Hi Urs, You are quite welcome. I have continued to research this issue over the years & I have collected quite a few accounts primarily from the merchant marine side but many also from the German side and very few of them contradict the paper. And when they do I generally find that there was no actual evidence of any wrongdoing, and the U-boat commander made other patrols with no hint o
Forum: Warship forum

Agreed.
Forum: Warship forum

Hi Urs, U-boats had been sinking merchant ships off our coast since Operation Paukenschlag started in January and the dead bodies of merchant seamen had been washing up on the shores all along the east coast for all those months while no U-boats had been sunk and the navy and the American people wanted revenge. Nobody was in the mood to question the sinking of a U-boat. The nature of war
Forum: Warship forum

Hi Battleship Russ, I forgot to mention that the USS ROPER a Wickes class destroyer (like 26 of the 50) was the first U.S. ship to sink a U-boat (U-85) during the war. U-85 was sunk 14 April 1942 in the North Atlantic off Cape Hatteras a year and a half after those 50 destroyers went to the United Kingdom. She served for the duration of the war being decommissioned 15 September, 1945. Not
Forum: Warship forum

Now you have 2 PMs.
Forum: General Discussions

You have a PM.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi seevogel114, As far as I know the watch officer made that decision & he put the men with the best eyesight in the most critical positions at the time. I have seen this in a couple of books but I don’t remember which ones. It seems some were better in the dark & others in fog or at certain times of the day (perhaps sunrise or sunset) etc. Also the most experienced men might have b
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Battleship Russ, First you have been badly misinformed about the 50 destroyers. We didn’t “ditch” them so we could send new construction down the ways. There wasn’t going to be any new construction of any magnitude anytime soon. The American public didn’t understand the danger Hitler represented to America and the rest of the free world and refused to get involved in any European war
Forum: Warship forum

Hi Billc, You have a Private Message (PM)
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Firmin, U-518 was a Type IXC and the only one left is U-505 at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry in the U.S. U-534 is a Type IXC/40 and is almost identical to the IXC. It was raised from the Kattegat, between Denmark and Sweden, in 1993. She was taken to Birkenhead, England in May 1996 and is now part of a small museum run by Merseytravel, the local transport executive. Th
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, Bauer was IWO on U-37 from August 4th, 1938 (the day U-37 was commissioned) through her first two patrols and perhaps a few days after. Bauer started commander’s school November 16th, 1939 just 8 days after U-37 returned to Wilhelmshaven from her 2nd patrol. I don't know who the other officers on U-37 were during that time, except of course the commanders. Bauer as comma
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Farrimond, It was Bauer.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi danmac, Germany didn't have U-boats in 1932. Perhaps you meant 1942.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, After a quick scan of uboat.net I come up with the youngest former U-boat commander being Hans-Eckart Augustin born January 7, 1924 (& the only one born in 1924 not listed as having already passed away). If he is still alive today he would be 94. His only command was U-62 a school boat at the end of the war and he made no war patrols. I came up with only 9 former U-boat comma
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, I didn't say I knew for sure, I said "I think". Do you know for a fact any of them are still alive? If so: Hans-George Fischer would be 110. Mattias Brunig would be 98. Erich Hilsenitz would be 101 and Heinz Murl would be 98. I hope they are but even if they aren't perhaps there are others that are. That is the response I was looking for.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Ernest, I think Reinhard Hardegen is the only living WWII German U-boat Commander.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Michael, You have a PM.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jack, You got mail.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi epossum, First let me say I could find no evidence that USS WASHINGTON (BB56) ever encountered a U-boat much less sank one & fired on its survivors. It appears someone has their story completely wrong. It was not the policy of the American government (or the German government) to shoot helpless survivors in the water. There were rare isolated cases of it being done by individuals o
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Joyce Stacy Proce, See:
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Rainer, I too concur. 1. Eisenhower said: “The war would have been over sooner if someone had shot Admiral King”. 2. King was an jerk all the time. His daughter when someone accused King of occasionally having a bad temper said “that’s nonsense, my father has a perfectly even temper – he is angry all the time”. 3. The Brits told King the U-boats were coming and confirmed agai
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Duckman, You have a Private Message.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi All, Maciek was one of the good guys. He helped a lot of us over the years. He will be missed.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi All, Office of Naval Research Set to Upgrade the 200-Year-Old Signal Lamp for Modern Stealth Communication: I guess now they will be able to encrypt the messages sent by signal light and you might not even be able to see the light without night vision gear….
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi All, This is simply another myth, probably just poor reporting (using rumors etc.) or a writer embellishing his story etc. It could also just be a misunderstanding as some civilian clothes were authorized aboard U-boats. I have seen dozens of photos showing U-boat crewmen at sea wearing civilian shirts & hats aboard U-boats. The shirts were frequently plaid though not always. Addi
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jim, You have a Private Message (PM) from me about the bombing.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Marco, This doesn’t answer your question but the U-boat commander Heinz Scheringer (commanded U-10, U-13, & U-26) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I don’t know the details but I found the following at : “The Korvettenkapitän Heinz Scheringer was born in Buenos Aires on August 29, 1907. The son of German immigrants, he returned to Europe with his family and entered the Krie
Forum: General Discussions

Hi All, There were also voice tubes in most compartments and on the bridge. They were just pipes - you talked into one end and listened in the other.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi Pete, First in case you haven’t come across it there is a good book on Milag out there: Thomas, Gabe. Milag: Captives of the Kriegsmarine. Merchant Navy Prisoners of War. Published by: The Milag Prisoner of War Association. ISBN: 0-9525498-08. Copyright: D.N. Gabe Thomas. Now as to living conditions on a U-boat. By most standards they were horrible. However, most of the U-boat men
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Bishie, The rules regarding the treatment of survivors when the war started were based on the Prize Ordinance which distinguished between the survivors of merchant ships and survivors of warships. Warships could be sunk without warning and their survivors were to be abandoned & left to their fate or taken prisoner. That was the same in every navy in the world and didn’t change over th
Forum: General Discussions