The Mosquitos probably also took some videofootage, but that is nowhere to be found.
One of the pictures has a strange detail on it. If anyone has an idea what this round structure in the air behind the tower is please come forward. According to military experts it does not look like a smoke-ring from the exploding rockets, and it is not a scratch or error on the film either.

Note! The pictures are in a very high resolution, as they are copied from the original film. Each of them has a size of about 20 megabytes.

What is the round structure in the upper left corner?

Press the picture to see it in the original resolution

Press the picture to see the original resolution

Grenaa, Saturday 16/5, 2009

According to the plan we, the dive team silver arrow, should depart from a port in Zealand, Denmark, or Sweden during Friday evening. Tour participants are Hans Joergen Eriksen, Jens Erik Eriksen, Jan Petersen, and myself.
Everyone are diving on CCR – closed circuit rebreather). I will later go in depth with the technique in the rebreathers and the gas we intend to use on the trip.
The goal is the eastern Baltic, where we will visit new or unknown wrecks in depths between 60 and 80 meters, but the top of the wish list is a visit to the wreck of the “General von Steuben”.

Since the weather forecast was not very good for diving before late Sunday, it was agreed that weather during the Sunday dinner would determine the departure date.

We are sailing with the Ternen, which is a former Swedish customs cruiser, currently owned by Åge Jensen, better known as Dynamite Åge.
Ternen were purchased when the U534 was raised, sponsored by Karsten Ree. After this project Åge and Karsten made a deal, and today Ternen is owned by Åge. For many years this has been the divingship which found the new wrecks and told their storys.

Åge himself have been diving since 1960 and was the first man on countless shipwrecks over time, but the main interest
has been the submarines and he has the honor of having located U251 in 1976 south of Anholt and U534 north
of Anholt in 1986. In 2007 he found the last uboat that were reported sunk in Danish waters, but which had not yet been found namely the U2359. This has required some extensive investigation of the German war archives and it is no exaggeration to say that Åge Jensen today is probably the
Dane with the greatest knowledge of the wrecks in the Danish waters with Kattegat in particular and German Uboots as a specialty.

According to Åge there is only one known wreck that still hasn’t been found in the Kattegat. That’s the wreck of the steamer BALTIC, which collided with another ship and sank in the 1930’ties.

One would think that all wrecks have been found by now, but with the opportunities with technical diving and gas mixture, which allows the divers to go
deeper than ever before, and stay there longer, there are still many wrecks in the deep that still haven’t had their
story told.

That was a little background history. Now we have to see if the weather gods are with us, so that we can reach our goals this time! The right weather will be bring the stories to the surface.

Grenaa, Sunday 17/5
The Weatherreport today was not particularly promising for diving in the Baltic Sea, but there should be a chance
for some good days in the northern Kattegat. It was agreed that Jens Erik and I drove to the port in Dragør were Ternen was.

Dragør, Monday 18/5

We arrived at 0600 and threw our equipment, the sponsor sign, and some fresh supplies aboard. Our plan was to sail
to the Kattegat and make a few dives while we headed north. If the weather would be better we would sail into Grenaa, take the rest of the team onboard, and then continue further north.

As we rounded Helsingoer, we had a blank sea – time for diving! The course was set towards the wreck of steamer “THEMIS”, which rests at 28 meters of water southeast of the island Hesseloe.

“THEMIS” had clear water and no current. It had collapsed a great deal more than the last time we were there, but
that’s also a couple of years ago.

Back aboard Ternen there was good news. The weather forecast had significantly
improved since the morning, so we phoned around and called the people together for a departure from Grenaa next morning – monday at 01:00. The plan was to head north to the area around Laesoe because the weather was still bad in the Baltic region.

At the end of the day we arrived at Grenaa and got busy. We needed extra supplies, diesel and lubricating oil, gas, limestone,
and extra gear.

There were also new planning to do, now that we were going to the Skagerrak instead of the Baltic Sea, so which wrecks should we investigate in and which port should we use as a base?

Grenaa Tuesday 19/5

We sailed from Grenaa at 01:30 with all participants on board and a promising weather forecast for the Skagerrak.
The course was set for the position of U-2359 which we should make some footage of so that the planning of the salvage could move on.

We also had to measure the angle of the uboot, and measure how much of it that is buried in the mud, as well as the height from the elevated port to the seafloor. Everything is important information that is needed to know before a recovery.

We arrived at the position at 07:30 o’clock. The weight was thrown and the first team of divers made clear. The buoy stood nice and there was a moderate current. We hoped that the sight was good enough for that task could be solved. Jan
Petersen and I were the first team and we were excited, it’s not everyday that you have to dive on true war story
and even to be some of the first to see U-2359 in more than 64 years. Only two men had dived there before and that was Jens Erik Eriksen, who is also along on this ride, and Allan Greisen. No doubt that we were excited.

See the video from the dive on U2359 here.

U-2359 is a challenging dive, as it is in deep water (approx. 70 meters) in a heavily trafficked area and there is often a strong current. In addition, the sight is often very poor due to the soft bottom in the area, and to all this a large part of the submarine is wrapped in trawler nets, which doesn’t make things easier.

We left the surface and began the journey into the depth. As we crossed the 40 meters all surface lights disappeared and we continued the journey in total darkness. The reflection from our computer screens and LEDs in our Headup display was only
source of light. We were approaching 60 meters fast and began to decrease the rate of descent and turn our powerful HID lights on.

Now we were about to be there. The first thing that captured our light in the dark water, were the green trawl nets and the large orange balls that keep the trawl floating. We took a look around the area so that we didn’t ended up in the middle of the trawl.
The sinker had landed right down in a trawl, but we could immediately see the periscope and a antenna, and the contours of the submarine’s tower. “Touchdown” – we had landed.

We swam around the hull of to get an overview before we started. U-2359 is buried in the muddy bottom, to approx. one meter before the tower.
The screw and rudder is elevated from the seafloor. It fits very well, because at the film from the British bomb squadron that sank it, it seemed that it got the most hits in front of the tower. This means that the bow has been flooded, and it has sunk with the bow downwards.

When we had a overview of the ship, we went in to work. When that was successfully accomplished, we started to look more closely at the tower – exciting,
but now the time was running out, and we began our ascent to the surface. At 26 meters we had our first decompression stop

While we were degassing at the rope, we let our thoughts go back to May 2nd 1945, when U-2359 as one of the last submarines escaped from Nazi Germany and met its fate in the form of a mosquito fighter-bombers squadron. It was a short process when Hellfire missiles and machinegun fire slammed into the hull in front of the tower and shortly after U-2359 dived for the last time.

After completing the decompression we broke the surface with a certain satisfaction having seen something as some of the very first people ever.
We also knew that this probably is the last time that such a finding is made in
Danish waters.

The next team was ready and went into the water while I and Jan was ready for lunch and coffee.
When the last team came out of the water again there was a lively discussion about the things that were observed and measured, – a very exciting dive and good teamwork.

The next dive that day was to take place in the same area but not on the same depth. Åge had a position some miles away, which hadn’t been checked before and he wanted us to go have a look.

Jan and I had been degassing for the longest time on the surface, so we were also the first to get in the water again. According to Åge it was a fairly large wreck that was located at about 48 meters.

We had a lot of expectations when we jumped in and began our descent towards the deep. But when we came to the end of the rope that was lowered down to the seafloor, we found that it had hit the wreck, and the sight in the water was less than half a meter.

We then took our line wheels and fixed it firmly in the bottom.
Then we began the search by swimming in larger and larger circles. After 5 minutes of swimming we hit the side of the wreck. We quickly swam up to the deck and could see that we were on the stern of the wreck. Unfortunately that was the only thing we found out the as the sight was still zero. In addition, the wreck was completely overgrown by sea flowers, so it was impossible to navigate around. We spent another 15 minutes tumbling around before we agreed to abort the dive. We then returned to the surface.

After having conferred with the others on board, we agreed to sail to the port Østerby on Laesoe, to have a little
dinner and make plans for the next day’s diving.

Part two of this log will be available soon.

Click on the picture the enlarge it:

Jenner and Aage with the tool, that was used to measure the angel of U2359 on the seabed

Here is the new footage from the wreck of the Type XXIII(23) electro submarine U2359. The wreck is located on approx. 80 meters of water and the seafloor is very muddy. Put these two things together and you have some pretty bad conditions for making good video. Nevertheless this video is completely unique as it is the only existing footage of a type XXIII. It is also the only one that has been located and that can be reached by divers. However this wreck is not within reach with normal scuba-equipment, and these divers uses rebreathers to get far enough down into the dark water of the Kattegat. For the same reason only a handful of people have visited U2359 since the sinking on May 2. 1945.

The purpose of this dive was to get measure exactly how the wreck is resting on the seafloor. The wreck has an angel of 10-11 degrees and the stern has been buried in mud. This indicates that the uboot had its engines running after the crew left it, and that it smashing into the seafloor with a certain forward speed.

Video 1 out of 2

Video 2 out of 2

If you prefer the to read the original article in danish,  just click the picture:

Six sports divers from the club Halmstad scubadivers have found the German submarine U804, which in several years has been intensively searched for in several years. U804, along with U843 and two torpedo boats, was sunk by British Mosquito fighters off Tjörn near Marstrand, Sweden.

While the Norwegian Einar Hoevding in the early 50′s succeeded to raise U843 which was loaded with tin, rubber, and mercury, he could not find the U804, which sailed with a cargo of platinum with a value of 45 million Swedish kroner.
Now, the six young Swedes found the submarine. It lies at 40-70 meters of water somewhere between Halmstad and Gothenburg. The Swedish naval staff confirms that the position could be correct.

Cargo was for the V-weapons program
Both submarines came from Norwegian ports shortly before World War II ended. Their valueable cargo was to ensure Hitler’s so-called V-weapons program – retaliatory weapons. Their cargoes were vital for the chemical industry and weapons industry. The Allies feared that Hitler would win the race for the nuclear bomb, why all German warships bound for German ports was bombed in fear that they could transport uranium or heavy water from Norway.

Platinum came from South America
U804s platinum came from South America, and was transferred to U804 in a Norwegian port. The German director F. Hermann tells Jyllandsposten that U804 left Kiel port on the 4.th of April 1945 in a northerly direction. The Commander onboard was Herbert Meyer (age 34). U804 was sunken on the 9.th of April off the coast of Sweden south while on a southern course.

Building a socalled Seadragon
In Halmstad the sport divers Paul Tevely (33), Gunnar severinsson (28), Dan Berntsson (26), Lars Kårdahl (28), and Captain in the Swedish Air Force Bertil Andersson (32) and business manager Hans Sjunnesson (27) are preparing to dive down to the U804 to take pictures in three or four months time. In the meantime they are based at the school where Paul Tevely is a teacher. Here they are building the socalled seadragons which will be used when diving down to the U804.

Paul Tevely have been a sports diver for 12 years and has taught several of his friends to dive. He owns sport diving schools in Halmstad, Malmö and Lund.

- We do not dare to sail out to the submarine now after it has been leaked that we have found U804, Paul Tevely says.

We have been diving on wrecks for several years. We started diving three or four years ago by Anholt, where we among other things, found a major German troop transport ship. It was a sad sight to see the bodies of the soldiers. There was only the skeleton and metal items, weapons, rings, metal buckles and so on. Uniforms and the body was just a soft mass.

U804 was found three months ago
We stopped diving for fun, and started a systematic search for submarines. We studied all available material on the U804 and worked with a small vessel from our sport diving club and a depthsonar and a Decca. Nearly three months ago, we found the U804. Several times competitors were on the heels of us. One day some German divers were approximately 40 meters from the submarine but they didn’t discover it because the visibility even under very good conditions is only 3-4 meters.

Diving down to the submarine in the spring
We know there are at least ten competitors who are trying to take away our finding from us. So we are very careful about what we do, and in the meantime we just prepare to dive to the U804 in the spring. Among other things, we also need to make clear who owns the submarine. It lies in international waters. We will have protection from the Swedish authorities when the ownership is made clear.

Wants 75 % of the cargo
Platinum currently costs 23,000 Swedish crowns per kilo, and we may claim 75% of the load. When the submarine is being raised, we need a lot of money, and therefore we started to look after investors who want a share of the business. We have already received the first inquiries from England, Norway and Sweden. Paul Tevely and his comrades refuse to tell on which days and what time they found U804 because they fear that some of their competitors in this way can locate the submarine’s position.
- We have already invested 30,000 Swedish crowns in the search and further 25,000 to build the seadragons that will take us down to shoot pictures of U804, says Paul Tevney.

Among the experts who have commented on the ownership U804 is professor of maritime law at Gothenburg University, Kurt Grönors: – The six sports divers will probably have ownership of U804, but it depends on where it lies. If it’s in international waters, the German State, then the question is who the heir after the Third Reich – East or West Germany? Which of the two German States can claim the precious cargo?

Decca strip is in a bank safe deposit
Paul Tevely: We consult with legal experts and are waiting for an answer from both German countries. No matter how it ends, we are keen on U804 and will try to get it raised.

Paul Tevely and his companions are sure that no one gets the exact position of the submarine. It is only available on our Decca recording, which is the key to the wreck and none of us can get it from the safe alone. It can only be retrieved by us all six at once. In that way, there is no danger that any of us can earn an extra penny, if I may put it this way, he says.

By the way: If anyone has some of the pictures taken from the helicopter on this mission, feel free to come forward and share them with us.

See the big picture

Theese documents are pretty much what to expect inside of a German submarine equipped for war in that time, but among all the navigation manuals and “war” documents is also a telegram from Wilhelm Brinkmann, who is reporting that he just married Fräulein Ruth Rimat..

According to Aage, one of the many books found onboard describes a detailed plan how Europe would be diveded and shared among the top-nazis, when Germany had won the war. This book is now somewhere in Liverpool, but if it is possible, it will be put online some day too.

Documents from U-534

Also see this short video with Aage telling about preserving the many documents, that are kept frozen.

All theese documents are now at the museum in Liverpool.

Soon some of the many Nazi documents, that was found onboard will be online too.

Click to see the the gallery