World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseU-869 was a German Type IXC submarine of the IXC/40 subtype. She was commissioned in 1944 with Kapitänleutnant Hellmut Neuerburg in command. She embarked on her first and only war patrol in Dec 1944 with the orders to attack Allied shipping off the American coast southeast of New York City, New York, United States. Because Neuerburg had taken the submarine around a longer route to get into the Atlantic Ocean (taken the longer route north of Iceland rather than the more direct, but also more heavily patrolled, southern route), German submarine control decided to re-route her to waters off Gibraltar to give her a longer patrol time. It was assumed that U-869 received the new order, but she apparently did not. On 28 Feb 1945, American destroyer escort USS Fowler and French submarine chaser L'Indiscret attacked a German submarine west of Rabat, French Morocco; although the Allied crews did not observe any definite evidence, ultimately the attack was regarded as a probable sinking, since to the post-war US Navy analysts, this was the only explanation for U-869's disappearance. It was not until many years later, however, it was discovered that Neuerburg had continued on to North America. In 1991, Bill Nagle learned of a possible wreck off the coast of New Jersey, United States, and took his diving boat Seeker to the site on 2 Sep 1991, where diver John Chatterton found, but was unable to identify, U-869. The depth of the wreck (73 meters or 240 feet) made the wreck site extremely dangerous; three divers, Steve Feldman, Chris Rouse, Chris Rouse, Jr., were killed in the early 1990s while diving it. It was not until 31 Aug 1997 when the team could conclude the identity after the discovery of a spare parts box from the electric motor room of the wreck which bore identification; Chatterton was the diver who retrieved the spare parts box (nearly dying in the process), assisted by Richard "Richie" Kohler who had dove the submarine with him for the past few years. Later analysis hypothesized U-869 was either a victim of one of her own torpedoes whose acoustic-seeking device might have locked on to the mother ship unintentionally, or she was sunk by destroyer escorts USS Howard D. Crow and USS Koiner. United States Navy officially subscribes to the latter theory and credited the sinking to the two destroyer escorts.

U-869 Operational Timeline

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