A Thrift Store Treasure
 

One thing I like is shopping at thrift stores, whenever I get the chance. You never know what tarnished treasures you might find at better than bargain bin prices!

I especially love combing through the books. I've found many old, out-of-print gems both in hardback and paperback.

Case in point:

I just purchased, for 99 cents, a 1973 reprint of "U-Boat 977" by Heinz Schaeffer, commander of the titular u-boat. It was originally published in 1952.

According to the jacket blurb and flyleaf teaser, it is a true account of Schaeffer's career, from his enlistment into Officer's Training to the four years spent in the Ubootwaffe during World War II. Instead of surrendering his u-boat immediately upon Donitz's last orders as WWII ended, he instead spent 66 days submerged, hunted by the Allies, as he made his way to Argentina to surrender there and live out his life. U-977 became infamous among conspiracy theorists as the "escape boat" that carried Adolf Hitler to exile in Argentina.

It certainly seems like it will be an interesting read but it also looks to be too short, at only 148 pages. I suppose you can't expect a "Das Boot" epic from someone who was more used to writing terse patrol logs.

What happened to that boat after it arrived in Argentina?

It was a good read,....... short, but good. Except for the opening foreword by some tosser.

The one thing that has always bothered me about that book is that Schaeffer starting on page 67 gives a blow-by-blow account of almost colliding with and sinking an American destroyer on Christmas Eve 1942. Yet I can find no record of any Allied destroyer sunk on that date. To make matters worse he doesn't state which U-Boat he was serving on at the time.

I agree, it's good. One of my favorites. Except the 'tosser' is none other than Nicholas Monsaratt, wartime corvette captain and author of The Cruel Sea. I also agree with your sentiment about him. His "They really were all bloodthirsty nazis" attitude is far different than the one he shows in his own books, which is the whole "comrades of the sea" and "they were only doing there jobs, just like we were" thing.

He may have just been in a bad mood that day.:roll:

Two german subs headed to Mar del Plata submarine base, 400 km south of Buenos Aires, the U-530 and the U-977.

Both were turned to the US Navy and they travelled to Boston in September 1945 (with a USN crew).

Finally, after further examinations, U-977 was sunk near Cape Cod, by a torpedo fired by USS Atule.

I have a photo about it.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7822/u977yc4.jpg

U-530 was sunk too.