Lets see your UBoat Soldbuch or Wehrpaß

[Eric JB]

Gentlemen,

UBoat Soldbücher and or Wehrpäße aren't often seen here on WAF, maybe it is a nice idea to start a thread for them.

Thanks for showing.

yours friendly

Eric-Jan

[Eric JB]

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[Eric JB]

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[Eric JB]

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[Eric JB]

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[Eric JB]

Not the most spectacular or well filled out Soldbuch, but for me it is still an interesting one.<o></o>
<o></o>
Rolf Beyerle a fitter from Rheinhausen and born 23.06.1920 went to sea on U 95.<o></o>
He made all the 7 war-patrols on U 95 and went down with her on 28.11.1941.<o></o>
After the second patrol Beyerle received the UBootskriegsabzeichen, and the EK.2 after the third patrol.<o></o>
Although U 95 was a 7.U.Flottille boat, based in St.Nazaire, the second page shows a Fieldpoststamp with the number 25522 = Kdo. 2.U.Flottille, based in Lorient.<o></o>
<o></o>
Beyerle got his Soldbuch on 7.10.1941 and at that moment U 95 lay in Lorient.<o></o>
So the stamps used in his new Soldbuch are from the 2^nd U.Flottille as shown on page 2, 4 and 36.<o></o>
During his last leave 25.9.1941 from Lorient to Rheinhausen and back on 12.10.1941 Rolf saw his parents for the last time.
<o></o>
Signatures in the Soldbuch:<o></o>
<o></o>Page 2 and 4 : OLt.z.S. Hans-Harald Ipach, who survived the sinking.<o></o>
Page 36 : OLt.Ing. Karl-Max-Ernst Kurda, went down with U 95.

U 95 made 7 war-patrols on which she was able to sink 8 ships and to damage 4.<o></o>
At 0050 on 28th November U-95 was torpedoed and sunk by the Dutch submarine HNetMS O 21 (Lt Cdr J F van Dulm) SW of Almeria (Spain) in position 36.24N/03.20E. 35 crew were killed, 12 were rescued including KL Schreiber.<o></o>

Sinking of U 95 : <o></o>

<table style="width: 472.5pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(248, 248, 248);" class="MsoNormalTable" width="630" border="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">A terse signal from the Netherlands submarine "O 21" stated that, while returning to Gibraltar at 0030 on 28th November, 1941, when in position 36° 21' N. and 03° 27' W., a German U-Boat was sighted astern. The U-Boat followed the Netherlands submarine and challenged her. "O 21" fired two stern torpedoes, one of which sank the U-Boat. Four officers, including the Captain, and eight ratings were rescued out of a total complement of 47. <o></o>
</td><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">
</td></tr><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">According to prisoners' statements, "U 95" had sighted "O 21" at 2300 hours on 27th November, 1941. Neither lookouts nor officers could make up their minds about the identity of the strange submarine , her angle of inclination as seen from the conning tower of "U 95" making this exceptionally difficult. Schreiber proceeded to stalk his quarry, not caring to risk an attack until he could be convinced that he was not attempting to sink a sister U-Boat. Shortly before 0020 three ratings were ordered to man the 2-cm. gun, and a signalman was instructed to flash a challenge with a pocket torch. Scarcely had this been done when the tracks of two torpedoes were seen on the starboard bow and rudder was put hard a-starboard. The first torpedo did not explode, but possibly grazed the boat; the second struck "U 95" on the stern. There was a blinding explosion which blew most of the men on the conning tower into the water. It was stated that "U 95" sank within six or seven seconds, it being presumed that her stern had been blown off. Not a man from below decks survived, with the exception of the Boatswain's Mate, who was proceeding on deck, and was blown through the conning tower hatch. <o></o>
</td><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top"><o></o>
</td></tr><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">(N.I.D. Note. In fact, "O 21" fired two torpedoes independently. The first was aimed directly at the U-Boat and apparently missed to starboard. The U-Boat's alteration of course was observed and the second torpedo was fired, aimed 2° before the U-Boat's bow. The range was 2,000 yards.) <o></o>
</td><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top"><o></o>
</td></tr><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">A graphic account of the sinking of "U 95" was given by the Boatswain's Mate during interrogation, when he made the following statement: "The Old Man said I might go on the best watch from 1800 to 2000 hours. He was a queer customer, but he knew quite a lot about his job, and he and I got along very well together; I used to give him some assistance when he was taking bearings of the stars and so on; I used to write down the figures and help a little with the calculations, and get out the charts, and help him to plot the course, and so on. 'Well,' he said to me, 'that's the end of our keeping watch together. The new Lieutenant is to take the watch,' When we had been at sea ten or 12 days he said: 'The First Lieutenant will go ashore in Italy and then I'll see to it that we get our watch together again.' Then he said: 'The First Lieutenant is going on watch tomorrow morning at 0400, instead of the Chief Quartermaster,' When I came off watch I happened to meet him. I said: 'Shall we have a little celebration this evening?' He replied: 'I'll be along later,' He brought a glass of brandy and we sat down; there were four of us , and we played 'Skat'. When I go on watch at 0400, I usually turn in at ten or half-past - by that time, after the news, I am tired enough to fall asleep at 2300, and wake up at 0400. At 2300 we were just <o></o>
</td><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top"><o></o>
</td></tr></tbody></table><table style="width: 472.5pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(248, 248, 248);" class="MsoNormalTable" width="630" border="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">going to stop, after one more hand, when suddenly the order came through the speaking tube, spoken in a rather quiet voice: 'Lower deck action stations' We thought it was a joke. Then we heard that someone on deck had seen a shadow, and a rating in the conning tower, returning from his smoke, came in and said: 'There's something happening.' Then they all came along and nobody said a word, the control room was quite quiet. All of a sudden the loud-speaker said: 'Lower deck, action stations' No. 1 Boatswain's Mate was asleep at that moment; No. 3 was due to go out on watch. He came out of his bunk and said: 'What's up?' I put on my leather jacket and quickly put my cigarette case in my pocket, folded back the seat, and went up into the conning tower. Then No. 1 said: 'Take your life jacket, were in for something.' At that moment I had no idea where mine was; under my pillow, perhaps. Anyway, I said: 'Time to fetch that later,' and as I went into the conning tower the order came from the control room: 'Port!' My God, I thought, what's happening now? The men forward opened the torpedo tube caps; you can imagine how they ran forward to open them. Then the show started. What sort of boat was she? Italian? German? There had been three other boats with us. In the meantime we got the order: 'Close the caps,' then again: 'Open the caps,' and then another order to close them. The men forward were starting to curse. Then, for the third time, they wanted to fire. The order was given again: 'Open the caps.' As we were about to make our fourth approach they spotted us before we came too close. It was a beautiful moonlight night, just three days before full moon. You could see your way about better than by day, when it is often a bit misty down there at that time of year. You could see the coast and the dark mountains better than by day. When we were seen we were in an unfavorable position with the moon behind us. They could see us in the moonlight better than we could see them. When we still held our fire, they drew away and showed their stern; so we challenged them two or three times in Morse. The Captain ordered: 'Guns' crew, clear away'! As a matter of fact we always had the guns ready, and the ammunition lay ready below in the control room; it always lies there. So the first thing was to get the gun loaded and sights on the target. For the time being I was to stay in the conning tower in case we began to fire. I had my recorder with me in the conning tower as messenger. He was there to take notes, because I have to write down the data when we fire. He said we must hoist a few rounds to the upper deck, when the order came to fire. <o></o>
</td><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">
</td></tr><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">While they were getting the gun ready, we went ahead at slow speed. Then the Captain said: 'Now try some gunfire,' and we went full speed ahead. At that moment the Dutch fired their torpedoes and we couldn't see them easily on account of the moonlight. Luckily the Junior Officer saw it; he has good eyes trained in flying. He shouted: 'Torpedo track to port!' The Quartermaster, who was standing forward at the port lookout, pushed him out of the way, leapt to the bridge rail, had a look over the side and put the helm hard over to starboard. Suddenly I heard a hissing noise - if that one had hit us amidships or forward I shouldn't have been able to get out; it was a very nasty feeling! I heard a bang aft and we supposed that the first torpedo had just grazed along our side. The second one came a bit further over to port, so we turned to starboard and turned, so to speak, right into the course of the torpedo. The torpedo must have exploded right on the screw. There was a loud report and I thought my head would split. I looked down and saw a red flame and a fearful cloud of smoke. I pulled myself up and at that moment water began to come in. I was outside. I looked round and there were a few men aft and a few to our right. The Captain shouted: 'Keep together!' Then he began to count us all and call our names to see who was there. He asked me: 'Has anybody else come out?' And I said: 'No, I'm the last.' Then we began swimming. I had completely lost all sense of the enemy's position. I could only see the moon and the water and, faintly, in the distance, the coast. All at once I saw the black bow of a ship in front of me. My greatest fear as I swam towards the ship, was that they might open fire with machine-guns. Then the first of us got on board and I heard them speaking German. Three men pulled me up on the deck. <o></o>
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</td></tr><tr style=""><td style="border: medium none rgb(240, 240, 240); padding: 0.75pt; background-color: transparent;" valign="top">All survivors spoke gratefully of the treatment they received on board the Netherlands submarine which brought them to Gibraltar. <o></o>
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[Eric JB]

Sorry Ian, I didn't know that there were smilies in the text.....as I didn't use them at all.

yours

EJ

[Ian Jewison]

As you now know Eric-Jan it is when you cut and paste from a MS Word document....


/Ian

[Panzer Rob]

Beautiful Soldbuch and research EJ, and a splendid idea for a thread! Having heard about just a few of the gems that are out there residing in private collections, I have a feeling this thread has the potential to be extremely informative and incredibly enjoyable!

Rob

[desiro]

Very nice Eric,ill put my 2 guys wehrpass from the same boat when i get time.

Andy

[SiPo]

Fantastic piece Eric -Jan.

[Eric JB]

Thank you for your kind comments guys.

I am still looking for a photo that shows Rolf, or an U 95 crewphoto he is on.

Will be great to have a face to go with the Soldbuch.

yours friendly

Eric-Jan

[desiro]

I have been lucky enough to find 2 groupings from the same U-Boat 654.
One of the men served on The Admiral Scheer battleship prior to joing the u-boat service.
The U-boat sank 4 ships during patrols.

[desiro]

Sent to the Caribbean for easy pickings ,the captain made a fatal error of sending a Enigma message back to HQ asking permission to move to another area as he hadnt found any ships.The Americans who had no idea the Uboat was in the area sent Aircraft to sink the uboat.All hands were lost.

A few of my guys associated documents.

[Eric JB]

Hi Desiro,

Thank you for showing your two U 654 crewmembers.

Did your men serve on U 654 during all the four war patrols ?

Did you post - post # 14 here ever before on WAF ?

Can you also show the unit and award pages ?

Is it possible to show some of the related documents a bit better, so that one can see the names on them ?

The French Flower Corvette FLL Alysse was a great catch for U 654, such prey did really count.

Thanks again.

yours friendly

Eric-Jan