Diving into the History

Recently, I had been reading the Shadow Divers which explains the discovery of the U-Boat U-869. The Term UBoat comes from Underwater Boat. It took me to the times of World War II , the wars, the deaths, the losses which still could not be overcome by their loved ones. The U-869 which was directed by the Control room to traverse towards Gibraltar ended up at 60 miles away from NY. Why it ended up there and how it perished are unknown answers until the log book/captain's diary are retrieved if one such thing still exists at the 230 mile depth in Atlantic ocean.

When the Book speaks of history, it describes the happyTimes when the Germans brought down a lot of ships, the sour-pickling time when the Hunters became the hunted as the American allies closed down on the U-Boats with advanced technologies like Sonar. No matter which side ruled or who had the upper hand, I found the history stained in blood through out. What was going on the minds of the U-boat crew when they boarded in spite of the knowledge that the average lifetime on the boat is 60 days? I watched a documentary which I embedded here courtesy of YouTube that illustrates the book.

I have some unanswered questions - Is it bravery that the crew demonstrated by boarding a U-Boat that shrinks their average lifetime to 60 days? Is it Patriotism when the crew shot the torpedoes at the Allies ( including Passenger liners that carried more than 1000 civilians)making the ships sink ? Is it Patriotism that researchers always strive for a better technical design that may not require the Submarines to surface at all to recharge their batteries, thus protecting themselves from prying eyes and try to fall down many more ships of the allies?




Book Name : Shadow Divers
Genre : Non-Fiction Adventure

- Madhu