Articles

Operation Deadlight Expedition II

by Innes McCartney

Day Four: 7 May, 2002

Target:
U-1104
Depth: Weather and sea conditions:
83m - Wind 2-3 northerly, fair and sunny

Diving report:
This is the deepest dive so far undertaken on the Deadlight expeditions. The position was located using our magnetometer, which also eliminated a couple of other 'positions' for us today.

There was a gentle Atlantic swell, which could be felt on the wreck 83 metres below!!

The wreck itself is in fairly poor condition. It is memorable for its steel UZO, still in place and its outsized torpedo loading hatches. However, the key to which U-boat this might be lies in the fact that she is blown in half forward of the bow torpedo hatch. U1104 was destroyed by demolition charges, after taking on water. This tallies with the damage to the submarine. Furthermore, the conning tower hatch is closed, denoting that this wreck must have been sunk after 6th December. U-1104 was known to have been sunk on 14th December. Also, the historic position for the sinking of U-1104 is fairly near.

A great (swelly) dive.

Comments:
We plan to search for U-539 tomorrow. The magentometer, has come into its own today. We will be making much use of it during this spell of flat seas to draw up a hit list for the next 9 days diving.

The fantastic weather continues.

Innes McCartney

This article was published on 13 May 2002.

Operation Deadlight Expedition II

Day One: 4 May, 2002 - Diving on the U-1271 since U-861 is hard to locate.

Day Two: 5 May, 2002 - The broken down wreck of U-1009, plus the Laurentic.

Day Three: 6 May, 2002 - Going back to the U-2511 which Innes describes as the world's greatest submarine dive.

Day Four: 7 May, 2002 - A dive on the U-1104 in a nice Atlantic swell.

Day Five: 8 May, 2002 - Another unidentified U-boat location, plus a steamer from WWI.

Day Six: 9 May, 2002 - A dive on another unidentified boat which turned out to be an awesome dive on the other type XXI boat there!

Day Seven: 12 May, 2002 - Finally Oesten's elusive U-861 is located.

Day Eight: 13 May, 2002 - No diving due to poor weather conditions.