These first questions are extremely important, and will help our SHARKHUNTERS ETAPPANDIENST agents put more pieces of a very interesting puzzle together. Please answer if you can.

Q. - What was the last known position of WBS 9?

Q. - U-864 was another of the boats headed for the Far-East and her cargo included an Me 262 jet fighter and an Me 163 'KOMET' rocket-powered fighter plane, several 'guests', certain metals and water bottles. Who were the 'guests'? What were these 'metals'? What were these 'water bottles'? This boat also carried other very high-tech equipment and documentation. The agent in Japan who was to receive this boat and her cargo was Fregettenkapitän Walther Zatorski and his duty office was in Yokohama. Who can tell us about Zatorski?

Q. - What Member lives near New Berlin, NY? Call us please!

On to the normal questions...

Q. - ED McCAUL (4193-1995) would like information on an American submarine Skipper with the initials HWK and who was stationed in England at some time in the War. Who was HWK?

Q. - LOU MARI (536-1988) sent a copy of an article which reads in part "A few men from the TANG escaped the sunken boat by using the MOMSEN LUNG - the only known instance this feat was accomplished during WWII." LOU would like to know if this statement is correct - so would we, because it was our impression that DICK O'KANE (1540-+-1990) and the few others who survived were on the bridge when their own torpedo circled and sank USS TANG. They were blown into the water from the bridge, not up from the deeps. Who has this answer?

Q. - JOE McCARTHY (3853-1994) would like to know how many torpedoes are kept as reloads for bowroom on a TYPE IX boat; and how many for the after room?

Q. - J. DEBUS (3799-1994) would like to know what movie told the story of an American sniper behind enemy lines on a Japanese-held Pacific island, obsessed with avenging a slain comrade, single-handedly inflicted such damage and demoralized the island's defenders so badly they began to commit suicide? Fact or fiction?

Q. - LEE DUNLAP (3168-1993) would like to know what is the typical range of the WW II submarine before refueling?

Q. - TOM FOOTE (3959-1994) met a man named George Göbel who said he served in the Kriegsmarine and that he had been on board pocket battleships but one evening as he and his shipmates were walking along the street in a French seaport, two guys with machine guns jumped off a truck and asked for their papers. They were told to get aboard the truck, were taken with other sailors to the U-Boat bunkers and unloaded in front of a U-Boat. They were put aboard as a 'pressed' crew for one war patrol. TOM would like to know if this could possibly have been true or was this old auto mechanic having a laugh at his expense?

Q. - Albert Dirrigl was the Funkmaat (Radioman) on U-527 and was lost in action when that boat was sunk by USN aircraft from VC.9 flying off USS BOGUE. REX EPPS (4182-1995) would like to know more about Albert Dirrigl. Can any U-Bootfahrer tell us more about this man?

ANSWERS

A - DICK COLE (204-A-1986) has answers for GUDMUNDUR HELGASON (3566-1994) about a fishing boat picking up survivors from a U-Boat. After extensive research, DICK thinks that U-464 is the best possibility.

HARRY'S NOTE - I pulled the file on U-464 & found this info in a letter from DAVID WHITE (42-+-1984), which he compiled before his ETERNAL PATROL. "An aircraft of VP.73, Lt. Hopgood, disabled U-464 so she couldn't dive then called for a destroyer. In the meantime, the U-Boat maneuvered alongside an Icelandic fishing trawler and commandeered it and headed off toward Germany. The crew scuttled U-464. The aircraft was meanwhile shuttling between the British destroyer and the trawler. The destroyer took off 52 U-Bootmen from the trawler." U-464 was a TYPE XIV MILCH KUH (Milk Cow) tanker and so was a high priority target. Two crewmen were killed.

A. - DICK COLE (204-A-1986) has another answer for us, regarding the HAPAG liner HAMBURG which was sunk by mine near Sassnitz on 7 March, 1945. DICK tells us that she was raised by the Russians in 1950 and converted into the whale factory ship YURI DOLGORUKI but he does not her final fate.