World War II shipwreck found

On Wednesday, October 22, US authorities announced the discovery of the wrecks of a German submarine and an American cargo ship called the Bluefields off the coast of North Carolina. The two wrecks were identified as World War II vessels that sank during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942 in an area known as the “Atlantic Graveyard.”

Research and searches by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found the two ships in August, about 30 miles off the coast. The distance between the two wrecks when found was 700 feet.

Images obtained of the German submarine U-576 and the cargo ship Bluefield at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The German submarine U-576 and the cargo ship Bluefields provided "a rare window into a historic battle and the underwater battlefields of World War II in general," NOAA noted. More specifically, the encounter occurred on July 15, 1942, when a series of cargo ships sailing from Norfolk, Virginia, to Florida were attacked by German submarines.

"U-576 sank the ship Bluefield and severely damaged two other ships. In response, Kingfisher aircraft of the US Navy fleet assigned to provide air cover for the convoy bombed the U-576 submarine, while the Unicoi also fired cannons at U-576."

Both the Bluefield and U-576 sank, and 45 Germans died in the battle. "The public often thinks of the Battle of the Atlantic as being fought in the cold, icy waters of the North Atlantic," said David Alberg, NOAA's director of marine sanctuaries. "But in fact, very few people know that the war was fought so close to the American shores."

The site where the two wrecks were found is in an area that Germany considers a military cemetery and is protected by international law. At this point, Germany "has no interest in recovering the remains of U-576 and will not participate in any project related to this ship in any way," the German foreign minister said. He also stressed that "the remains of the world war receive special protection and, if possible, must remain where they fell so that the dead can rest in peace."


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