U 953

[The Duck]

Hi all, new to this site but looking for information about U 953.
My uncle was a crew member Hans Harder.
I would appreciate any information or pictures of Hans.
Thanks in advance.

[willi_klingel]

Hi Herr Ente,
I suppose that you have already checked out the uboat.net site. If not, you will find quite a lot of information on your uncle's boat. It was a Type VIIC and it survived the war having completed 10 patrols. There is lots of information about the Commanders of U 953 but I didn't see a listing of the crew. Sometimes the crew members are listed (U 608) for example on which the uncle of a close friend of mine perished in 1943. You will find someone in this forum who can help you. They are a great group.
Cheers
Willi K.

[willi_klingel]

Found the crew listing on ubootwaffe.net Your uncle is listed.
Willi.K

[The Duck]

Guten abend Willi,
thank you for your reply. Yes I have looked on quite a few and very informative they are. I was hoping for some personal recollections about my uncle. His name is on the crew list but no other information about him. He died a few years ago, he was a pow in Huyton near Liverpool, married my mothers sister, worked in the coal mines for a while then went to work at Ford Hailwood. He was a great man and a second father to me and my brothers after my own father died. I'm just trying to find out about his time in the Uboats.
Thanks again for your reply.
"Ente".

[willi_klingel]

About 6 months ago I was able to help an Australian woman get in touch with a nephew in Germany by using the German Telephone on line listings. I don't know if you are aware of any of your uncle' relatives in Germany. There are 3,778 listings for the name Harder, so you will have to refine your search if you choose to go this way. If you know the city where he hails from in Germany, that will probably help a lot. In the case of the Australian lady, she narrowed it down to 15 and then started making telephone calls and she was able to find a lot out about her family when she hit jackpot and found a long lost relative. (A nephew) The German site is dastelfonbuch.de You then type in the last name and the city or town to search in Good Luck
Willi K

[The Duck]

Hi Willi,
My aunt is still in contact with the remaining relatives of Hans. He was a native of Hamburg and I stayed with his parents there about 40 years ago. He has 4 daughters, 2 living in the Toronto area. It's his time with the Uboat and it's crew that I am mainly interested in but thank you for the information.
best wishes "Ente".

[Åkerberg]

U953

[The Duck]

Thank you very much for the picture. I can add this to my file. Any thing else form anyone else will be appreciated.
The Duck.

[The Duck]

]Hi all, still looking for information about U 953 and crew member, my uncle Hans Harder.
Be glad to hear from anyone.
Came across this article from an Australian news paper recently.

[JustinYT]

Hi not sure if you've seen this site but found it after reading your post, might be helpful has some cool pictures of the crew and such hope it helps http://www.thelongestpatrol.com/u-953.html

[The Duck]

Hi not sure if you've seen this site but found it after reading your post, might be helpful has some cool pictures of the crew and such hope it helps http://www.thelongestpatrol.com/u-953.html

Justin, thank you for the reply.
Yes I have seen the article and I've read the book, I've also read "Iron Coffins". Was a bit disappointed to read recently that there are several inaccuracies in Iron coffins, but it was a good read all the same.

I'm still looking for info about U 953 and my uncle, Hans Harder who was a crew member on the boat.

[JustinYT]

Yeah I read Iron Coffins also, yeah I've heard about the inaccuracies about as well but the majority of it still gives you that first hand feeling of being on a U-boat, the end of the book was so sad how he finds out about his parents dying in the bombing, your uncle was a special type to do a job like that. If you ever find a picture you think is of him though you could compare it to the crew picture on that web site, pretty sure the crews didnt change all that much, as it was the officers that changed ships as they moved up

[The Duck]

Yeah I read Iron Coffins also, yeah I've heard about the inaccuracies about as well but the majority of it still gives you that first hand feeling of being on a U-boat, the end of the book was so sad how he finds out about his parents dying in the bombing, your uncle was a special type to do a job like that. If you ever find a picture you think is of him though you could compare it to the crew picture on that web site, pretty sure the crews didnt change all that much, as it was the officers that changed ships as they moved up

Thanks for the reply Justin.
In the crew picture, my uncle is the man on the far right and slightly to the rear.
In same link, third picture down on the left, three men, one with a cat, one playing with the cat and I believe the third man to be my uncle.
Below is my effort at replicating U 953......

[JustinYT]

very nicely done model, I also noticed they must of changed mascots? As they had the picture of the cat and also it had a picture of a puppy named rin tin tin as another mascot

[Bruce7506]

Hello

The Cat :

U-953 - Peter la mascote au retour de mission à la Pallice.jpg (31.59 KiB) Viewed 2013 times

U-953 - Peter le chat mascote.jpg (11.66 KiB) Viewed 2013 times

U-953 - Emblème (3).jpg (12.49 KiB) Viewed 2013 times

Pascal