page_title: German submarine U-166 (1941)
section_title: Wreckage located in 2001
hierarchical_section_title: German submarine U-166 (1941) / Wreckage located in 2001
caption_attribution_description: A deck gun of the sunken German U-boat U-166. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 100002558
context_page_description: German submarine U-166 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 6 December 1940 at the Seebeckwerft at Wesermünde as yard number 705, launched on 1 November 1941 and commissioned on 23 March 1942 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Günther Kuhlmann. After training with the 4th U-boat Flotilla, U-166 was transferred to the 10th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service on 1 June 1942. The U-boat sailed on only two war patrols and sank four ships totalling 7,593 gross register tons. She was sunk on 30 July 1942 in Gulf of Mexico.
context_section_description: In 2001, when the wreck of Robert E. Lee was located in more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water, the wreck of U-166 was also located, less than two miles from where it had attacked her. An archaeological survey of the seafloor prior to construction of a natural gas pipeline led to the discoveries by C & C Marine archaeologists Robert A. Church and Daniel J. Warren. The sonar contacts consisted of two large sections lying approximately 500 feet apart at either end of a debris field that indicated the presence of a U-boat. Petroleum companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico's outer continental shelf are required to provide sonar data in areas that have archaeological potential. BP and Shell sponsored additional fieldwork to record detailed images, including a gun on the deck aft of the submarine's conning tower.
  Charles "C.J." Christ, from Houma, spent most of his life searching for U-166 and was involved in the final identification of the U-boat.
  The site where U-166 lies, at 28°41′N 88°42′W has been designated a war grave because its crew of 52 is entombed there. It is protected against any future attempts to salvage it.
  Oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard explored and mapped the wreck in the summer of 2014 with remotely operated vehicles, where they noticed that the submarine's bow had been blown off and found rested on the seafloor 100 feet away from the main hull. They determined that the bow of the submarine was destroyed, apparently by a depth charge which landed on the forward deck, exploded, and caused an internal detonation of the submarine's own torpedoes which broke off the bow. If so this would be one of the few successful submarine kills caused by direct contact from a depth charge, as typical attacks relied upon depth charges exploding a short distance away which inflicted repeated hydraulic shocks that would eventually crack a submarine's pressure hull.
  Initial credit for the sinking of U-166 had been given to a Grumman G-44 Widgeon, but the position of the wreck made it clear that this should have gone to the submarine chaser PC-566. 
  On 16 December 2014, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus posthumously awarded the captain of PC-566, then-LCDR Herbert G. Claudius, USNR (later CDR, then CAPT USN), the Legion of Merit with a Combat "V" device for heroism in battle and credited him with the sinking of the U-boat. "Seventy years later, we now know that [Claudius's] report after the action was absolutely correct," he said. "[Claudius's ship] did sink that U-boat, and it's never too late to set the record straight."
  Results of a study released in February 2019 show that the wreck of U-166 is being badly damaged because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Seabed bacteria, feeding on the oil, are causing the damage.
caption: A gun on the deck of the sunken U-166
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