20 YEARS AGO in our KTB

In KTB #13, we were still seeking information on the shadowy outfit known as the Marinesonderdienst Auslands. According to a Member, a U-Boat officer who does not wish to be identified, we learn that this was similar to the American CIA, responsible for gathering intelligence, assistance, materials in foreign countries. We were trying to get more info on the head of this group, a K.K. Becker who we think was possibly involved in the transfer of uranium from Germany to Japan.

We were getting more and more information on U-234 and her intended dash to Japan in the closing moments of the German war, with her cargo of many high-tech items, including as we learned later, 560 kilos of uranium oxide consigned to the Japanese Army.

It was in this KTB we started the “Meeting our Members” section. CHRISTOPHER LOWE (11-1983) notified us that a German mine had been found off Hartlepool, England and he determined that this was part of a mine barrage laid by the German destroyers HERMANN KÜNNE, FRIEDERICH IHN, ERICH STEINBRINK, RICHARD BEITZEN and BRUNO HEINMANN on the night of 12/13 December 1939.

Dues way back then were $25 per year and KTB #13 was only 6 pages in length and done on that old manual typewriter. Compare that with today’s high tech KTB of 44 pages, computer typeset and although today’s KTB contains probably twenty times as much information as the early ones, the Membership cost is only twice as high – over the last twenty years. We are really proud that we have kept the costs under control, especially in light of the fact that paper and printing costs have risen greatly over the past twenty years and the cost of postage has gone almost out of sight in those twenty years. our annual dues have not increased in many years and then, only due to repeated postal cost increases.

15 YEARS AGO in our KTB

We happily announced that we had moved to Florida from the Chicago suburb of Fox Lake. I had resigned my job as Vice President of a large corporation to do Sharkhunters full time. It was not possible to do this while keeping a regular job, so I just quit with no severance, no retirement – no nothing. It just had to be done in order to do it correctly. The Public Relations Director of the Museum of Science & Industry, Irv Paley (16-1983) looked at me and asked, “You really quit a $40,000 a year job to do this?” He looked at my wife and said, “And you let him?” And back to me, “Are you crazy?” Maybe so – but I really love this work.

Captain HANS-GEORG HESS (125-LIFE-1985) wrote, after learning that I quit my job to make Sharkhunters the leader in the world of U-Boat history around the world, “I was twice also so crazy to leave my job…..I could afterwards sleep better than before.”

The cover photo was of the officers of U-66. There was more information on the ‘phantom’ French submarine SURCOUF and a photo of U-213, a rare Type VII-D mine laying U-Boat. Captain REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985) gave us information on the sinking of SS BATON ROUGE. This ship was sunk, but the water was so shallow that she was refloated and later sunk by GÜNTHER POSER (322-1987) with U-202.

KTB #44 was still done on the old manual typewriter and was still only twelve pages in length. How we have grown over the years!

10 Years Ago in our KTB

There is no mistaking this bow – it is a Type XXI Electro-Boot, at the time, the most advanced submarine in the world. At the end of WW II, the major Allied powers tripped over themselves to get as many completed, incomplete and partially built Type XXI boats and their technology as possible. It was quite a boat!

More memories from Kplt. HORST DEGEN (116-+-1985) about his time as Skipper of U-701; more on the fiasco on the baby flat top USS CABOT; PETER’S PERISCOPE told of Winterbotham and his team at Bletchley Park as related to the capture of U-110 and her Enigma coding machine; a story by Luigi Durand De La Penne on sinking HMS VALIANT – and we were running the eye opening US Congressional investigation into Standard Oil of New Jersey selling fuel to all sides during World War II. If you think that politicians lie – you should read the testimony of the top ‘brass’ of SO/NJ! According to news reports sent by ROBERT McMILLAN (891-1988) the Royal Navy was finding cracks in the reactors of many of her Polaris missile submarines – not good! We were running the History of the Royal Navy Submarine Force by Captain VICTOR HAWKINS (1364-+-1990) as well as “The Conduct of the War at Sea” which was a long overview of this war by Großadmiral Dönitz.

KTB #84 was just 28 pages in length and done on a typewriter – a new and improved electric typewriter, but a typewriter nonetheless. There were Members in just 34 countries back then.

5 Years Ago in our KTB

The front cover is our friend Captain HELMUT WITTE (4238-LIFE-1995), Knights Cross holding Skipper of U-159. We ran a declassified US Navy report on the prisoners from U-66 on the carrier USS BLOCK ISLAND. In our “Modeler’s Corner”, ROGER BESAW (4229-1995) reviewed the Type XXI model by Revell AG of Germany. Naturally, we ran a short history of U-159 in this issue. There were the specifications and details for the I.J.N. submarine KAIDAI Type 2 long-range submarine.

There was just one of many reports on a guy named Greg Brooks who, for a fee, can find a lost U-Boat in your swimming pool. He was “confused” when divers failed to find U-233, which he claimed was a rare Type XI U-Boat in Casco Bay, Maine. The real U-233 was a Type X-B and sunk some 1,000 miles out to sea – and there never were any Type XI boats built. Minor details……… We began the report on the US military’s treatment of Admiral Kimmel and Major General Short in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Russia, suffering from financial problems, sold the aircraft carrier VARYAG to the Chinese Navy. We reported that it was NOT Hans Göbeler who “pulled the plug” to scuttle U-505. We printed the content of the letter from the Bootsmannsmaat confirming that.

German Government was starting demolition of the “Lost Bunker” in Hamburg where HARRY COOPER (1-LIFE-1983), JAK MALLMANN SHOWELL (73-1984) and EDDIE PHILLIPS (220-A/LIFE-1986) found three Type XXI boats in 1988. Vandals had desecrated the U-Boot-Memorial in Kiel!