DATELINE: 27 September 2002

U-12 SUBMARINE GETS PROTECTED... WHEREVER IT MAY BE

The Ministry of Defence have announced that U-12, a class IIB German u-boat lost early on in WW2, is to be designated as a Protected wreck, despite her position being unknown.
While it is not an offence to dive a protected site, divers must not touch, interfere with, damage, or remove items from protected wrecks. As the only clue to the position of the U-12 is that it was lost somewhere in the English Channel, possibly the Dover Straits, divers now have no means of knowing whether the unidentified wreckage they are diving is protected or not.
U-12 was built in 1935 and was barely 43m long. It was lost in October 1939 with all 27 crew, presumed to have hit a mine. The loss was confirmed when the body of the Commanding Officer, Dietrich von der Ropp, washed ashore on the French coast near Dunkirk on 29 Oct, 1939.
However, eyewitness accounts by the crew of HMS Firedrake report detecting and attacking an unknown submarine in the Dover Straits at about the time the U-12 was assumed to have been lost.
The designation of U-12 came about because the MoD had announced that it would ask the German government to nominate one u-boat for protection. The choice of U-12 is an interesting exercise in diplomacy. It was not the first u-boat sunk in WW2, but it was the first u-boat lost which had not been involved in any military attacks.
As the position of the wreck is unknown, it could hardly be classed as vulnerable to the attentions of 'rogue divers'.
The current round of wreck protection legislation, announced last year after an MoD consultation exercise, will finally come into force at the end of September 2002.