WWII Wrecks

U-533 was a Nazi German U-Boat (Type IXC/40) that operated during World War II between April 15, 1943 and October 16, 1943. It was first launched on September 11, 1942 with a crew of 53, under the command of Helmut Hennig.

It was sunk by a Royal Air Force Blenheim bomber while it was operating in the Gulf of Oman. Of the crew of 53, only one survived by staying afloat without a life jacket for 28 hours until he was rescued by the HMS Hiravati near Khor Fakkan.

Walter Elcock, now 89 and living in Georgia, recalls the landing and how he managed to snag a wire on the carrier with the plane's tailhook and hung from it a few seconds before the wire broke.

"I went straight underwater," Elcock recalled. He unbuckled and kicked for the surface, maybe 10 feet away, thinking that he wouldn't be able to stay afloat wearing all of his heavy flight gear. Fortunately almost immediately, a Coast Guard ship pulled him out.

"I grew up hearing the story of this crash," said Elcock's grandson, Hunter Brawley, 36, of Atlanta, Georgia.

Forty-four sailors perished while another forty-two were injured in the incident. The two ships managed to make their way to the Greek island of Corfu for repairs. Nevertheless, the incident sparked off a diplomatic row at the time.

Then, three months ago, the wreckage of the HMS Volage was discovered in the Ionian Sea, but the discovery was only made public this month.

In the 1930s, the Soviet Union built a series of submarines called the S class, based on German designs.

In the summer of 1942, the S7 sank the Swedish cargo ships Margareta and Luleå, delivering iron to Germany. Shortly after, the sub was cruising on the surface at night, off the Swedish coast not far from Norrtälje, when she was spotted by the Finnish submarine Vesihiisi. The Vesihiisi fired one torpedo and the S7 sank quickly.

Sea Hunters, L.P., a division of the Portland Maine based shipwreck research and recovery company Sub Sea Research, embark to recover of one of the world's wealthiest wrecks.

Update

It was reported that the wreck of the Port Nicholson was discovered in 2008 by Greg Brooks, of the American company Sub Sea Research, but the discovery was kept secret until February 2012.

Brooks initially claimed to be investigating an unidentified vessel, codenamed Blue Baron, that lay off the coast of Guyana in South America.

The submarine was reported lost Aug. 16, 1942.  Underwater video footage captured by an expedition hired by sons of the commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele, allowed the Navy to confirm the discovery.

Japanese anti-submarine attack data recorded no attack in the Aleutian area at the time of the Grunion's disappearance, so the submarine's fate remained an unsolved mystery for more than 60 years, the US Navy said.