PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ANOWHR (the German Secret Service) during WW II and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people He gives this secret information especially to SHARKHUNTERS. Here he talks about:

The Type VII-E U-Boat

You are quite right - the Type VII-E never got off the drawing board. In other words, not even a wooden scale or small scale model was produced. It was shuffled about and talked of as a mere test model for heavier, more powerful diesel engines and a different engine setup in order to increase the surface speed to about 21 knots or slightly more with full tanks and fairly favorable sea conditions. But only the blueprint boys did play around with this idea for a while and it never did go further in any way. It would also have required a different positioning of the electrical engines and control apparatus and panel soup too.

Boot Camp!

To correct a possible misunderstanding from a Member - Boot Camp for recently inducted or drafted men. Training was generally given to each and everybody and generally lasting five to six months before then & until about 1940. Thereafter it was shortened to four months initially and finally between three months and 3 1/2 months, depending upon the time of year, by eliminating some of the rather useless spit and polish baloney, which was rather useless for actual war assignments.

Original timetables were concentrated, the day hours lengthened and the scheduled meal or rest breaks, if any, were also shortened in order to cram more basic training into the lesser available time, Only some of the older specialists and technicians managed to get assigned without such basic training from about 1941, when needs for their services were urgent.

Nobody got assigned to U-Boat or any other shipboard services prior to passing through basic boot camp training. With other words, it was not part of the U-Boat Command structure. Generally such training was done largely in field gray uniforms or so-called work clothing in the summers and when rowing or such exercises were involved, as blue uniforms were impractical for slogging about in the mud and creeping about in the bushes, fields or sand dunes usually used for exercises or for that matter, to move about the barracks square too.

Basic U-Boat training was usually given later on once people had either volunteered or been talking into volunteering or assigned to U-Boat service at different establishments, managed and controlled by the Second Admiral or U-Boats or the U-Boat Training Command. You will appreciate that these things did change several times during the war, due to shifting needs and technical changes that occurred over the years.

Furthermore, technical or weapon specialists attended different training establishments and schools from engine room staff and naturally from the sailors and seamen, where again some did also get special weapons or equipment schooling that others did not, depending upon the various specialist careers that were offered in the Kriegsmarine. Signal Staff and radio technicians attended different training schools again.

The general U-Boat 'familiarization' training for non- technical shipboard personnel was generally provided by ULDs (Untersee Lehr Divisions). They took over from the original U-Boat Training School in Neustadt, which only recently was moved by the Bundsmarine to Eckernforde, and is about to be closed down entirely. Other such establishments were in Gdingen (Gotenhafen), Plon & Pillau but some departments of some of these establishments were also shifted to other locations for certain temporary periods of time, usually due to weather or accommodation problems.

From about late 1942 or early 1943, some basic training was also added to the so-called U.A.A.'s or U-Boots Ausbildungs Abtellungen. These were really primarily 'holding pens' for replacement staff and basic people collection outfits, to staff newly commissioned U-Boats, where often substantial numbers of men were required at one crack, rather than just a few at a time, due to sickness, reassignments, promotions etc. that had to be replaced. These were also moved around, originally in Plan, Schleswig and Neustadt, later also in Pillau and some of the Navy Camps like Munsterlager or Sennelager, for shorter periods of time, due to bombed out barracks or construction delays. Adjustments in the size of these commands and their location, some with 'outplacements' on temporary basis, were frequent and generated a constant stream of paperwork as a consequence, plus mountains of teletype messages etc. sometime just to track down a specific individual needed, who had particular qualifications or prescribed technical experience.

The boot camp basic training was generally provided by the Schiffs Stamm Abteilungen, abbreviated S.S.A. with a number thereafter. Again, here locations did change over the years. Some of these were moved to foreign towns, occupied by the German Wehrmacht, such as Holland - where many people, who later were turned over to U-Boat Command, were 'recruits' in Breda, Holland. While Officer Selection Training took place in Stralsund, at the 7th SSA before cadet selection was later on made either on sailing ships or later on directly aboard ships to which these candidates had been assigned. These were normally surface ships, but not submarines. With other words, minesweepers, patrol boats, torpedo boats, destroyers and naturally also cruisers and battleships while they were in operation.

Engineering Cadets did first attend some technical school training before assignments to surface ships. But again, this changed sometimes, depending upon available ships and other operational needs. Until the summer of 1943, Officer Candidates were often initially assigned to front U-Boats right after they had finished the Naval Academy in Flensburg; the Marine Schul and had become midshipmen because the Training Divisions often had insufficient space and not enough available slots, to give them first a training course or some training courses, before being assigned to U-Boats.

However, after the brutal losses in May, June, July and August of 1943, this kind of practice was dropped and discontinued as it turned out too 'expensive' in officer training 'material' as the official term did put it!

The Kriegsmarine was in fact almost desperately short of junior officers and subaltern officers from 1941 onward and had to rely and depend increasingly on reserve officers and even so-called 'Sonderfuhrer' or specialists with some specific background, because there just were not enough junior officers around anymore, regardless how the Personnel Offices tried to ferret them out and dig them up, often from hospitals even, after these fellows had been wounded or operated upon even.

More and more of the 'auxiliary' vessels were turned over to reservists and eventually many outfits, such as mine sweeping flotillas, had but one or two active officers and all other spots were filled with reservists or others, no longer in top health conditions for one reason or another,

Incidentally, the basic training uniforms used were actually I those of the Marine Artillery or Coastal Artillery, which was slightly different from the field gray of the German Army, more of a green-gray color actually. But sometimes old stocks of uniforms were handed out to recruits when no newer ones were available.

The Kriegsmarine did not waste funds or material just because they were no longer the latest thing available. Old stocks had to be used up completely first.

EDITOR NOTE - I remember my days in boot camp. The US Air Force was only about 8 years old when I joined, and we were issued a motley collection of sage green USAF fatigues, US Army fatigues and even some USMC fatigues complete with that distinctive cap wore by the Marines.

I was fortunate - I guess, and I got a new set of sage green USAF fatigues, but I was a tall skinny kid and the shirt was so huge that the shirt pockets were completely hidden inside my trousers! Ah, memories ......

As always, PETER's PERISCOPE makes great reading. If you were ever in the service (any country), I know this brought back memories of your time in boot camp. We hated our sergeant at first, then we thought he was the greatest guy in the world. There was the spit shining of the shoes and cap bills, the tight bunk with the hospital comers, falling out at 0430 for breakfast chow with the constant chant of 'Road Guards Out' as we approached an intersection. We did KP and we scoured the barracks daily in what was laughingly called a "G.I. Party"

We hated it at the time, but as we look back - I think it made us men in a hurry, and we do indeed, have fond memories of that time. Thanks PETER.