PAUL LAWTON (4628-C-1996) is an attorney and a very serious researcher. It was thanks to his research and perseverance that the members of the crew of USS EAGLE 56 received posthumous Purple Heart awards. He had helped the writer of this article but when the finished product was published, here is what PAUL wrote to us about it. This is a direct quote from a FAX from PAUL, however we broke it into paragraphs for easier reading.

“As I mentioned to you in our phone conversation yesterday, I was extremely disappointed with, and actually sickened by the May 2002 edition of MAXIM Magazine regarding the story about the U-853 and the sinking of the U.S.S. EAGLE 56 (PE-56), entitled “In Shallow Water”. As you know, I went out of my to assist the author by supplying him with my extensive research documentation and even referring him to you (Sharkhunters).

After taking advantage of my 5 years of work on the subject, journalistic integrity was tossed out the window, as apparently he chose to sell more magazines by twisting the story to capitalize on post September 11th 2001 terrorist attack hysteria. I made the mistake of telling the author about Commander Steinhoff and Germany’s early research into submarine launched missile systems and the U.S. Navy’s ‘Operation Teardrop’, but I made it absolutely clear to him that no such sub-launched missile systems were ever deployed during the war.

Much to my horror, the author took outrageous ‘artistic license’ by insinuating that the U-853 was carrying V-type missiles with which it intended to attack New York City (the cover lead-in states: “Enemy Sub Off Coney Island! The U-boat that tried to take out New York.”

Later the author described the chaos aboard the PE-56 after the torpedo detonation, stating that the “smell of Cordite burned their (the survivors) nostrils.” However, Cordite is a low-velocity explosive used as gun propellant, while most W. W. II era German torpedo warheads contained a high explosive mixture similar to Torpex. The story characterized Commander Fromsdorff as a “Psycho sub commander,” but although Fromsdorff may have been imprudent in his attack on the S.S. Black Point, he was certainly not crazy.

I actually had to laugh when I read that after launching torpedoes the U-853’s “bow was hot”. I assumed that everyone knew that torpedoes are launched by compressed air, not by combustion or a chemical explosion, so torpedo tubes would not heat up upon launch, but would actually cool if anything, as the expansion of compressed gasses is the theory behind refrigeration.

At least one of the survivors interviewed, Mr. John Breese, was aghast at how the article misquoted him, talking about his “drinking buddy”, how they were involved in vulgar discourse at the time of the attack and insinuating that as the ship sunk he thought of how he was “going to hell” as he “prayed for the first time”. Mr. Breeze, who is and always has been an active and devout Baptist, has good reason to be upset about the story.

The article repeatedly mentions Kenneth Knowles, as having personally taken part in the hunt for, and tracking of the U-853, when in fact there is no documentary evidence pointing to his particular involvement in those events. The story would lead you to believe that after “exhaustive” research “Maxim has reconstructed the complete story for the first time”. In fact however, I collaborated with a number of people (including you, Harry), in researching the final patrol of the U-853 and the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the U.S.S. Eagle 56 on 23 April 1945, and it was our work over 5 years that resulted in having the U.S. Navy correctly attribute the sinking to “enemy action” by the U-853.

The magazine article virtually plagiarized my copyrighted research, took credit for the work, then polluted the historical account with fabrications and historical inaccuracies. The article went on to include my name in the article as a so-called ‘research assistant’ though I had never even heard of the magazine prior to our correction of naval history.

On another note, several of the illustration captions are also incorrect, particularly the small black silhouette of a U-boat that appears on the top of the pages of the story that is captioned as purporting to be “the German sub U-853”. As we all know, the U-853 was a Type IX-C/40, however the silhouette actually appears to be that of a Type VII and is shown mounting a deck gun forward of the conning tower. The U-853 had no such gun mounted on her fore-deck at any time.

I could go on and on about other mistakes and outrageous distortions in the magazine article, but I see no point in doing so. As you know, I have been researching naval history for almost two decades and have had numerous articles published on such matters around the world. This magazine article has damaged my reputation as a naval historian and I have received phone calls from people as far away as Germany, having to explain the presence of my name at the end of this dreadful story to a number my colleagues. I should simply caution others from ‘helping’ presumably well intentioned young writers working for certain publications, whose true goal is profit at the expense of historical accuracy. I am sorry I ever returned that guy’s phone call, but I want to make it clear to all that the magazine had absolutely nothing to do with, and can accept no credit for the hard work of many of us that recently resulted in the posthumous issuance of Purple Heart medals to 49 men killed aboard the U.S.S. Eagle 56 (PE-56) over 57 years ago.”

EDITOR NOTE - The writer of this article contacted us after speaking with PAUL but after speaking with the writer, we decided not to assist him in any way. While we believed that he had no clue what he was writing about, we did not know that he would write his article in the manner described by PAUL LAWTON (4628-C-1996). We are truly sorry to learn that his hard work and diligent historical work has been so ‘modified’ and changed to become something totally different that it really was.

Fortunately, and for reasons which need no explanation here, we at SHARKHUNTERS decided not to help the writer of this article and after what happened to PAUL, we are glad we gave no assistance either to that writer or to MAXIM Magazine.