20 YEARS AGO in our KTB

With KTB #12, we saw the end of the experiment with the longer paper and just as well. An experiment is done to see if something will work – or not. In this case, it was not a good idea and so with KTB #12 we returned to the standard size paper.

JAK MALLMAN SHOWELL (73-1985) reported that the Admiral Staff of Großadmiral Dönitz, which had been in the Shropshire Light Infantry Museum was moved into a bank vault, as they just learned that it was extremely valuable. JAK also informed us that a friend of his had located U-40.

At this time, twenty years ago in 1984, we were trying to locate information about the Black Sea Boats, the Marinesonderdienst and it’s commander Captain zS Werner Vermerheren, and we were looking for information about U-234 that was rumored to have been carrying uranium to Japan in the closing moments of the war.

Dues were still just $25 per year and KTB #12 was just five pages in length. The value of today’s 44 page KTB at $50 per year is so much greater, don’t you think?

15 YEARS AGO in our KTB

It was in KTB #43 that we announced that we were going to create a world-class archive here in the USA to preserve the history of the U-Bootwaffe. To do this, it was necessary for me to quit my job as Vice President of a corporation in Chicago – with no pension, and move to Florida. Crazy? Perhaps – but we did just that.

We were contacted by the Museum of Science and Industry (back when they had pleasant people running the museum) and they asked if we would give a personal tour of U-505 to David Kahn, the author of “Hitler’s Spies”, which we did.

We also reported that the (then) nitwit mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, forced USS SILVERSIDES out of the ‘Windy City’ by raising the dock fees from a token one dollar per year to something in the area of $40,000 per year! Fortunately, she went across Lake Michigan to Muskegon, when she is being treated with dignity and respect by a great bunch of volunteers.

There were reports on SURCOUF, and HERBERT SCHULTZE (191-+-1986) began his ‘Eternal Patrol’. I got to sit in as sort of a translator in a meeting between Jim O’Keefe and VINZ NOSCH (280-1987). Jim served aboard USS BUCKLEY and VINZ rose U-66. Their battle on the high seas was the foundation for the movie ‘Enemy Below’ with Kurt Jurgens and Robert Mitchum.

RAY LANKHEIM (321-+-1987) told of the time he was a USN gunner and they sank U-521. He said that there was only one survivor in the water, and that was Captain KLAUS BARGSTEN (328-+-1987) and the crew had been ordered to ‘kill them all’ but he could not bring himself to pull the trigger on this helpless man in the water, so BARGSTEN lived a long time after the war.

This was not in KTB #43, but let me add a little more information here. RAY LANKHEIM and Captain HANS-GEORG HESS (125-LIFE-1985) were sitting on either side of me at the bar in Key Largo during our first annual Convention, and they discovered that HESS had fired two torpedoes at RAY’s destroyer, but the lookout spotted them and they swerved, and the torpedoes missed. I still remember the conversation as if it was yesterday. RAY said, “You missed, Captain! What do you think about that?”

Without hesitation, HESS slammed his hand on the bar and said, “I’m glad I missed – we have more time for beer now!”

The two men became friends in Key Largo – but the story does not end there. This man who refused to shoot a helpless BARGSTEN in the water, who became friends with a U-Boat Skipper who tried to kill him during a war in 1945, returned to his home in Pompano Beach, Florida and six months after our convention, he got into an argument with his next-door neighbor over a fence, and the neighbor shot RAY dead!

KTB #43 was still done on the old manual typewriter and was just twelve pages long.

10 YEARS AGO in our KTB

In KTB #83, we reported the finding of U-701, the boat of HORST DEGEN (116-+-1985) which had been found by former Member UWE LOVAS (1022-1989). UWE had called us right after he found the boat, but asked us to keep it quiet until he gave us the permission to release the information, which we did. He promised that we would break the story first. Imagine our surprise when the story broke in another publication first while we were keeping our word to remain silent. When we phoned UWE for an explanation, he merely said that he guessed that we would be mad at him for breaking his word – but so what!

The report of U-701 overshadowed all else in this issue, which included more of HORST DEGEN’s memories of the sinking; of the story by GEORGE ROCEK (828-1988) of rescuing people from the Philippines aboard USS ANGLER; more PETER’s PAGE (it wasn’t called PETER’s PERISCOPE until years later); of the story of the ship AVISO GRILLE by HERBERT WEISE (348-1987); of GÜNTHER HEINRICH (1945-1991) telling the story of the sinking of the Liberty Ship SUMNER I. KIMBALL with his U-960; more on the American Congress looking into Standard Oil selling fuel to the Axis in the war – and more on George Gough, the self styled “King of Guyana” and his fleet of island trading ships with which it was reported, he helped German vessels in the Caribbean. Did he? It’s in KTB #83.

KTB #83 was still just 28 pages long, done on a typewriter.

5 YEARS AGO in our KTB

The cover photo is our dear friend GERD THÄTER (194-+-1986) and his memories are in this issue. GERD was one of a handful to make the trip through the ‘Gates of Hell’ (Gibraltar) twice! Lt.Col JIM ROSE (78-C-1984) gave us a piece about U-853, the last German U-Boat sunk in American waters. Captain TONY SPEIR (1425-1990) wrote about the history of the midget submarines and the ‘Chariots’.

We gave the history of U-157 and U-158 in this issue as well as a tribute to the most highly decorated Skippers of the Kriegsmarine and the US Navy. There was a section on the Soviet submarines from our friend RADM LEV DAVIDOVICH CHERNAVIN (4973-1996) and we ran more of the ‘Future of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces’. There was more on the ‘Slender thread’, the story of German-Japanese cooperation in the war by WILLIAM CORR (5265-1997).

We also reported that MEL FISHER (171-+-1990) had been fined more than half a million dollars by the government for various so called charges.

This was not the highest price paid by FISHER for his treasure hunting endeavors. While searching for the ATOCHA, the boat on which his son’s family was sleeping flooded, capsized and sank quickly taking the son and his wife…..a terrible price to pay!