2003
"Patrol" in North
Germany with Berlin
and Poland
This videotape begins at our
Four Star hotel in Hamburg. Sunday morning - early - we are at the famous
Fischmarkt on the shores of the Elbe River where souvenirs, food, candy - and
music, are there for the group. The camera takes us through a Russian TANGO
Class submarine here in Hamburg - a rare sight.
Our harbor tour boat, reserved for Sharkhunters only, takes us on a tour of the
Hamburg Harbor so we can all get acquainted. We pass Blohm & Voss,
where BISMARCK was built, as well as more than 200 U-Boats.
Up to Kiel, and we tour through U-995, the only Type VII-C left in
the world, and we are joined by our U-Boat friends; including Woldemar Triebel
(I.W.O. on U-978) and Ernst Göthling (crew of U-26).
We also spend time in the German Navy Memorial.
Naturally, we go to the German U-Boat Memorial where Sharkhunters has sent more
than $6,000 over the years. We had a memorial service for all who fell,
and were then invited into the HQ of the U-Boat Veterans Group of Kiel for
fellowship and stories.
We spent a memorable morning in the fantastic private museum of Peter Tamm -
unlike anything else in the world. We saw the collection of uniforms,
medals, swords - and more than 36,000 ship models!
As always, we placed flowers on the grave of Großadmiral Karl Dönitz and this
year, we were joined by Sharkhunters Member Otto von Bülow, holder of the Knights
Cross with Oak Leaf.
His son joins us - also a Kapitän zur See (a.D.) but from the
Bundsmarine. They were with us for a very long lunch with plenty of photos
and autographs. Captain von Bülow is a great guy, and remarkable spry for
his 92 years.
We tour Berlin! The castle of Friederich the Great, the Fortress of the
Four Princes, the place where Field Marshall Keitel signed the surrender of
Germany. We visit the Flak tower and we go down deep into the underground
of Berlin's WW II air raid bunkers. We see the actual Checkpoint Charlie,
a piece of the Berlin Wall, weapons, battle flags - and a piece of the spy
tunnel the US Army ran beneath the HQ of the Soviet forces!
The high point of this tape is going two stories DOWN into the command
bunker of Großadmiral Dönitz! The camera is running down there and we
see the diesel engine and electric generator, the water distillation plant with
the 6,000 liter storage tank, and the now barren offices. We also pass the
house in which the Großadmiral lived. This is a great tape!
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H-119