5 Random Pages

Recent Changes (All)

Related Pages


Don't Click


Operation Deadlight

⚠ (:tracetrails:)

Operation Deadlight was the planned scuttling of the German U-Boat fleet, surrendered to the Allies at the end of World War II.

The operation commenced on November 25, 1945, lasting until February 12, 1946. The selected location was referred to as Point ZZ, and lay some 120 miles north west of Ireland. The various numbers quoted in the many reports of the operation do not tally, therefore the figures that follow are given for illustration only, and are not intended for comment or revision.

  • Of 154 U-Boats sent, 121 were actually scuttled.
    • 33 were used for other purposes, including:
      • 5 commandeered by Japan, being in the Far East at the time.
      • a number that survived as museum ships.
      • those used for testing, sinking during explosives testing, or sunk thereafter.
  • 57 said to be lost to winter gales while en-route (53 in another account).
  • 119 scuttled off Malin Head, Ireland; Lisahally, Ireland; and Loch Ryan, Scotland.
    • 35 used for other purposes and discarded later.
  • 115 scuttled off the coast of Ireland.
    • 39 used for various task, then sunk.

Point ZZ is also not defined precisely, and the point shown on the map is an approximation, made from the reports, intended only to illustrate the general area.

In fact, the true locations of many of the scuttled U-Boats have been recorded in the course of dive surveys carried out in the period 2001 to 2002, and shows that their scattered remains lie in a steadily widening pattern, beginning in the area of the North Channel between England and Northern Ireland, and expanding as it approaches the area of Point ZZ. This dispersal has been attributed to the winter weather, severe enough to have caused the loss of some boats due to the use of inadequate towing vessels, and breakage of tow-lines. While some would have been lost as a result of these problem, others would have require assistance, and been sunk by gunfire or torpedo. Those that arrived at Point ZZ would have been scuttled by explosive charges fixed to their fore and aft torpedo tubes, and their hatches. In some cases, naval guns, aircraft, torpedoes, and missiles were used, including the Shark Ship to Ship missile, a new development at the time.

Reference is also made to use of the Squid to sink some of the boats. Built to launch depth charges in a specific pattern, from three mortar tubes, they were intended for use in pairs, laying six depth charges around a target. When detonated, the combined pressure pulse was designed to crack the boat's hull. Since the U-Boats had no crews on board to submerge them, and were being scuttled from the surface anyway, references to use of this particular weapon would appear to be incorrect.

Clean steel

The seas around Scotland are one of the remaining sources of relatively accessible Clean Steel.

Since the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, radioactive fallout from such explosions has resulted in contamination of the atmosphere by traces of radioactive elements previously not found there. The process of steelmaking consumes vast quantities of air, leading to the concentration of such trace elements in the final product. Modern, high-sensitivity instrumentation, such as that used for nuclear radiation monitoring, is susceptible to the signal produced even by these trace elements, and requires material free from such contamination for its manufacture.

World War I provided one such source, when the German fleet was scuttled at Scapa Flow on June 21, 1919, to prevent its capture by the British.⚠ [^The German battle fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow | History Today Retrieved June 22, 2014.^] Fifty-one ships sank with a loss of nine lives, the last casualties of that war. Because the fleet was deliberately scuttled by Rear Admiral Ludwig Von Reuter, rather than sunk in battle, the vessels were not classed as War Graves, permitting their later salvage.

Such recovered material is not re-processed or melted down, which would result in its becoming contaminated by modern atmospheric impurities, but is cut and reshaped to suit its final application.

Such sources are limited, and many of them have been used. As a result, sources such as the U-Boats scuttled during Operation Deadlight can become viable, even if associated with high recovery costs. Although there was announcement in 1995 that the MoD awarded salvage right to these boats, nothing appears to have happened since. Subsequent reports of objections received from Russia and America suggests the boats may never be salvaged.

09 April 1997 An interesting story out of Dublin

A plan is being finalized to raise the first of 116 German U-boats scuttled more than 50 years ago off the northwest coast of Ireland, British company Masters Marine Salvage (MMS) which as been granted salvage rights to the submarine graveyard said here Sunday. Commander Mark MacIntyre, managing director of MMS, said they hoped to begin work off County Donegal in mid-May in what will be the biggest salvage operation of its kind in the world in terms of volume. The company had planned to move on site during last year's summer "weather window" but only managed to survey the dive sites which stretch for about 150 miles northwest of Malin Head almost to the edge of the Continental Shelf. The submarines are at depths of 50to 200 metres (150 to 600 feet). The British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary body has sought safety guarantees from the salvagers. A subcommittee report said there was no evidence that the raising of the U-boats would be a danger to the public. The company's team will largely be ex-British navy divers and they will be attempting to reverse the work of colleagues who scuttled the U-boats 52 years ago. They estimate the hulks will each contain recoverable metals. There is also a plan to preserve some of the most famous submarines for museums. About 100 of the submarines may be salvageable and the work may take up to eight years. The North Atlantic U-boat fleet surrendered to the allies and were assembled in Lough Foyle between Donegal and LondonDerry. They were sunk in "Operation Deadlight" in December, 1945. The original plan had been to town them out to the deep water Rockall Trench and scuttle them there. Bad weather disrupted the operation and many parted their tows and were sunk by gunfire rather than opening the seacocks and sinking them.

- Diving and Submersibles: Last paras at foot of page.⚠ [^Diving and Submersibles: Last paras at foot of page - An interesting story out of Dublin . Retrieved June 22, 2014.^]

External links

Map

Approximate distribution of surveyed U-Boat remains:

  • ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.393055 lon=-7.400837 link='Malin Head' :)
  • ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.040811 lon=-7.262563 link='Lisahally' :)
  • ⚠ (:gma-point lat=54.986584 lon=-5.053608 link='Loch Ryan' :)
  • ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.486761 lon=-9.645996 link='Estimate of Point ZZ' :)

⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.2067039 lon=-10.4040527 text='U-Boat 01':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6744869 lon=-10.3930664 text='U-Boat 02':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.1822538 lon=-10.0030517 text='U-Boat 03':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9461239 lon=-9.8602294 text='U-Boat 04':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.3043486 lon=-9.7833251 text='U-Boat 05':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.2097591 lon=-9.7064208 text='U-Boat 06':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.1118730 lon=-9.5086669 text='U-Boat 07':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.1516693 lon=-9.4427490 text='U-Boat 08':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.3530776 lon=-9.2944335 text='U-Boat 09':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.0321567 lon=-9.1845703 text='U-Boat 10':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.0781670 lon=-8.6462402 text='U-Boat 11':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=56.0075954 lon=-8.7066650 text='U-Boat 12':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9891642 lon=-8.7451171 text='U-Boat 13':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9615009 lon=-8.7615966 text='U-Boat 14':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9338178 lon=-8.7011718 text='U-Boat 15':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9245858 lon=-8.7615966 text='U-Boat 16':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8876354 lon=-8.8989257 text='U-Boat 17':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8722290 lon=-8.5638427 text='U-Boat 18':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9030357 lon=-8.4979248 text='U-Boat 19':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8783923 lon=-8.4704589 text='U-Boat 20':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8167154 lon=-8.6627197 text='U-Boat 21':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7889289 lon=-8.6132812 text='U-Boat 22':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7858403 lon=-8.4100341 text='U-Boat 23':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.5659220 lon=-8.6242675 text='U-Boat 24':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8814736 lon=-8.0090332 text='U-Boat 25':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7796623 lon=-8.0859375 text='U-Boat 26':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7796623 lon=-8.0310058 text='U-Boat 27':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7271100 lon=-8.0694580 text='U-Boat 28':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6744869 lon=-8.0804443 text='U-Boat 29':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6713892 lon=-8.0145263 text='U-Boat 30':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.9860915 lon=-8.5693359 text='U-Boat 31':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7302033 lon=-7.9321289 text='U-Boat 32':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6930679 lon=-7.8717041 text='U-Boat 33':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7518493 lon=-7.6464843 text='U-Boat 34':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.7240165 lon=-7.7178955 text='U-Boat 35':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6868752 lon=-7.7288818 text='U-Boat 36':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6496986 lon=-7.7069091 text='U-Boat 37':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6093840 lon=-7.6574707 text='U-Boat 38':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6062812 lon=-7.7288818 text='U-Boat 39':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.5721338 lon=-7.5531005 text='U-Boat 40':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.6372985 lon=-7.5146484 text='U-Boat 41':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.5938674 lon=-7.4707031 text='U-Boat 42':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.5534954 lon=-7.3773193 text='U-Boat 43':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.4570562 lon=-7.2619628 text='U-Boat 44':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.4508262 lon=-6.3500976 text='U-Boat 45':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.4539413 lon=-6.2677001 text='U-Boat 46':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.4570562 lon=-6.1468505 text='U-Boat 47':) ⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.0783672 lon=-5.1910400 text='U-Boat 48':)

⚠ (:gma-map zoom=7 view=sat :)

⚠ [[!World War II]] ⚠ [[!Navy]] ⚠ [[!Remains]] ⚠ (:WPCategoriesList:)

Comments

You may add a comment or offer further details which may be included in the page above.

Commenting has been disabled thanks to the attention of scum known as spam commenters


⚠ (:tracetrails:)