Hi Portsmouth Townie,

First of all, calling Chillino a liar on a public forum is inappropriate. It appears you did as little research on him as you did on U-234. He served his country with distinction in a very dangerous job (EOD) during WWII and we owe him a debt of gratitude for it. Today like all the WWII veterans he is quite elderly (in his 90s now) and he is ill on top of that. He is simply confused about what actually happened. His theory is based partially on what someone he worked for told him back then and he still doesn’t realize that it was just scuttlebutt not facts. He is depending on his aging memory and he so stubborn he won’t even look seriously at the evidence that does exist. He also knows nothing about U-boats and couldn’t tell one type from another before I sent him some photos. In one version of his document he had two photos of U-234, however only one of them was really U-234. The other boat had the Schnelltauchback Modification which U-234 didn’t have. This is the late war modification that involved cutting out part of the forward upper deck on both sides in order to speed up crash dive time. See: [www.uboat.net] for a photo of U-516 which has the modification.

I have discussed his theory with him on the phone and through various e-mails and I have refuted it point by point in writing and with photos. In order to do this I had to research U-234 in some detail. None of this had the slightest effect on his position.

That said, his story is totally bogus and his theory about a massive cover up involving the American government, the German government and all of the U-234 survivors is laughable. He presents absolutely no evidence to support his claims and he stubbornly dismisses the actual (overwhelming) evidence to the contrary as a government conspiracy. It is easy to see how someone would consider him a liar but again he is simply elderly, confused and he refuses to even consider the facts.

His main theory for the “cover up” is based on his incorrect assumption that the mercury carried aboard U-234 was worth a fortune and that it mysteriously disappeared. He steadfastly refuses to accept the actual value of the mercury as being only $70,000.00 to $80,000.00 at that time based on the published figures for that year and the years surrounding it. Also see: [uboat.net] section “U-boats loaded with Mercury”.

The bottom line is that he was never in a position to know what was actually going on at the time (the facts were way above his pay grade and the pay grade of his boss). He has done what so many other WWII vets have done. He has taken scuttlebutt, some things he did observe, his failing memory and his theories, mixed them up and allowed himself to believe that the result was true. I am sure he believes everything he says – but he is simply wrong. But before we condemn him for it we need to realize it is only a matter of time before something like that happens to us too. Getting old really messes with our memories. In researching a number of U-boat attacks I have come across this over and over again. That is why getting the actual records from the time is so important. Generally when they see the records they realize that their memory of those events isn’t exactly accurate and the records also sometimes trigger other memories too. Chillino for whatever reason simply refuses to accept that even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

What we should do is thank this guy for his service and just go on our own way.

Now, as to your claims. They are just as bogus as Chillino’s.

U-234 DID NOT have over 1000lbs of weapons grade uranium 235 on board nor did it have a disassembled ME-262 and blueprints for V-2's. Had you done the research you would have found the cargo manifest for U-234 and seen that none of this was true.

U-234 carried URANIUM OXIDE which needed to be processed before being used in a weapon. In 1945 it would have taken about 1 week to separate the uranium oxide into U-235 and 500 kg of Uranium oxide would have made about ½ kg of U-235. Not enough for a bomb but a good amount.

It DID NOT have a disassembled ME-262 or blueprints for V-2's aboard. If anything had been intentionally omitted from the cargo manifest in order to keep it secret, it would have been the uranium oxide (and it is clearly listed in the cargo manifest) not this stuff – it simply wasn’t there despite the rumors all these years. The ME-262 and the V-2 were well known to the Allies by that time, the atomic bomb wasn’t.

The only real mystery about U-234 is what were the Japanese going to do with all that mercury. There was way too much of it (including all that was sent to Japan on other vessels) to just use it for primers. Anyone having any knowledge of what it was to be used for please post your info.

Regards,

Ken Dunn