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Boat sunk by Germans in WW II discovered

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TasunkaWitko View Drop Down
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aka The Gipper

Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: Chinook Montana
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    Posted: 10 September 2009 at 07:17

Boat sunk by Germans in WW II discovered in Atlantic

By JO DEE BLACK
Great Falls Tribune
September 10, 2009

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-led research mission has located and identified the final resting place of the YP-389, a U.S. Navy patrol boat sunk approximately 20 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., by a German submarine during World War II.

Six sailors, including Fireman 3rd Class Wilson Burnette Cole of Great Falls, died in the attack on June 19, 1942.

There were 18 survivors.

The wreck is located in about 300 feet of water in a region off North Carolina known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," home to U.S. and British naval vessels, merchant ships and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.

According to a research paper on the attack, Wilson's widow, Melia Lillian, offered the Navy $2,000 in insurance money she received after her husband's death to build a boat to honor the sailors' sacrifice, said David W. Alberg, expedition leader and superintendent of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

"The Navy said they could not accept the money and suggested she buy war bonds instead," Alberg said. "This is why NOAA is involved in looking for wrecked ships. They connect us all and are part of our collective maritime past, even for people in Great Falls, Montana."

A story about Cole's death and his widow's offer to the Navy ran in the Great Falls Tribune on Sept. 29, 1942.

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said buying bonds "would make the money available to the armed services without depriving you of the benefits which your husband intended for you taking out the insurance," the story states.

According to the story, Melia Cole did not have a listing in the telephone directory and couldn't be contacted.

Wilson Cole's body was never recovered, Alberg said.

NOAA and its expedition partners mapped and shot video of the wreck using high-resolution camera equipment, multi-beam sonar and an advanced remotely operated vehicle deployed from the NOAA ship Nancy Foster. Researchers were able to locate and positively identify the YP-389 by re-examining data from the Duke Marine Laboratory expedition that discovered the USS Monitor in 1973.

The relatively intact remains of the YP-389 rest upright on the ship's keel — much of the outer-hull plating has fallen away, leaving only the intact frames exposed. The wreck site is home to a variety of marine life.

"She rests now like a literal skeleton, a reminder of a time long ago when the nation was at war," said Joseph Hoyt, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary archaeologist and principal investigator for the project.

Built originally as a fishing trawler, the YP-389 was converted into a coastal patrol craft and pressed into service after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship was equipped with one 3-inch deck gun to protect it from enemy aircraft and surfaced submarines, as well as two .30-caliber machine guns. However, on the day of the attack by the German submarine U-701, the ship's deck gun was inoperative, and the YP-389 could return fire only with its machine guns.

Weeks after the attack on the YP-389, the U-701 was sunk by Army aircraft in the same vicinity as the YP-389.

"The story of the YP-389 personifies the character of the Battle of the Atlantic along the East Coast of the United States, where small, poorly armed fishing trawlers were called to defend American waters against one of Germany's most feared vessels," Alberg said. "It is one of the most dramatic accounts of an engagement between Axis and Allied warships during the dark days of World War II."

"Though this loss occurred many years ago, for the Navy, we offer our sincere condolences to the families of those who gave their lives in this action," said retired Rear Adm. Jay A. DeLoach of the United States Naval History and Heritage Command. "The U.S. Navy considers the YP-389 discovery a grave site and, by law, it is to be left undisturbed."

The three-week research expedition also included a survey of the wreck of HMT Bedfordshire, a retrofitted British fishing trawler that was sent to the United States to combat the German submarine threat early in the war. On May 12, 1942, the Bedfordshire was struck by a torpedo from the U-558. All 37 British and Canadian crewmembers were killed. Four of the dead British sailors who washed ashore along the beaches of North Carolina are buried in the British cemetery on Ocracoke, N.C.

The Bedfordshire and YP-389 wreck sites are considered war graves and are protected by U.S. and international laws, including the Sunken Military Craft Act, which prohibits removal of artifacts and any alteration or disruption of the wreck site.

Alberg said this year's Battle of the Atlantic expedition continues work conducted by NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the Maritime Heritage Program in 2008, to document and preserve historic shipwrecks lost during World War II. The wrecks of three sunken U-boats were the focus of last summer's expedition.

The project also is dedicated to raising public awareness about the United States' maritime heritage.

The Battle of the Atlantic expedition was conducted in consultation with the British and German governments, with technical expertise and logistical support from NOAA's National Center for Coastal and Ocean Science, the Minerals Management Service, the National Park Service, the state of North Carolina, East Carolina University, the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the Georgia Aquarium and the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA.

Major funding for the expedition was provided by NOAA's Office of Exploration and Research.

TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana

Helfen, Wehren, Heilen
Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 September 2009 at 07:24

I was there last month, graveyard of the Atlantic.

Nice museum at Cape Hatteras light house.

interesting is that during WW-2 the government and media kept secret the 1000+ ships sunk by U-boats of our Eastern seaboard.  The Nazi called it the "American Turkey shoot" as they sunk 2-3 US ships a day with out one u-boat being sunk the first year of the war.

Water is deep 100+ ft and a little cloudy and cold.  Lots of munitions around.  looks like Truk Lagoon.

Fishing was poor.  Even using Hivolt's reel.  Thank HV.

 

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