German U-boat may be at bottom of Labrador river.

Divers believe they have located a WWII submarine 100 kilometres inland from the ocean.

Three men went missing near Muskrat Falls in the Churchill River located in Labrador. The search team used sonar and made a surprising discovery that they believe is a German sub buried in the river mud.

Whoa, you say! 100 km inland up a river? Convert km to miles and you get a little over 62. Does that seem so far-fetched? Maybe, but it's well-known that the Germans were hugging the Maritime Provinces of North America during WWII as that was the staging area for the allied convoys.

Germans even landed in Labrador and there set up a battery operated weather station at an isolated rocky inlet. (Their abandoned equipment can now be seen at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and in the video below.)

Eastern Canadians know the Germans even came into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and probably into the Saint Lawrence River itself. I've heard many oldtimers from Tadoussac and Kamouraska swear that they saw German subs surface in the Saint Lawrence River in the late evening hours. People used to actually go out and watch for them, and who knows but that the term 'watching the submarine races' could have originated there? So is it still that far-fetched?

An important piece of history from the Second World War may be sitting in a river in Labrador.
Searchers believe they've found a German U-boat buried in the sand on the bottom of the Churchill River. The discovery has yet to be authenticated.
Two years ago, searchers scoured the bottom of the Churchill River with side-scanning sonar. They were looking for three men lost over Muskrat Falls.
When they reviewed the footage from that search, they made an unexpected discovery.
"We were looking for something completely different, not a submarine, not a U-boat — I mean, no one would ever believe that was possible," Brian Corbin told CBC News.
"It was a great feeling when we found it."

I must admit that I am absolutely no good at detecting anything from this image. Try as I might to see anything, I still don't. Maybe some ATSers with sonar experience can help me out?

"It's 150-feet long, 30 metres, exactly what our side-scan sonar shows," Corbin said.

I invite you to read the article and also listen to the video interview of Mr. Jergens as well as an audio interview. Up to a possible 50 subs are still unaccounted for in the German naval records.

Article, video and audio interviews



The following is a modern German sub from the 2005 era, but I'm throwing it in for you enthusiastic navy types



Lastly a reviewer talks about Uboats against Canada

Cool. I hope it ends up in a canadian museum so i can go see it.....

They were seriously coming *here*? Man...

reply to post by phroziac


They most certainly did. Torpedoed Signal Hill and sank a ferry. Listen to the last video for that bit of news.

I'm no expert but it looked like a sub to me. I wonder if the crew got out?

reply to post by VoidHawk


Good question. If they had done so, wouldn't the Germans know it? Then again, would they admit to it?

you have to wonder if it was scuttled at the end of the war and the crew stayed in Canada.,

or if it was dropping spies or sabators sometime during the war.

reply to post by ANNED

We do know that German spies were caught in Canada and held in detention, but as to how they got here, well I would love to know. It seems reasonable to me that they were dropped off.

Originally posted by phroziac
Cool. I hope it ends up in a canadian museum so i can go see it.....

They were seriously coming *here*? Man...

I was talking to the owner of Fort Amherst, at the mouth of the harbour in St. John's, NFLD . His mother use to tell him of hearing German submariners through the fog, talking to one another outside of the anti-sub net. Oh yah...they were here alright...up the St. Lawrence too...we'll likely never know how far. Great story and I am looking forward to seeing it develop.

Interesting...i hope that maybe it can go on display for sometime.

Originally posted by Blackbird2012
Interesting...i hope that maybe it can go on display for sometime.

The Germans regard it as a war grave, and as such, it should remain undisturbed. I agree.

Goose Bay air force base lies close to the banks of the Churchill River. The base was made during the war by the US to facilitate air transport along the North Atlantic route. This sub would have to have slid past the base, with it's hundreds of men, unseen. I wonder if this sub had a special purpose to spy and monitor air plane activity, a sub fitted with powerful radio and radar equipment.

Why is it at the bottom? Could it be that the sub was sunk by the allies, they knew of it's purpose and kept it silent because knowledge of a spy sub was too much for the public to handle?

I'm not sure why that it would be a suprise that there is a sub in a river. I have been in rivers on a fast attack where we werent supposed to be. I remember looking thru the periscope from a river and seeing some kids playing in their yard!

From the video, it doesn't look that it is in very good shape, and they are normally considered war graves. That would be unless there is no one on board and she was scuttled there.

The U505 that was captured is in a museum in Chicago, if anyone wants to have a look at one.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

Originally posted by Blackbird2012
Interesting...i hope that maybe it can go on display for sometime.

The Germans regard it as a war grave, and as such, it should remain undisturbed. I agree.

Not the germans decision when they leave junk behind enemy lines. What if its not even a grave? just cause it was there doesnt mean men were in it. I dunno...

What if that baltic sea ufohad really turned out to be a ufo, would it be left alone as a war grave? I doubt it...

Originally posted by Cheerfulnihilist
Goose Bay air force base lies close to the banks of the Churchill River. The base was made during the war by the US to facilitate air transport along the North Atlantic route. This sub would have to have slid past the base, with it's hundreds of men, unseen. I wonder if this sub had a special purpose to spy and monitor air plane activity, a sub fitted with powerful radio and radar equipment.

Why is it at the bottom? Could it be that the sub was sunk by the allies, they knew of it's purpose and kept it silent because knowledge of a spy sub was too much for the public to handle?

If it had been sunk by allies, they would have done everything in their power to bring it up and study it for its engineering secrets. The Americans caught their first Uboat in 1944, not long before the end of the war. Here's a video of the longest tow in the world, btw. (This thought makes me smile for so many reasons )

Originally posted by VoidHawk
I'm no expert but it looked like a sub to me. I wonder if the crew got out?

Hopefully not. Cowardly way to fight a war.

ETA:

Forgot to say thanks for posting this OP. Very interesting story.

Originally posted by Submarines
I'm not sure why that it would be a suprise that there is a sub in a river. I have been in rivers on a fast attack where we werent supposed to be. I remember looking thru the periscope from a river and seeing some kids playing in their yard!

No kidding? What an image! I'd like to hear more.


Being a landlubber, we know that river depths vary and have shallow spots. We also know that radar etc was invented back then during the war, so the notion that they would dare to undertake the topographical uncertainty of a river seems so mindboggling and daring, and perhaps even a trifle foolish and irrational, from my perspective anyway.

Sunken warships remain the property of their country and are almost always left undeistrubed as war graves - the only exceptions I can think of are if they pose a hazard to navigation. The Japanese mini-subs at Pearl Harbor are exceptions as well - mostly due to the ill feelings at the time.

Originally posted by Cheerfulnihilist
Why is it at the bottom? Could it be that the sub was sunk by the allies, they knew of it's purpose and kept it silent because knowledge of a spy sub was too much for the public to handle?

Many possibilities including the ones described so far by others. It could also be that the allies didn't want the germans to know that their sub has been captured/destroyed along with the crew and keep them in the dark ? Could it also have been a captured submarine by the allies on its way to a special location for studies?

Did a Labrador retriever find it?

The Germans had a weather station set up in Labrador....

Weather Station Kurt

There was supposed to be another but the u-boat carrying it was sunk.

It's an awesome find and if it is deemed a war grave, it should remain untouched, wltyhough I am sure some divers will go check out the wreck even if it is deemed such.

There was another one found this week as well, off of MA...

www.vancouversun.com...

I love history like this.