Paul,

Well said. The old myths are bad enough without people trying their best to construct new ones, and besides, there are already enough ways to waste money.

The thread started with a legitimate question concerning a book about U-boats, which seems to have been well answered. The rubbish about the next conspiracy appeared after Marco’s question was answered.


There are still mysteries left to solve and stories left to tell, and I hope to have enough sense left to realise when somebody has found something worthwhile. Until then, I must make it clear that I do not take seriously tales of U-boats being given false identities, crewmen disappearing into foreign societies, Argentine Navy attempts to move a sunken submarine without being noticed, batches of depthcharges being deemed faulty because they exploded, tons of gold and documents to establish the Fourth Reich, selective extracts from a series of conflicting postwar books by an ex-capitain, suspicions aroused because a boat was crammed with food, proof of a conspiracy because of a lack of flak ammunition, threats to the lives of the people who might be able to corroborate the story, threats to the lives of people who could refute the story, proof that the Bahia was sunk by a U-boat flak gun because the alternative was a court marshal offence, USN investigators lying and, above all, box 64, the shoebox sized archive which is vaguely quoted as the source of these tidbits which get handed out one piece at a time. The reason I don’t take them seriously is strictly because every effort to extract verifiable sources from their peddler produced nothing except further refinements to the original, farfetched book proposal.

The type of hysterical interpretation of events that surfaced in the course of the thread will always be there. If we can counter these by demonstrating the self-indulgence and fabrications behind the so-called research, I at least feel it worthwhile.

Seasons best wishes to all,

Bruce Dennis