PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ABWEHR (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 tells us:

As you know, I have gone the rounds with some people, primarily in connection with U-530 and U-977 and their arrivals in Argentina. But it is almost a waste of breath generally, because when it comes to things that people do “believe” CONFUSION is the watchword, if not worse!

EDITOR NOTE: U-530 under OTTO WERMUTH (1344-1990) was a Type IX-C that surrendered in late July 1945 in La Plata, Argentina, some two and a half months after the German surrender. U-977 under Heinz Schaeffer, was a Type VII-C that surrendered in early August 1945, at the same port three months after the surrender. Both Skippers said that they did not know each other, were not aware of the other’s plan to put in to this far-away port, and both said that their reasons were to surrender where their men would be treated with dignity. Coincidence? Schaeffer wrote a book about this voyage, which in our opinion, is a well-crafted bit of dis-information. Captain WERMUTH refuses to speak about that voyage – if they had passengers, if they put ashore before reaching La Plata – nothing.

If it ever would be possible to count all periscope sightings and reported sinkings, there must have been not less than ten thousand U-Boats in operation at least. What I simply can’t comprehend, for what reasons do people get such bees in their respective bonnets? Some of them are in my considered opinion almost mental cases!

EDITOR NOTE – PETER is referring to all the people in Florida who are absolutely certain that there is a German U-Boat sunk right off their shore.

If any of them had ever sailed on submarines, one could at least make allowances that the changing of air pressure effected their brain, but dryer repairmen? Perhaps he had his head too long in a spinning hot drier. Life is tough!

Regarding Professor Dr. Walter (inventor of the hydrogen peroxide turbine drive for submarines), he received the Knights Cross of the Distinguished War Effort, which Walter surely deserved despite the shabby treatment he received for years from the OKM Navy Ministry. On the citation, it says that this medal was primarily given for homefront awards and industrial/technical production services, which Dr. Walter surely provided, despite the years of opposition from the OKM technical boards and calcified Admirals that still dreamt of battle wagons and disliked U-Boats considerably.

Because submarines did not offer commands for Admirals to any extent, these often mentally fossilized Admirals disliked the ‘War of the Kapitänleutnants’ in many cases greatly, and tried to keep it from gaining influence, more importance and allocations of scarce resources too. Dr. Walter got literally sidetracked by these bureaucrats for many years, who considered he was the typical ‘inventor’ with a lot of screws loose in his head and disregarded his ideas. The way he was treated by the OKM Camarilla was unquestionably criminal!!!

I have forwarded to you a copy of a presentation that I had given for a seminar, where I had selected U-358, its Captain Rolf Manke and its ‘Wunder L.I.’ Fridjof Wiebe, the Engineering Officer with positively the worst eyesight in the German Navy, but an incredibly capable and competent Chief Engineer! After the longest recorded depth charge pursuit of the entire war, U-358 was finally brought to the surface and managed to sink one of the British ships that took part in that pursuit with a T-5 acoustic torpedo, before being shot to pieces by the British Escort Group – the only place where that took place in the entire war!

The relations between the German Navy and the French Shipyard and Construction workers were always surprisingly good, even cordial, because these French Shipyard Workers were often better and more competent than such workers at the German Shipyards! There were some problems between these workers and the construction outfit Organization Todt, due to the poor quality of O.T. personnel people, not engineers though!