PBM-3D Mariner Prepares to Launch from a Coastal Naval Air Station

A Martin PBM-3D Mariner prepares to launch from a coastal Naval Air Station to patrol for German submarines, probably in late spring 1943. The landing gear had to be manually removed before takeoff and reinstalled before exiting the water. Mariners were one of the most effective of the Navy’s long-range flying boats.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration, 80-G-K-16065
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936

U-Boat Crew Being Shaved

A German submariner has his beard shaved by a comrade on his way back from the Atlantic, 1941. Photos by Hanns Hubmann.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1727507854101297/?__cft__[0]=AZWkVzfyA7UORYs5S6DUCCQV7wvVxzmzzgclR-ffo1PVjtCJtgiPfJxJXVtomKzu63HqO6yrpar_g-grKRSKeVt4GfQuTEbJUoq4l5AaRCJK0hFJO7_kXHmnhWJQ0J6itllp2k4iGp_RJpOFO85fgU-txjyMvJfpTEp0ySkczseQpPLCDLxLXLcyKWxKM_Qp-6M&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

U-Boat Ace Reinhard Suhren Returning from Patrol

 

 

Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Suhren, commander of U-564, after returning from a patrol, 1942. Photo by Photographer Bonnemann.

 

Reinhard Johann Heinz Paul Anton Suhren (16 April 1916 - 25 August 1984) was a German U-boat commander in World War II and younger brother of Korvettenkapitän (Ing.) and Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipient Gerd Suhren.

Suhren was born in Langenschwalbach, the second of three children, and grew up in the Weimar Republic and Third Reich. He joined the navy in 1935 and began his U-boat career in March 1938. He spent a year as 1st watch officer on U-48 where he received the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross for his contribution in the sinking of 200,000 gross register tons (GRT) of merchant shipping. In April 1941 he took command of U-564. As a commander, he is credited with the sinking of 18 merchant vessels of 95,544 GRT, 1 warship of 900 long tons (910 tonnes) and damaged four merchant vessels of 28,907 GRT for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.
Suhren left the boat and became an instructor in October 1942. He then served in the 27th U-boat Flotilla along with Korvettenkapitän Erich Topp. During the last year of the war Fregattenkapitän Suhren was the Führer der Unterseeboote Norwegen (Leader of U-boats in Norwegian waters) and from September 1944 the Commander-in-Chief of U-boats of the North Sea. After the war he worked in the petroleum industry and died of stomach canceron 25 August 1984.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=405108927424604&set=gm.1632605800258170
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Suhren?fbclid=IwAR34bkhXQwU0JKghcGT0XHtrHT8Po6MfGCCEW1U8rKbMgMi-UYLsrwKsRC0

Kriegsberichter Gerhard Garms and the Crew of U-404

A rare color image showing Kriegsberichter Oberleutnant Gerhard Garms (right) in U-404's conning tower, speaking with a member of the crew. From the spring to autumn of 1942 Oberleutnant Garms was a photo and film correspondent attached to the U-boat flotillas based on the Atlantic coast of France. There he took countless still photos and movies of submarines leaving and returning to port, which have appeared often in the post-war literature. Garms also went along on at least two operational U-boat sorties. His first operation was the eighth patrol by U-552 under Kapitänleutnant Erich Topp, during which the submarine operated off the American coast. It was on this patrol that Garms filmed the brightly-lit skyline of an American city. Footage shot during this operation, which lasted from 7 March until 27 April 1942, appear in "Der Deutsche Wochenschau" Nr.599, which was shown in theaters in Germany and occupied Europe. In August 1942 Garms boarded Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow's U-404 for his second patrol. Garms' father had established Nordmark-Film in Kiel in 1920 and had taught him the film trade from the ground up. For this assignment Garms came up with something special. A mount for his Askania Z camera was built to his specifications in the workshops in St. Nazaire and mounted on the port side of the U-404's conning tower. Tests showed that the camera was capable of functioning to depths of 60 meters in the pressure capsule. Garms wanted to film the submarine diving and carrying out underwater maneuvers, and he succeeded. The Askania Z was a sophisticated 35-mm camera which the Askania AG had been producing in Berlin since 1929. This type of camera was used, for example, to shoot the UFA film "Blauer Engel" (Blue Angel) with Marlene Dietrich in 1929-30. The weight of the camera without lens was 25 kilograms. Garms films are familiar with all U-boat enthusiasts, the newsreel images showing the conning tower of a U-boat nearing the surface, finally emerging and then plowing through the Atlantic. Other impressive footage shows waves breaking the conning tower in heavy seas.

Source :
"U-Boot Im Focus" magazine, edition nr.6 - 2010

German Battleships in the Operation Rösselsprung

This photo is apparently taken from the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and is showing the Tirpitz to the right and to the left of the Tirpitz a German destroyer can be seen. The photo is taken in Norway. The combination of the paint scheme used on the Tirpitz and that she is together with Admiral Hipper in Norway indicates that the photo is taken in 1942 and most likely during Operation "Rösselsprung" which took place 2-6 July 1942. Notice the yellow turret top on the main gun of Admiral Hipper. Rösselsprung was the largest operation of its type mounted by the Kriegsmarine during World War II, and arguably the most successful, resulting as it did in the near destruction of arctic convoy PQ-17. Ironically, this success was entirely indirect, as no Rösselsprung ship caught sight of the convoy, or fired a shot at it, all PQ 17s losses being due to U-boat and aircraft attacks. Also, a number of the Rösselsprung ships were damaged in the course of the operation, while only five aircraft were shot down, and no U-boats lost or damaged in the attack on PQ 17. Despite indirectly causing the catastrophic losses to PQ-17, the Rösselsprung operation was a disappointing performance by the German capital ships. Also, Tirpitz, Lutzow and the three destroyers spent a considerable time in dock for repairs. Following this, the Kriegsmarine were unable to mount such an extensive operation again in the Arctic campaign, and never saw a comparable naval success.

Source :
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/gallery/themes/gallthemetirincolour.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_R%C3%B6sselsprung_%281942%29