British Divers Locate Lost German ‘U-672’ Submarine Hidden by Log Error
In the climactic months of World War II, the English Channel became a deadly theater of naval attrition as Allied anti-submarine forces worked relentlessly to bottle up German undersea routes following the Normandy landings. Facing catastrophic attrition rates, the German Kriegsmarine deployed stealth-oriented designs such as the German ‘U-672’ submarine into narrow waterways heavily contested by surface escorts and patrol aircraft. For modern naval historians, locating the final resting places of these sunken combatants remains essential for reconciling surviving operational records with actual wartime losses.
Operating under severe electronic warfare limitations and constant threat from Allied radar-equipped escort groups, German submarine commanders struggled to remain undetected in coastal waters. The intense tactical pressure often produced severe navigational discrepancies during high-stress surface clashes and depth-charge engagements. As damaged warships sank or were scuttled in deep water, the chaotic nature of fleet tracking meant coordinates in official naval logbooks were frequently entered with substantial operational inaccuracies.
Decades after the war, deep-sea technical divers solved one of the channel’s most persistent maritime mysteries by officially identifying the wreck of ‘U-672’ off the coast of Devon. The forgotten vessel rests upright on the seabed at a depth of roughly 70 meters, located approximately 20 miles off the seaside town of Salcombe. The discovery successfully corrects a long-standing historical record that had previously misidentified the site as a sunken World War I sailing vessel named ‘Hildigard’.
The submarine had vanished from modern wreck databases largely because of a clerical charting error made by Allied forces during the heat of combat. In July 1944, the Royal Navy frigate ‘HMS Balfour’ intercepted and heavily damaged ‘U-672’ with depth charges during an intensive anti-submarine sweep. While British naval logs officially recorded the engagement, naval clerks mistakenly plotted the sinking coordinates nearly 40 nautical miles—approximately 74 km—away from the true underwater battlefield.
Plymouth dive team Gasperados have identified the #shipwreck of #WW2 German Type VIIC U-672, scuttled after an encounter with US-built @RoyalNavy frigate HMS Balfour, 20 miles off Salcombe, on 18th July 1944. (@JohnnyR_TV & @britta_zeltmann @BBCNews) https://t.co/kVhrStQKBY https://t.co/82upFO5no6
— Dr Phil Weir (@navalhistorian) October 21, 2026
An initial survey of the hull conducted by Portland divers prompted a specialized technical expedition led by the Plymouth-based diving team Gasperados aboard the charter vessel Integrity. Exploring the deep wreck, team member Dominic Robinson identified critical mechanical features that verified the vessel was an authentic ‘Type VIIC’ submarine. Robinson noted that he was “really pleased” after filming key hull structures, as documented in an expedition briefing outlining the deep-water survey.
Visual footage collected during the dive confirmed key structural signatures, including an early ball-float ‘Schnorchel’ mast, distinct flood openings along the hull, and an intact conning tower. Furthermore, researchers observed hardware remnants from the ‘Aphrodite’ radar decoy system, an experimental anti-radar balloon deployed to jam Allied escort tracking systems. Cross-referencing the subsea photogrammetry against Kriegsmarine construction logs, prominent German naval historian Dr. Axel Niestlé verified that the vessel was definitively ‘U-672’.
Unlike many catastrophic undersea losses during the Battle of the Atlantic, the engagement did not result in mass casualties. When catastrophic leaks crippled the submarine following the attack from ‘HMS Balfour’, its commanding officer, Oberleutnant zur See Ulf Lawaetz, ordered the crew to blow ballast tanks in a bid to surface. All 52 crew members managed to evacuate into inflatable life rafts before the damaged boat slipped beneath the waves.
The following day, British aircraft and patrol boats rescued the entire German crew from the open water, transferring all 52 sailors to prisoner-of-war camps where they survived until the end of hostilities. Ulf Lawaetz later returned home to Germany and lived a long life, with surviving family members expressing relief that the vessel’s precise coordinates have finally been resolved. The identification of ‘U-672’ closes one of the final unverified chapters of naval warfare in the English Channel, proving how modern subsea archaeology can rectify wartime record errors.
