I live part-time in Jakarta, Indonesia and I’ve become fascinated by the U-boat war in that part of the world. I’ve done a bit of book research about the ships and men, and I’ve even asked around in Jakarta about the U-boat base that used to be at the main port of Tanjung Priok (nothing seems to remain of this). Still, the stories of the men—-Axis and Allied—-who made it all the way to the Far East are fascinating.

I’m a writer and I’ve decided to try to write a book about the lives of the U-boat men living ashore in the Far East, and to contrast that with their experiences at sea. I’m really interested to meet anybody who lived in the Far East or fought there during that time. Does anyone know Germans, Indonesians or Japanese who lived in Jakarta or Surabaya during the war years? Does anyone know of Dutch, American, Australian or British who saw action in the Indian Ocean or around the Malacca Strait or Java Sea? How about Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Malays etc who lived in Penang or Singapore at the time?

Thanks for taking a little time to read this. This website and forum are incredible resources.

Yours,

-Dan P


P.S. I'm a newbie on this Forum--accidentally posted this originally to the "Technology and Operations" forum. Apologies for cross-posting!