Series

… a foreword

This file is designed to publish series about interesting stories on German U-boats on a regular basis, as it arises from the daily work of the U-boat Archive, whether it be through own research, the work on requests for infor-mation as well as through other publications. All readers are invited to send comments or own contributions to these series, to be published in this file.

Special U-boats

This new series is supposed to report about special U-boats, such as U 156 and the Laconia incident. Recently the U-boat Archive has been involved in research and supporting a British film team to produce a documentary about this incident. Members of the “Association of Friends (FTU)” shall be informed in time about these activities, we are happy to allow insight to relevant correspondence to our members – another reason to apply for member-ship. The documentary will be shown in movie theatres in November, later on TV as well.

Myths

Launching this new series we would like to touch in non-frequent sequences on certain myths surrounding operations of German U-boats in WW I and WW II, which not only seem to enjoy a persistent life but also are often taken over in literature non-vetted – and the U-boat Archive is confronted with occasionally in the context of requests for information. Therefore, we would like to tell our knowledge about those operations in the next issues as we have recorded them. All readers are invited to let us know their better knowledge, allowing us to maybe re-write a story new and correct.

Visits

A theme of utmost interest for research seems being the documentation of visits by political celebrities such as Heads of States (Emperors, Kings, Presidents) and Heads of Governments to German U-boats. Many of those are rarely known or simply forgot, others made headlines. Often, attention is raised only through old photographs or periodical mentioning in articles or books.