15 Years Ago

In KTB #32, we explained the meaning of KTB, where we took the name of our publication. This was the short form of the German word Kriegstagebuch, which were actually three words put together to form this one word. They were Kriegs Tage Buch and the strict translation was ‘Daily War Book’ which actually would be merely the logbook. So that is where we got the name.

We went over the history of U-977, the boat commanded by Heinz Schaeffer that surrendered in Argentina some three months after Germany surrendered. Since ERNST SCHMIDT (10-+-1983) had been good friends with Schaeffer, we asked if he could locate him for us. There was no success locating Schaeffer.

Many Members were planning to attend our first Convention, which turned out to be heavily attended and quite successful.

We were trying to locate Captain Otto Wermuth, Skipper of U-530 that also surrendered in Argentina, in July of 1945. We did find him, and he is now Member (1344-1990).

DICK FREITAG (30-1984) gave us a lot of info about U-3008, the other Type XXI boat brought back to the U.S. at the end of the war. According to DICK, the boat was sunk in about 80 feet of water and when the US Navy was through looking her over sometime in the late 1980’s, the Navy raised her in a salvage exercise. DICK was the sparkplug and motivating force behind the restoration of U-505 in Chicago and the Navy told DICK he could come and take whatever he needed for this restoration. According to DICK, the salt water had already done severe damage to U-3008 and not much was salvageable. He did however; get the engine telegraph, speed indicator and various other instruments, which are now in the Museum of Science and Industry in the mock-up of a conning tower, along with a periscope from an American submarine. DICK told us that U-3008 was then taken out into deeper water (about 800 feet) off Roosevelt Roads and sunk as a target.

USS SILVERSIDES was becoming an orphan because the new Mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, wanted the space on Navy Pier for tourist boats that would pay a lot more money than the token one dollar per year the city had previously charged the group that took care of this American submarine.

An interesting parallel for the two World War II submarines then in Chicago – in December 1940 the keels were laid for both USS SILVERSIDES and U-505; both submarines were launched in July 1941; both found their final patrol station in Chicago – well, until the goofy mayor decided to send USS SILVERSIDES away.

WALTER CLOOTS (112-1985) loves the Type XXI boats, and he was asking what happened to all the original plans, photographs and manuals that were on hand at Portsmouth Naval Base right after the war. A few were saved on microfilm but the vast majority has disappeared. We never got an answer to this question.

KTB #32 was just 8 pages long and still done on that old manual typewriter – and no photographs, graphs or drawings.

10 Years Ago

The cover shot of KTB #71 was a schematic diagram of a standard Type VII-C Frontboot. OTTO GIESE (45-+-1984) continued his fascinating story of his life on U-405 and other assignments. We were planning our 4th Annual Convention, our ‘Patrol in France and Germany’. There was more of the gripping story by BOB MAHER on the battle to the death of USS BORIE and U-405 which resulted in the loss of both ships, the entire German crew and about 1/3 of the American crew.

We had just begun to send your KTB Magazine to you in the nice, clean, white envelope you are not familiar with – but at this time, there were no specifications or photos on the envelope.

There was more on the excellent piece by CHARLES GUNDERSEN (205-C-1986) entitled “U-Boat Development in the Face of Disarmament” in which he gave us details on the way the Kriegsmarine was designing, building and testing U-Boats at a time when Germany was not allowed to have either. This article was indeed, an eye-opener.

Italian Admiral Aldo Turcio sent us his memories of the war through KEVIN PETRIELLO (535-A-1988) and it was an excellent look into the life of an Italian submarine crew. KEVIN also sent us a batch of photographs of the Italian crews.

GOLD ABOARD? This old sailor’s story was indeed true in one instance, when an American submarine tool some twenty tons of gold and silver out of the Philippines and transferred it to an American cruiser. We hope to print this entire story someday.

There was more on the voyage on the I.J.N. submarine I-8 from Japan to Lorient, translated by FRED CHANG (772-1988).

We announced our first SHARKHUNTERS Scuba trip – Roatan.

KTB #71 was only 24 pages long and still done on a typewriter. With the newest computer technology, our KTB has flourished.

5 Years Ago

In KTB #117, we had an interview with OTTO KRETSCHMER (122-+-1985) as a monthly series, but OTTO was a very private man and asked us not to run the piece while he was still living.

MIKE MARTINI (2407-1992) was a crewmember on U-2519 under ‘ALI’ CREMER (114-+-1985), and he confirmed that they got a lot of their fuel from Shell Oil.

There was an action report from the US Navy on the ill-fated Convoy PQ.18. there was more of the doctoral thesis of PHILIP ATTENBOROUGH (440-1988) on the Military Collaboration between Imperial Japan and the Third Reich in WW II. There were Members in 55 countries already, and we reported on another U-Boat that was planning to head for Tahiti at the end of the war. We reported that the 1st ever (to our knowledge) female submarine Skipper was 32 year old LCDR Solveig Krey, Norwegian Navy.

We ran a copy of that famous request by USS SKIPJACK for toilet paper which has been made famous over the years, especially in the movie Operation ‘PETICOAT’ which starred .Cary Grant, Tony Curtis (otherwise known as Bernard Schwartz) and others who went on to stardom in their own right – one even became the Captain of the Love Boat television series.

KTB #117 was still just 36 pages long.

Here’s the famous requisition for toilet paper mentioned above.

Ref:
(a) (4608) USS HOLLAND (S184)USS SKIPJACK Req 7042 of July 30, 1941.
(b) SO NYMI Canceled invoice No. 272836

Encl:
(A) Sample of canceled invoice.
(B) Sample of material required.

1. This vessel submitted a requisition for 150 rolls of toilet paper on July 30, 1941, to USS HOLLAND. The material was ordered by USS HOLLAND to the supply officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island for delivery to USS SKIPJACK.

2. The supply officer Mare Island on November 26, 1941, canceled Mare Island invoice No. 272836 with the stamped notation “Canceled. Cannot Identify.” This canceled invoice was received by SKIPJACK June 10, 1942.

3. During the eleven and a half months elapsing from the time of ordering the toilet paper to the present date, USS SKIPJACK personnel, despite their best efforts to await delivery of the subject material, have been unable to wait on several occasions, and the situation is now acute, particularly during depth-charge attacks by the “back stabbers.”

4. Enclosure (B) is a sample of the desired material provided for the information of the supply officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island. The commanding officer of USS SKIPJACK cannot help but wonder what is being used at Mare Island as a substitute for this unidentifiable material once well known to this command.

5. Boat’s personnel during this period has become accustomed to the use of ersatz in proportion to the vast amount of incoming paper work generally nonessential, and in so doing feels that the wish of the Bureau of Ships for the reduction of paper work is being complied with, thus killing two birds with one stone.

6. It is believed by this command that the stamped notation “Cannot Identify” was possibly an error, and that this is simply a case of shortage of strategic war material, USS SKIPJACK probably being low on the priority list.

7. In order to co-operate in the war effort at small local sacrifice USS SKIPJACK desires no further action be taken until the end of the current war, which has created a situation so aptly described as “War is Hell.”

At a time when WW II was going badly for the United States, it appears that someone could find humor in an otherwise idiotic situation – and one must wonder what became of that Supply Office who could not identify toilet paper.

Chances are – he got some high level government job with a great salary, and mighty little work to do. Just seems like that would be the way this little comedy would play out.

Reprint: Operation Ursula

On December 9th, 1936 the URSULA U-Boats received wireless directions from Berlin not to remain longer than three more days in their area, this also in view of the fuel situation as supplies were getting low for the U-Boats already to ensure their return to Germany. No suitable targets were sighted for the next days, but finally on the last day in the area of operations, U-34 managed to become successful when Harald Grosse sighted in the periscope a Spanish submarine almost motionless on the surface, off Cartagena. It seemed like it was doing trimming exercises of some sort. Only one man was on the bridge.

The Executive Officer of U-34, Gerd Schreiber, Class of 1931 also looked through the periscope to confirm his captain’s observations. Later on he became captain of U-3 and finally U-95 during the war, which was in turn torpedoed on November 28th, 1941 off Almeria by the Dutch crewed submarine O-21 when 35 crewmembers died and Schreiber was taken prisoner with the rest of the crew. He likewise became also a Flotilla Admiral (one star) in the Bundsmarine many years later.

U-34 fired its fourth torpedo & literally blew the Spanish submarine C-3 out of the water, which was 70 meters (240 feet) deep at that location. This despite the fact that the British destroyer HMS ACASTA on Control Commission duty was patrolling very close by. C-3 was commanded by Lieutenant Antonio Arbona Pastor, who was actually considered inclining towards breaking allegiance and joining Franco, but he died together with 44 men of his crew. Only three crewmembers survived - picked up and rescued by the hospital ship ARTABRO and taken into Malaga Harbor. Admiral Hermann Boehm was reportedly delirious with glee and pride!

On December 13th both U-Boats passed again through the Straits of Gibraltar unseen and returned to the Atlantic Ocean for their return journey. Admiral Marshall instructed the U-Boats to give false location reports and to doctor their logbooks and documents accordingly, pretending to be commercial steamers in the North Atlantic proceeding on miss-stated courses and to circumvent any ships that they encountered to remain unobserved!

The U-Boats were able to manage this and also returned again unnoticed through the English Channel into the North Sea traveling at night. Thereafter they received orders to arrive together at Brunsbüttel Lock where the FdU (Führer der U-Boote; or the Commanding Officer of Submarines) Kapitän Karl Dönitz was to greet them and meet them on arrival. One of the few surviving crewmembers mentioned that the FdU was smiling from ear to ear, a rather unusual action for him in his experience. The U-Boats thereafter proceeded through the Kiel Canal to reach Kiel-Wik on December 20th, 1936 where the two Operation ‘URSULA’ captains almost immediately left their U-Boats and the two captains who had originally commissioned them came again on board as if returning from their annual leave, while the operational commanders took the night train to Berlin.

A curtain of total silence was drawn on the entire affair immediately though this was not the end of the story of Operation ‘URSULA’.

The future fate of the two operational captains, Kurt Freiwald and Harald Grosse was already mentioned earlier, but what about the original captains and both of these U-Boats? Otto Heinrich Junker commanded U-33 for a while, but was transferred in 1939 to staff duties. On November 11th, 1942 he commissioned the Type IX-C boat U-532 and was its captain until the end of the war in Europe, traveling to Penang & Singapore but when the German capitulation took place on May 8th, 1945 he was approaching Ireland and decided to surrender U-532 in Liverpool on May 10th, 1945 where the boat was immediately inspected by Admiral Max Kennedy Horton, who was Admiral in charge of Western Approaches and in control of all escort and convoy operations in the North Atlantic.

Ernst Sobe, not a very well-liked and popular officer, commanded U-34 for a while, thereafter became a commander of several different flotillas and eventually was put in charge of the convoy attack operations group where U-Boats had to pass through before they were cleared for front operations during the war. He was relieved by ERICH TOPP (118-LIFE-1985) and Teddy Suhren eventually, and then commissioned the Type IX-D2 boat U-179 on March 7th, 1942. On his first patrol, he reached South Africa and attacked and sunk one steamer off Capetown (the 6,558 ton British steamer CITY OF ATHENS) before being sunk in turn by the destroyer HMS ACTIVE with all hands lost on October 8th, 1942.

U-33 in turn was taken over by Hans Wilhelm von Dresky as captain and while approaching the Firth of Clyde on a mine laying mission was located by the British minesweeper HMS GLEANER on February 12th, 1940 and after some extended pursuit was brought to the surface and sunk. The captain died with his boat and 24 men of his crew. 4 officers and 20 crewmembers were picked up by the British and rescued. Executive Officer Heinz Rottmann; L.I. Schilling; Second Watch Officer Johannes Becker; Third Watch Officer Karl Vietor survived many years in prisoner camps.

While there was more to the story of the final fates of these boats, this was all PETER told us about Operation URSULA. This was named for the daughter of Karl Dönitz, URSULA HESSLER (1339-1990) and this story only appeared in the KTB Magazine of SHARKHUNTERS and not on some website that is more or less the National Enquirer of this history.

We hope you like reading the stories that made news five years ago.