This is YOUR forum for Members asking questions, and Members sending us answers.

Professor TOM MACKIN (146-A-1985) would like to know:

1. What ever became of Fritz Kastrup, the only survivor of U-68 which was sunk by USS GUADALCANAL?

2. Did any credible forensic group do an honest follow up of the body unearthed at the Ulap Fairgrounds to be absolutely certain beyond any doubt, that it is Martin Bormann - DNA tests with his children, etc?

EDITOR NOTE - I remember quite clearly, that sometime in the late 1960’s (possibly early 1970’s) the CBS television magazine 60 Minutes, did a feature on Martin Bormann and his route out of Germany after the war. They traced him through South America, from town to town, showed the various homes in which he lived over those years and interviewed his neighbors in those towns. Now of course, the government states that Bormann was killed at the end of the war in Berlin.

3. Is there a Luftwaffe person from Hameln who knows the relatives of Heinz Knoke? I know he has gone on Eternal Patrol, but I taught school with a history teacher named Gary Knoke, who traces his family back to Hameln also. He would like to contact them to do some family tree investigation.

DOUG, who forgot to give us his last name or Membership Number, would like to know what became of Werner Lüdecke from the crew of U-505. Answers anyone?

PETER SAMOLINSKI (985-1989) has a friend who is building a model of a BIEBER midget submarine. He would like to know what books our Members can suggest for reference.

JOHN STEIMER (5394-1997) asks: For what reason did Peterson of U-99 win the Knights Cross?

WILBUR BARTELS (2061-1991) needs information on an old four-stack ‘Tin Can’. He writes: “I need information on USS SCHLEY (DD 103) recommissioned in San Diego, California. I think it was on 18 November 1940. The SCHLEY was a four-stacker with high rigging fore and aft and a high mast just abaft the bridge works. I’m trying to find out if a relative of the family was aboard. What I most probably need is a ship’s history and roster of the crew.”

Any Member take part in this project?

JEREMIAH BOWDEN (2585-1992) sends us a note from his veterans’ magazine, covering a historical event in May 1979, and he would like to know if any Members took part in these operations. He writes:

“Lockheed’s deep submergence rescue vehicle made history by proving that personnel could be transferred between submerged submarines. The US Navy operated DSRV ‘Avalon’ dived under the Atlantic Ocean from a nuclear powered British submarine docked with the submarine ODIN, and took members of ODIN’s crew on board in a simulated rescue off the coast of Scotland.

Lockheed C-5 & C-141 aircraft flew the DSVR to Scotland where it was cradled on the deck of the British sub REPULSE shortly before the ‘rescue’.

Lockheed Missile and Space Company built two DSVR’s for the US Navy. The Navy started planning for the small submarines after the loss of its submarine THRESHER in 1963. Maybe someone in our SHARKHUNTERS Membership was active on this important operation………”

LaRochelle/LaPallice and Brest

GREGORY OWEN (6046-2000) is writing a biography of Matrosenobergrfreiter Karl Baumann who served aboard U-953 under Kapitänleutnant Karl-Heinz Marbach. Baumann was severely wounded in June 1944 while aboard his boat, and transferred to the underground hospital at Brest. He was captured by the US Army.

GREG would like to obtain as many official Kriegsmarine or private photographs of German occupied laRochelle/laPallice and Brest as possible. Who can help him?

Thanks to these Members for their questions; and thanks in advance to our Members who will come through with the answers. Remember, this is YOUR column. Use it as much as you need. Have you been checking our website? We update it and add to it almost daily. If you looked at it last month, it has changed greatly since then. Any additions, changes or corrections to our site, please let us know and we’ll fix it right away.