Trove of tanks and U-Boats snapped

Local diving enthusiast Geoff Millar has painstakingly photographed scuttled German U-Boats, submarine Sherman tanks and a sunken super-dreadnought - all located off the Inishowen coast - for a number of years now.

Now he’s shared some of his amazing underwater snaps with the Sentinel. Most feature U-861 - a scuttled Kriegsmarine U-Boat that lies four miles off Malin Head.

Geoff - who lives in Culmore and has been diving around Donegal for 22 years - also has fantastic images of Sherman tanks that never made it to the battlefields for which they were intended.

They perished instead along with their transporter the doomed Empire Heritage - a British steam tanker that was used to transport military hardware during WWII.

The ship was hit by torpedoes fired by U-482 on September 8, 1944. It capsized and sunk off Malin Head with 50 crew members, eight gunners, one army storekeeper and 53 passengers lost.

And that’s not to mention HMS Audacious. She was a King George V-class super-dreadnought that was mined during WWI and sank about 10 miles from the mouth of Lough Swilly.

So what got Geoff interested in this rich maritime heritage? “I’ve an interest in diving mainly but I’ve also an interest in the history as well,” explained Geoff. “The pictures are mainly from the wreck of the German U-Boat (U861) which lies about four miles North East of Malin Head.”

He said he believed the U-861 to be a “Milk Cow” supply boat. “Milk Cows” were U-Boats whose role was to support the fighting U-Boats by delivering supplies and ammunition.

“It was one of the big ‘Milk Cow’ supply boats - supplying the other U-Boats - but it actually sunk five ships and was commanded by a Jürgen Oesten,” explained Geoff.

Korvettenkapitän Oesten was a heavily decorated U-Boat ace who not only wreaked havoc in the North Atlantic but was also active in South East Asia during WWII.

He surrendered U-861 on May 9, 1945 at Trondheim in Norway after U-Boat captains received the order: “All U-boats. Attention all U-boats. Cease fire at once. Stop all hostile action against Allied shipping. Dönitz.”

The German Naval Commander Admiral Dönitz subsequently issued the Operation REGENBOGEN scuttling order to preserve the honour of the Kriegsmarine.

But Admiral Sir Max Horton decided that there would be a formal surrender of the U-Boat fleet and countered this with Operation Deadlight.

This was famously arranged for Lisahally as the British naval chief thought Londonderry port had played the most important role in the allied battle against the U-Boats.

Thus U-861 was transferred to Lisahally on May 1945 and from there - after the official surrender of the fleet - was despatched to its current home at the bottom of the sea off Inishowen.

“They’re mostly wrecks from WWI and WWII,” said Geoff. “But the HMS Audacious was one of the George V super-dreadnoughts. It’s there approximately 10 miles out from the mouth of Lough Swilly.”

Derry City Council had hoped to raise one of the U-Boats and house it in a museum in the city but this was aborted due to the cost involved.

The council had wanted to raise U-778, which is lying in approximately 70 metres of water off the coast of Malin Head.

It is thought there are around 150 of the submarines in the area. However, the council’s heritage museum service in 2009 said it would be too expensive to go ahead with the project.