that had a name of one of the crew memebers' name on it. Two divers traveled to Germany to the U-boat Archive to find out which boat that crew memeber had been on when it whent down. They discovered that he had been on U 869. The boat that had been sunk off the coast of Rabat. They continued their search and finally gaind access to the eletric engine room that contained boxes of spare parts that had the U-boats's number on it. The entrance to the room was blocked by an oil drum that had fallen off the celing and there wasn't enough room for a diver and his tanks to fit. One of the divers went down with only one tank and pushed it in front of him while he squeezed through the opening between the top of the oil drum and the top of the room. The box of parts that he recovered identified the boat as U 869. The most likely explanation is that the boat never recived a change in orders telling it to head to Africa. It was sunk by a torpedo. It is believed that it was hit by one of it's own torpedoes. There are no real clear explantions as to how, the accepted one is that it was a torpedo circle, a malfunction of the gyro that steered the torpedo.

• writers comment: I belive that the torpedo struck an abject that was extremly close to the U-boat and exploded takeing the sub with it.

The divers' discovery and research might make an interesting separate article -- let's put details about the boat itself here and start a new article at, maybe, Discovery of U-869 for descriptions of the dives and so on. --the Epopt 16:28 20 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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Feldman and Rouses

I don't have any really strong views on it, but are Feldman and the Rouses notable enough for their own Wikipedia articles other than the fact of their deaths on U-869? If not, presumably they can be covered in a sub-section within this article? --Legis (talk - contribs) 17:02, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Discrepancy between the end of the war and loss date of U-869.

"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.This was confirmed by Marlyn Berkey who was on a destroyer as part of the Pacific fleet entering NY harbor after the war was over, the submarine showed up on radar and his destroyer depth charged the sub and sank it as evidenced by him of oil and debris floating on the surface, they were allowed to place a broom upside down coming into New York which meant "clean sweep". 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]"

"U-869 conducted one World War II war patrol without success. It suffered no casualties to its crew until it was lost in February 1945, with all but one of 56 crew members dead."

If WW2 didin't end until the 15th of August 1945 then how can Marlyn Berkey be onboard a destroyer returning from the Pacific after the war was over when the U-869 is destroyed on the 11th of February 1945? Is a correction needed here? EI PJK (talk) 21:00, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

Spelling of Helmut Neuerburg's Name

I'm seeking some advice on a possible edit for this article, which lists the commander of U-869 as one Hellmut Neuerburg. I've been reading Shadow Divers and there his first name is spelled "Helmuth"- (Shadow Divers, Chapter 12). To make matters more confusing, there is a picture in the book of the crew list, which spells his name as "Helmut", with one "L" (Shadow Divers, photo insert 2). I am unclear as to which source I should use as the correct source. What would be the correct procedure? I know this seems like a minor detail, but we must strive for accuracy, no? -Fogelmatrix (talk) 18:10, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

UPDATE- At the end of Shadow Divers, the author has notes about the spelling of Neuerburg's first name- and Neuerburg spelled it "Helmuth", which is why the author chose that spelling. I have updated the page. -Fogelmatrix (talk) 15:53, 9 August 2013 (UTC)