The Wreck of U-166 - Buried U-Boat off The Gulf Coast (Video)

Skynea History ^ | 8/17/25 | Skynea History

[MAGA2017]

The U-Boat campaign off the United States' coast is pretty well known. Complacency on the American side, and daring on the German side. Combining in a perfect storm that saw many, many losses in the early days after the United States joined the war.

That said, not all those losses were American. Some U-Boats were lost too, including one particularly noteworthy one. U-166. A submarine sunk close off the Gulf Coast. This sinking became something of a controversy, in how the captain responsible was treated by the Navy.

But the boat, herself, is interesting all her own. After all, this wreck is quite possibly the most buried of any submarine wreck. Covered in silt all the way to her deck.

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TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; gulfofamerica; gult; submarines; u166; uboat; worldwareleven; wreck; ww2; wwii

[MAGA2017]

This channel produces some really good content if you are interested in naval history and shipwrecks.

[TexasGator]

Gulf of Mexico America

[KingLudd]

Reminds me of when I visited the U-505 at the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago ... Me: Is this a U-boat?
Italian security guard: No, I just-a watch!

[Theophilus]

That guy’s speech pattern is too hard to listen to.

[Captain Walker]

The name of the German operation against shipping on America's east coast was "Operation Drumbeat"; it was practically a scandal for the US Navy, in that German long-range submarines ranged freely up and down the coast for several months, sinking ships at will (to the tune of 360 ships and about five thousand lives).

Because the US hadn't adopted black-out procedures along the coast, the Germans were able to lie in wait until ships showed up and silhouetted themselves against the shore lights.

[impactplayer]

Growing up in Miami during the mid/late forties and into the 50’s, we always took terintine to the beach with us to clean off the tar from so many sunken ships just off the cost.

[JeanLM]

My boss back in the 70’s when I worked for a German company was a captured U boat commander who scuttled his boat but was captured by the Canadians early in the war. He became a Canadian citizen and was generally a good guy, but I think he suffered some grief by the other Germans for surrendering too easily. Most of the other German crews went to the bottom as the war went on.

[Texas Hostage in a Blue State]

Yes! His voice pattern sounds like the Rabbi on Seinfeld👀🤣😂

[dfwgator]

[Captain Walker]

Growing up in Miami during the mid/late forties and into the 50’s, we always took terintine to the beach with us to clean off the tar from so many sunken ships just off the cost.

I highly recommend the book, "Operation Drumbeat" by Michael Gannon.

In vivid detail, he describes an attack by U-123 under the command of Reinhard Hardegen against a freighter just off the coast of Florida; U-123 was one of the five boats that set sail for the US coast in December 1941, just after the declarations of war between the US and Germany.

The U-boats were using their deck guns whenever possible, both because their targets were preposterously easy to sink and because they wanted to save their torpedoes for only the most difficult of shots. There was a particular ship that was perfectly silhouetted against an amusement park in Florida but was too close to the beach for them to risk the deck gun; there was genuine concern among the officers in the conning tower that a shot could end up landing on one of the rides. Determined to sink the ship but to save his torpedoes, Hardegen maneuvered his boat between the ship and the shore, raced up alongside it, and pounded it with the deck gun the whole time; the attendees at the amusement park witnessed first hand the most dramatic of sinkings, the explosions on the ship illuminating the U-boat and its crew for them.

[Captain Walker]

Most of the other German crews went to the bottom as the war went on.

Some 75% never came back.

The only military arm that suffered a casualty rate even close to that was the Allied bomber crews over Europe.

[dfwgator]

The U.S. Merchant Marine had the highest casualty rate of any American service during World War II, with approximately 1 in 26 mariners killed. This translates to around 9,300 deaths out of 243,000 mariners. The Merchant Marine played a vital role in supplying troops and materials, but their ships were vulnerable to enemy attacks, resulting in a high number of casualties.

[Does so]

Press on the screen for 2x speed.

[Semper Vigilantis]

I know it’s the wrong coast, but your writing gave me a ‘1941’ flashback to the Japanese shooting the amusement park ferris wheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_PeQCPq8QA

[fella]

It’s kind of hard to get out of a submarine when a hole gets poked in it while it’s under water.

[Captain Walker]

The U.S. Merchant Marine had the highest casualty rate of any American service during World War II, with approximately 1 in 26 mariners killed. This translates to around 9,300 deaths out of 243,000 mariners.

Thanks; this is the first time I am hearing of this. (If you add the missing/presumed dead to your figure, the number is even higher.)

www.nationalww2museum.org

But the casualty rates among the American bomber crews were upwards of 60%. (It's correct that this statistic gets hidden in the broader number of US Army Air Corps/Force personnel, but statistically speaking, it was more dangerous to be in a bomber over Europe than it was to be a merchant mariner on a ship.)

[SunkenCiv]

Sunk in 1942.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL

[Political Junkie Too]

I wonder if the U-boat is salvagable and can be turned into a museum? There aren't a lot of intact U-boats that have survived enough to be museum-quality pieces.

-PJ