"Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson

[Greg]

This is the story of the discovery in 1991 of U-869 in deep water off the coast of New Jersey, and the discoverers' six-year struggle to positively identify it. This is a paperback published in 2004 that I recently picked up in an airport, though there was a PBS Nova episode about it in 2000.

Part of the book covers the techniques and hazards of deep water scuba diving, and has some sensationalism involved with those hazards (not to downplay the hazards; three divers had made mistakes and died on U-869 by the time the book was written). There's also some sensationalism with the ups and downs, divorces etc in the lives of the two main divers. But there's also some solid U-boot history, technical details, and the interesting story of one of the divers' successful efforts to locate the surviving family members of some of the lost crewmen and give them closure on the fate of their loved ones, since neither Kriegsmarine nor US Navy had known what happened to U-869. He even visited the last surviving crewman, who was sick on shore when the sub sailed on its last cruise.

I would recommend the book for those with interest in U-boats and unravelling WWII history.

Greg

[JasonS]

I read it too and liked it. The story line about the uboat was interesting as was the detective work the two guys put into finding out which it was. The main guy now hosts a show on the History Channel. Deep Sea Detectives I think...

JasonS