Posted on 05/07/2015 2:30:39 PM PDT by naturalman1975
The reputation of a disgraced wartime navy captain has been restored, thanks to the discoveries of a documentary featuring the finder of the Titanic.
For more than 60 years, Captain Herbert G. Claudius was blamed for letting a Nazi U-boat ‘get away’, after it sank the Robert E. Lee passenger freighter in the Gulf of Mexico in 1942.
But an undersea expedition – aided by Dr Robert Ballard who rediscovered the Titanic 30 years ago – has revealed the first published pictures of the submarine’s wreckage, showing how bombs dropped by Cpt Claudius’ crew successfully sunk the attacker U-166.
.....
On July 30, 1942, the Robert E. Lee passenger ship carrying 407 people was sunk by a torpedo dispatched from U-166.
Captain Claudius and his men pursued the submarine after the attack and dropped depth charges, but the German u-boar never surfaced
The US team declared victory and set about rescuing passengers from the sunken ship - but days later, 140 miles, there was another sighting of the deadly Nazi submarine.
Captain Claudius was reportedly hauled in front of his bosses to be reprimanded for letting the U-boat get away, and he was ordered to return to naval college.
....
Secretary Ray Mabus praised the officer and his crew's bravery for working in 'very dangerous waters.'
'Seventy years later, we now know that [Claudius’s] report after the action was absolutely correct,” Mabus said in a report by website Star and Stripes.
“[He] did sink that U-boat, and it’s never too late to set the record straight.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
How wonderful technology is.
Pretty sad when you think about it.
A recent show on PBS about it said that the way the bow was split from the rest of the sub the torpedoes must have detonated in the sub. They suspected, but didn't prove, that one of the depth charges must have dropped right on top of the sub.
War is hell.
What's really sad is that the brave young men of her crew were sent off to fight for such a beastly cause.
Well considering the captain lived under a cloud regarding the incident, this revelation did come too late.
I am glad it did come.
About the discovery and identification of another mysterious U-Boat wreck.
If Captain Claudius and his crew were successful in hitting and sinking the sub was it another sub spotted 140 miles away am I missing a point?
Thanks, for any clarification!
The story notes the German submarine was dispatched to U.S. waters as part of Operation Drumbeat in 1942. The book of the same name, by Michael Gannon, is a good read on that operation. The numbers of German U-Boats in U.S. waters were very small early in the war, but they still wreaked havoc due to a lack of coordinated action by the U.S. Navy.
Used copies of ‘Operation Drumbeat’ are available for a few cents on Amazon and for anyone interested in WWII military history will provide hours of good reading.
I saw that show. Great underwater videos. There is a German researcher that has said for many years that U-166 was sunk because she never returned to port.
Yes. Many U-Boats prowled off the American coast and did huge amounts of damage.
Yes - a mistake was obviously made with the report about the second sighting. Most likely it was a different submarine being misidentified.
Thanks for the link to me and for others as well.
Looks good.
Thanks, for the replies.
I was born in Miami and my Dad worked on Miami Beach during the war. He was Chief Engineer at Ice Plant on South Beach. HIs company supplied Ice to the hotels(taken over by the military) and also some ships of the Navy stationed around Miami. My brothers and I played among the PT boats around the area.
There was a rumor(?) about a sub wreckage off the coast of Florida, that produced flotsam, that included a ticket stub from Gateway theater in Ft. Lauderdale.
I remember my father having to cover his car headlights with tape, leaving a sliver of light, to drive the causeway from Miami to the Beach. Nigh-time driving along the beaches was highly restricted.
Thanks again!
At this time in the war, American anti-sub warfare was very primitive. Not sure if they even had sonar yet. Which makes the sinking of this sub by Captain Claudius and crew even more a great accomplishment. The article says they apparently didn’t just drop a depth charge somewhere near the sub to do it in either, they dropped it right on it! A rare thing - even later on in the war when they had much improved ASW gear. A needle in a haystack thing.
and how shitty the politicized military bureaucracy is.
I read a book years ago about U-124, the “Edelweiss” boat.
I recall the captain’s favorite hunting grounds was the Gulf of Mexico between New Orleans and Panama City. I wonder if his was the other boat sighted?
And how many years was he vilified?
Great book!
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