What's New
Before you get in touch with me then please read this. This page explains who we are and how these pages are built. That page also leads to another page on how you can contact us more efficiently.
2008
4 May
18:24 - WWI sections opened from Conning Tower
I've opened the remaining World War One major sections from the Conning Tower to the main site. These are The Commanders (470 officers) and Allied ships hit by U-boats (over 6600 ships). At the same time I created a new page called Most successful U-boat Commanders of WWI. As usual during this work I improved the newly opened pages in several places. WWI U-boat pages now link to U-boat officers for example. This almost completed our work of fully opening the Conning Tower (more information).
22:21 - Commander photos added
Added photos of 6 U-boat commanders; Paul-Hugo Kettner, Hans-Erwin Reith, Hellmut Rathke, Dietrich Rauch, Hans-Achim von Rosenberg-Gruszcynski and Max Wintermeyer.
20:38 - Two new interactive maps added
I've ported the last two Conning Tower maps over to the main site. They can be found on the main maps section. The maps in question are Ships attacked by U-boats (3184 positions and Ships attacked by U-boats during WWI (2372 positions).
02:09 - Back at the helm
I've been busy with my 4 final exams at school but now they are over and the summer should be more productive than the last few weeks. Will now continue our work on moving the Conning Tower material to the main site (more info). I've not been completely idle as I've added loads of ranks and decorations to the U-boat Commander section which grows by the day.
- Modified personal info for Commander Ralf Jürs
15:40 - U-boat Commander updates
Added photos of 34 World War Two U-boat commanders.
- Modified personal info for Commander Paul Brasack
- Modified personal info for Commander Günther Prien
- Modified personal info for Commander Albrecht Brandi
- Modified personal info for Commander Ernst Cordes
14:06 - Successes and Patrols opened from Conning Tower
I've just opened 2 major sections on the main site; U-boat patrols and U-boat successes. The U-boat Patrols database especially is a very large and detailed section. These sections are integrated into all relevant pages as needed. You can see the Successes of U-99 and then the patrols of U-552 as an example. The Patrols section then gives you a very detailed view of each patrol with ships hit, maps, positions and more. You can access these sections directly from the U-boat pages, like from U-158.
I also opened the smaller Revised U-boat fates page that lists updates in U-boat fates since the war (over 140 entries).
You can see the progress of this work on this page - we're nearly done!
22:15 - Gallery: U-534 being broken up
I've just added a small but nice gallery with photos of U-534 just after being cut in 4 parts taken by Mr. John Barr.
- Modified personal info for Commander Gerhard Nolte
- Modified personal info for Commander Peter Matthes
- Modified personal info for Commander Helmut Köster
- Modified personal info for Commander Alois König
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans-Jürgen Haupt
- Modified personal info for Commander Willi Hertin
- Modified personal info for Commander Martin Grasse
- Modified personal info for Commander Erwin Dohrn
- Modified personal info for Commander Karl-Heinz Herbschleb
- Modified personal info for Commander Werner Pietzsch
- Modified personal info for Commander Joachim Berger
- Modified personal info for Commander Horst-Thilo Queck
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinrich Schuch
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans Roeder-Pesch
- Modified personal info for Commander Friedrich-August Greus
- Modified personal info for Commander Wolf-Harro Stiebler
- Modified personal info for Commander Lothar Martin
- Modified personal info for Commander Max Kruschka
- Modified personal info for Commander Robert Lübsen
- Modified personal info for Commander Karl-Adolf Schlitt
- Modified personal info for Commander Rupprecht Stock
- Modified personal info for Commander Johann-Otto Krieg
- Modified personal info for Commander Wolfgang Aldegarmann
23:24 - Commander Crews opened from Conning Tower
Just finished coding the new Kriegsmarine Crews pages. These give you a complete listing of all U-boat Commanders from each crew (like the famous Olympia Crew of 1936). I also, of course, linked these crews to every Commander page as well, see Wilhelm Franken of Crew 35 for example.
- Modified personal info for Commander Ernst Lottner
- Modified personal info for Commander Georg Lange
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinrich Gehrken
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck
23:18 - New sections opened from the Conning Tower
Been busy and fully ported the large Convoy battles sections that includes all convoys attacked (over 650) plus all convoy routes. This was then linked to the new U-boat commander pages.Also re-wrote the entire Wolfpacks section with Conning Tower material. Also added the Wolfpack code to each U-boat page (see U-124 as example).
Although the Conning Tower migration is not complete by far already thousands of new pages have been opened.
00:13 - Updated the page on Oblt. Günter Behnisch
Added biographical information to the page on Oblt. Günter Behnisch. He became a very famous and successful architect after the war.
23:46 - Conning Tower update
I've opened 6 Galleries and 9 Articles previously only available in the Conning Tower area.I also created a simple image to show the status of the project - what's done and what's not. You can see the image here.
- Modified personal info for Commander Günther Möller
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans Diederich Duis
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans Diedrich Duis
14:15 - Ships attacked and types updates
Been working on the Ships hit by U-boats sections, especially the Allied Ships not hit by U-boats part of it (removed bugs and improved layout). Worked also on the U-boat types pages where I generally made them look better and fixed smaller problems.
- Modified personal info for Commander Ernst-Günter Heinicke
- Modified personal info for Commander Klaus Popp
- Modified personal info for Commander Carl Borm
00:27 - All U-boat commander pages now online
I've opened the entire U-boat commander database (all commands, patrols, successes, biographical text if available). Check out the listing here or view the example of Otto von Bülow. This is linked from the U-boat pages and elsewhere.
21:54 - U-boat Commander pages first to open
I am working on launching all 1412 U-boat Commander pages from our Conning Tower files. This will be the first major section to be ported to the main part of the site. I have to take special care not to screw up the 150 existing commander pages that have been for 10 years in the open part of the site.
- Modified personal info for Commander Otto von Bülow
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinz Schaeffer
- Modified personal info for Commander Günther Loeschcke
21:30 - U-12 of World War One located
A group of divers have located the wreck of the U-12 of World War One. She was discovered 25 miles out of Eyemouth on the south-east coast of Scotland. The wreck has been declared a war grave as 19 men perished with her in early 1915 - but 10 survived. Read more about via BBC.
22:47 - The Conning Tower is to be suspended
Our vast members area will be closed at the end of 2008 and we've stopped new subscribers and renewals. The material found therein will be merged with the main uboat.net site making it much, much larger and better. Read more about this.
2007
30 Deccember
- Modified personal info for Commander Ernst Cordes
13:09 - Attacks on U-boats added
I've added "Attacks on this boat" section to our U-boat pages, see U-338 for example. At the same time I've removed "Successes against aircraft" from the same pages ("Attacks" includes all aircraft hits). I also improved several layout issues on the boat pages.
13:26 - Events on this day improved
I've done 2 changes to the Events on this day section. First, I've removed the "Successes against aircraft" block since it's now duplicated with better data in the newer "Attacks on U-boats". Secondly, I've fixed a bug in the "Shipyard report" block where part of the table would sometimes not print out (if only laid down boats on this data were found, for example).
12:44 - U-boat pages improved
I've added 3 new details to the U-boat pages (see U-99 for example); ordere date, launched date and shipyard werk number.
12:30 - Fighting the U-boats updates
Spent a lot of time updating various aspects of this section. No new material, apart from our ever ongoing database work, but lot of code cleaned up and overall look and feel improved.
12:28 - Conning Tower update
I've added 3 new functions to the U-boat patrol pages; Events during the patrol, Attacks on the boat and finally Men Lost during the patrol. This gives a much clearer view of the patrol and events during it.
14:04 - The War in Maps section updated
The section The War in Maps has been greatly updated. I've added two new maps (previously only in the Conning Tower); Attacks on U-boats and WWI U-boat losses.
21:02 - Seasons greetings to you all
I wish to give greetings from us here at uboat.net. Merry Christmas and may you have a very happy new year!
21:26 - Updated "Events on this day" again
I've improved the "Shipyard report" section on the Events on this day section a lot. Now it's simpler and faster.
22:11 - Major update on Events on this day
I've spent a lot of time vastly updating one of our most popular sections - Events on this day. These changes should make it a lot more usable and friendly- The selected date can be changed to any day of the year
- On "Allied ships hit ..." you can now click on each ship's name and see its page
Hope you like these changes.
00:13 - The layout of the site has been updated
I've just launched some changes to the layout of the site.- The site is now wider and makes better use of larger monitors
- The top and bottom menus are in larger type making them easier to read
- The header image was updated and expanded for the wider layout
- Text should be more readable (size and line-height)
- Fixed the odd IE7 behavior where the site was stuck to the left side of the monitor
- Some smaller changes and fixes here and there
This is not fully done yet, I will update several major pages now to fit better and make further corrective changes.
12:19 - Lots of changes on the horizon
Been hugely busy for the last few weeks and had to reduce work on the site. This will be better after this week and then I'll do several major changes to the site.
- Modified personal info for Commander Werner Scheer
- Modified personal info for Commander Erwin Sachs
- Modified personal info for Commander Bruno Mahn
- Modified personal info for Commander Georg Lange
- Modified personal info for Commander Walter Burghagen
- Modified personal info for Commander Helmut Brümmer-Patzig
- Modified personal info for Commander Hermann Rigele
18:00 - WWI U-boat successes updated
I've improved the The Most Successful boats of WWI page. The page had been using a temporary database but now has been rewritten to use the latest data on our U-boat successes.
- Modified personal info for Commander Uwe Christiansen
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinz Scheringer
09:56 - U-2359 has been found
The boat was located near the island of Læsø by the same divers who also found U-534. The boat is apparently with its nose in the sea floor with the stern raised 30 degrees making it possible to dive under the stern itself. The diver Allan Greisen had been looking for the boat for 12 years and will currently not give out its exact position.See the announcement board entry for this.
10:41 - U-boat commander files under update
Lot of work has been going on on the U-boat commander files (ranks, decorations and of which "officer crew" was he part). The crews part is 99,9% done and lot had been going on on ranks and decorations as well but it's not done. This work has been greatly assisted by very helpful contributions by two researchers who have sent material and spotted problems.
11:57 - Decorations for the men have been improved
I've rebuilt the decorations system and now each decoration is shown with its English translation of the name (this was mixed English/German before). Also this means each award we have a page for has been linked - previously only the Knights Cross was linked. I believe this is a much better - and simpler - solution.
Check of our page for FrgKpt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock for example of this.
15:01 - Schnorchel-equipped boats
I just installed a new and simple database to maintain the Schnorchel-equipped U-boat listing (the page itself was completely re-written also). This means that each such equipped U-boat, like U-826 and U-862, now has an entry on its page reflecting this. This entry in turn then points to the main Schnorchel pages. This should make this information much more visible on the site.
21:40 - A petion to save the U-534
You might be interested in signing an U-534page.htm">online petition to help preserve the U-534 intact (as opposed to cutting her in 3 pieces for display).
22:12 - Updated the Flotilla pages
Improved the U-boat lookup on each flotilla page. Now there are no longer limitations on the number of U-boats shown for each flotilla.
The 11th flotilla, for example, had 189 U-boats at one time or another and now they are all shown.
22:08 - Added 2 new Galleries
U-boat surrenders in May 1945
Midgets at the Verkehrsmuseum in Speyer, Germany by Pascal Blijkers
02:44 - New Galleries: UB 46 in Turkey and a model of U-558Added a nice little gallery showing the World War One U-boat UB 46 as shown today in the Naval Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.
Also added a nice model gallery of the U-558 returning from patrol, 1:72 scale
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans Buscher
19:34 - Yes! Prior patrols of commanders is done!
Just added 372 entries to the database and this completed the work. Right now it contains 4066 entries and this might change slightly as I double-check the work. Now I need to do some clean-up and database sanity checks just to make sure but overall this is done!
07:19 - Back from vacation in Rome, Italy
Hi folks,
I just returned from Rome and am going through my e-mail box and since I still have one week left of my vacation I'll try to do something clever on the site in the next few days :)
19:58 - New Gallery: Fink II bunker in Hamburg rediscovered
I've added a new 13-photo gallery of the Fink II bunker in Hamburg as seen in July 2007. The bunker is amazingly well preserved after the efforts to destroy it post-war.
Also updated the Hamburg bunkers page.
01:40 - RSS feed being tuned
I am working on working the bugs out (technically and editorially) of the upcoming RSS feed feature here on uboat.net. This means you can subscribe to our updates and this way we'll be able to let you know more frequently what's been changed. Eventually there will be probably be several types of feeds you can subscribe to but we'll start with general "what's new" version.
00:21 - Prior patrols of U-boat commanders opens
Opened our new "Prior patrols of U-boat commanders" database in our members area. This is about 80% complete now with over 3.300 entries.
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
00:10 - New article on 3 U-boats published
Published the article The loss of U 325, U 400 and U 1021 by Dr. Axel Niestlé. This piece settles 3 of those boat fates long marked as "missing".
- Modified personal info for Commander Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann
00:42 - Rewrote the page for Kptlt. Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann
Completely re-wrote the page for Ktplt. Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann of U-518. Now it shows his career, map of his first patrol and other information.
00:16 - "Special Operations of U-boats" updated
Updated the Special Operations page with the 9 Nov 1942 landing of an agent at Baie des Chaleurs (e. Chaleur Bay) in Canada by U-518 (Wissmann).
- Modified personal info for Commander Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann
00:16 - U-534 possibly to re-open to the public
The boat, until recently on display at Birkenhead, England will be moved on the Mersey river and put on display, presumably in 3 sections covered in glass. No fixed date on its re-opening as of yet. See our gallery section for more.
- Modified personal info for Commander Theodor Fahr
- Modified personal info for Commander Gerhard Feiler
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans-Georg Fischer
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinrich Schlott
- Modified personal info for Commander Friedrich Steinfeldt
- Modified personal info for Commander Horst von Schroeter
01:05 - Added 140 entries to "Prior Patrols of U-boat commanders" database
Added 140 entries to the "Prior patrols of U-boat commanders" database. I'm about 65% done and this currently holds over 2000 entries. Will try to do 150-200 entries a day until done (late June).
00:41 - Halifax bomber page updated
Added a nice photo of a Halifax bomber of RAF 58 Squadron to the Halifax aircraft page.
- Modified personal info for Commander Horst von Schroeter
00:36 - Forum spam filter tuned
We've been struggling with our new SPAM filter on the forums for a while now. It was taking up way too much space on the server. We've finally solved this problem.
- Added user submitted title U-Boat Century.
00:43 - General site updates
Been working on the site a lot these days. Most of the energy goes into the new "Prior patrols of U-boat commanders" (members area) which is more than halfway done. Also worked on the Events on this day (fixed odd bugs, simplified code) and many similar sections.
17:44 - 100 year Anniversary of U-boats
The 100 year Anniversary of U-boats is at Kiel, Germany this weekend (sorry for the delay in getting this up - was not aware of the event). Would have loved to learn of this sooner and perhaps go (been to Kiel a few times). More information here (in German).
01:23 - The new Prior patrols of commanders database is coming along nicely (1100 entries so far, 100-200 added daily, probably around 4500 when complete). I am working on adding this info to the U-boat patrols data and each patrol will show each officer we have listed for that patrol (with photo if listed). Fascinating to see this come alive.
23:11 - "What's new" page updated
Heavily updated this page here (What's new - you are reading it :). It no longer displays the same action multiple times within the same day for example (if a commander page was edited 3 times within a short while it only shows up once as it should). Fixed some smaller bugs as well. Much better (and quicker) now.
22:37 - Rewrote the "U-boat finder" pages
Rewrote the find boat page that is called from many of our pages (Events on this day and other text pages). Now it no longer flickers and gives the end result right away (it used to briefly show you a semi-empty page while it pondered your request :)
01:13 - Newsletter for members launched
Perhaps long overdue we've now launched our newsletter to our members which will highlight our changes, point to recent interested items and what we are working on and so forth. Hope you like it.
23:33 - Page for Heinz Hirsacker of U-572 updated
Added a photo of Kptlt. Heinz Hirsacker of U-572.
00:37 - Rewrote the page for Uwe Christiansen
Heavily updated the page for U-boat commander Uwe Christiansen.
- Modified personal info for Commander Uwe Christiansen
10:50 - U-boat sunk by a toilet?
Did this really take place? Sounds incredible and has often been falsely attributed to U-120. The story is a very interesting one :)
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans-Joachim Horrer
- Modified personal info for Commander Peter Zschech
00:11 - New article on UB 36 and UC 36 of WWI
We've added the excellent article Reassessing the fates of UB 36 and UC 36 by Michael Lowrey.
20:40 - I've been over my head with my studies but will now head back into the engine room and rev up new stuff for the site :)
13:27 - Silent Hunter IV is out!
I've added a small entry for this new PC submarine game on the games page. Should be a lot of fun :)
- Added user submitted title Ubatkrig..
- Added user submitted title Szare wilki Hitlera U-booty na O ....
- Added user submitted title Les Gardiens du Silence.
- Added user submitted title Wolf Pack.
- Added user submitted title With A Flower Upon The Ocean.
- Added user submitted title War in the Southern Oceans.
- Added user submitted title The Nazi: Coming of Age in Hitle ....
- Added user submitted title The ghost of the Chimera and The ....
- Added user submitted title Battle of the Atlantic.
- Added user submitted title Silent Warriors.
- Added user submitted title Spadefish.
- Added user submitted title The Starvation Blockades.
14:02 - New article: "U-Boot im Focus" review
We've added the article U-Boot im Focus as a mini review of a very good new U-boat photo magazine.
22:55 - New article: "The Discovery of U-86"
We've added the article The Discovery of U-86 (WWI) by Jens Auer.- Modified personal info for Commander Joachim Methner
20:58 - Kptlt. Kurt Diggins of U-458 has passed away
We're sad to report Kptlt. Kurt Diggins of U-458 passed away on March 1. 2007. He was 94 years old.
- Modified personal info for Commander Kurt Diggins
13:33 - New article: "A Visit with a U-Boat Ace: Erich Topp"
We've added the article A Visit with a U-Boat Ace: Erich Topp by Craig McLean.
09:54 - U-Boot Archiv has been renamed
The brilliant U-Boot Archiv archive and museum at Cuxhaven-Altenbusch, Germany has been renamed to Deutsches U-Boot Museum-Archiv fur Internationale Unterwasserfahrt (perhaps Deutsches U-Boot Museum-Archiv for short). See these pages for more information.
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinrich Schlott
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans Karpf
10:42 - Our Discussion Forums updated
We've upgraded our forum software to add new features and better combat noise (spam and the like).
- Modified personal info for Commander Ernst Vogelsang
23:57 - Map section: new map added
Just uploaded our new and exciting Attacks on U-boats map to the members area. This one currently contains 1.858 positions (about 700 attacks, 60 accidents in addition to the roughly 1100 U-boat losses).
23:54 - Map section improved
This is a good day indeed. I've uploaded the first of our new maps to the Maps section. The map online now is U-boat losses in WWII. Check it out and download the free software to view them. Highly recommended.
22:52 - "Attacks on U-boats database" keeps growing
The Attacks on U-boats database has been growing steadily and is now 843 entries for 405 different U-boats. Some of this data has been harvested from our General Events section and thus also contributed to much expanded Men Lost from U-boats entries.
18:52 - Attacks on U-boats database linked to new sections
The sections sectionMen lost from U-boats and U-boat-successes against aircraft are now using data from our Attacks on U-boats database.
00:02 - New! "Attacks on U-boats" database
We've opened in our members area a very exciting new database listing all known (to us) attacks on U-boats during WWII, Currently there are 663 attacks (non fatal for the boat) listed there but work is still underway to add data for 1940-1942.
23:53 - Allied Warships section reaches 10.000 ships!
Brian just added entry nr. 10.000 to our ever-expanding Allied Warships database. I suspect more is to come :)
19:54 - More map project updates
Updated the following maps:
Ships attacked by U-boats (WWI)
U-boat losses during WWII
U-boat losses during WWI.
All the maps had improved data and cleaner overall look in this revision.
21:50 - Map project updates
Greatly updated the Ships hit by U-boats in WWII map (84 new positions plus loads of other updates and a generally better map). 3.184 entries in there now.
2006
21 Deccember
16:55 - U-864 in the news again
Here is a great new summary about the wreck and the problem it's causing.
20:32 - Seasons greetings!
Happy holidays to you all and a happy new year! :)
- Modified personal info for Commander Sigurd Seeger
- Added user submitted title Les Gardiens du Silence.
09:09 - Two WWI U-boat wrecks located
Our WWI expert Michael Lowrey is involved in identifying them and believes them to the U-102 and possibly U-92. See scans on the The BBC site.
00:33 - The commander interviews
I have updated our popular commander interviews. Now you no longer are required to use the aging Real player to hear them as I've added Wav files as well. Enjoy.
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans-Botho Bade
- Modified personal info for Commander Friedrich Steinfeldt
00:40 - Work on the new attacks database is going well. Hope to open it within few weeks as searchable system with the new mapping software as well.
- Modified personal info for Commander Willi Hertin
- Modified personal info for Commander Rudolf Zorn
- Modified personal info for Commander Ulrich Wörisshoffer
- Modified personal info for Commander Friedrich-Wilhelm Sons
- Modified personal info for Commander Henning Schümann
- Modified personal info for Commander Günther Stark
- Modified personal info for Commander Kurt Ruwiedel
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans-Jürgen Reese
- Modified personal info for Commander Ernst-August Rehwinkel
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinz Eckelmann
- Modified personal info for Commander Erwin Dohrn
- Modified personal info for Commander Georg-Werner Fraatz
- Modified personal info for Commander Siegfried Heilmann
- Modified personal info for Commander Peter Grau
- Modified personal info for Commander Horst Creutz
- Modified personal info for Commander Günter Eppen
- Modified personal info for Commander Graf von Hartmut Matuschka, Freiherr von Toppolczan und Spaetgen
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans-Joachim Förster
17:26 - Gallery section updated
Added 3 nice photo galleries to the site;
U-505 in its bunker in Chicago (20)
The Finnish submarine Vesikko at Suomenlinna (19)
Model of U-617 at sea (26)
00:26 - Updated the Galleries section. The code, upon review, was not acceptable and needed an overhaul and simplification. I also cleaned up the look quite a bit - while keeping the things that worked.
22:10 - Updated the page on the U-boat bunkers in Lorient, France.- Modified personal info for Commander Peter Rahlff
- Modified personal info for Commander Günther Reeder
23:39 - Heavily updated the U-boats fitted with Schorchel page. This revision focused on adding all the boats we know sailed with Schorchel at certain times and were thus fitted.
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinz-Eberhard Müller
09:28 - New system in development
Been working hard on combining data from our various databases and other sources into a new Attacks on U-boats database which already has about 500 entries (I estimate it will be over 2000 entries when "complete") which will then be fully map- and searchable. I'll open this in the coming weeks. (These are attacks that did not destroy the boats mind you). This will help solve a lot of questions.
22:55 - New map info for World War One
A new map showing U-boat losses during WWI was added (140 positions).
- Modified personal info for Commander Heinz-Eberhard Müller
- Modified personal info for Commander Georg von Wilamowitz-Möllendorf
- Modified personal info for Commander Horst Hepp
- Modified personal info for Commander Dietrich Giersberg
- Modified personal info for Commander Hans Benker
23:04 - New map and ship info for World War One
A new map showing U-boat attacks on Allied ships during WWI was added (2.363 positions). At the same time the WWI ships pages were totally reworked to better support the new maps and vice versa. A major work but worth it.
- Modified personal info for Commander Joachim Franze