John,

Thanks. You may very well be right. I wasn't sure how common these 'ride alongs' were or to what level they were documented. They appear to have given these correspondents some rudimentary military training and an officers rank, so I thought there might be a chance they ended up on the crew list.

Looks like the 1st Flotilla was in transition during this patrol as well, Heinz Buchholz when U-582 left in June, and Werner Winter when they arrived back in August.

Eric Stone
www.ssarkansan.com