“I noticed on page 9 of KTB #177. As a crewmember of U-479, I spent three days in Arendal, Norway. The beautiful little town is located at the end of the Arendal fjord. Ours was the only boat there and we were tied up to the pier in the harbor. A half-moon of barbed wire surrounded our boat and unfortunately kept a number of cute girls outside. We had no permission to contact any civilians but a number of us, including me, got the chance to go horseback riding nearby.

I believe that the patrol to Arendal was partly a propaganda mission, because on the 3rd day we got some special visitors. Three large Mercedes convertibles occupied by numerous high ranking party types in brown uniforms arrived. They escorted a locally famous writer named Knut Hamsun and his daughter. These two were German sympathizers and were probably being used to shore up support for the Nazis in their occupation of Norway. The elderly Hamsun and his daughter were helped aboard the U-Boat by a group of sailors. This was only possible in the Bugroom (bow room). Hamsun signed some books while the press cameras were rolling. The entire visit was related in numerous German magazines the following days.

The next day we went to sea for a deep sea test dive and our maximum depth that day was 250 meters (about 800 feet). In the fall of 1944, U-479 left to the Gulf of Finland and was lost shortly before Christmas without a trace. Fortunately, I was not aboard that patrol – but that’s another story.”

EDITOR NOTE – HEINZ, Vielen Dank for this history. Now let’s hear that other story you just mentioned. Incidentally, U-479 struck a mine in the Gulf of Finland on 12 December 1944.