Articles


Operation Deadlight Expedition II

by Innes McCartney

Day Eleven: 16 May, 2002

Target:
U-1271
Depth: Weather and sea conditions:
Depth 60m. 20-30m linear visibility. Wind south-easterly 2-3 fair, sunny

Diving report:
Another visit to this intact type VIIC/41 U-boat. The visibility is clearing, just as the expedition begins to come to a close. However, any U-boat dive is a treat, this one especially.

Swimming around it, the divers all remarked on its condition. It has a lovely bronze UZO in the bridge and its extended sky periscope is intact too. Interestingly, the compass has been removed from the housing just forward of the conning tower.

I have been diving first on this expedition, and today, not for the first time was welcomed onto the wreck by thousands of coley. Like all of the Deadlight wrecks, the life on them is extremely plentiful.

The two new boys on the team were raving about this dive when they came up. Hehe wait till thay see U778 tomorrow.

Comments:
Friday will be our last official Deadlight dive until Phase III in June 2003. This year we have added five more U-boats to the list of those dived and re-visited some of our favourites. Undoubtedly the finding of U-2506 has been the high point of this phase of Deadlight.

Look out for images from the expedition on http://www.periscopepublishing.com The OFFICIAL video of the expeditions is available at there too.

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.

Day Nine: 14 May, 2002 - No diving due to poor weather conditions.

Day Ten: 15 May, 2002 - Another visit on the type XXI boat U-2506.

Day Eleven: 16 May, 2002 - Dropping onto the U-1271.

Day Twelve: 17 May, 2002 - The end report of the Operation Deadlight Expedition II.

Go to the front page of



Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament, 1942-1947, The

Madsen, Chris


Buy this title at


amazon.com

Books dealing with this subject include

Czarne dni U-Bootwaffe. Perepeczko, Andrzej, 1961.
The Grey Wolves of Eriboll. David M. Hird, 2010.
The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament, 1942-1947. Madsen, Chris, 1998.
U-Boat Fact File. Sharpe, Peter, 1988.
The U-Boat Wrecks of Operation Deadlight. McCartney, Innes, 2003.

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