BILL PLEXICO (4037-1994) has compiled a list of U-Boats that lived past the end of the war. As you might guess, there are a lot of boats on this list which requires that we publish it section by section in many issues of our KTB Magazine. This began in KTB #117.

When the list of German U-Boats is finished, we will begin with the list of US Navy submarines that survived the war.

U-995 was first the boat of Kapitänleutnant Walter Köhentopp who was relieved of command because he was ‘not aggressive enough’. During his command, the boat had never launched an attack against any ship He was replaced in August of 1944 by a Skipper who had just turned 21 years of age, OBLT HANS-GEORG HESS (125-LIFE-1985). Under HESS, this boat had quite an active time and did launch many attacks, despite the fact that this was late in the war when most U-Boats just did not return from even their first war patrol.

This boat was surrendered to the British. U-995 and three other TYPE VII-C boats were given to Norway for their navy. U-995 was named KAURA and served for years with the RNN.

When the Norwegian Navy decommissioned U-995, they offered the boat to the West German Government for a token price of something like 1 D-Mark, to be used as a Memorial or a Monument. This was extremely gracious on the part of the Norwegian Government - but the German Government said NO! They had the same offer earlier when the Spanish Government offered to sell U-573 for a token price of 1 D-Mark, to be used for the same purpose. The position of the German Government, it appears, was ‘World War WHAT?’ U-573 was eventually scrapped.

Fortunately for U-995 and for history itself, this was not to be the fate of U-995, as the DMB (German Navy League) stepped in and paid the token price for the boat. They also provided space for her, moved her and they now maintain this wartime artifact as part of the German Navy Memorial in a small town outside Kiel.

Our SHARKHUNTERS groups always visit this beautifully maintained U-Boat and the Memorial during our trips to Germany, and we are very pleased that the Royal Norwegian Navy and the DMB worked together to save this priceless piece of history.