I note with some sadness that the plans to honor the men of the CSS Hunley down in Charleston, SC have been trashed by some few as 'honoring a regime which was every bit as bad, and commited atrocities as bad as the NAZIs.'  But as a partial answer, I wonder if anybody can help me with a bit of Virginia history, also involving an 'enemy' submarine.

My father was army liason officer at the 5th Naval District in Norfolk through most of WWII.  After the war, he told a story of one of the first sinkings of a German UBoat off the Virginia capes, probably late 1942 or early 1943.  It seems a PBY on patrol caught U-____ on the surface charging its batteries, dropped bombs or depth charges set to minimal depth and sank it.  The PBY, running low on fuel then radioed its location (before GPS!) dropped life rafts to survivors and returned to Norfolk.  Navy ships and aircraft could not find it when they reached the area.  Two or three days later, a smart staff officer realized the sub was in the Gulf Stream when sunk, so calculated the northward movement, dispatched rescue craft, and there they found the survivors and unfortunately the bodies of many who had died from exposure.  

To make a long story short, a funeral with full military honors was given the dead crew members at the US Military Cemetery in Hampton -- German flags, German music ('Deuschland uber alles', I guess).  I have never read of this anywhere, and 20 minutes ago was unsuccessful finding anything about it at the Library of Virginia or the Hampton Military Cemetery.

Can anybody point me to a source for further information?

Randy Cabell

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