Post by Administrator on Oct 5, 2017 11:57:00 GMT
Athenia: Is this the wreck of the first British ship torpedoed in WW2?
The remains of the first British ship to be sunk in WW2 appear to have been identified on the Atlantic seabed.
Shipwreck-hunter David Mearns says sonar data shows the transatlantic passenger liner Athenia to be lying 200m down on Rockall Bank, off Ireland.
A German submarine torpedoed the ship hours after Britain declared war on Hitler in 1939 - more than 100 people, including many Americans, were killed.
Germany initially denied involvement fearing the US would join the war.
U-boat commander, Fritz Julius Lemp, had mistaken the liner for an armed cruiser and the German naval authorities tried to cover up the sub's actions.
They even attempted to blame the sinking on Winston Churchill, who on that very day - 3 September, 1939 - was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
The Germans said he had ordered a British submarine to fire on the Athenia as part of a plot to force Washington's hand. The full truth only emerged at the Nuremberg Trials.
LINK
The remains of the first British ship to be sunk in WW2 appear to have been identified on the Atlantic seabed.
Shipwreck-hunter David Mearns says sonar data shows the transatlantic passenger liner Athenia to be lying 200m down on Rockall Bank, off Ireland.
A German submarine torpedoed the ship hours after Britain declared war on Hitler in 1939 - more than 100 people, including many Americans, were killed.
Germany initially denied involvement fearing the US would join the war.
U-boat commander, Fritz Julius Lemp, had mistaken the liner for an armed cruiser and the German naval authorities tried to cover up the sub's actions.
They even attempted to blame the sinking on Winston Churchill, who on that very day - 3 September, 1939 - was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
The Germans said he had ordered a British submarine to fire on the Athenia as part of a plot to force Washington's hand. The full truth only emerged at the Nuremberg Trials.
LINK