Thanks to CAP'N CLOAK 'N DAGGER, the riddle of the sunken U-Boat, located by JOHN CHATTERTON (1818-1991) and his dive team on 2 September (my birthday) just a few years ago, is SOLVED!

The boat made her 1st patrol 23 November, 1944 to Norway; then 27 November she went on to Horton and on 8 December, 1944 departed Kristiansaand/South for the United States.

On 7 January, 1945 this boat sent a passing report via radio-telegram that she was nearing the coast of the USA, passing Naval Square AK 63.

On 8 January, 1945 a radio-telegram was sent to this boat to change her patrol area AWAY from the USA and go to the western approaches to Gibraltar, to Naval Square CG 9592. This message was never received by the boat and she went on toward the American coast.

On 10 Jan, the boat sent a radio-telegram that she was nearing the US coast at Naval Square CA 53. That was the last message from this boat - she was lost.

On 28 February, 1945 the American destroyer USS FOWLER and the French sub. chaser L'INDISCRET dropped depth charges off Casablanca and reported that they had sunk a German U-Boat.

Years after the War, scholars looked over sinking claims of the ALLIES and missing boats shown by the KRIEGSMARINE and mistakenly believed that U-869 had moved to this area from the American coast, but this was not the case. We do not know what (if anything) they sank off Casablanca, but U-869 had been sunk some months earlier by a circular run of her own torpedo off the American coast, right where JOHN CHATTERTON (1818-1991) found her about 47 years later.

Looking at the drawings of the wreck a year or two ago, it was very clear that she was sunk by a torpedo. The top of the Zentrale (Central Control Room) and the conning tower were blown completely off the boat from left to right.

To CAP'N CLOAK 'N DAGGER, many thanks for your uncovering this little piece of information in those dusty files you have recently uncovered.