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Wartime navy captain blamed for letting Nazi U-boat get away in failed attack now hailed as a hero after oceanographer who found the Titanic locates the wreck and discovers that he DID hit it after all Captain Herbert Claudius admonished for 'failing' to find deadly U-boat Nazi submarine had torpedoed the Robert E. Lee passenger ship in 1942 Documentary makers filmed wreckage of destroyed U-boat on the seabed. The reputation of a disgraced wartime navy captain has been restored, thanks to the discoveries of a documentary featuring the finder of the Titanic. For more than 60 years, Captain Herbert G. Claudius was blamed for letting a Nazi U-boat ‘get away’, after it sank the Robert E. Lee passenger freighter in the Gulf of Mexico in 1942. But an undersea expedition – aided by Dr Robert Ballard who rediscovered the Titanic 30 years ago – has revealed the first published pictures of the submarine’s wreckage, showing how bombs dropped by Cpt Claudius’ crew successfully sunk the attacker U-166. Nazi Attack on America', which premiered on PBS on Wednesday night, reveals how the discovery has helped restore Captain Claudius' reputation, after evidence first emerged in 2001 that the U-boat had been destroyed. Captain Claudius passed away in 1981, but his son received a Legion of Merit medal in December for his wartime service. Speaking to NBC News, Dr Ballard said there 'wasn't a dry eye in the house' when navy secretary Ray Mabus presented the medal.