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:

In KTB #163 you featured U-188, Siegfried Lüdden – no doubt one of the more interesting U-Boat stories taking place after the ‘Black May’ of 1943. You also mentioned that Lüdden and some other officers and co-riders had been able to requisition a car and obtain gas, trying to drive back to Germany but got caught and held up by a gang of the French Communist “resistance-maquis”, one of the groups that took orders from Moscow and the Communist Party leadership NOT France or even deGaulle. These people shot soldiers from behind hedges and in woods, cut their throats and literally cleaned them out totally.

While Lüdden managed to escape in the dark, running into the woods in his underwear and socks – his shoes had already been removed by this Communist band, the others in the car were less lucky and got executed. That these Communists also captured a batch of documents and papers, including the KTB (log book) of U-188, was really a side effect.

As they also carried bottles in the car for some anticipated ‘trading’ which the French Communists immediately opened and quickly emptied, helped Lüdden to get away after grabbing some laundry hanging in the backyard of a village a few miles away, to get dressed a bit more than he was. He encountered some German Army group and managed to get, with their help, back to the German lines, which were quite fluid and where considerable confusion reigned.

Once getting back to Germany in some borrowed Army uniform, Lüdden reached Kiel eventually to report to Admiral von Friedeburg, as this was easier than trying to reach Berlin-Bernau, where the camp compound Koralle was then located, & Dönitz and the U-Boat Command staff were situated. Lüdden was temporarily posted to the First U-Boat Personnel Pool Command (1.U.A.A.) in nearby Plön and for a couple of weeks, was given a chance to recover from his somewhat unpleasant journey.

EDITOR NOTE – This is the very same Koralle that we will visit on our ‘Patrol’ in North Germany.

In November of 1944, Lüdden was posted to the staff of Admiral von Friedeburg in Kiel, first as F-3 then A-3 section officer.

On the 13th of January 1945, Siegfried Lüdden attended a film aboard the accommodation vessel DARES-SALAM in Kiel when a fire broke out in the cinema and quite a few people got killed, being unable to get away. Besides Lüdden and others, also Wilhelm Franken, the P-2 staff officer, formerly commander of U-565 and Executive Officer of U-331 when the Skipper HANS-DIETRICH von TIESENHAUSEN (268-+-1987) torpedoed and sunk the British battleship HMS BARHAM in the Mediterranean Sea. Franken was awarded the Knights Cross on the 20th of April 1943, as commander of U-565.

Contrary to some stories and rumors, this fire aboard the DARES SALAM was not due to bombing, but a technical accident, when about 20 men suffocated and died, including Lüdden and Franken. What a way to go!!!

There is more interesting and current information in this letter from PETER, but it will wait for KTB #169 next month.

PETER frequently is with us during our “Patrols” in Germany. Are you signed up yet to meet veterans like PETER HANSEN? Don’t wait until the last seat on the bus is taken before you send in your deposit. Send it NOW and be sure that you have a place on this historic time in a beautiful country with good friends.