We all know the story of U-534, how she was sunk in the final moments of the war and lay on the ocean floor just east of Denmark for decades.  About ten years ago, a Danish group brought this Type IX-C up from her resting place and eventually put her on display in the Nautilus Museum in Birkenhead, England near Liverpool.  She was then the second Type IX-C open for visitors.....U-505 in Chicago being the first one.  Cleaned up (somewhat), U-534 made it easier for Europeans and British to visit a Type IX-C boat because it was close to them.

In early 2003, one of the guys involved with U-534 said that they’d bring the boat back to Denmark, set her up as a museum there, and proposed that we invite some U-Boat Skippers to come to the grand opening.  That was a great idea, and we began to plan for it but the guy with the initial idea there in Denmark never got it going, and so the plan was put on hold.

We first realized that something was going off the track this past September during our "Patrol" in Germany when some of our Members said they had stopped in England to tour U-534 but the boat was not open.  They asked someone at the museum and were told the boat was only open one day per week, and he had no way to contact the people who actually owned U-534.  At that point, something began to look ominous for this priceless piece of history.

We have just been advised by our contacts in Denmark that multi-millionaire who funded and heads up the project and who basically owns U-534, is "completely tired of the sub" and further, we are told that the museum where she is housed is closing down!  Our contact further tells us that it is highly possible that U-534 will be sold for scrap! We’ll update this story as information comes in.

More Bulletin Board 2004

Disaster for U-534
Who Sank U-869?