Looking at the original post, the poster asks for help on the two Uboats. One of the posted photos (the bottom one) is obviously a closeup on one of them; but it appears to me that the two at the top are different views of the same boat. There is what appears to be patches of snow or ice along the decking. These patches are an odd shape but I don't think that they're camouflage. The
Forum: General Discussions

Thank you for this list. It shows the ferocity of "Operation Paschenslag" very clearly. And until this list, it hadn't struck me the number of allied military vessels among those sunk. There's a lot of history on our coast. BHenderson, Wallace NC (also, seasonal firefighting pilot, NC Forest Service; based at Kinston , frequently using Edenton airport , Elizabeth City Ai
Forum: General Discussions

What are you considering "off the North Carolina coast"? Within 100 miles? Between NC and Bermuda? What are the northern and southern limits? BH, southeast NC coast
Forum: General Discussions

Besides Ken Dunn's thorough, excellently researched, and well-reasoned article, most U-boat officers (especially in the first half of the War when they were most active) were ex-merchant seamen. Over and over again, you read of them expressing opinions like "we regret any loss of life; they're sailors just like we are -- but it's necessary in war to sink the ship" and &q
Forum: General Discussions

vito Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > P_Woodworth... > > I would discount any scuttled U-Boats as a > candidate, as there were too many skeletal remains > aboard. > > This clipping was all I could find. > > See this: > This agrees with my first reaction. My thought was to surmise that women and children were being ev
Forum: General Discussions

Thank you, Ken. Lots of theories and rumors, although I have to say that the idea that a "submarine chaser" was grounded there about 90 years ago and the local fakelore warped that into "submarine" does sound plausible. And that seems to be the "official" version. And the site if just closer to the ocean from the Norfolk Navy base and the old Norfolk Navy air stat
Forum: General Discussions

My college roommate's friend worked at Newport News Shipyard from about 1966 - 1975. One weekend we were visiting him and it was decided that we'd go to Virginia Beach. As we crossed the bridge/tunnel from Newport News to Norfolk, he pointed to a pile of rubble pushed up on a sandbar right at the water's edge next to the bridge and said "That's a German submarine -- the
Forum: General Discussions

I have reviewed some published material on the attacks by USS Crow and Koiner at the site of the sinking of U-869. Crow reported attacking first with a "hedgehog" weapon and then following up with several attacks of ordinary depth charges. Koiner's records are not so explicit but it seems that she only dropped depth charges in attacks after Crow's. There are two points of
Forum: General Discussions

U-869 was an enigma for a long time. Little was known about her last patrol and among the few facts "known" was that both U-boat Command and Allied Forces thought that she had been ordered to an operational area near Gibraltar. However, as we know, the boat was found off the New Jersey coast, leaving post-war authorities in great doubt as to how she was sunk there. Upon investigation
Forum: General Discussions

There was a limited amount of refrigerated storage space on a U-boot but most of the food was designed to be stored without refrigeration. I've noticed frequent reference to bread being stored or supplied from "Milk-cows" in metal cans. There is a listing of the menu items for a U-boot in one of the reports on "u-boat archive" dot-com. (Sorry, don't remember which
Forum: General Discussions

About 50 miles east of Cape Hattaras.
Forum: General Discussions

Laid down at the end of October, launched in mid-January (2 1/2 months), comissioned in mid-Febuary (3 1/2 months from being laid down). We know that the yards were using upgraded techniques but there was also a continuous bombing campaign going on and the Allies were pushing up to and across the Rhine at the time. Add in the dire shortage of materials to the mix. The building of this submarin
Forum: General Discussions

Interesting, and I hope that this research results in more knowledge about the history and fates of u-boats. But I must say that my own personal feelings are that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs". I look forward to following this story as it develops.
Forum: General Discussions

For much detailed information, see:
Forum: General Discussions

Hi, Ian. That "class" insignia was pretty unusual. There was a crossed-swords insignia from another class group and a small number more but most boats didn't have such an insignia. Many boats had a flotilla insignia ("Bull of Scapa Flow", the "Laughing Sawfish", the "Viking Ship"); also many carried an insignia of their "adopting towns" bu
Forum: General Discussions

The U-boot that you're thinking about is U-234. See the history of the boat on this website. Also, Google "U-234 submarine uranium" and you'll find a lot of info. It's not clear exactly what U-234 was carrying. Some sources say "enriched" uranium, others say "uranium oxide", others say "uranium isotopes" but clearly the cargo was either
Forum: General Discussions

Kapitan-Leutnant Werner Pfeiffer was captain of U-581 which was sunk near the Azores. He was born May 1912 in Dresden and died 31 May 1993 at age 81. Almost all of the crew of U-581 were taken prisoner by the British warship that sunk her. K-Lt. Pfeiffer was help prisoner in the UK and released in 1947.
Forum: General Discussions

"MV Amerika" was a Danish ship, taken over by the British Ministry of War Transport. She had two short stacks, and a large forward upper structure. The photo of Amerika looks as if it may have had a substantial passenger accommodation. Here's the info on its sinking: At 01.54 hours on 22 Apr, 1943, the Amerika (Master Christian Nielsen), a straggler from convoy HX-234, was to
Forum: General Discussions

According to Wiki-Pedia "The aircraft of V./KG 40 (which was redesignated I./Zerstörergeschwader 1 in 1943[11]) were a significant threat to the antisubmarine aircraft and operated as escort fighters for the more vulnerable Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor bombers. Between July 1942 and July 1944, the Ju 88s of KG 40 and ZG 1 were credited with 109 confirmed air-to air victories,[12] at a cost of 11
Forum: General Discussions

(the info in my comment is from www.uboatarchive.net. Thanks.
Forum: General Discussions

I'm certainly no expert, but won't you have to dig deep in the records for each of the boats? Uboat.net says that there were eight XB boats (U-116, U-117, U-118, U-119, U-219, U-220, U-233, and U-234) but they were originally designed as minelayers; of these, some were modified for use as "transport boats". It appears that any refueling of operational boats by XB's was
Forum: General Discussions

Good luck on your search, Billy. There is a section on this website that is in the process of attempting to compile a list of names of sailors who were on ships hit by U-boats in WWII. Unfortunately, it's a mammoth task and there are very few organized sources to draw from so the project is taking quite a bit of time. Also, the most easily obtained data is information on casualties so it&
Forum: General Discussions

I don't have details to hand but there seems to have been a flurry of U-boat ops in N. American coastal waters with a number of boats destroyed in the last three months or so of the War. As we all know, May of '43 was the big "bust out" for U-boat operations and my subjective feel that that what few boats were able to operate without being hunted down were pulled back until e
Forum: General Discussions

Thanks, John. April and May, 1945 were dangerous days to be a U-boat man even if you weren't on a U-boat.
Forum: General Discussions

K-Lt. Albert Sürenhagen commissioned U-855 but left the boat in April, 1944. He is listed as dying on 10 April, 1945. Any info on details? Thanks, BH, NC USA
Forum: General Discussions

There were missing U-Boats *during* the war. These are craft that suddenly stopped sending messages by radio and were never heard from again; these also disappeared in areas were there were no recorded Allied attacks so there do not appear to be any reasons for these boats to be lost. I do not have any details but it would not surprise me if there were a few boats that set sail in March or Apr
Forum: General Discussions

Derek, thank you for this informative review of the plans and execution of the disposal of the U-Boats. It answered a number of questions that I had. But I kept thinking "I wonder how the idea of scuttling boats with 'polluting' metals and other components (such as asbestos) would be accepted today?" Again, thank you, this review is up to your usual standards of research
Forum: General Discussions

Here is another photo of a similar pipe -- I'm not entirely familiar with the IXD boats, but it looks as if it's a storage container (also not connected to anything) on the deck beside the cutout for the schnorkel.
Forum: General Discussions

Jean-Noe'l wrote: "I'll have to check again in LGB'book, but I remember that he spoke during "Bar Royal"opening scene of Der Alte as a peaceful Hapag captain." Yes, and there's a scene early in the patrol where they're talking about the U-boat riding the waves and Der Alte talks about sailing ships in a way that lets you know that he had had consid
Forum: Movies and Films

That "double step" wintergarten is very interesting and I'm also glad that there was a photo of (the original, earlier configuration????) single wintergarten on the same boat.
Forum: General Discussions