Hi Barrie, This is not a regular Reichsmark note as it would have been in circulation in Germany at the time. As the text at the bottom of it explains, this a special note used within the German Armed Forces for their own purposes in occupied countries like n this case Greece. The other note is obviously Greek, showing in its center the Acropolis at Athens. The denomination is 1 million Drachma
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Brest being the largest of the French ports, traditionally also the largest of the French Navy, I should think it was definitely the favorite of the U-boat crews since for that very reason it had the largest number of bistros, bars, nude shows and bordellos stocked with with "clean" prostitutes by order of the German military authorities, as was the case with all whorehouses in occupied
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Hi Sid, Since you've already consulted two major sources for that type of information but with negative results, I would suggest you peruse the KTBs of the boats you know were operating in Brazilian waters, provided of course they are extant and accessible. KTBs are always the best sources for anything important that happened during a patrol. Having gone through the entries in a number of
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Just to mention one example of this all too common practice. Erich Topp, while commander of U-2513 based at Horten, Norway, relates in his memoirs that in May 1945 British soldiers detailed to guard the surrendered U-boats at Horten took fountain pens (!) and watches from German crew members while pointing pistols at them. Topp's comment on this sorry scene, "We're going to see mor
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Sorry old chap, but the Germans, unlike the British and Americans, did not generally steal personal articles from their prisoners as this was strictly prohibited. If in your case they took the watch, it was for security reasons in the POW camp ordered by higher authority, not personal greed by individual soldiers. There are endless stories of GIs sending tons of items looted from German soldiers
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Hello again Barrie, There is a great photo of U-407, taken at the dock of her base at Salamis, Greece, I would guess, at this link: It shows the snorkel tube on the right of the tower whose wake while U-407 was running submerged on her Diesels was detected by HMS Garland which immediately dropped Hedgehog charges on it. "Britannia rules the waves" (or, as some anti-First Sea Lord
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Hi Barrie, Thanks for the note. Just in case you are not familiar with the details of the loss of U-407 on 19 Sep 1944: U-407 was first spotted and attacked with Hedgehog bombs at 1700 by the destroyer Garland which was soon joined by four other destroyers, Troubridge, Terpsichore, Brecon and Zetland. These five vessels relentlessly pursued and bombed U-407 for more than 11 hours (!) but without
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Why ask when you already know the answer? A bit disingenuous, if not insulting, wouldn't you agree? I don't respond to trick questions such as yours. Cheers, Gert
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You're right about this in general, but with rudder hard over the turning radius actually decreases with increase in speed. I know this from my own personal experience docking my good ole 23 O'Day sloop with Merc outboard at the pier down here in beautiful southwest Florida. The same would apply to a U-boat, or so I would think. Cheers, Gert
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Just an off the cuff remark on this subject: They sure as heck were not effective at Scapa Flow in October 1939. Cheers, Gert
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Hello Barrie, One of the U-407 survivors was Mechanikermaat (torpedo mixer) EMIL PIENTKA. He died in 1994. As it happens (quite a coincidence, I should think), his nephew. Miro Herold, at this very time is looking for information and photos of U-407. You can reach him at: nc-heroldmi@netcologn&#
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Ken Dunn Wrote: > Any small arm with a U-boat > number stamped on it is a fake in that there was > no reason to stamp a specific U-boat number in a > weapon that would be issued to the next U-boat > that needed it. Quite correct. Side arms carried in U-boats never had the number of the boat stamped on them. Other than the type of pistol ("P.38"), the serial number (&qu
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Hi all, Indicating the depth at which a boat is running at a certain time and under certain conditions (especially while under depth charge attack), U-boat KTBs never give the depth in actual meters but only by using two general terms, Sehrohrtiefe and Tiefe A (plus or minus). Presumably, this was done to hide the operational depth range of U-boats, which was perhaps the most tightly kept secret
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There was another very important feature involved: The extra wiring also acted as an antenna to receive radio messages while the boat was essentially submerged. Normally, running underwater, a U-boat was unable to use its radio equipment. However, with the periscope up, even for only very short periods, vital radio signals could still be received and sent. Cheers, Gert
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Hi Rod, Your last point is really the only one that is relevant here. While the crew inside the boat did their jobs in white light at all times day or night, it was the men of the night watch that several minutes prior to climbing up onto the bridge that put on goggles with red lenses to enable their eyes to adjust to the dark outside and thus immediately spot anything important or dangerous to
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Hello Cy, As far as I can make out, the signatures read as follows: Gerd Schaar, Kommandant U-957 Adalbert Schnee Hans-Werner Kraus, U-83 u. U-199 The large name at the top I simply can't read, perhaps somebody else can. Cheers, Gert P.S. Since Schnee died in 1982 (Schaar in 1983, Kraus in 1990), the photo must have been autographed sometime prior to 1982.
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