Hi all

FYI another notable Submarine Commander Otto Von Bulow passed away on 5 January 2006. He was aged 94 years.

Another U Boat warrior lost at the start of 2006.

Condolences to his family.

May he rest in peace.

Outline below is some information (credit to www.u-boat.net for this info)on his career:

For the first ten years of his naval career, Otto von Bülow served on the large warships Deutschland and Schleswig-Holstein, and in several navy anti-aircraft units. In April 1940 he joined the U-boat arm and seven months later took command of the school boat U-3 in the 21st Flotilla. After the usual Baubelehrung, in August 1941 Bülow commissioned U-404 at Danzig. In January 1942 the boat left Kiel on her first war patrol. In the course of the next five patrols Bülow sank 14 ships, including the British destroyer HMS Veteran (1,120 tons).

On April 23 1943 Bülow attacked an Allied escort carrier with two FAT and two G7e torpedoes. The four torpedoes were directed at the HMS Biter, but von Bülow thought he was attacking the USS Ranger.

Upon hearing four explosions (probably the torpedoes dead end course), he considered them as hits, and transmitted the BdU the message "Ranger possible"; the answer was to confirm it (whether in his opinion he had sunk the carrier). Von Bülow answered with a "sinking assumed". The importance of this was that he received the Oak Leaves to this presumed sinking.

It was announced in The German Press, and Hitler himself awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves to von Bülow when the commander of U-404 returned home. The Americans reacted blaming the German commander as a coward, but it is well known that he really believed he had sunk the carrier, and for the rest had an excellent service record witnessing his bravery.

Later, when the truth was available for the Germans, their records were changed, and the attack correctly reported as being against the Biter. Bülow left the boat after this patrol.

In September 1943, Korvkpt. Bülow founded the 23rd Flotilla in Danzig, where future U-boat commanders got their first training. When he commissioned U-2545 in the spring of 1945 he was one of the highly decorated U-boat commanders (including Schnee, Cremer, Emmermann, Witt and Topp), who took command of the new Electro U-boats (Type XXI and the smaller Type XXIII) in an attempt to turn the tide in the battle of the Atlantic.

In last weeks of war Bülow commanded the Marinesturmbataillon I (Naval Assault Battalion I).

After the war he spent three months in British captivity.

In July 1956 he joined the newly formed German navy (Bundesmarine). In 1960 at Charleston, South Carolina he commissioned the destroyer Z-6, the former US destroyer USS Charles Ausburne.

In March 1963 he became commander of the 3. Zerstörer- geschwader (3rd Destroyer Squadron).

Before he retired in 1970, he spent his last five years as Kapitän zur See and garrison chief of Hamburg.

Regards

Sean

He was sanking allied patrols Great, I already like the guy...
And its Gdańsk ,not Danzig.
Sorry for the rant

Thanks for sharing Sean

These last three weeks have been bad for WWII U-boot survivors

Skipper

Pedro are you being sarcastic when you say "He was sanking allied patrols Great, I already like the guy..."

I mean this sounds like you approve of killing Allied seaman, which really does go against the grain to me.

Not just u-boat survivors Rui. I've also read how a survivor of the Dam Busters raid, a former WWII SAS officer, a Polish survivor of both world wars, all died over the last few weeks. It's really a shame the way people who have seen so much of the history we like to model are leaving us now.

Hi Rodger

I assumed the comments were intended as sarcastic.

Yes the age of the survivors of that era are getting up there and its sad to see warriors of all sides leaving us. They are whilst here a valuable link to the past for modelling enthusiasts and historians alike.

Regards

Sean

Hi Rodger,

Yes it is a shame, but it's the natural way of things...
They have live their lives, preform their dutty and they also give a contibution for the after generations.

My Grandfather, who was in the First World War and never ever talked about it; One unkle, who was in our Colonial War (1961-1974) in Angola during 1969-73 and he never talks about it... and I got fortunate because I had the chance to see his photo album once... I have another cousin that was a gunner in our Navy patrol boats in Guinea 1967-1971 also never talks about it....This atitude only make a lot of history to disapear and be lost for ever - and I am not only talking with the modeling point of view - this is a shame...

I have to agree that our main modeling focus is getting seldom of survivors... but at least they lived this far.

Skipper

Pedro,

I will assume that this was a typo or a problem with a second language.
Political issues are not to be posted here, has you should know, even if the are more than 60 years old.

Skipper

If you have the chance spend time with a WWII veteran, relish every nano-second. Those who entered the war in 44-45 are now in their eighties.

Thanks Sean for letting us know.

I'm sorry guys for my above post.
Rodger, yes It was meant to be sarcastic. Killing Allied seaman is the thing that I do NOT approve of. I just thought that my sarcasm was clear enough, but I guess I was wrong then.
Again, sorry for being political, as I didn't meant to go political. Skipper and evryone else who read my rant, this will never happend again.
I hope this explains everything clearly.

Pedro

We are losing our WW2 veterans at an alarming rate. So many stories that have not been told.....
I had the great pleasure of meeting a co-worker's father in law, who was a veteran of the war in the Pacific. He had written his story for his family and I got to read it. He was a radio operator/machine gunner on Dauntless' and Helldiver's. He was in the Battle of the Phillippine Sea on the Yorktown. He was on the extreme range mission to bomb the Japanese fleet late in the day and ran out of fuel after finding the American fleet. Even though the landing lights were turned on many planes ran out of fuel and had to ditch. My friends father in law among them. The pilot had saved a bit of fuel in reserve to make a powered ditching. They were rescued by an American destroyer since they ditched in the middle of the fleet. I grilled him on the details of the flight and the ditching throwing in questions on the uniforms and tail number of the aircraft. The part that captured my imagination was the fact that he got out of the plane on the left as trained and the pilot got out on the right, not as trained but out of habit. In the dead of night they couldn't get to each other until after the plane sank and then only with a lot of swimming and yelling for each other. Both nearly drowned because of the habit of the pilot to get out on the right(wrong) side!
I secretly made a diorama of his ditched Helldiver using the Monogram SB2C-4 backdating it to an SB2C-1C. I presented it to him while my friend and his family were visiting me for other reasons. Only my friend and his wife were aware of what the real plan was. Well, needless to say it was an emotional time and I feel like I have been adopted (very nice since I am divorced).
Anyway, it is a shame so many stories are not being told. And it is a priviledge to honor one of those stories and the veteran who lived it. I only have one photo of it to post and it was taken before it was 100% complete. I still needed to spray a gloss coat to simulate wet wings, etc.

Edit: I don't know why, but my post only shows the dreaded red "x". What's a modeler to do?

Just an experiment to see if I could get the photo to work.

EDIT: Nope, still the red x....I give up. Just not computer literate enought I guess.