German U-Boat

Find out first hand what life is like serving as a U-Boat crew onboard a German Type VIIC U-Boat.

This is precisely what we’re talking about. Gregory L. Owen, a historian and U-Boat expert has written the about the epic life story of Karl Baumann, a U-boat gunner onboard the U-953, a Type VIIC attack boat. This book captures the essence of the typical life story of a U-boat crew where many, including famed aces such as Gunther Prien had begun their careers as lowly cabin boys in the merchant marine. Caught in the turbulent years of 1920 to 1935, which also saw Hitler’s rise to power and the birth of the Third Reich, Karl Baumann enlists in the U-bootwaffe and was trained as a U-boat gunner. There he served under Oberleutnant zur See Karl-Heinz Marbach (later promoted to Kapitänleutnant and awarded the Knight's Cross) and sails to the Atlantic in the U-953. This book brilliantly captures the essence of U-boat life from the extremes of mind-numbing boredom to gripping U-boat combat in the icy North Atlantic. It’s the type of story we’ve been trying to tell on Uboataces.com, but Greg Owen has beaten us to it.

This book is a perfect complement to Herbert Werner's standout autobiography, Iron Coffins, which was published first in 1969 and is still in print. Werner took command of U-953 after Marbach traveled to Berlin to accept his Knight's Cross and could not return to his boat and crew in Brest because the Americans had taken the city under siege. Thus, Karl's story of the U-953 is a prelude to Werner's story in Iron Coffins.

In association with the author Gregory L. Owen, the team at Uboataces.com would like to feature “The Longest Patrol – A U-Boat Gunner’s War”. The book is fully footnoted and indexed with 50 photographs from archival and private collections. If you are a WW2 U-boat buff, then we would highly recommend this book.

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Available from Amazon.com Please click to follow link to Amazon.

Photographs Far left: Oberleutnant zur See Karl-Heinz Marbach, commander of U-953. Left: Nineteen year-old Karl Baumann, U-953 gunner, 1943 portrait.

What others are saying...

It is a remarkable account of Karl Baumann's life and a most worthy complement, from a German sub- mariner's point of view, to the long list of books written about the 1939-1945 war at sea. The author's thoroughness of the research is compelling in itself. His telling of the story is warm in regard to personal relationships, complete in the descriptions of the various stages of Karl's life and dramatic, realistic and stark...

- Peter Godwin Chance, Commander, Royal Canadian Navy (Retired) Lieutenant, Navigating Officer, HMCS Skeena, 1943-1944

The Longest Patrol - A U-Boat Gunner’s War

By Gregory L. Owen

Author's website : thelongestpatrol.com

Amazon link : The Longest Patrol on Amazon.com

Fourteen year-old Karl Baumann flees the Ruhr coal mines in 1938 to become a cabin boy on a North Sea fishing trawler. He joins Adolf Hitler’s Kriegsmarine at age seventeen and volunteers for the vaunted submarine service, his only opportunity to return to sea. Trained as a U-boat gunner, he sails into the Battle of the Atlantic aboard U-953, code-named Kater (Tomcat), and experiences the extremes of persistent boredom and abject terror characteristic of World War II submarine warfare. His war patrols take him to convoy lanes in the open Atlantic and along the North African coast, into the Bay of Biscay’s U-boat killing zone, and the nearly impenetrable English Channel to attack the Normandy invasion fleet.

Severely wounded, Karl Baumann is forced to remain hospitalized in the besieged French port of Brest after U-953 becomes one of the last U-boats to escape the surrounded city. Captured by American GIs, he is transported to the United States and confined in prisoner of war camps in rural Virginia—including Camp Lyndhurst in Augusta County—where he is not a model prisoner by American standards. He is compelled to provide manual labor for civilian employers, including Mennonite farmers, and his life is transformed by the farmers’ pacifist beliefs. He vows to return to Virginia someday to live as a free man, but first must endure captivity at the notorious Attichy prison camp in France and repatriation to his devastated and destitute homeland.

The Longest Patrol is Karl Baumann’s story, told in great detail within the context of the wartime events that surrounded him. Fully researched, an extensive group of primary source materials—including U-953’s daily war diary and interviews with Baumann, fellow U-boat crewmen, former combatants, and his American captors and benefactors—paint a vivid and enduring picture of the wartime exploits of one of the few survivors from the German submarine service. This story defies stereotypes and provides fresh insight into Germany’s fateful U-boat campaign as well as the U.S. Army’s unprecedented and successful prisoner of war program.

Gregory L. Owen is a lifelong resident of Rockingham County, Virginia, and a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg. The author is available for speaking engagements before civic organizations, historical societies and academic groups. Please call 540-294-2972 or 540-432-0252 for additional information or to schedule a speaking event. Mailing address: 3486 Nutmeg Court, Harrisonburg VA 22801 USA

Sample chapter...

Excerpt taken from pages 102 - 103 during the first hostile conflict. An Allied aircraft had caught U-953 on the surface and was about to make an attack run. It was a clear sunny weather on 21 October 1943, at 1340, in location BE6728...

"Baumann charged to the forward Flakvierling and took position of the Kanoneer while two ammunition loaders pulled four heavy magazines of 20mm rounds out of waterproof containers on the bridge. While Karl buckled the chinstrap on his steel helmet the loaders shoved the ammo magazines into the gun breeches and pulled back their cocking arms. Baumann hand cranked the four cannon barrels simultaneously onto the horizon toward the plane. The Flakvierling gunners on the aft Wintergarten and the 37mm crewmen just below them also tracked the aircraft in their crosshairs."

"The pilot then began to circle the U-flak far beyond the range of the German guns in an attempt to locate a soft spot where he could press an attack against the strangely-configured vessel. When next the aircraft lumbered across U-953's bow it suddenly angled hard to starboard and lined up for a headlong assault directly toward the U-boat. Marbach instantly ordered hard right rudder and the helmsman swung the boat perpendicular to the plane's line of attack. This time Baumann did not wait for the skipper's command to resume fire; he shoved his foot against the trigger pedal and all four 20mm cannon instantly unleashed a wall of fire. The aft gunners followed Karl's lead. The continual firing of the quadruple 20mm cannon mounted just above the heads of the 37mm crew shattered the men's eardrums; blood streaked down their necks even as they laid down a sustained barrage of Flak. After the 37mm fired about 50 rounds it overheated and would not automatically eject the spent shell casings from its breech; the gun crew had to pull the searing brass casings out by hand. The aircraft turned sharply away and out of range seconds after the barrage began, then circled the boat ominously three more times. During the thirteen minute confrontation the U-flak gunners had filled the sky with nearly one hundred 37mm shells and fifteen hundred 20mm rounds. The seaplane never fired a shot in return."

50 fully footnoted and indexed photographs...

Photographs published with author's permission. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

Far left: The Kriegsmarine ensign is hauled up the mast of the new U-boat while ObLt. Karl-Heinz Marbach salutes.
Left: The Flakvierling quadruple barrel 20mm anti-aircraft gun was a lethal weapon at close range. Allied pilots quickly learned to remain out of range of U-flak guns until multiple aircraft arrived to attack the boat in force.
Right: The U-bunker at La Pallice is shown under construction by Organization Todt in 1942.
Far Right: Elektriker Obermachinist Gotthilf Buck (left) and the Diesel Obermachinist celebrate U-953's return from a combat patrol.

More photographs available at author's site thelongestpatrol.com
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