Divers have discovered a German wartime submarine 20 miles off the coast of Devon — after it sank 82 years ago.

The wreck was initially named an unidentified German U-boat by Ian Taylor and the Skin Deeper team while diving the channel.

But it was suspected to be a First World War sailing vessel.

Dom Robinson, 55, and his diving team, Gasperados, decided to visit the wreck 20 miles off the coast of Salcombe in the hopes they could identify it.

After consulting boat historian Axel Niestlé, they found the wreck to be the U-672, a Type VIIC submarine lost in 1944 that sank after being attacked by HMS Balfour on July 18 of that year.

Dom said: “During World War II, we used these weapons called Hedgehogs, which were basically these mortars used to sink ships.

“A hedgehog weapon would be fired in front of the ship, they would sink and attach to the submarines, causing them to fill with water due to holes in the framework.

“This particular ship held 52 crew members — all of which miraculously survived.

“When the crew realized they were filling with water — it became very apparent they couldn’t pump the water out as fast as it was filling — or drive home.

“So, they waited until dark to rise to the water’s surface — where they got on little dinghies. This was the day after D-Day, so there were a lot of allies about.

“They were rescued and interviewed about what happened — hence why we know the story to this day.”

The predicted whereabouts for the submarine were actually out by 40 miles, which shocked the team.

Dom said: “We didn’t quite expect to find it there, and in fact this was our second attempt trying to find the ship.

“It was a jackpot moment to find it — and I couldn’t stop thinking about how scary it must be to be in those times.

“We lost so many boats around D-Day — it must be so scary having your submarine fill with water as people try to kill you from the surface.”

The divers have to sink nearly 70 meters down to reach the wreck on the seafloor.

Dom said: “We were only down there about 25 minutes, but it took three hours because of having to decompress and compress due to the pressure of being that far down.

“When we first got down, I saw this anglerfish with all its teeth — we followed that down to see a rope with an octopus who ran into a school of fish — that’s when we knew we had found the wreck.

“When you are trying to identify a wreck you need to get a good look for what could be an iconic sign of a specific boat.

“For us that included things such as a unique Schnorkel system — that really pointed towards being a U- 672.”

Dom and his team are used to finding treasured boats lost in the sea — once before finding the US Coast Guard Temper in April.

Dom said: “It is incredibly exciting to identify something that has been missing for so long.

“For me and my team these moments happen very rarely — and these finds also help us track down and have better guesswork of where more may be.

“Not many government bodies seem to be too bothered about finding these wrecks, so I started sharing them on social media and YouTube.

“Having so many views as I do means a lot — people love the mystery and the adventure — and I think U-boats really have that excitement to them.”

You can follow Dom’s adventures on @deepwreckdiver on YouTube.