15 Years Ago

ERNST SCHMIDT (10-+ 1983) was keeping the local hospitals in money – the leg he had broken three times since 1977 twisted and became infected, and was actually broken at the knee. He also had a heart attack the previous year and his wife injured her back. But his son was about to become a doctor and so, we assume, the health care would be much cheaper.

Former Member DAVID SIMPSON (15-1983) informed us that other researchers were about to locate the “Lost Bunker” where in 1988, three SHARKHUNTERS Members discovered three Type XXI boats entombed. Since that time, DAVID had serious trouble with the law and last report of a few years ago, he had died.

JIM VIZIGIAN (29-1984) was the Leading Signalman on duty at Portsmouth Naval Base when the German U-Boats surrendered after the war, and he reported that it was not uncommon to see the Germans walking around the base without guards, in the ship’s store and having coffee.

We reported finding of WW I Boats U-12, U-20, U-21 and UB-74.

We exposed a man named Heinz Houben, claiming to have been a German U-Boat Skipper – but all the boats he claimed to have been on were lost with all hands. He said he was I.W.O. on U-181 which he said was a Type IX-C and he claimed he was Skipper of a Type XXI boat in the South Atlantic when the war ended – but there were no Type XXI boats in the South Atlantic, and the number he gave for his boat was actually a coastal Type XXII which was still under construction when the war ended – but he sold his story to Soldier of Fortune Magazine who published it.

The annual dues were still only $25, and the KTB was a mere newsletter of only 6 pages in length. Look at the improvements!

10 Years Ago

In KTB #69, we covered Japan’s involvement in the war and the Type IX boat seen in the upper left hand corner – was outfitted with a Type XXI conning tower. Some of the usual articles were in this issue, such as memories by OTTO GIESE and BOB MAHER of the life and death of U-405 and USS BORIE but there was an article by SIG KLAUSSNER (211-1986) on the new technologies for the U-Bootwaffe.

There were excerpts from the Skipper’s log on I-8 which were translated by FRED CHANG (772-1988). This submarine had come all the way from the Far East to the German bases on the French coast. The story was quite interesting.

There was more information about Fritz Steinhoff and the strange way in which he died in the Boston jail. TOM KOLODNER (660-1988) owned one of the mini-submarines that attacked James Bond in the movie The Spy Who Loved Me. The book ‘Torpedo Junction’ by former Member HOMER HICKAM (1235-1989) drew a lot of criticism for a passage in the book in which he claimed ERICH TOPP (118-LIFE-1985) opened fire on lifeboats off the American East Coast. Even USCG RADM ALGER (1233-+-1989) blasted HICKAM for writing that totally untrue part in his book. We dropped HICKHAM from Membership.

KTB #69 was just 24 pages long, and there were Members in 25 countries. We are now 44 pages to Members in 70 countries.

5 Years Ago

The cover photo on KTB #115 shows the Russian cruiser KERTSCH at sea. We were guests of honor aboard this beautiful ship during our visit to the Baltic Sea HQ at Sevastopol. We’ll be back there in 2003 and you can be with us. Details later. We had more history of the RIO GRANDE, Imperial Japan and the Third Reich, and other stories. During our travels in Russia, our group was received by the Vice Mayor of St. Petersburg as well as the Admirals Commanding various bases. We highlighted the Sturm Tiger in our section on German secret weapons.

Our S.E.I.G. agents were looking for information on the secret agent known as ‘Parlow’ during the war. They were also looking for information on ‘Xystus’ which was linked somehow with Feuerland – and we know what Feuerland was all about.

PETER’s PERISCOPE told more of the Kriegsmarine involvement in the Spanish Civil War and who were the Skippers involved. There was even more information on the fraud done by Tom Shutt & his King’s Crown Gallery – he was being sought by the police for all his frauds. It just seemed that this guy was getting in more and more trouble back then.

KTB #115 was 36 pages long and went to only 4,500 Members in 56 countries.