Welcome to The Few Good Men

Thanks for visiting our club and having a look around, there is a lot to see. Why not consider becoming a member?

German Miscellaneous

The Compiègne Wagon, the railcar where the German WW1 surrender was signed at Compiegne in 1918 arrives in Berlin after being seized by the German who entered Paris in 1940. On this railcar which both the Armistice of 11 Nov 1918 and Armistice of 22 June 1940 were signed. (The wagon was later destroyed near the end of the war).
0AoW2IY.png
 
Surrender of U-858. Here -right in the pic- the Kapitänleutnant Thilo Bode (1918/2014) surrender at the US Navy, represented by Commander Joseph Pugh Norfleet (1887-1978) -left.- The U-858 was the first German warship to surrender to U.S. forces.

HcngBrS.jpg


Bode commissioned the U-858 at Bremen on 30 Sept 1943. He took her on two patrols, one of 108 days in the North Atlantic, and one of 68 days off the US East coast. At the end of the second patrol he surrendered his boat to the US Navy at Cape May, NJ. on 14 May 1945. After surrendering the sub was used for publicity in War bond drives.
The U-858 was scuttled by US submarine USS Sirago on 21 Nov 1947 after being used for torpedo trials near New England.
 
German survivors from U-490 on board USS Croatan (CVE-25), June 12, 1944.
L32i6x4.jpg


Although as a supply boat, the U-490 avoided combat, she was lost on her first patrol when on 12 June 1944, she was attacked in mid-ocean (northwest of the Azores) by the escort carrier USS Croatan and the destroyers Frost, Huse and Inch.
The source say were 60 survivors (no casualties)
 
Hunter-Killers :cool:

"Croatan sailed from San Diego, California on 2 July 1943, and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia on 19 July.
As the nucleus for a hunter-killer group, she sailed on 5 August for antisubmarine operations in the Atlantic covering the movement of convoys."

From 17 October-29 December 1943, Croatan made two voyages to Casablanca ferrying aircraft and plane crews for the North African operations. After another antisubmarine patrol from 14 January-27 February 1944, she took part in tests with the Naval Research Laboratory at Annapolis, Maryland. From 24 March-11 May, Croatan made a most successful patrol.

On 7 April, her planes marked out the German submarine U-856, which was sunk by her escorts Champlin and Huse at 40°18′N 62°22′W.

On the night of 25–26 April, her four escorts joined in sinking U-488 at 17°54′N 38°05′W. She was also successful in her patrol from 2 June-22 July.

On 10 June, Croatan's planes and escorts Frost, Huse, and Inch attacked U-490 and remained in constant contact with it, forcing it to surface the next day. Sixty survivors, including the commanding officer, were rescued before the submarine sank from scuttling charges at 42°47′N 40°08′W.

Aircraft and escorts Frost and Inch combined again to sink U-154 on 3 July, at 34°00′N 19°30′W."

XLTFQfG.png


 
If the boss asks for it...
The Fuhrer looking at a commemorative plate to Gavrilo Princip (1894/1918), that he personally he asked be brought to him.
"...On 1941 after the German army occupied Sarajevo, the first actions they took were to remove the 1930 Gavrilo Princip plaque located at the site of the 1914 assassination and to destroy the new Sephardic synagogue, the Il Kal Grande, known as the Great Synagogue..."
Princip was the Bosnian-Serb who shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and set the wheels of WW1 in motion.
d9CN4g6.jpg
 
The crew of U-552 in the port of Saint-Nazaire. May 5, 1941
Lk3zci7.jpg


The U-552 carried out a total of ten operational patrols, sinking 30 ships and damaging three in a period of 20 months under the command of Commander Erich Topp (1914/2005). Within 16 months he was decorated with the Knight’s Cross, the Oak Leaves and the Swords. U-552, the boat with the Red Devil emblem, was probably photographed more by war reporters than any other U-boat.

On 5 May 1945, she was scuttled in Wilhelmshaven Bay to prevent her capture.
 
Back
Top