U-boats in late war

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Richard_
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U-boats in late war

#1

Post by Richard_ » 10 Oct 2005, 13:25

Seen a documentary on National Geograpihc ( sorry not sure about the title but something like U-82 ) it was about a japansese U-boat that were supposed to sail al the way from Japan to the Atlantic for a speciall mission. That mission was to meet up with some german U-boats out on the Atlantic, the germans were supposed to give the japanese resourses for the creation of atomic weapons ( the japanese boat was sunk ). But this was in the last desperate days of the europe campaign,
did the germans really have such resourses in late war that they could send out U-boats to the Atlantic and if they did where were their U-boat bases and did they really have fuel crew etc for this.


Anyone else that seen this documentary, best regards Richard :)
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philipp0408
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#2

Post by philipp0408 » 10 Oct 2005, 14:29

There is a documentyry about "Hitlers last sub" and also a book from Marc Scalia which deals with this boat. It is U-234 under Kapitänleutnant Fehler. This boat should sail to Japan where it had to deliver Uran. The capitulation came earlier than the boat arrived in Japan and so U-234 surrendered to the Americans.

At the beginning of the mission there was caused some iritation under the crewmembers, because there were boxes under the baggage with a big U235 on it. The crew was irritated, because U235 was noit here and their boat wa U234. After surrender they were told, that U235 wasn a boat number, but the chemical sign for Uran. :D

There is also a german Film about this Boat "The last sub". But this one causes only more confusion. I can reccomend the book by Marc Scalia it was published not long ago.
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Richard_
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#3

Post by Richard_ » 10 Oct 2005, 15:06

Thanks yes i heard about that documentary but havent seen it yet, but i think that you are talking about another mission becuse this were supposed to happen in the Atlantic. Anyway if there were U-boats in the late war do you know where ther bases were?
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philipp0408
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#4

Post by philipp0408 » 11 Oct 2005, 02:02

There were U-Boats in the late war, they were active untill the last day of the war. Their bases were in Penang (Far East Asia)
and in Norway. The french pens were fallen in enemy hands with the exception of Lorient, which was still in german hand, even France was liberated.
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Richard_
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#5

Post by Richard_ » 11 Oct 2005, 10:16

Thanks :D
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lisset
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Scalia

#6

Post by lisset » 14 Oct 2005, 10:19

"Germany's Last Mission To japan" The Failed Voyage of U-234. J.M. Scalia (Naval Institute Press.)
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Richard_
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#7

Post by Richard_ » 14 Oct 2005, 18:55

Thanks for the info :D


Best regads Richard
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varjag
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Re: U-boats in late war

#8

Post by varjag » 15 Oct 2005, 03:38

Richard-89 wrote:Seen a documentary on National Geograpihc ( sorry not sure about the title but something like U-82 ) it was about a japansese U-boat that were supposed to sail al the way from Japan to the Atlantic for a speciall mission. That mission was to meet up with some german U-boats out on the Atlantic, the germans were supposed to give the japanese resourses for the creation of atomic weapons ( the japanese boat was sunk ). But this was in the last desperate days of the europe campaign,
did the germans really have such resourses in late war that they could send out U-boats to the Atlantic and if they did where were their U-boat bases and did they really have fuel crew etc for this.


Anyone else that seen this documentary, best regards Richard :)
Not seen - but as u are dealing with a Japanese submarine, the last one to attempt the journey to Europe - was the I-52, a large sub carrying a couple of hundred tons of valuable raw materials and TWO TONS of gold. She was heading for Lorient. On 23rd June, 1944 she met with the German U 530 - and the Germans eqipped I-52 with Naxos-radar, without which she couldn't make it to France under Allied air-superiority.. The following day, 24th - she was intercepted on the surface by aircraft from USS BOGUE and promptly sunk with all hands.
The wreck was discovered in 1995 and is still there - yes with that gold inside...
Varjag
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Richard_
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#9

Post by Richard_ » 15 Oct 2005, 11:59

Yes it defently was I-52 thanks, yeah she was carying gold but the gold were never found intstead they raised the japanese warflag as a honor to the crew who died :D


Thanks :D
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Takao
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#10

Post by Takao » 16 Oct 2005, 07:11

For an in-depth look at German U-boat operations in the Far East, you can check out uboat.net's
Monsun Boat Section here: http://uboat.net/ops/monsun.htm

For I-52's TROM goto combinedfleet.com's Japanese Submarine page here: http://www.combinedfleet.com/sensuikan.htm
I-52 is in the Type C3/C4 section. Also on this page are TROMs for German U-boats handed over to the Japanese. These boats were RO-500, RO-501, I-501, I-502, I-503, I-504, I-505,
and I-506.
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