The German submarine U-106 was believed to have hit a British mine when it sank on October 7, 1917 off the coast of the Netherlands.
WWI submarine found off Dutch coast
A German submarine from World War I has been discovered off the north coast of the Netherlands, where it sank in 1917, and will become an official war grave, the Royal Dutch Navy said Wednesday.
The U-106 was discovered in the North Sea, north of the Dutch island of Terschelling, in October 2009 by a Dutch naval ship mapping the sea floor, the navy said in a statement.
The find was not announced earlier because the German government needed time to find and inform the next-of-kin of the 41 crew who sank with the boat.
The submarine of 838 tonnes, 71.5 metres (234 feet) long, took to the water for the first time in July 1917, commanded by “Kapitänleutnant” Hans Hufnagel, fresh from submarine school.
to still discover historic war artifacts from ww1 is quite humbling. Considering ww1 was supposed to be the war to end all wars. ww1 seems to be over shadowed though. I also read that there are 2 living survivors from ww1 globally. Is that true?
Sadly the “war to end all wars” turned out only to be practice for more deadly wars to come. Accordingly to Wikipedia there are either two or three living veterans depedning on how you define the term. List of surviving veterans of World War I
I also have read of almost yearly deaths in France from unexploded shells left over from WW1 to this day.
To answer Tim, the US last WW I survivor passed away about a month ago. He was 110, last name was Buckles. He lied about his age to get in to WW I. Not sure about the worldwide remnants.
Am I the only one that finds it interesting that the announcement had to be delayed for “next-of-kin” notifications? Wow. Must have been some great-grandkids who would have taken it really hard? Sorry, that explanation sounds fishy to me. There must have been some other, perhaps political reason. I would have thought a World War I sub finding should have been higher on the ladder of the news rung than that.
Nevertheless, a salute and R.I.P. to the men of the U-106. The bad thing about war is that the common man has to end up fighting the war for the rich and elite, who of course are far-removed from any actual impact. The decision to mark it as an official war grave is a good one.
@ Wes T
they always notify the next of kin when they find graves or the remnants of a soldier.
many are still classed as missing in action, so by law they have to notify the family, even if they have never met or heard of him.
and yeah, there are many bombs from the wars still found in europe today, in my home town of düsseldorf (west germany) they have found a considerable number of bombs when they where digging up the new subway line.
same goes for france and holland and the other country’s involved in the war.