Hi Jukka, All U-boats had toilets and some had two. The first part of the problem was that when the boats first left for patrol one of the heads was used as a storage area for food & supplies and couldn’t be used for anything else until the items stored there were consumed. That left the whole crew, perhaps 50 men, competing for the one available toilet (assuming the boat had two) an
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi Paul, Actually Wynn is completely wrong. I just looked at what Wynn said. He has 7 men being killed at the time U-26 was sunk and none were killed then. Additionally 6 (not 7) U-26 crew were killed at Banff (I should have looked up the number before replying).
Forum: General Discussions

Hi All, U-190 also had the modification. There are some great photos of it (inside & out) in Werner Hirschmann’s excellent book: Another Place, Another Time – A U-boat Officer’s Wartime Album. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004. ISBN: 1-59114-013-7. Copyright: Werner Hirschmann and Donald E. Graves, 2004. Basically they just cut away the forward portion of the upper de
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, uboat.net is correct but then so is Wynn. The whole crew was rescued but their POW camp in Banff Scotland was accidentally bombed by a German plane and 7 of the U-26 crew were killed.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Laval, Some cargo (weapons) was strapped to the deck of a few U-boats carrying it to Norway during the invasion. The deck gun was removed to facilitate this. There was at least one that was converted to carry fuel to Norway and a couple of others that were in the process of being converted when it was called off as a bad idea. Until later in the war the Type VII and IX U-boats had spec
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi All, Perhaps they are containers for the Italian midget subs. Just a thought.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Dan, Multiple types of detonators were used with the G7e. The standard type could be detonated by contact or by detecting the magnetic field generated by its target. The method was selected before the torpedo was fired. During parts of the war the magnetic option had to be disabled as it wasn't reliable. You got mail.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jamie, At the beginning of the war the single barrel 20mm AA guns were kept in a pressure proof container secured to the deck or recessed into it. That quickly proved to be unworkable. There wasn’t time to assemble the gun when the boat surfaced and there certainly wasn’t time to disassemble it & store it during an emergency dive. On the larger U-boats an area was added at he rea
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Roger, Thanks much for the info & photos. You got mail.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Roger, Thanks for the story – I’ll add it to my collection. What is the source? Also have you read: Thomas, Gabe. Milag: Captives of the Kriegsmarine. Merchant Navy Prisoners of War. Published by: The Milag Prisoner of War Association. ISBN: 1-872808-35-2. Copyright: J.H. Thomas and W.E. Williams. It contains quite a few names and stories. Note that the information on Rogge
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jersey, The only thing I have on U-123 that is similar is her sinking of the Pan Norway. From the Member’s area here at uboat.net: “After the crew had left the Pan Norway, the fire was reopened but soon no ammunition for the deck gun was left so they shot holes into the waterline with the 37mm AA gun until the tanker capsized and sank at 03.45 hours. Shortly before the duel began, t
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, I have no idea about the specific case you are asking about but it wasn’t unusual for a U-boat to occasionally fish a stray survivor out of the water and keep him onboard if there was no lifeboat or raft to put him in however generally survivors were left to fend for themselves as U-boats weren’t equipped to rescue survivors. This happened all through the war even after the Lacon
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Bob, Just do a forum search on the word fake or the word Bulgaria. Seems a lot of these fake items are sold (as being authentic) to tourists visiting Bulgaria. Of course a lot are sold on ebay too.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Bob, As nothing like that was ever issued, the watch you have is probably a fake - a large number of these fakes come from Eastern Europe ant there are many, many posts about them here on the forum.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Tcovin, The ship in the photo is definitely the Nordmark disguised as an American ship. U-107 was resupplied by Nordmark May 3, 1941 per U-107’s KTB. This photo has been published a number of times, mostly with the correct caption identifying her as Nordmark however I have found at least one book that incorrectly lists her as an American ship as a result of her disguise. This has
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Vinny, She was sunk by U-126(Bauer). I'll be getting up with you via e-mail soon.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, According to U-65's KTB she was refueled by the Nordmark in November of 1940 near the Cape Verde islands. She was replenished from the Nordmark twice that month and once more the next month all during the same patrol. Nordmark is mentioned by name in the KTB all three times.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Alain, The reports tell us that that activity was SUSPECTED, not that it actually happened. No matter how badly you want to take that document as proof it is not even close to proof that the allegations were true. Also note that it specifically refers to fuel oil. U-boats ran on diesel, not fuel oil. You can be certain no U-boat was ever refueled with fuel oil. Additionally the fuel
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Alain, That's a long way from proof. Additionally, there is no mention of American ships refueling U-boats and for good reason - it never happened. Perhaps fuel was sold to the German government before America was in the war but that's not even close to an American ship refueling a U-boat. I do mean "perhaps" too as this document proves nothing. All you have here i
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Alain, As far as I know this is simply yet another myth. If this is public record you should be able to name the ships and U-boats involved as well as the dates etc. lets hear it.
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Hi Richard, There is no Peter Bartel listed as serving on any U-boat including U-581 in the published crew lists (see ). However the crew lists are incomplete. U-581 was sunk 2 Feb, 1942 in the mid-Atlantic south-west of the Azores, in approximate position 39.00N, 30.00W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Westcott. 4 dead and 41 survivors. Perhaps you could question him
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Hi John, He was Alfons Eckert (MtrGfr) and unfortunately he passed away July 15, 2003.
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Hi Andre, AZ & MZ refer to torpedo detonators, AZ = contact detonator and MZ = magnetic detonator. No idea what Nozo is.
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Hi John, Just tried again & got the same error message: "Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com. I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out. <john.woollin@aol.com>: 64.12.137.184 does not like recipient. Remote host said: 550 MAILBOX NOT F
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, The e-mail address you are using seems to be bogus.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, The answer hasn't changed since the last time you asked this question. See the post at: .
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Al, The e-mail came back with the following error: ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <abartual2@wanadoo.es> (reason: 550 Reverse DNS lookup failed for host 24.25.9.101.) ----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to inw.wanadoo.es.: <<< 550 Reverse DNS lookup failed for host 24.25.9.101. 554 5.0.0 Service unavai
Forum: Technology and Operations

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

Hi Albatros, The link you posted is invalid. Perhaps you meant to post:
Forum: _ Forum in deutscher Sprache

Hi Steve, When I visited U-995 (Type VII) a few years ago there wasn't a tour exactly, at least not like the guided tour of U-505 (Type IX). The guides on the U-505 tour can't answer most questions anyway and there is always a crowd of people on each tour so you don't see as much as you could if there were fewer people inside that cramped area. For U-995 in Laboe you paid a
Forum: General Discussions