ANSWERS

BILL PLEXICO (4037-1994) has a few answers for:

• for DR. E. LEE SPENCE (1543-1993) question regarding the KLAXON horn being named after a WW I Captain of the same name; I think this is unlikely but I don’t know this for a fact. I am rather inclined to believe the KLAXON horn is derived from the Greek word KLAZEIN which describes a loud, harsh sound.
• for JASON LOBO (4473-1995) question about the ‘BLACK SEA Boats’ and he mentions correctly that there were six of these boats, but omitted one of them (U-24) in his listing. All six of these boats; U-9, U-18, U-19, U-20, U-23 and U-24 were Type II-B and all were built at Germania Werft in Kiel. All six were of a 1935-36 construction period. In late 1942 the six boats were transferred from Gotenhafen to Kiel where they were disemboweled of their engines, batteries, motors and had their conning towers removed. The hulls were barged via the Kiel Canal and River Elbe to Dresden then trucked to Ingolstadt on the Danube. From this point they were again barged to Galati in Rumania. They were re-assembled there & proceeded on their own power to the seaport of Constanza. Here they formed the Black Sea Flotilla with 500 men.
• for JOE McCARTHY (3853-1994) question if a torpedo was fired from a submarine how capable were they of taking a course other than that of the submarine. the answer - VERY.

DICK COLE (204-A-1986) has more to add to the question of the small arms carried on board a U-Boat. DICK pulls this information from the book that covered the trial of Heinz Eck and in it we read:

‘One of the witnesses, who was the German equivalent of an Able Seaman, testified that he was in charge of arms on board U-852. During the incident, he received an order to send small arms to the bridge. He personally sent up Mauser pistols, machine-pistols and hand grenades. Later a MG 15 machine gun was sent up by someone else. There was clear distinction made among the pistols, machine-pistols and machine guns despite the chance of confusion with the language barrier.’

Since U-852 was a big Type IX-D2 and on a long voyage, she might have well had a larger compliment of small arms than, say, a Type VII-C operating in the North Atlantic.

For MELVIN PORETZ (3031-1993), the answer to your question regarding what boat was towed into Bermuda and the crew and boat put in the ‘deep freeze’ (covered in secrecy) to keep U-Boat Command from learning that codes, daily keys and a tremendous amount of intelligence had fallen into American hands was indeed U-505. She was the only U-Boat captured by the US Navy in World War II and in fact, was the first enemy Man ‘O War boarded by the US Navy on the high seas in combat since the War of 1812 in which the US Navy boarded and captured HMS PEACOCK in the Sunda Straits in 1815.

The crew was actually interned in Rustin, Louisiana in a camp with German Army POWs so they could be hidden from the Red Cross, lest the word leak back to Germany that U-505 was not sunk, but captured with all this highly secret material on board. It was bad enough that the seaman who was to ‘pull the plug’ and scuttle the boat failed in his job, but the treason of another crewmember in showing the workings of the sub to the US Navy certainly sent thousands more U-BootFahrer to an early death. This will be covered in depth when we profile U-505.

For PETER GALLO (4455-1995) many Members sent the answer so we thank all those who did, but cannot put all the names here. USS GREYBACK (SS 208) sank ENGLAND MARU.

QUESTIONS

TONY FOSTER (4664-1995) would like to know where to find the personnel records of the Wehrmacht or Gestapo people serving in the Motor Transport Truck units based in Naples and Rome from January 1943 to August that year. He also needs to know the names of the Commanding Officers of these units.

ROGER BESAW (4229-1995) asks if the Skipper of a BIEBER was an officer or an NCO?

MELVIN PORETZ (3031-1993) asks were any other U-Boats involved in any of the Greenland weather/radio station operations besides U-965?