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:

Hannes Weingärtner was also promoted to Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of June 1942. Weingärtner served as instructor at the Antisubmarine Defense School as the first U-Boat Training Command was called for ‘camouflage’ for several months in 1935, before Germany admitted to having a U-Boat force again in September of 1935.

Weingärtner then commanded several Type II coastal Boats U-4, U-10 and U-16 until the beginning of October 1939 then he commanded the U-Boat Training Flotilla and the 24th U-Boat Training Flotilla in the Baltic Sea through April of 1943.

In May of 1943, Weingärtner was reassigned as U-Boat Commander to commission one of the new U-Cruisers of the Type IX-D2 for operations in distant waters. After Baubelehrung and the usual trials, tests and Baltic exercises, U-851 left Kiel on her first war patrol on the 26th of February 1944. A position report was received on the 27th of March in the mid Atlantic…..but nothing further…..ever. Cause of loss unknown, presumably technical diving accident or possibly drifting mines.

Herbert Sohler, who became a Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of July 1942, served in U-Boat Training positions before the war and commanded the Type II coastal boat U-10 for three months in 1938 before he was transferred as Commander of the Type VII-B new construction boat U-46 on the 2nd of November 1938. He held that position until the 21st of May 1940. On five war patrols aboard U-46, Sohler sunk two ships with together 7,952 confirmed tons, placing Sohler in position #341 of the commanders’ sinking list

In September of 1940, Sohler was assigned as the Flotilla Commander of the 7th U-Boat Front Flotilla, soon transferred from Kiel to St. Nazaire, France which position Sohler held until February of 1944 when he was transferred to the Naval Academy in Flensburg-Mürwik as Group Commander of midshipmen.

Based upon my own personal recollection, Herbert Sohler was without question, the most disliked and unpopular U-Boat Flotilla Commander in France. Also heartily disdained by many of the most successful U-Boat commanders who were assigned to the 7th U-Boat Front Flotilla such as OTTO KRETSCHMER (122-+-1985), ERICH TOPP (118-LIFE-1985) HERBERT SCHULTZE (191-+-1986) and Günther Prien to name just a few.

Sohler, who had only been awarded the Iron Cross Second Class for his two sinkings, was a martinet type of officer who tried to cashier his personal feelings of inferiority by acting the Super Prussian Big Shot, which generally backfired badly somehow, and often Sohler ended up as something of a laughing stock and was hated by the U-Boatmen without exception.

Theodor von Mutius, promoted to Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of July 1942, served as First Officer on the destroyer FRIEDERICH IHN on two time periods during the war.

He also worked with the Special Naval Command in Romania, which was created to secure the German Navy’s percentage of oil from the Ploesti oilfields and protect same against British sabotage.

In April of 1943, he became the commander of the brand new destroyer Z-29 until January of 1944. He was then assigned to a special Naval Command in Denmark but in April of 1944, became once more the commander of Destroyer Z-29 until the end of the war, operating from various Norwegian ports and bases.

Joachim Skibowski became a Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of July 1942. He had been posted to the heavy cruiser ADMIRAL SCHEER as Communications Officer from October 1937 through April 1940 when he became the Naval Communications Director in Copenhagen for the just occupied country of Denmark.

In August of 1940, Skibowski was transferred to Calais, France as Naval Communications Director and Senior Staff Officer for the Admiral Commanding Western France. He served briefly in different assignments in Romania, the Baltic Naval Station Command and became the Senior Communications Instructor at the Naval Communications School in Flensburg-Mürwik in July of 1942, a position he held until the end of the war.

Walter Flaschenberg became a Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of July 1942. He served with the Naval Antiaircraft Gunnery Division, but undertook U-Boat training in the Baltic from April thru October of 1940. On the 12th of December 1940, after Baubelehrung familiarization, Flaschenberg commanded U-71 during the customary Baltic trials, tests and exercises, and departed from Kiel on the 14th of June 1941 on the first transfer war patrol to St. Nazaire, France.

On seven war patrols, Flaschenberg sunk five confirmed ships with 38,894 tons all together, placing him into position #108 of the confirmed U-Boat commanders’ sinking list. On the 3rd of July 1942, Flaschenberg was transferred to the Torpedo Testing and Development Command as Group Director and was promoted to Commander of that Command in September of 1944 and finally was posted to OKM High Command Unit for Torpedo Development in April 1945, a somewhat peculiar assignment, to the end of the war a few weeks later.

Hans Engel was promoted to Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of August 1942 while already a prisoner of war. Engel had been U-Boat Commander Understudy (Kommandanten Schuler) on U-31, commanded by Wilfried Prellberg, when this Type VII-A U-Boat was sunk on the 2nd of November 1940 by the destroyer HMS ANTELOPE west of Ireland.

He had served aboard the heavy cruiser ADMIRAL SCHEER from October 1937 through November of 1939 as a Division Officer and undertook U-Boat training thereafter. The training assignment aboard U-31 was his first command on this U-Boat, which had been lost and sunk before but was raised and reconditioned again, which never improved the technical and operational performance of any U-Boat.

EDITOR NOTE…U-31 was initially sunk by RAF aircraft off Schillig Roads on 11 March 1940, but was salved and put back into service.

Gerhard Fromme became a Korvettenkapitän on the 1st of August 1942. Fromme had been the Communications Officer aboard the panzerschiff ADMIRAL GRAF von SPEE from October 1937 until she was scuttled off Montevideo, Uruguay in December 1939. He was interned in Argentina until August of 1940 when he escaped and returned to Germany

In September of 1940, Fromme was assigned to the brand new destroyer Z-24 still in the final stages of construction, as First Officer and he held that position after commissioning until October of 1942 when he became the commander of destroyer FRIEDERICH IHN from November 1942 thru November 1943.

Fromme then was transferred to the Naval Academy for Admiralty Staff officers and became the Director of Naval Communications in Berlin until October of 1944. He was then shifted to the staff on Naval Group Command North in Kiel in December 1944 which position he kept until the end of the war.

Hans Meckel was promoted out of turn to Fregattenkapitän on 1 December 1944. Meckel was one of the old boys of the initial new U-Boat Command, and commanded the Type II coastal boats U-3 and U-19 between August of 1935 and the end of October 1939.

He became U-Boat Command Communications officer A-4 on 1st of November 1939 and was super intelligent, smart, competent in every respect and fluent in several languages. Meckel was always willing to listen carefully and very efficiently too. I can’t recall any U-Boat officer or U-Boatman who did not like Hannes Meckel, even if disagreements or conflicting facts were involved. He always was considerate and tried to be fair.

In June of 1944, he was promoted to Director of Radar/Sonar Services and Experiments at the Naval High Command at Camp Koralle near Berlin-Bernau. He played an influential and important role in the defense team of Karl Dönitz before and during the Nürnberg War Criminal Trials. When the new German Federal Navy was reconstituted in 1956, Hannes Meckel was rejected for reactivation as naval officer because he had been so close to Karl Dönitz for so many years. Consequently, he became a translator for a big publishing house for English/American and French books. To put it in a nutshell – Hannes Meckel was a great guy!!!