Hi Volker, Your English is excellent!
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Mike, First let me say I have no idea how England used all of their carriers during the war and I doubt anyone can provide anything but speculation as to why they were deployed as they were. That said, there was a desperate need for carrier aircraft in the U-boat War. They were instrumental in winning that war. Any U-boat attacked by an aircraft eventually had to dive and once submer
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Vidar, I also have “U-Boote Crews” however it only has a fraction of the errors that “U-Boote 1935-1945 The History of the Kriegsmarine U-Boats” contains and again it has some really great photos. My interest in books like these is primarily in the photos and sometimes I don’t even read the text. In the case of these two books although I have owned “U-Boote 1935-1945 The H
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Vidar, The U-boat book with the most typos/mistakes I have ever seen is: Dalliès-Labourdette, Jean-Philippe. U-Boote 1935-1945 The History of the Kriegsmarine U-Boats. Paris: Histories & Collections, 1996. ISBN: 2-908182-42-4. The photos are excellent but their captions are frequently wrong as is a surprising amount of the text. I doubt any of the problems in this book we
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Spider, Also note that the main weapon used by aircraft to sink U-boats was the shallow set depth charge. The question is poorly worded
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Jacky, Yes, these landings were generally included in the U-boat KTBs and they are documented in other German records which survived the war and have been thoroughly analyzed and reported. Most of the spy landings you hear about are myths though. See the following for the landings that did happen: Showell, Jak P. Mallmann. U-boats at War Landings on Hostile Shores. Shepperton: Ian Al
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Josh, Yes it wasn’t unusual for a man to serve on several U-boats. Once experienced at his position he could be transferred to another boat where his experience was needed or he could be promoted and sent to another boat. Additionally if he was sent to a school or hospital and his boat had to leave without him with a replacement he might go to another boat after he was available again.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Steve, I can’t answer your question however there were many claimed U-boat sinkings that never happened off the east coast of the U.S., especially that early in the war. Some of the boats were damaged and got away and others got away without damage at all. Some attacks may not have even been on U-boats. That area is littered with shipwrecks (many sunk by U-boats) and the water isnâ
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Ken, According to LLoyds "the Klipfontein struck a submerged reef on 8 January 1953. This caused an explosion in the forward oil tank and the ship sank 45 minutes later." According to “The Chandris Liners and Celebrity Cruises” By Peter Plowman Published by Rosenberg, 2006 ISBN 1877058475, 9781877058479: “the Klipfontein struck a submerged object believed to be an uncha
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Rainer, Thanks for the response. My phone number hasn't changed.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Aura, This brings up an interesting question. As a practical matter I believe that the IWO (First Watch Officer) would take over the duties of the Commander if the Commander was unable to perform them, however, the LI (Chief Engineer) might well outrank him. I am not certain what authority if any to operate the boat his higher rank would give him though. The German naval officer corps w
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Herb, It happened Jan 27, 1942 and is reported in the KTB as: While bringing the empty cartridges back into the boat one accidentally fell from the bridge through to the control room and hit Masch.OGfr. Bastl in the face and he suffered a split upper lip and lost several teeth. A case of military accident.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Thomen, Masch.OGfr Bastl being mistakenly typed for Funk Maat Heinz Barth is too ludicrous to even consider. What part of the crew lists are incomplete do you not understand? They are a work in progress and are constantly being added to. There are hundreds of missing names not to mention that many men only served on a given boat for one or two patrols and many served on several boats d
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Thomen, There is no Sebastian (first or last name) on the U-123 crew list either. Additionally it is extremely unlikely Hardegen or any other U-boat commander would have reported an injured man as Masch.OGfr followed by his nickname in an official document like a KTB intended for review by Doenitz.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi jcrt, The crew lists are incomplete. The name appears in the microfilmed KTB. The first letter is a bit difficult to read but appears to be a “B” and Herbert Ritschel who may have had access to the original KTB also spelled it with a “B” in his abbreviated KTB. Additionally there is nobody in the crew list for U-123 whose name ends with “astl” and that part of the name is c
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Dick, Since this is an American ship you can contact: The United States Coast Guard National Maritime Center (NMC-421) 100 Forbes Drive Martinsburg, WV 25404 1-888-427-5662 The Call Center should be able to tell you what hoops you will have to jump through. They will probably need the following: SS CITY OF ATLANTA (Master Lehman Chapman Urquhart) Departed New York – proba
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Norma, Browning unlike most other historians, lists the sources he used for what happened during each attack along with his summary of the attack. His sources for the ROBERT H. COLLEY are as follows: WACR - War Action Casualty Reports, U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Historian’s Office, Washington, DC. WCSR - U.S. Coast Guard War Casualty Shipping Records, 1941-1945 Record Group 26,
Forum: General Discussions

Hi All, Let’s not forget that Germany was restricted as to the size of her U-boats by treaty to a percentage of the British fleet, i.e., a maximum total tonnage for all U-boats. Germany had to choose between a small number of large U-boats or a larger number of small U-boats. As a result they compromised with some of both and in both cases they had to sacrifice crew comforts for fighting c
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Brian, First let me say I don’t know what happened in the specific case you are referring to but it is an interesting case indeed as the 105mm deck gun also suffered a “barrel explosion” during the same attack. In the case of the deck gun since it had already fired about 20 rounds the cause was probably not a barrel obstruction (the gun crew would have noticed it the previous round
Forum: General Discussions

Hi JR, Perhaps it would help if you gave us a whole sentence where each term is used as well as which KTB (including the date) it was used in.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Gaines, The open bridge of a U-boat was even more cold and miserable than the bridge of a ship due to the spray. It was also cold and miserable inside. The men had all their clothes on and there were some portable electric heaters and that was about it. At least they could submerge though and while the temperature above water could be well below zero the temperature below would be warm
Forum: General Discussions

Hi John, What information doesn't match up?
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Robert, Good one!
Forum: Technology and Operations

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

Hi Gaines, The 37mm SKC30 mounted aft of the conning tower on the Type IX boats had a muzzle plug like the deck guns. The early version of the single barrel 20mm AA gun mounted on the winter garden also had a muzzle plug available for it but I don’t know if it was used operationally. I have only seen a couple of photos of it in place and the boats were in port both times. As to the
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Chippen Perhaps this is what you are looking for: Enigma messages were sent by radio in Morse Code. The sender would type his message into the Enigma machine and the Enigma machine would change it (encrypt it) one character at a time based on the settings of that machine. The operator would write down the changed (encrypted) characters and when the message was complete he would sen
Forum: General Discussions

Congrats Gummi! A very special Christmas gift indeed. Merry Christmas and Happy new Year my friend.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Hans, I have it & there are no references to U-35 in it.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Scott, That clarifies a lot for me. I was having a hard time envisioning how they maneuvered the torpedo down below during the loading process. The use of those topside canisters probably looked like a good idea in peace time but they ultimately proved to be impractical during wartime. U-126 suffered both problems. She was once caught on the surface and bombed by an aircraft while s
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Paul, You have to be a registered user to send private messages. See the first four posts at the top of this page for how to register. It is simple and after registering you don't have to enter the spam code when you post.
Forum: General Discussions