31 Aug 1997
United States
United States
- Off New Jersey, United States, John Chatterton dove the wreck of U-869 and sledgehammered away an oxygen tank (risking explosion) in order to retrieve a spare parts box in the electric motor room, which he handed to fellow diver Richie Kohler waiting outside the room. On his way out, he was entangled in loose wires and nearly ran out of air while trying to free himself. Meanwhile, on the surface, fellow divers already began to examine the spare parts box, finding a tag that conclusively identified the submarine, debunking the previous hypothesis that U-869 had been sunk off Gibraltar. ww2dbase [U-869 | New Jersey | CPC]
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you. Please help us spread the word: Stay updated with WW2DB: |
Change View
Desktop ViewSearch WW2DB
News
- » Japanese Emperor Visited Iwoto (Iwo Jima) (8 Apr 2025)
- » Race, Holocaust, and African-American WW2 Histories Removed from the US Naval Academy Library (7 Apr 2025)
- » US Government Plans to Purge WW2 Information (17 Mar 2025)
- » WW2DB's 20th Anniversary (29 Dec 2024)
- » See all news
Current Site Statistics
- » 1,167 biographies
- » 337 events
- » 44,601 timeline entries
- » 1,243 ships
- » 350 aircraft models
- » 207 vehicle models
- » 376 weapon models
- » 123 historical documents
- » 261 facilities
- » 470 book reviews
- » 28,501 photos
- » 366 maps
Famous WW2 Quote
"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, 23 Feb 1945
