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Karl-Friedrich Merten
| 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. |
Items Signed by Karl-Friedrich Merten (deceased) |
| Das Boote by Anthony Saunders. (APB) Price : £300.00 | Lother Gunther Buchheim based his famous novel The Boat on his voyage aboard U96 in the early days of World War Two. During this operation on 13th February 1941, U96 sank the straggling tanker, Arthur F Conwin, which had dropped back from the westbo...... |
Packs with at least one item featuring the signature of Karl-Friedrich Merten (deceased) |
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