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By *Hunting Island State Park continues to lose 15 feet of sand from its beaches each year while park officials are still trying to secure $10 million for a long-awaited beach nourishment project *A 24-slip marina is being built on the southeastern edge of the Bridge of Lions off the Anchorage Inn *Christopher Columbus-era replica ship will be docked at Seville Harbour in Pensacola until its departure Dec. 17. The ship will be open to the public beginning today TK, A response from Dave in Canada after my recent goading, here is the gist of Walter and his escape from U767, how do you think we should handle this report from Dave about Walter?
Perhaps I need to look at the career of this U-Boat,
write up in greater
detail Leigh Bishop's dive and the finding of her,
list her total crew, which is on Leigh's site, then put
in the finding of
the only survivor by name, then the correspondence
with his son in law, and the finding of Walter, and Interesting that it seems Walter as a POW spent time in Georgia. Your thoughts please SIR!!
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner but there's not much to report in the way of Walter giving you a formal account of his story. Unfortunately he doesn't have email, and he's not much into writing letters.
Walter doesn't mind answering questions though, and he
suggested that I
tell you whatever you want to know.
Unfortunately my knowledge of his experience is somewhat
limited but
after conversing with him I feel confident
enough to give you some basic information about how he
survived the
Walter's primary function aboard the U767 was as an
electrician working
on the fuse panel in the engine room.
A few days prior, they had destroyed at least 1,
possibly 2 ships and had
retreated to the safety of the French
Coast to reload the torpedo tubes. When they came back
out to the open
sea again, they were detected by a
British Battle group which was waiting for them in a
well planned and Immediately
disabled, the
boat began to fill with water an sink to the bottom.
The water rose for an hour or so and he and rest of the
engine room crew
were trapped in the aft compartment. With all Apparently
some of the men said their final words and someone
suggested that they
sing the national anthem, which they
did. Eventually the air ran out and they were all
unconscious. Miraculously Walter awoke when he heard a
sound like the splash of water coming from the torpedo
loading hatch. He
was somehow coherent enough to
realize this was an indication that the pressure had Walter grabbed
his breathing
apparatus, made his way to the hatch
and turned the handle. The hatch opened. After this he
remembers very
little about his ride to the surface
other than his life passing in slow motion before his
eyes. At some
point he blacked out. Once on top he
regained consciousness and spent some time in the water
wondering why he
had been spared from the depths,
only to perish on the surface. At that time he promised
God that if he
survived, he would never forget Him and be God answered Walter's prayers and he was and picked up by a British ship shortly after that. Walter remains active in his church to this day and remembers the commitment he made to share his faith in God and tell his story to all who will listen.
Miraculously Walter suffered none if the typical effects
of coming up
from a depth of 230'. He did however injure the
tendons in his hands when he came through the narrow
hatch which was not I hope this information is helpful and provides a bit of insight into one man's story. If you want me to pass any questions on to Walter, I'd be happy to do that and respond as time allows.
Best Regards,
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