Hi PF, The story is true. See the post at .
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, I'm afraid I know next to nothing about mixed gas or the problems of escape from a depth that great.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Solomon, I believe what was meant was that the short time spent at depth is supposed to minimize exposure to the possibility of the bends (decompression sickness) not “The short time spent at depth is supposed to minimize the effects of the bends”. Once a nitrogen bubble comes out of solution the effects of the bends depend on where the bubble goes. If for example a bubble blocks th
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Schalke, According to the member's area that information has been determined to be incorrect and the fate of U-420 is currently unknown: "Previously recorded fate Sunk 26 Oct, 1943 in the North Atlantic, in postion 50.49N, 41.01W, by depth charges from a Canadian Liberator aircraft (RCAF Sqdn. 10/A). This attack was in fact against U-91 inflicting no damage. Last revised
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Dave, The following comes from: Mulligan, Timothy P. Lone Wolf The Life and Death of U-boat Ace Werner Henke. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1993. ISBN: 0-275-93677-5. Copyright: Timothy P. Mulligan, 1993: “On 13 May, BdU ordered Henke to rendezvous with U-460 (Kaptlt. Ebe Schnoor), a Type XIV "milk cow" supply submarine, to receive more fuel, food, and torpedoes to ex
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, The man wounded when the barrel came apart was Dietrich-Alfred von dem Borne and his leg was seriously injured. Once he was transferred to Martinique his leg was amputated by the French doctors there. He recovered and was eventually returned to Germany. The U-boat entering the harbor was immediately detected by the American naval observers stationed there and when word got back to
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, There was no such thing as an “escape cylinder” in a WWII U-boat. The author of “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea” has misunderstood the escape procedure. He is referring to the skirt that was attached to the hatch in early U-boats. It was removed later in the war. The real procedure was simply to wait until the boat had flooded enough to equalize the pressure inside the boat with th
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Judy, You got mail.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi Tristan, The adoption of a conning tower emblem wasn't necessarily tied to the first patrol. Many boats had real conning tower emblems after the UAK markings were removed and before their first patrol. The UAK symbols aren't generally considered conning tower emblems as they identified the shipyard and a series of boats. Basically all boats had UAK symbols from going into s
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Denis, The book in question is: Bray, Jeffrey K. Ultra in the Atlantic, Volume II – U-boat Operations. Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1994. ISBN: 0-89412-236-3. Copyright: Jeffrey K. Bray, 1994. What Bray’s book actually says is: "A few of the new types made an appearance. From 23 January 1945 to 1 May 1945 there were references in SHARK (Atlantic) U-boat traffic to
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Denis, What page in "Ultra in the Atlantic II U-boat Operations" are you referring to?
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Schalke, Here is U-305's emblem:
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Schalke, The only boat with a squirrel eating a freighter as her emblem was U-305 according to Hogel.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Geoffrey, Are you writing a book about this or thinking of writing a book about this by any chance?
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jose, On 16 Feb, 1942, U-156 (Werner Hartenstein) entered the harbor of San Nicholas, Aruba and fired torpedoes at the tankers lying at anchor. First, the Pedernales (damaged) was hit at 08.01 hours, three minutes later the Oranjestad (sunk) and at 09.43 hours the Arkansas (damaged) at the Eagle Dock. Source: Member’s area here at uboat.net. Other tankers were attacked and either su
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, I can answer part of your question. First I think there were at least two specific frequencies for distress signals but I am only certain about the 600 meter band. I have seen that one referred to as the “international distress frequency” and I have seen references to U-boats monitoring it during an attack to determine if the ship was sending out a distress signal in a numbe
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Steven, See the article entitled: "Treatment of Merchant Ship Survivors by U-boat Crews 1939 - 1945" at .
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Larry, Your welcome. That area early in the war is of special interest to me as my dad’s ship the SS Cardonia was sunk by a U-boat in the Windward Passage not far from Cuba on March 7, 1942. In fact they were en route from Puerto Rico to Cuba when they were sunk. The lifeboat my dad was in made land in Haiti. Later the President of Haiti arranged for a Haitian military plane to fly
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Larry, Certainly German surface craft could easily have made it to Cuba before Cuba declared war on Germany. It’s not likely they would have bothered to try once the war got started in that area though as there were all sorts of ways for them to get there by sea. They could also have traveled to some other part of the Caribbean and taken a plane or small boat from there or simply booked
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Larry, This is a history forum. Please come back when you have actual proof that someone landed in Cuba from a U-boat, not just speculation. The records do not support your speculation. It is your responsibility to come up with the evidence before publishing something like that and rumors don’t count as evidence. The last thing we need is yet another book that supports a myth.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Larry, Believe what you want. I have no doubt that German agents tried to influence the Cuban government as they did most governments. However they were not from a U-boat – that is completely laughable – a fantasy. As for the official records, Showell’s book is based on them – there are no records of U-boat men coming ashore in Cuba during the war simply because it never happened
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Larry, The following simply never happened: "I understood from Raul (Hernandez a friend), that a German U-boat surfaced just off Havana and the captain tried to get Cuba to join the war on the side of Germany. However, as soon as the U-boat left, Batista (who was in his first term as president 1940-1944) declared war on Germany." It is a myth - one of many. U-boat commander
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, No it is not true. U-39 was the first U-boat sunk during the war and she was "Sunk 14 Sept, 1939 north-west of Ireland, in position 58.32N, 11.49W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Faulknor, HMS Foxhound and HMS Firedrake" according to the member's area here at uboat.net. Perhaps your source means the first U-boat sunk by a plane was sunk by a Bri
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Ken, The emblem in the photo looks almost identical to the one in Hogel’s book & I would say it is U-968 but I can’t be 100% certain. I have found a number of cases where Hogel’s book is off in a minor way when compared to a photograph of the emblem in question. This is probably due to the fact that the emblems that were painted on had to be repainted for each patrol & they
Forum: General Discussions

Yes it is an excellent book.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Barry, There were a number of German born naturalized American citizens serving in the American merchant marine during the war too. There were two of them on my dad's ship when it was sunk by U-126. One of them was the First Officer & the other was an able seaman. America is a country of immigrants and they simply saw themselves as Americans.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Robert, If you haven't already seen the movie Das Boot, you probably should do so. It is quite technically accurate and will give you a good idea what went on aboard a U-boat during a war patrol. It is also much easier to view a movie than read a book at least to get you started. a picture really is worth a thousand words. Once you have seen he movie the books will make more sense
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Terry, Normally we agree on U-boat matters however I am afraid I can’t agree with you on this one. You haven’t provided anything that even resembles proof here and saying “keep an open mind” when there is no real evidence at all doesn’t quite cut it. Just basing your research on official navy documents isn’t enough as Paul correctly points out there are numerous errors in
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jukka, Well I just got my (English language) copy of “U-boote Crews”. The good news is that it only cost $28.35 U.S. and shipping was free at (the American) amazon.com. The paper it is printed on is indeed high quality and that allows better quality photos to look very good. It has a number of photos I had never seen (and I own over 100 U-boat related books already) and some good i
Forum: General Discussions

Hi VikingG, I am almost 100% certain that the Portuguese fishing vessel story is not true. I have heard that story in various forms supposedly happening in various places and every one of them has proved to be untrue. It is a quite typical myth. I tracked one of these down a couple of years ago (the fishing boat wasn't Portuguese though) only to find that the source was a guy in a loca
Forum: General Discussions