U 851 (Hannes Weingärtner) - the "Bandit Boat"

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Peter
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U 851 (Hannes Weingärtner) - the "Bandit Boat"

#1

Post by Peter » 15 Oct 2004, 08:12

In the official US/British reports of interrogation of captured u-boat seamen I read that U 851 was short of a number of seamen for her final patrol and that several were released from the Naval Base Cells. The other crews referred to her as a Bandit Boat or convict boat.

Any ideas if its true or not.


As we know she disappeared without trace.

ohrdruf
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#2

Post by ohrdruf » 15 Oct 2004, 23:25

Iltis

Do you mean she is not accounted for?

The point of this question is to highlight a statement made by "Scarlett" in the "U-boats Unloading on the Argentine Coast" thread: he stated that there was "no (commissioned) U-boat which could have unloaded on the Argentine coast in July 1945 and then disappeared".

I am not suggesting, of course, that U 851 was one such boat, although as a D2 she might have been suited in that role. After she sailed from Kiel there was one signal from her reporting the weather a month later and subsequently nothing. And so she was written off. But it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that she was given secret instructions, possibly transmitted in the signal confirming receipt of her weather report.

(A case which comes to mind in this regard is U 530, which in March 1945 sailed with secret instructions to undertake an activity off the coast of the United States. So secret was the mission that she sent no signals and her purpose in those waters remains unclear although it can be guessed at. None of this would be even suspected were it not for the recently declassified second set of interrogation reports at the Argentine naval archive).

The moral about U 851 being, although it is probable she was lost to unknown causes, one should employ caution before preaching the maxim that all U-boats in commission are accounted for.


Peter
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Joined: 24 Nov 2002, 12:13
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#3

Post by Peter » 16 Oct 2004, 12:36

Hi Ohrdruf

there are quite a few u-boats which are "missing without trace" however it would be very odd to apply a "conspiracy theory" to their loss, the nature of submartine warfare is that a minor mistake by a member of the crew could result in the loss of a boat "without trace", even the operation of a toilet.

I recommend Axel Niestle's book which covers the topic very well and is based on many years of research coupled with the expertise of the U-boot Archiv and Bob Coppock (now retired) of the RN Historical Branch (Foreign Documents Section).

Gradually the causes of some of the losses are being discovered either when boats are found on the sea bed or closer analysis of all historical records (including some only now being found for the first time) makes the situations clearer.

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