21 March 2017
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
A German submarine which sank off Glandore Harbour towards the end of World War 2 is the subject of Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage’s lecture next om Thursday – 23rd March – at 8pm at the Clonakilty Parish Centre. The illustrated lecture will be delivered by Brendan Cahill, who has dived the wreck and will show film footage from these underwater visits.
The U–260, which was one of the most modern German submarines during World War 2, sank on 13th April 1945. All 48 sailors on board, under Captain Klaus Becker, survived the experience, with each one paddling an individual inflatable dingy to safety.
11 made it to shore at the Galley Head lighthouse that night with the remaining 37 rescued the following morning by the Courtmacsherry Lifeboat further east along the coast.
Within a couple of days, all 48 found themselves at the Curragh Internment Camp where they remained until the end of the ‘The Emergency’ – as WW2 was officially referred to in Ireland at tht time.
There has been a lot of speculation and possible explanations over the years as to why the submarine sank, and these will be discussed at the Clonakilty lecture next Thursday along with the rescue of the survivors, the discovery of the wreck and its present condition which will include actual underwater footage of U-260.
The lecture will be delivered – in a personal capacity – by Brendan Cahill, a native of Dublin, who is a Rosscarbery-based Gárda living in West Cork for the last 16 years. He is a former Gárda diver with a keen interest in wreck diving. He first dived the Glandore Sub in the 1990s and has been diving to this and other wrecks for over 20 years. He is also a member of the Toe Head/Glandore Coast Guard Unit with an interest in the coastal history of the area.
Brendan Cahill