PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ABWEHR (the German Secret Service) during WW II and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people. He gives this secret information especially to SHARKHUNTERS. Here he tells us:

We continue with the latest information from PETER and he tells us the story of the second traitor.

What concerned the second man who sold information to the French before the war, another story. After France was defeated and partially occupied, all contact seems to have been lost and the man in question who had got his job on the suggestion of Hermann Goring originally and was another nazi party old timer, It appears that, due to some reorganization, he was pushed out of his job and was drafted by the German Army in the fall of 1940.

Reportedly, he was transferred to an army unit that was amongst the first troops attacking Soviet Russia on the 22nd of June 1941 yet this man seemingly deserted immediately and surrendered himself to the Soviet Russians. Thereafter no further trace could be found of his whereabouts However, I would not be surprised if he ended up with the Communistic Group which called itself the National Committee to Renew Germany or one of those under-organizations directed by Walther Ulbricht, who after the war, became the President of Eastern Germany and had been involved with the socalled International Brigades in Spain during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939, directing as `jyhlrxk' the Brigade Thalmann. named after the German Communist party leader from Hamburg whom the Nazis jailed and later shot.

Because Ulbricht inserted his secret Communist pals into all key positions in Eastern Germany once that area was occupied by Soviet Russian troops in `45. Often such Communist underground men used any number of false names and identities which turned out almost impossible to correctly identify eventually somehow.

It occurred to me afterwards that you might be interested instead in Johann Reckhoff, born on the 15t' of January 1911 in Duisburg Ruhort. Reckhoff joined the Navy with the Class (Crew) of 1928, a very small class of candidates to become naval officers of the different career classes. More of them later. Reckhoff became a Korvettenkapitan on the 1" of August 1943. He had been serving aboard the panzerschiff ADMIRAL GRAF VON SPEE from October 1937 until she was sunk off Montevideo, Uruguay in December 1939 and scuttled in the River Plate delta region in shallow water. Reckhoff was interned in Argentina for almost one year. lie had been Watch Officer and Division Officer aboard

When he escaped from the San Martin Internment Camp and managed to return to Germany in November of 1940, he was posted aboard the brand new heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN as Rollen Officer and had that position until March of 1943. Participating in the BLSMARCK operation into the North Atlantic and also the `Channel Dash' break through with GNEISENAU and SCIIARNHORST in 1942. Later sailing to Norway, Reckhoff was assigned to U-Boat school training in April of 1943, lasting five months then followed by U-Boat commander's training in the Baltic for three more months.

At the end of November 1943, Reckhoff was assigned as commander of U-398 starting in the shipyard with Baubelehrung. He neither served as Watch Officer nor as understudy commander. due to his seniority.

Reckhoff commissioned U-398 on the 18th of December 1943 in the Howaldt Werke shipyard in Kiel, a Type VII-C U-Boat. U-398 underwent the customary Baltic Sea trial and training exercises and testing. On the 8th of August, Rcckhoff left Kiel with U-398, departing for Horton, Norway for snorkel training. This lasted until August 23rd, when U-398 Bergen. Norway after a war patrol in the North Channel, Irish Sea and the Outer Hebrides without sinkings, arriving on the 15th of October 1944.

In Norway, overhaul and repair services were insufficient and the shipyard facilities were overcrowded with U-Boats that had been forced to leave their former French bases. Thus U-398 was forced to continue onward to Germany for overhaul, reaching there early in November of 1944. Here Reckhoff was immediately removed as commander of U-398 and eventually replaced by Oberleutnant of the Reserves Wilhelm Cranz on the 9t' of November 1944. Cranz left Kiel again on the 8th of March 1945 for Horton, Norway and continued from there after snorkel training on 4 April 1945 for a war patrol off the Scottish coast area, where U-398 was lost without a trace on 17 April 1945. The exact cause of her loss was never determined, but it was assumed she hit some mine or had a technical diving accident.

EDITOR NOTE - It would not be the first time that a snorkel accident caused the loss of a boat. Who knows if this was the situation with U-398?

According to the records of the Commanding Admiral of U-Boats in Kiel, Hans-Geong von Friedeburg, Rcckhoff was relieved as commander of U-398 for disregard of operational orders, sending radio signals with faked positions and false operational locations, and a lack of expected and possible results. During the time these allegations were investigated, Reckhoff served in shore based positions in and around Kiel. However, Donitz evidently felt any official investigation and some court martial connected with the case would do the Navy more harm than good, and it was decided to close the case against Reckhoff early in April 1945. Reckhoff was then assigned as commander of the sailing ship ALBERT LEO SCHLAGETER, which was then harbor bound.

After the war, this ship was turned over to the Soviet Union as war booty, and Reckhoff agreed to sailing her to a Russian port in the Eastern Baltic for delivery to the Soviet Russians. Once Reckhoff had delivered her, he was offered a contract by the Soviet Navy, which he accepted and he remained first in Russia but later moved to Eastern Germany, joined the new People's Navy of the so-called German Democratic Republic which was neither of these things, where he retired as a rear admiral in 1975, passing away some time after that. 

More on Naval Class 1928

As we have taken a quick look at the Naval Class of 1928, which also included a few Engineering Officer candidates apart from very small number of both administrative officer and medical officer, it appears the total lot did not exceed 60 men or thereabouts, including line officer candidates. Consequently, it is particularly revealing to look at a few of them because they differ so greatly. Reckhoff is covered already in detail, but I would like to spotlight briefly a few more now in no particular sequence.

Hans-Frieder Post

who first became a torpedoboat man, commanding T-1, the first postwar torpedoboat until September of 1940. He then transferred to the OKM, the Naval High Command in Berlin and worked there until September of 1943 when he was assigned to the heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN as navigation officer after promotion to Korvettenkapitan on the 1st of June 1942. He held this position until May 1944, when Rost became a Staff Officer of the admiral commanding the Baltic Sea Command until May of 1945.

Then was Axel Olaf Loewe

who also became a Korvettenkapitan on the 1st of June 1942. He received after various staff positions, the U-Boat training from November 1940 through April 1941 followed by assignment as understudy commander for two months (known as Kommandantenschuler) aboard U-74, commanded by EitelFriedrich Kentrat, a very difficult superior. Loewe then was assigned as commander of U-505 with Baubelehrung (getting acquainted time) in the building yard. Loewe then commissioned U-505 on the 28th of August 1941, directed her during the usual Baltic Sea trials, exercises and tests. Leaving on the first war patrol from Kiel on the 19th of January 1942, a direct transfer voyage to Lorient, France and arriving there on the 3rd of February 1942.

Loewe commanded U-505 on two war patrols after that; the first one to the South Atlantic and the west coast of Africa; the second one to the Caribbean area around Trinidad returning to Lorient on the 25`" of August 1942 when Loewe had to be relieved as commander due to health problems requiring an appendectomy without delay. Loewe sunk seven ships during the time he commanded U-505 with a confirmed 37,789 tons, which placed Loewe in the list of U-Boat commanders on Position #113. After recovery of his heath, Loewe served in Berlin as Naval Representative with the Albert Speer Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition Production until April 1945 when he was briefly drafted for a naval surface unit for the defense of Hamburg and the small rest of No. Germany,, which was still held by German forces.

EDITOR NQTE - Captain AXEL-OLAF LOEWE was Member #39-1984 from early 1984 until his death some years later. You will note that his family name is Loewe rather than the usual German form - Lowe.

There will more of this great history from PETER HANSEN in KTB #181 next month. You just can't get enough of this history, which is not available anywhere else!