U-Boat attack!

Norway Threatened by WWII-Era Submarine
- By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
(12-20) 12:30 PST OSLO, Norway (AP) –

More than 60 years after being torpedoed by the British navy, a Nazi submarine built to threaten allied ships continues to spread fear off the coast of Norway.

The rusting wreckage of the U-864, sunk in a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced weapons technology, now poses a major environmental threat due to its poisonous cargo: 70 tons of mercury.

Residents on the tiny island of Fedje, located in the North Sea on roughly the same latitude as Scotland’s Shetland Islands, want the sub removed. But authorities fear a salvage operation could result in a catastrophic spill, and suggest entombing the wreck in the seabed with rocks, cement and sand.

“Local people are very concerned,” Fedje’s Mayor Erling Walderhaug told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They wanted it taken away so the danger would be gone for good.”

The U-864 tried to skirt allied navy patrols on a last-ditch secret mission code-named “Caesar,” to bring jet engine parts, missile guidance systems and mercury for weapons production to Germany’s ally, Japan. British experts discovered the mission by breaking a German code.

In a rare underwater duel, the British submarine HMS Venturer stalked the U-864 for three hours before it finally sank it on Feb. 9, 1945, about 2 1/2 miles off Fedje. . . .

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/12/20/international/i123020S91.DTL

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