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Some other related items available from this site. | ||||
  U-201 Deadly Chase by Anthony Saunders. |   U-552 by Ivan Berryman. |   Operation Drumbeat by Anthony Saunders. | U-201 Deadly Chase by Anthony Saunders. | |
| Signatures on these products | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature and is for the unmatted version where available. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
  Otto Kretschmer (deceased) Died : 1998 *Signature Value : £80 Editions signed : Presentation Edition of 5 artist proofs. Knights Cross Presentation Edition of 3 publishers proofs. | Kretschmer, Otto (Otto Kretschmer (deceased)) Otto Kretschmer was born in May 1912, joining the navy in 1930, and transferring to u-boats in 1936. He was the Watch Officer aboard U-35 from 3rd November 1936 to 30th July 1937. He briefly took command of U-35 after the death of the Captain, Hermann Michahelles, assuming command until 15th August 1937, after which he was Watch Officer once again until 30th September 1937. During this time, U-35 was involved in the Spanish Civil WarHe was in command of U-23 at the outbreak of war in 1939, and had successful patrols with U-23 which included the sinking of HMS Daring, before taking command of U-99 in April 1940. In March 1941, Kretschmer was captured after scuttling U-99 due to damage suffered from depth charges from British destroyer HMS Walker. After his capture, Kretschmer was imprisoned until December 1947. Despite his capture early in the war, Kretschmers total tonnage sunk of over 273 thousand tons was enough to make him the top scoring u-boat Ace of the war. Kretschmer was awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Otto Kretschmer died 5th August 1998. |
  Georg-Wilhlem Schulz (deceased) Died : 1986 *Signature Value : £80 Editions signed : Presentation Edition of 5 artist proofs. | Schulz, Georg-Wilhelm (Georg-Wilhlem Schulz (deceased)) Georg-Wilhelm Schulz was born in 1906, and joined the German Navy in 1933, transferring to u-boats in 1935. In January 1939, he took command of U-10, then U-64 in December of the same year, going on the u-boats first patrol in April 1940. Soon into the patrol, the u-boat was attacked and sunk by a Swordfish aircraft from HMS Warspite, with Schulz among the 38 survivors. Some months later he took command of U-124, undertaking several successful patrols before handing over command in September 1941, after which he took on a succession of training and staff positions. He was awarded the Knights Cross in April 1941. Georg-Wilhelm Schulz died 5th July 1986. |
  Kurt Baberg (deceased) Died : 2003 *Signature Value : £65 Editions signed : Presentation Edition of 5 artist proofs. | Baberg, Kurt (Kurt Baberg (deceased)) Born 23rd February 1917, Kurt Baberg entered the Kriegsmarine in 1936. Under the command of Kurt Baberg, U-618 left Kiel on the 1st of September 1942, sinking two convoy ships on his first patrol before returning to port at St Nazaire at the end of October. In April and May of 1943, U-618 came under aerial attack twice, escaping damage on both occasions. In November 1943 and July 1944 the crew of U-618 destroyed two British bombers that had attacked the u-boat, while in December of 1943 U-618 saved 21 survivors from German destroyer Z-27. On his fourth patrol he damaged one ship and sunk another, the Empire Kohinoor. On the 14th January 1944 Kurt Baberg was awarded the Knights Cross. He had sailed on 6 patrols, spending 380 days at sea. On the 26th April 1945 he became Captain of U-827 until 5th May 1945, but did not do any war patrols. Baberg became a prisoner of war, being released in December 1945. He died on 31st March 2003. |
 Thilo Bode (deceased) Died : 2014 *Signature Value : £70 Editions signed : Presentation Edition of 5 artist proofs. | Bode, Thilo (Thilo Bode (deceased)) Thilo Bode was a rather young U-boat commander in the sense that the first of his two patrols started on 1st May 1944 until 30th September 1944 and the second was from 1st October 1944 to 8th May 1945. His boat served as a weather boat for about three months in the northern part of the North Atlantic where his only job was to report three times each day the weather encountered in his area because they had no weather stations in the area. While a boring job, this was the only way the German High Command could get first hand information about the weather in the area. Since some 90% of the weather in Northwestern Europe originates in that area, this information was extremely important to both the U-boat and Luftwaffe commands. Bode never sighted a single Allied vessel. His second patrol was in the North American waters. The High Command assigned him to that area with the idea that surveillance had been considerably relaxed after the German submarine war had practically come to an end due to the defeat of the German submarine arm. Again, he had no contact with any Allied vessels until he was ordered to surrender. He surrendered U-858 to the USS Pilsbury on 14th May 1945. Crew of the American ship boarded the U-858 and she was taken to be docked near Ft Miles, Delaware, where the crew were held prisoner. Later she was taken to the Philadelphia Naval Yard and was scuttled near the end of 1947 after being used for torpedo trials off the coast of New England. The crew of U-858 suffered no losses from accidents, combat or other causes. His boat was laid down by A G Weser shipyards in Bremen on 11th December 1942, commissioned on 30th September 1943 and was one of 87 of the IXC/40 type boats commissioned. The U-858 carried 22 torpedoes and had 6 tubes – 4 in the bow and 2 in the stern. It carried a crew of between 48 and 56 men and had a top speed of 19 knots on the surface and 7 knots submerged. She could submerge to a maximum of 755 feet. Maximum range was 13,850 miles. Thilo Bode was awarded the Spanish Cross in Bronze on 6th June 1939, the Iron Cross, 2nd Class in 1940, the Destroyer War Badge in 1941, the U=Boat War Badge in Silver in 1943, and the Iron Cross, 1st Class, also in 1943. Thilo Bode died 3rd January 2014 at the age of 95. |
  Carl Emmermann (deceased) Died : 1990 *Signature Value : £70 Editions signed : Presentation Edition of 5 artist proofs. | Emmermann, Carl (Carl Emmermann (deceased)) Carl Emmermann was born 6th March 1915, and joined the Kriegsmarine in 1934, transferring to u-boats in November 1940 with U-A On his first patrol, he damaged the British steamer 'Empire Attendant'. Emmermann then commanded U-172 from November 1941, completing five patrols, with the notable success of sinking the British 23,500 ton troopship Orcades. On his fifth patrol, he brough back half the crew of U-604 which had been badly damaged and subsequently scuttled. After these five patrols with U-172, he took up training and staff positions, befre returning to command U-3037 for one month in March 1945. In total, he sank 26 ships - a total of over 150,00 tons. He was awarded the Knights Cross with Oakleaves, and was the 13th highest ranking U-boat Commander. Carl Emmermann died 25th March 1990. |
  Klaus Scholtz (deceased) Died : 1987 *Signature Value : £70 Editions signed : Presentation Edition of 5 artist proofs. | Scholtz, Klaus (Klaus Scholtz (deceased)) Klaus Scholtz commanded U-108 during World War Two, sinking a total tonnage of 111,546 tons. He was awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, and was the Kriegsmarines 18th ranked u-boat Ace. Klaus Scholtz joined the German Navy in 1927 and before the outbreak of world war two, spent his first naval years on the german Torpedo Boats G-8, G-11 and Jaguar. He joined the U-boat arm of the Kriegsmarine in April 1940 and joined the new Type IXB U-Boat U-108 sailing on their first patrol in February 1941 where U-108 sank 2 ships. in April 1941 on their second patrol in the Straits of Denmark, U-108 sank the AMC Rajputana, the British Armed Merchant Cruiser. Klaus Scholtz commanded U-108 on three more Atalantic patrols, and in January 1942 Scholtz took U-108 to join the U-baot attacks on Allied shipping of the Coast of the US sinking five more ships. He had a further two more patrols until October 1942 when Klaus Scholtz became the commander of the 12th Flotilla based at Bordeaux. The 12th Flotilla was equipped with long range U-Boats which operated in the South Atalntic and also the Indian Ocean. Scholtz commanded this flotilla until August 1944. he was captured by the Americans and spent 18 mpnths as a prisoner of war. Klaus Scholtz died 1st May 1987 |
 Erich Topp (deceased) Died : 2005 *Signature Value : £105 Editions signed : Knights Cross Presentation Edition of 3 publishers proofs. | Topp, Erich (Erich Topp (deceased)) Born 2nd July 1914 - Died 26th December 2005. Born in Hannover, Topp joined the Kriegsmarine in 1934, serving on the cruiser Karlsruhe, before transferring to U-Boats in 1937. He was assigned to U-46 for a number of combat tours before taking command of U57 in June 1940, sinking six ships over two missions before being sunk in a collision on the 3rd of September the same year. Surviving this, Topp then commanded U-552 from December that year, sinking 30 ships, predominantly in the North Atlantic, including the first American ship of the war to be sunk, the destroyer 'Reuben James'. From October 1942 he commanded the 27th submarine flottilla. He also took command of two further U-Boats, these being U-3010 for about a month in 1945, and subsequently U-2513 from April 1945 until surrendering this vessel on May 8th. His highest award was the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. The 3rd highest scoring U-boat Commander, Topp sank a total of 36 ships totalling almost 200,000 tons |
  Karl-Friedrich Merten (deceased) Died : 1993 *Signature Value : £80 Editions signed : Knights Cross Presentation Edition of 3 publishers proofs. | Merten, Karl-Friedrich (Karl-Friedrich Merten (deceased)) Karl-Friedrich Merten was born in 1905, joining the navy in 1928. After a ten year stint on warships and serving on the WW1 battleship Schleswig-Holstein during the attack on the Polish Westerplatte in Septmeber 1939, Merten joined the U-boat arm on 1st May 1940. He operated all over the world, patrolling in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Indian Oceans. U-68 was in the U-boat wolfpack Eisbar (Polar Bear) which in the course of a few weeks during September - October 1942 sank more than 100,000 tons of shipping off South Africa. In January 1943 Merten became the commander of the 26th U-boat Flotilla in Pillau. There the new U-boat crews received their final training before going to the front. In March 1943 Merten moved to the 24th U-Boat Flotilla in Memel where he also was the flotilla commander. This was the training flotilla for future Commanders. After Merten gave up command of U-68, the boat had 4 commanders during the next 15 months. On April 10th 1944 U-68 was sunk off Madeira, Portugal by aircraft from the carrier USS Guadalcanal. A lookout survived. The remaining 56 crew members went down with the boat. After the war Merten salvaged sunken ships in the Rhine river along with another famous former U-boat commander, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock. Later he wroked in the shipbuilding industry. In his time commanding U-68 he sank 27 ships - over 170 thousand tons of shipping, making him the 7th most successful u-boat Ace. He was awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves. Karl-Friedrich Merten died 2nd May 1993. |
  Peter Cremer (deceased) Died : 1992 *Signature Value : £60 Editions signed : Knights Cross Presentation Edition of 3 publishers proofs. | Cremer, Peter (Peter Cremer (deceased)) Peter Cremer joined the German Navy in 1932, joining the surface warships Koln, Deutschland and Theodor Riedel before joining the u-boats in 1940, commissioning U-152 in January the next year before taking command of U-333 some months later. He sank three enemy ships on his first patrol, and although absolved of blame later, he also sank the German ship Spreewald on this tour. On his second tour, Cremer sank four ships before bringing U-333 back home damaged, a result of being rammed. U-333 was in battle with British corvette HMS Crocus on Cremers third patrol, with the British vessel suffering damage, while 7 crew of U-333 were killed by gunfire from the corvette, Cremer himself being seriously wounded in the incident. Once again U-333 returned to base with heavy damage. After a brief spell on the staff of Donitz, Cremer embarked on another patrol with U-333, again returning with damage from a depth-charge attack. U-333 was lost on the next patrol, but Cremer had by then left the boat. Towards the end of the war, Cremer commanded U-2519. He was captured and spent a short time in captivity before his release. He was awarded the Knights Cross in June 1942, with a total of 6 ships sunk - almost 27,000 tons. Peter Cremer died 5th July 1992. |
  Reinhard Hardegen *Signature Value : £65 Editions signed : Knights Cross Presentation Edition of 3 publishers proofs. | Hardegen, Reinhard (Reinhard Hardegen) Reinhard Hardegen was born 18th March 1913, and joined the German navy in 1933. Prior to the outbreak of war, he underwent training as an aircraft observer and pilot with the Marineflieger, before a crash hospitalised him for several months, and he subsequently joined the u-boat fleet. After some time on U-124, he became commander of U-147 in December 1940, before taking over U-123 in May 1941, with several successful patrols. In December 1941, U-123 was part of Operation Drumbeat, a mission to the east coast of the United States on which U-123 sank several more ships, and after which Hardegen was awarded the Knights Cross. After another successful Drumbeat patrol, Hardegen was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knights Cross, before leaving U-123 in July 1942 to take up a series of training and staff posts. |
 Hans-Gunther Lange (deceased) Died : 2014 *Signature Value : £70 Editions signed : Knights Cross Presentation Edition of 3 publishers proofs. | Lange, Hans-Gunther (Hans-Gunther Lange (deceased)) Hans-Gunther Lange was born 28th September 1916. He joined the navy in 1937, gaining experience as an officer aboard the torpedo boat 'Jaguar' before transferring to u-boats in 1941 with U-431. In September1942 he commissioned U-711, commanding a total of eleven patrols, all of which were in Arctic waters, which included an unsuccessful attack on HMS Royal Sovereign - on loan to Russia as Archangelsk. In May 1945, Lange survived the sinking of U-711 spending the next three months in captivity. He had been awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves on 29th April 1945, one month prior to being captured. He had sunk 4 ships with a total tonnage of over 15,000 tons. In October 1957 Lange joined the Bundesmarine. Here he took part in the construction of a new German U-boat weapon. For two years he commanded the 1 Uboatgeschwader and in January 1964 became commander of the entire U-boat force. Later he held several staff positions, ending his second naval career in 1972 as staff officer in the Marinedivision der Nordsee. In a branch of the German navy whose survival rate was calculated in days, Lange survived for over four years. He died on 3rd April 2014. |
| Ships Related to This Print |
| HMS Fame (1934) |
| U201 |
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