U-boats sank thousands of ships during World War II. Image Credit: PD - Willy Stower
The wreckage of one of Germany's most advanced U-boats has been discovered off the coast of Denmark.
The submersible World War II vessel U-3523 had long been at the center of rumors suggesting that leading Nazis, possibly even including Hitler himself, had been ferried to the relative safety of South America after Germany had surrendered at the end of the war.
The discovery of the vessel's wreckage however has finally put these theories to rest.
"After the war, there were many rumors about top Nazis who fled in U-boats and brought Nazi gold to safety, and the U-3523 fed the rumors," Denmark's Sea War Museum Jutland wrote on its website.
"The Type XXI was the first genuine submarine that could sail submerged for a prolonged time, and the U-3523 had a range that would have allowed it to sail non-stop all the way to South America."
The submarine was found sitting at a 45-degree angle around 130 yards beneath the surface.
Exactly what it was carrying at the time it was sunk however remains unclear.
Almost sounds like the sub tried a crash dive to escape and somehow buried itself in the sea floor. Maybe a funnel of some sort sucked the sub in and the sea floor filled the hole in around the sub over the decades.
"The Watch Below" (1979) and "Goliath Awaits" (1981) come to mind. https://www.amazon.com/WATCH-BELOW-James-White/dp/0345276914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524283372&sr=8-1&keywords=the+watch+below https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082461/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_57
I just realised, in a flash of inspiration, that if you add an "s" and a "t" to History Channel it becomes an anagram of s**t story Channel. Coincidence? I think not...
Why does there have to be a funnel? Sonar was iffy in those days, and we don't even know if this boat was equipped with it. Maybe the Captain thought he had more water under the keel and ordered a deep dive. Or perhaps the forward compartments became flooded and caused the boat to drive itself into the bottom.
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