DATELINE: 14th February 2001
PRISTINE U-BOAT FIND
It rests on the seabed, 87m down off Orkney. It has not settled into the shingly bottom and, standing nearly upright with just a slight list to starboard, it is completely intact. Inside are the remains of its entire 50-man crew. The discovery of German U-boat 297 by two Orkney divers has got to be one of the most evocative wartime submarine finds possible: a finely preserved wreck, the sobering evidence of human sacrifice in war - and the satisfaction of correcting official records over the submarine's loss.
When scallop diver and wreck researcher Kevin Heath obtained naval hydrographic survey records for Orkney, he noted a 70m-long hump with a "tower-like structure" 16 miles west of the island. The position matched that recorded by a Sunderland flying boat and filed in the Public Records Office, in which a U-boat was depth-charged from the air in December 1944.
German archives record U-297 as sunk 36 miles away off Cape Wrath, where a British destroyer had claimed to have sunk a U-boat on the day it went missing. In fact, the U-boat involved - U-775 - was damaged but survived. U297, which was operating in the same area, was presumed sunk by the destroyer.
But now Heath, teaming up with Ian Trumpess of Scapa Flow Diving Holidays in Stromness, has identified U-297 and confirmed that it was the British aircraft that sent the sub and its crew to their fate.
On site and having dropped a shotline, Heath stayed on hardboat Radiant Queen while Trumpess, an experienced deep-diver, descended solo to inspect the wreck.
"It was an incredible sight. As she materialised in pretty good vis, I felt a sense of awe at being the first person to see her since 1944 - and was hit by the thought of all those people who died inside her," Trumpess told Divernet. "The wooden decking was gone and the rear gun deck, with three anti-aircraft guns, had collapsed. But otherwise she was in amazing shape. The outer hull casing - which often deteriorates on these craft - was intact and there was relatively little marine growth. She appeared undamaged."
So what had sunk the sub?
"I first homed in on the control tower, and could see that an explosion had damaged just its very top. The conning tower hatch was blown open, but the inner hatch was still shut, so that would not have sunk the boat."
But then Trumpess saw what had sealed sub's fate.
"I spotted a gaping hole some 20cm wide, where her snorkel would have been. It had evidently been blown off by a depth charge and the sea would have burst into the sub with incredible force. All the crew would have drowned as the sub filled uncontrollably."
The find ties in with the wartime incident file, in which the Sunderland pilot reported that he had seen the wake and raised snorkel of a near-surfaced sub before making what RAF pilots called "a tin-opener" attack.
Trumpess photogaphed the vents on the conning tower side, because the Germans gave each U-boat unique arrangements to aid identification. The pattern, say Heath and Trumpess, has confirmed that this was U-297.
The men returned twice more, Trumpess diving to video the wreck. His third dive almost ended in tragedy when his drysuit zip failed while on the bottom. He managed to ascend but severe hypothermia meant he could carry out only 19 minutes of a planned 100-minute decompression scedule. He had to be airlifted to a recompression chamber, but recovered successfully.
Heath was due to dive on the day of Trumpess's accident, but did not get his chance. He plans to dive the U-297 early this year.
Meanwhile, Heath and Trumpress have sent reports and copies of their video to the MoD and to the German Embassy in London. They do not plan to reveal the sub's exact position publicly.
"The hydrographic information is pretty accurate and is publically available, although there are a number of recorded sonar finds in the area and we're not about to release exactly which one is U-297," said Heath. "But divers who are really determined to locate the wreck will do so."
Reflecting on the possibility of the wreck being disturbed, he added: "The sub lies in international waters and some visitors may have few scruples about wrecking. But there are not that many divers who explore wrecks at 87m and, among those who do, we hope that any who visit U-297 will enjoy the experience simply of laying eyes on her. The remains of her 50 crew should certainly be left in peace." One visitor this year will be sub expert Innes McCartney.
Heath now plans to research and hopefully identify three other sunken U-boats. "There's U-309 which, from hydrographic and oil company research records, we're almost certain lies off Wick; U-1020, again off northeast Scotland; and U-1206, sunk off Aberdeen."