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Es ist die lebensegefahr, das Kriegsmarine boot U-864
Norway tackles toxic war grave
Robotic excavations have found some of the canisters of mercury It was not quite the deadly legacy the Germans had in mind when they deployed a U-boat on a daring mission to Japan in the last desperate months of World War II.

When it set sail in December 1944, U-864 was packed with 65 tonnes of weapons-grade mercury destined to help the Japanese win back supremacy over the US in the Pacific - and divert American attention away from Europe in the process.

Neither the cargo nor the 73 men on board made it. The U-boat was torpedoed to the bottom of the North Sea floor by a British submarine. More than 60 years on, its toxic cargo is slowly leaking into the waters off the coast of Norway, an ecological time bomb threatening marine - and potentially human - life.

Posted by: Besoeker 2006-12-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=175626