With Full Military Honors

In the Hampton National Cemetery in Hampton, Virginia, twenty-nine graves were dug on one night in April of 1942. The true story of what happened to the men buried that night is documented in the National Archives. Having heard the explanation for a secret burial of German u-boat men, the author went looking for the truth.

There is no one truth to historic events. Every participant experiences it in his own way. Even witnesses tell different stories and that is certainly the case with the incident of the U.S.S. Roper and the U-85. But there are these undeniable facts: The Roper escaped any harm. The U-85 sunk and, though most of the crew abandoned ship, the records say they were all killed.

In March of 2004, after more than sixty years, the U.S. Memorial Office finally replaced the markers on the graves of twenty-nine Germans from the U-85.

These men were buried under cover of night but with full military honors.

There were forty-six men serving on the U-85. Not all the bodies were recovered.