15 YEARS AGO in our KTB

In KTB #20 I had to apologize that I did not send out Christmas cards. My son had been killed earlier in the year, and my mind was not on Christmas. We were getting closer to the design of our SHARKHUNTERS logo. We explained that we needed the telephone numbers of all Members in case we needed to get in contact with you in a hurry. VICTOR TURON (28-1984) gave us some great insight into U-573 which had been interned in Spain during the war, then was the beginning of the Spanish submarine fleet as .S 7. Unfortunately, the other six were never built. We were still attempting to determine what U-boat used a red shield and a golden lion and a quarter moon on the conning tower. ROBERT WILCOX (25-1984) had just released his book 'Japan's Secret War' in which he revealed that Japan actually test-fired an atomic device before the United States - they just lacked the fissionable material to keep building more bombs. VICTOR TURON (281984) was seeking information whether it was true that C-34 sank the Spanish submarine C-3 in 1936. (SHARKHUNTERS later broke the story about `Operation Ursula' in which it is acknowledged that this indeed, was the cause of the loss of C-3). KTB #20 was still just six pages in length and done on that old manual typewriter. We've sure grown, thanks to our Members.

10 YEARS AGO in our KTB

We celebrated our anniversary - and there were 1,000 Members on board back then. There was information on the 6°' I.J.N. SubRon. There were articles by ERICH TOPP (I18-LIFE-1985) and BOB MAHER (224-1986). We covered the idiotic and bungled public relations farce by (then) Assistant Mayor of Miami Beach Abe Resnick -- he got the remains (ribs and planks) of an old German Olympic racing yacht, called it 'Hillers Yacht', and brought it to a spot off Miami Beach to sink it and, in his mind, sink Hitler's ghost with it. Problem was -- they sank the wreck on a living coral reef, and the environmentalists were up in arms against Abe Resnick. Sometimes people react before they really think.

There was a story by SIG KLAUSSNER (211-1996) about the submarine Aces of the Royal Navy. LARRY DAUPHEMIA (423-1988) and his friend were diving U-853 off Block Island and they suffered a terrible tragedy, and LARRY's friend was killed. We reprinted the 'Plan of the Day' for USS GUADALCANAL on 4 June 1944 - the day they captured U-505. There was more on the will-o-wisp French giant submarine SURCOUF

We had a piece on Flamingo - the early infra-red night vision device that was aboard some German U-boats including U-307 which was commissioned 18 November 1942. The Brits must have thought it was a good invention, as they sent divers down to get what they could of this device. We reported that divers searching for U-534 inadvertently found U-251. KTB # 59 was just 16 pages.

5 YEARS AGO in our KTB

Sorry, we can't show you a cover photo of KTB #104 because it has faded some over the years and the technology at that time was not as sharp as it is today. In that issue, we carried the story `the Horrors of War' by Werner Kreymann which was very graphic. We were trying to learn about `315 Blau' which we think was a secret chart used by various `black' (secret) boats. JIM VIZIGIAN (29-1984) told his story of watching the U-boats come into harbor at Portsmouth Navy Base at the end of the war.

OTTO KRETSCHMER (122-+-1985) stated that there must have been some internal leak - or worse - to allow the Allies to break (or otherwise acquire) the U-boat codes. He felt that someone in the German intelligence forces had sold out the Germany military and of course, many also suspect Admiral Canaris of just that. Our Member JUDE STACKPOLE (1334-+-1990) was doing some serious digging into this very subject and was beginning to uncover a lot of information. Unfortunately, while riding his motorcycle on a clear and sunny day, someone in a large car hit him and killed him. To make things even more frustrating, his son (an attorney) thought his father's research papers were all `jurrk' and threw the entire file into the trash. Nothing more has been done on the code cracking.

We covered more on the `Basis Nord'; the secret bases used by the Kriegsmarine in Russia in the early part of the war. There was more on the various refueling of U-boats by other U-boats or ships that were supply ships; there was an article on the development of the submarine; we reported the death of Luftwaffe General JOHANNES STEINHOFF (2855-+-1993) and we continued our column on `battle damage'. We also reported the passing of the US Navy's top-scoring submarine Skipper and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor RADM RICHARD O'KANE (1540-+-1990). There was more history of the Royal Navy and also of the Japanese submarine navy. We broke the story that North Korea was buying Russian FOX TROT ('ass submarines. KTB #104 was just 32 pages in length with almost no pictures.