Schnellboot Grouping

[Maurice]

This week I received my new Schnellboot grouping, consisting of;

a photo album with 25 photos of the crewmembers of S-92.
EK2 Urkunde
Urkunde for the Schnellbootabzeichen
Verwundetenabzeichen

S-92 was put into service on 14.01.1943, the weeks before the crew was busy preparing the boat at the Lürsen Vegesack yard. In this time the photo album was made. The boat was then transferred to the western theatre, where it operated with the 2nd E-boat flottilla. It saw quite some action. At some point it was intended to bring the boat to the Black sea, which was not materialized although the boats were on route. She served in the Baltic later on an became a British prize after the German capitulation.

Although it's not my most extensive grouping, all the key elements are there. (The other one I have misses for example the Schnellbootabzeichen Urkunde)

There is still a lot to be researched, I hope I can find a crewmember of S-92, or perhaps even the man himself. Will keep you posted. It's always fun to start a research with these documents as a start.

Kind regards,

Maurice

[Maurice]

A photo with the documents. Always nice to see how the owner looked like.

[Maurice]

EK 2, after 25 missions. Verwundetenabzeichen needs more research, 13 June was quite a busy night.

[Maurice]

And the last one.

Kind regards,

Maurice

[Eric JB]

Great S.Boot grouping you are showing us here.

Now you have yourself another interesting research project.

Always fine to have a face to the documents, making it just so more personal.

Best regards

Eric-Jan

[seekwhence]

Very interesting grouping! Thanks for showing it to us!

seekwhence

[JUNGCO]

I always like Kriegsmarine groupings, especially the Snellboots. Thanks for showing your group.
Jeff

[Maurice]

Thanks for the compliments lads!

Maurice

[Death-Ace]

Wow, an actual grouping of an S-Boat sailor! Thank you for posting this!

Smooth Sailing!
Lev

[RichardT]

It doesn't get much better than that,

Richard

[Maurice]

Well, slowly I make progress. I didn't know the person who signed the Verwundetenabzeichen, but found him in the book of Crew 37a. These books can give a wealth of information on KM officers.

Kind regards,

Maurice

[new collector]

Top class group well done Maurice

[Simon O.]

S-92 had been part of the 2-S-Fl. earlier in 1944 but by June it doesn't appear in the lists of operational boats in the west. It turns up again later in 1944 with the 5 S-Fl.

the 13th June 44 was a black day for the 2. S-Fl., a patrol consisting of S-178, S-179 and S-189 were attacked by Bristol Beaufighters of 143 and 236 Sqdns of the RAF, sinking all three with the Germans suffering 42 dead and 20 wounded. your man must have been onboard one of these three boats at the time.

[Maurice]

Thanks a lot Simon!

regarding S-92, I found this on a site:

On the 21

st March 1944, S89 – along with S86, S92 and S98 - was transferred from the 2nd Flotilla to the 10th Flotilla, which was a new flotilla that was then in the process of forming. Her commander, Ob.z.S Braune relinquished command but no new CO was appointed and instead, S89 was transferred to the 1st Training Flotilla based at Kiel. However when S89 reached Wilhelmshaven on the 7th April 1944, she was immediately paid-off and ordered to Hamburg for a special mission. Three months previously, in November 1943, Admiral Dönitz had ordered that six new S-boats were to be sent to the Black Sea to bolster the German naval forces present in this theatre. The Führer der S-Boote (FdS), Kommodore Petersen, had objected to this, arguing that it would weaken his North Sea and Channel forces and obtained a compromise whereby 3 new boats were to be transferred immediately and that four other older
craft would be dispatched in early 1944. The four older S-boats selected were S86, S92, S98 and S89 and, after being paid-off at Wilhelmshaven, they proceeded to
Hamburg, where preparations for the transfer - which was to involve a mammoth journey by river and land – began.

The site is http://www.bmpt.org.uk/boat%20histor...m%20Report.pdf

I am not sure why S-92 is reffered to as an older boat, since it was only 1 year and 3 months old. Also, I am not sure if the crewmembers remained with the boat or were deployed otherwise. The latter seems the most logical. On August 24 the boats were recalled and returned.

Your statement that he was on one of the boats involved in this incident with 3 boats lost might indeed be correct.

I found an article in the Kameraden zur See books, I once copied and put in my S-boot binders. It's an article from Herbert Altpeter called 'Die 2.Schnellbootsflottille 'Asse zur See'im Einsatz bei der Invasion. Verlust der Boote S 178, S 179 and S 189. A photo is shown with nine crewmembers of S-209, a boat put into service July 1944, 'coming from S-179'. One of the names mentioned is Helmut Walter. Unfortunally the photo is not very sharp, not enough to recognize the face. This would however fit in the picture, as he is mentioned as 'Heizer'.

Good to have puzzled this out!

Kind regards,

Maurice

[DDD777]

Nice and rare grouping, i love Schnellboots!
Thank you for showing it!