5 Years Ago

KTB #113 showed U-124, the ‘Edelweißboot’ on her return to Lorient in 1941 with Jochen Mohr as Skipper. Using his own time and money, GREG SCOTT (2012-A-1991) got our emblem legally trademarked - and as a fan of Grand National racing, he said he remembered ‘an elderly gentleman’ named HARRY COOPER (1-LIFE-1983) who drove Car #17 for many of those years. Hey, HARRY was only in his early thirties back then. There was more of the article on RIO GRANDE by SIG KLAUSSNER (211-1986). In the German secret weapons, we showed the rifle that shot around corners. There was a profile of U-124, including the famous poem of Jochen Mohr. PETER’s PAGE (now known as ‘Through PETER’s PERISCOPE’) carried the details of Operation URSULA in which German U-boats were used to help Franco in the Spanish Civil War & sank their first ship in 1936! The story of DON ANGEL ALCAZAR de VELASCO (158-1985) continued to tell of his time working for the Abwehr, and how he helped to take Martin Bormann to South America after the end of the war. We had our columns on ‘Battle Damage’ and ‘U-boat refueling’. We found U-boat pens on the American coast but wait, no big ‘spook’ story here. They were built by the U.S. Army Air Corps at Eglin Air Force Base so the bomber crews could practice before going into actual combat in Europe.

KTB #113 was 36 pages long. There were 4,300 Members in 49 countries. Compare that to today’s 40 (or 44) page KTB, and to more than 6,600 Members in 70 countries. We are growing!

10 Years Ago

The upper half of this cover page shows U-bootfahrer in the forward room, looking up in anticipation of depth charges coming down. The lower half shows the new board donated by ‘Garbageman” DAVID MOBLEY (417-LIFE-1987) for us to use at the various militaria shows we attend. There were memories of OTTO GIESE (45-1985) and his time aboard U-405 & U-181. When HARRY was the houseguest of OTTO KRETSCHMER (122-+-1985), OTTO told the story how he nearly lost his I.W.O., Adalbert Schnee in a flooded conning tower. There was a short article about the B-24 LIBERATOR that bombed Hartenstein and his U-156 during the rescue of survivors from the LACONIA. We read a really nice piece by CHARLIE GUNDERSEN (205-1986) on U-boat Development in the Face of Disarmament.

Dr. MARTIN DAVIS (230-1986) sent us a copy of a Japanese magazine from the war, and FRED CHANG (772-1988) gave us a great translation of the story of I-8 making the voyage from Japan to the German held French base at Lorient. We continued the sad story by LARRY DAUPHEMIA (423-1988) wherein he and his best friend were diving U-853 off Block Island, and his friend was killed during the dive. There were the beginnings of the attempts to save USS CABOT, the last and most decorated of the baby flat tops, which had been given to a Legion post in New Orleans. U-18 was located by IAN McDERMOTT (603-1988) aboard HMS BEAGLE. KTB #67 was 24 pages long, still done on a typewriter and was self-mailed - it was not mailed in an envelope.

15 Years Ago

In KTB #28, we reported that we had settled in to our new Headquarters in Fox Lake, Illinois (just outside Chicago). We wrote President Ronald Reagan, before he was Member #1858-LIFE-1991, on behalf of Hans Göbeler of the crew of U-505. It seems that Hans had been arrested as an illegal alien because he came into the US as a tourist, but bought a house and got a job, and had been in the USA for quite some time - on a tourist visa! We were successful, and Hans was not deported.

Nine of the top ten German U-boat Skippers survived the war. We received a letter from the former demolitions officer on the raider ATLANTIS and later the Skipper of U-234, Kapitänleutnant JOHANN-HEINRICH FEHLER (32-+-1984) in which he told us what really happened to the 2 Japanese officers aboard U-234, and he said that he was in the next cell to Kapitänleutnant Fritz Steinhoff when he was beaten all night long and in the morning, it was reported that Steinhoff committed suicide.

Professor HENRY KEATTS (59-1984) informed us that his book about wreck diving was soon to be published. STEVE TOMAN (70-1984) and his wife Twyla were our guests in Fox Lake, and we took them to the Museum of Science and Industry where JIMMY FRYE (8-1983) gave them a special tour. Once again, we debunked the reports in the Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINAL and the Miami HERALD about a sunken U-boat off the Hillsboro Inlet because there just is no U-boat there. (EDITOR NOTE - as of mid February 2002, the story popped up again in one of those newspapers. Perhaps they just need the story to sell more papers.)

KTB #28 was 12 pages in length, and still done on that old manual typewriter. That old typewriter would have made a great museum piece, except that some years ago, we got some water in the bilges of my boat - and that old typewriter was stored down there. Manual typewriters and salt water do not mix well………