from ERNST SCHMIDT (10-+-1983)

the compliment of U-Boats, such as the medium Type VII-C had 4 officers and 44 men? Later on, up to 50 men?

all during WW II, the U-Boats were manned by volunteers?

on 17 September 1939,Kapitänleutnant OTTO SCHUHARDT (1366-+-1990) sank the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS COURAGEOUS? It was the first major success of the U-Boats in World War II.

on 14 October 1939, Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien (photo right) entered the Royal Navy anchorage at Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS ROYAL OAK? The repair ship HMS PEGASUS was damaged in this attack. The Royal Navy lost 24 officers and 809 men in the 13 minutes it took the battleship to sink.

“National Enquirer” of U-Boat History

TIM KUTTA (4839-1996) is a recognized and respected author of books and magazine articles both nationally and internationally. He re-wrote and updated a book on U-Boat history for Squadron-Signal publications and it was quite good. He used a great many photographs from our archives to illustrate the book. The website known as the “dot not” immediately blasted the book. Because it was a bad book? No – because he got help from Sharkhunters! Here is what TIM wrote about that website and its webmaster.

All those “experts” who log on and off the “dot-not” are dispensing information as if they really know what they are talking about…..the paranoid clowns running the ‘I am an expert foundation for the research mentally handicapped’. After four books and countless articles published, I’m pretty confident that Gumball is an idiot. My U-Boat book and an article on German Attack Gliders brought the largest amount of Wacko Feedback. Seems there are just too many experts in the world…..

ECM (Emergency Counter-Measures)

from Harry Cooper

There appears to be some confusion over which type of U-Boat ECM did what, perpetuated by some influence on that website known as the “dot-not”, so let’s get it right, once and for all.

BOLD – this was a canister with a slug of iron filings, fired out of the boat while underwater. The iron filings would disperse in the water, giving a return ‘ping’ to the sonar operator and a false impression that he still had contact with the U-Boat.

PILLENWERFER – this was a canister of chemicals which, when fired out of the U-Boat, would produce a lot of fizzing and bubbles much like a giant Alka-Seltzer, sounding like cavitating propellers and electric motors turning.

With both BOLD and PILLENWERFER, a good sonar operator could quickly tell that this was merely an ECM decoy because the target stayed in the same place without moving off.

Both BOLD and PILLENWERFER were fired out of Tube #6 on the Type VII boats and Tube #7 on the Type IX boats. Tube #6? Tube #7? Yes, these were smaller tubes, about six inches in diameter just for this purpose. There’s a great trivia question.

APHRODITE – this was a forerunner of modern day chaff. Balloons that looked like giant condoms, were inflated with hydrogen and streamers of aluminum were attached to the balloons then they were allowed to ascend to a very low altitude. Radar sets would either pick up a whole fleet of U-Boats, or they picked up a lot of ‘hash’, confusing their radar screens.