German U-Boat UC/42 Rediscovered in Cork Harbour

[August]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

From a historical point of view and for research purposes, it is vital that resting sites are not disturbed. The location and marking of an individual’s grave tells a life story, where he/she died defending (or attacking) a particular place situation and makes it easier to understand the circumstances of his/her death.

My own great grandfather August was a WW1 German infantryman who was killed in action on Oct 3rd 1918. As far as our family knows his body was never recovered.

Now while I appreciate your sentiments I have to say that if they ever discover his body I'd rather see it exhumed and given a proper burial at his home in Altenbuch with the rest of the family. I'd hate to see them leave him laying in a patch of weeds somewhere for just research purposes.

The one thing that all soldiers or sailors want is to go home when it's over. I think those WW1 U-boat men deserve that if it's possible.

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by Matador.es

I seriously respect your opinion, but after time passes, things get forgotten while they might as well be remembered. I think an "in between" solution would be an option, like, after 100 years you can retrieve it for cultural proposes.

Originally Posted by August

My own great grandfather August was a WW1 German infantryman who was killed in action on Oct 3rd 1918. As far as our family knows his body was never recovered.

Now while I appreciate your sentiments I have to say that if they ever discover his body I'd rather see it exhumed and given a proper burial at his home in Altenbuch with the rest of the family. I'd hate to see them leave him laying in a patch of weeds somewhere for just research purposes.

The one thing that all soldiers or sailors want is to go home when it's over. I think those WW1 U-boat men deserve that if it's possible.

I respect both of your view points, i just hope i didn't come across wrong with the word 'research', it probably made me sound a little inhumane, far from it, infact i have edited this word out from my original post.

[Growler]

After 93 years, are there actually human remains of the crew left? Ballard noted that his survey of Titanic showed no remains, and that ship went down only a scant 6 years before this one - in deeper, colder water suspected to harbor less marine life than 27m would. It may be a moot point; even if there are remains of those poor souls left, I wonder if they've be capable of making the transition to a land-side burial.

I'm glad the boat's been found, don't get me wrong. As long as there are folks like us, with kids to teach, people will not forget. That is our solemn responsibility to all veterans.

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

After 93 years, are there actually human remains of the crew left? Ballard noted that his survey of Titanic showed no remains, and that ship went down only a scant 6 years before this one - in deeper, colder water suspected to harbor less marine life than 27m would. It may be a moot point; even if there are remains of those poor souls left, I wonder if they've be capable of making the transition to a land-side burial.

Well they found bury-able remains on the CSS Hunley and that sank over 50 years earlier and in a lot warmer water than what you'd find in Cork Harbor, so it's quite possible i'd say.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by August

Well they found bury-able remains on the CSS Hunley and that sank over 50 years earlier and in a lot warmer water than what you'd find in Cork Harbor, so it's quite possible i'd say.

Good point; I'd not thought of NUMAs Hunley expedition. Granted, Hunley was also a smaller boat and hadn't had the severity of hull breach you might expect from a mine, so aquatic life intrusion might have been lessened.

I don't know; it's a curious conundrum. Since I haven't seen the wreck in question, I'm only asking questions.

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

I don't know; it's a curious conundrum. Since I haven't seen the wreck in question, I'm only asking questions.

Yeah me as well.

I also wonder about the lack of human remains on the Titanic, have they really all disintegrated or did Ballard and co just not uncover enough silt to expose them?

[Growler]

After so many teams have dived Titanic, and I've heard nothing in the 20-some years since it was found, I'm going to assume no, but that's only an assumption.

There's a picture in Ballard's Titanic book of two shoes laying side by side, heel-to-heel, as they might have laid down there as the body inside them disintegrated; that picture has stuck with me.

Cameron and his crew never reported remains when they dove the wreck for his movie, and salvors have gone down there as well. I'd have thought that and remains discovered would have elicited some media response.

But, like you said, they did find remains on Hunley, in far warmer water than the deep north Atlantic, where the marine life would be far more abundant. As I'm not a marine biologist, I can only speculate.

[Dan D]

Originally Posted by August

My own great grandfather August was a WW1 German infantryman who was killed in action on Oct 3rd 1918. As far as our family knows his body was never recovered.

August,
I know a guy whose grandfather was mia since Oct. 7th 1918.
Almost 90 years later, in 2007, the German War Graves Commission informed the family that they had found the grave.
The story behind:
The Brits had buried the identified German soldier with full military honours on one of their cemeteries by the end of WW I but it took all those many years to pass the information from the British to the German War Graves Commission to the family.

My point is:

With your great-grandfathers name, surname, birth date and birth place, you could do a research in the German archives.

The important part is that the Commission would keep your request in their data base and that way you can be sure that if they should ever find out something about your great-grandfather, they will contact you, even 100 years later.

If you need assistance, feel free to contact me via pm.