Missing German submarine found off Devon coast 82 years after Royal Navy sank it

Plymouth-based diving team Gasperados spotted the missing U-boat about 20 miles from Salcombe in Devon.

Their deep sea diving squad made the discovery in August at a depth of almost 230ft underwater.

The ship was attacked by HMS Balfour in July 1944, and its commander waited for as long as possible before deciding to blow the tanks and bring the submarine up to the surface, to give the crew a chance of survival.

All 52 members of the crew survived the attack.

A recovered navy log had recorded the sinking with incorrect coordinates, resulting in it not being found until recently.

Members of the diving team that made the discovery said they were “really pleased” to have found the missing Nazi vessel.

Gasperados diver Dominic Robinson told the BBC: “Once we started moving around it, I started seeing the individual features.

“I saw the snorkel, I saw the conning tower, all those kind of things. I knew that we were going to get the video needed to identify it, so I was really pleased about that.”

Recounting what the ship’s crew may have done in the attack, Mr Robinson said they would have “managed to get it to the surface” before getting into their life rafts for survival.

He explained: “They were bobbing around in the sea and then the very next day they were found by British aircraft, British vessels and then taken away to the prisoner of war camp.”

After the discovery, the family of the U-boat’s commander, Ulf Lawaetz, got in touch with the diving team to tell them how pleased they were that the wreck had finally been found and identified almost 90 years on.

The family showed the divers a small numbered tag that Mr Lawaetz kept for the rest of his life.

Mr Robinson said: “Wreck identification can sometimes feel very focused on positions, construction details, photographs and pieces of metal.

“Then somebody’s family gets in touch and suddenly you are reminded that there were real people behind all of it.”

German World War Two historian Dr Axel Niestle, who specialises in U-boats, said the wreck’s incorrect position was recorded due to a “clerical error in the documents”.

He said the incorrect position was some 46 miles from the actual site of the wreckage.

Mr Niestle told the divers: “The position they picked up was somewhat different from the position which is in the historical records about the submarine, the under submarine attack. Usually this is a difficult situation, because we have one minute in the latitude and longitude between the two different positions, which in the British channel is quite a distance.

“So correcting the record of 672 is a major step forward in terms of confirming its loss, confirming its correct position, and just making way for other discoveries in the channel area as well.”