Divers find U-boats wrecked by secret wartime minefield

TimesOnLine.co.uk ^ | 12/22/06

[Paddlefish]

Divers have uncovered the wrecks of three Second World War German submarines off the British coast, shedding light on a British operation that has remained secret for more than 60 years. Historians were amazed at the discovery of the severely damaged U-boats, which are lying close to each other seven miles off Newquay, Cornwall, because none had ever been recorded as being lost there. After extensive research it was found that they had been sunk in a secret minefield laid after the British intercepted a radio message from a U-boat commander.

His boat had sunk a British destroyer after discovering a gap in the Irish Sea minefield that allowed supply ships in to Cardiff and Bristol. He radioed the news to Germany but his message was deciphered by British Intelligence. The British then laid deep mines to allow ships through but trap U-boats.

Historians were unaware of the minefield until recently, when the relevant documents were declassified.

[Paddlefish]

A little bit of interesting history from WWII.

[Enterprise]

"The British then laid deep mines to allow ships through but trap U-boats."

SURPRISE!

[Lancey Howard]

Cool story!

[DakotaRed]

Had today's New York Times been in actions back then, the Germans would have been told of the "secret minefield" and some court would rule the Germans were murdered in violation of articles of war.

But, in reality, that was how to wage war. Intercept messages and set traps and kill them before they killed you.

Secrets were really secrets then, as well as disinformation fed to the enemy.

[MamaB]

That's what I was thinking. It would not have been a secret today.

[Ole Okie]

Had today's New York Times been in actions back then, the Germans would have been told of the "secret minefield" and some court would rule the Germans were murdered in violation of articles of war.

Yeah. After all, the public had a right to know and those poor German U-Boat crews probably had their civil rights violated.

Geeze!!

[Paleo Conservative]

That's what I was thinking. It would not have been a secret today.

Neither would the fact that the British had been decrypting text from German code machines since the beginning of the war.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Had today's New York Times been in actions back then, the Germans would have been told of the "secret minefield" and some court would rule the Germans were murdered in violation of articles of war.

Probably true while Hitler and the USSR were allied. After Hitler attacked the NYT's pal Stalin, they would have kept their traps shut.

[Bigh4u2]

"Had today's New York Times been in actions back then, the Germans would have been told of the "secret minefield" and some court would rule the Germans were murdered in violation of articles of war."



It's not like they didn't want to.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521607825

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Wow....very cool stuff.

Found just a little bit more...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=got-u--&method=full&objectid=18308227&siteid=94762-name_page.html

If someone wrote a book on this, I'd buy it...

[MamaB]

That kind of stuff should be secret since we all know what the dems do to anything that has anything to do with the military.

[CheyennePress]

Well, had today's New York Times been involved, we'd be hearing how we should pull out of the war after losing one ship and how the President was unwilling to admit his failures after the sinking of this one ship.

Even if we did get the U-boat with the minefield.

[gotribe]

Probing far behind the headlines, Leff tells the fascinating story of how the Sulzberger family was rescuing its relatives from Germany at the same time that it was burying the story of the Holocaust in the inner recesses of the paper."

Wow. Another book to add to my list.

[MarkL]

Historians were unaware of the minefield until recently, when the relevant documents were declassified.

What a shame for Germany that the New York Times didn't know about that minefield. Imagine all the trouble (and U-Boats) the NYT could have saved NAZI Germany!

Mark

[spanalot]

bingo

[spanalot]

You call that a smoking gun?

Here's a smoking gun!

http://ucca.org/famine/gordondispatch.html

[driftdiver]

"Neither would the fact that the British had been decrypting text from German code machines since the beginning of the war."

Forget secret, it would have been illegal to intercept those messages.

[gorush]

Interesting, thanks.

[blam]

The work of Bletchley Park no doubt.

[csvset]

Surprise !

Interesting bit of WWII history, thanks for posting it.