A sonar survey by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency found the remains of two U-boats on the seabed about 70 miles east of Sanday Sound.

The boats, in water 200ft deep and only a couple of miles apart, have been identified as U102 and U92, which were reported missing in 1918 after apparently sinking, position unknown, on the Northern Barrage, a British minefield between Orkney and Shetland.

U102 was commanded by Kapitanleutnant Kurt Beitzen, who in May 1916 as the commander of U75 had travelled undetected around the west coast of Orkney to lay highexplosive mines.

Less than a month later, the cruiser HMS Hampshire, which was carrying Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of War, on a diplomatic mission to Russia hit one of the mines. Lord Kitchener was lost at sea along with 643 of Hampshire’s 655 crew.

His death, which happened as he was en route to the port of Archangel on the White Sea for a conference with the Russian High Command, has been shrouded in controversy and conspiracy theories. These include claims that David Lloyd George, then the new Minister for Munitions and Lord Kitchener’s bitter political rival, had colluded with Germany to get rid of his opponent. Lloyd George had been due to accompany Lord Kitchener on board Hampshire but his new ministerial appointment had forced him to stay at home.

Beitzen was on his way home to Germany in the autumn of 1918 when the U102 was lost somewhere on the Northern Barrage with all 42 crew.

Rob Spillard, hydrography manager at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, said yesterday: “One of the subs had a famous commander — the man who sunk the ship that Lord Kitchener was on.”

This year, a sonar survey of Scapa Flow, in Orkney, produced astonishing three-dimensional images of wrecks from the scuttling in 1919 of the German High Seas Fleet, which was ordered to sink more than 50 vessels. As the peace talks at Versailles dragged on, the warships, which had been ordered into Scapa Flow to be interned by the Allies, were sunk on the orders of Rear-Admiral Ludwig Reuter. The wrecks are now a big attraction for divers.

Mr Spillard said that the U-boats were discovered during a routine survey in June and that the area had not previously been properly searched for wartime wrecks. The wrecks had been identified after experts examined original plans of the boats.

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