Recently WRS were able to lay a wreath in remembrance of Captain George Naper and crew last on HMS E24.
In 1973 German divers hunting for a lost UBoat discovered the wreck of a conning tower marking the site of a lost submarine. When the boat was salvaged, they realised that it was the wreck of HMS E24 lost while mining off Heligoland Bight on 25th March 1916.
The crew are buried in the WWI section of The Commonwealth War Graves area of Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg, Germany. This is the largest cemetery in Europe and beautifully landscaped and tended. We Remember Submariners laid a wreath for the crew at 11:00 on Sunday 7th September 2025.
ln Cuxhaven the very modern Windstarke 10 museum (Gale Force 10) has now created an exhibit of the conning tower of HMSubmarine E24 in subdued lighting illustrating the vision of the conning tower as it Iay on the seabed for many years marking the gravesite of E24. There are also exhibits of artifacts recovered from inside the submarine. The museum management were very hospitable and allowed us to lay a WRS wreath at the base of the conning tower. We were most grateful.
We gave a short few words of remembrance for the lost crew. A member of the Gatwick Branch of the GB Submariners Association made the trip, as each year
they also attend the memorial service at St Marys
Church in Sullington West Sussex, where there is a
monument erected to mark the loss of Captain G W E
Naper and crew of HMS E24 and other British
casualties.
The Museum: The conning tower and some other items had been placed in a museum of wrecks in Cuxhaven and left in the open air for several years. This wreck museum was in need of renovation and the City of Cuxhaven moved the exhibits to be merged with the former fisheries and maritime museum, providing two former fish processing buildings – Fischhalle Vll and Vlll and in 2013 added a new atrium between the buildings to become a very modern and professional exhibitor of maritime history. Wellworth a visit.
Terence Anthony Nowell
We Remember Submariners