Hinrik

Rick, Yes, but only a few times. Some lighthouses where shoot with cannon fire, and I think I know of atleast 3 ocasions where they actually dropped bombs. They managed to sink the coal steamer "El Grillo" which had been place in the east fjords as a supply ship. One 12 year old Icelandic boy lost his leg from a bomb that landed far off target. I have some 20mm rounds that came from the Rl Grillo wreck. The Luftwaffe planes flying Recon over Iceland, were mostly Fw-200, Ju-88 and Heinkel He-111. The twin engine Ju-88?s and He-111 had to have extra fuel to make the trip. The Ju-88 had one of its 2 bomb bays fitted with a drop fuel tank, and I have heard that it was so bad on the He-111, that they had to carry 55 gal fuel drums inside the fuselage, and crew had to swap between them. Here is a photo of the Iron Cross 1st class and Flare gun, from He-111 serial number 03900, which was the first German aircraft the crashed in Iceland, 22 may 1941. The EK1 is from the pilot, Durrfeld. It was found at the crash site. I have heard that the 4 engine Fw-200 would have range to make it to the coast of USA, but without bomb load and back to Norway, were all of the "Iceland Recon" planes were based. I have parts / items from 5 out of 7 German aircrafts shoot down in over Iceland in the war. This will possibly soon change to 7-7 Regards Hinrik

Rick, There were some German spies in the country, before and during the war. At least 3 U-boat?s dropped of spies, 4 of the men being Icelandic! 2 of them are still alive and I am in contact with them. Also there were many Germans in the country when the British invaded us (always called a friendly take over) 10th may 1940. The British Army rounded up all the Germans in the country and arrested them. I have a 9mm Radom pistol that comes from a German family that lived in a small fishing villige. They were in the NSDAP party. The Pistol is 1940 model, with German Waffenampt markings. They were also arrested. I doubt very much they could obtain a waffenamt marked gun in 1940, with out any connection to the German warmachine, so this gun is always called the "Spy pistol" by me and my friends. Here is a photo of it with the original holster and extra magazine. I am working with one of the Icelandic U-boat spies from U-252, that turned himself to the Britst and was made a Double agent. He was involved in many historic events like the sinking of convoy PQ-17 and enticing of Battelship Scharnhorst out of Norway, so it could be sunk. He burried his pistol where he landed, in a remote penisula in 1942. He is now making me a map were the gun is burried! He burried it in the leather holster, wrapped in oil cloth and a shirt. I need to go there next spring with a metal detector, tent and GPS My friend thinks that this manual is made up from aerial recon photos, and we will compere them to the photos, which are partially available back home. Thanks for nice comments Hinrik

Hi Richard, I am calling a U-boat Vet tomorrow. I will ask him. Regards Hinrik

Information about Reykjavik and more towns, useful for an invasion!

About 2/3 of the books are maps like this one, but many of them are much bigger, including one of the whole country.

Photo 2

Guys, I am glad to say Christmas came early for me this year with a great gift from a great fellow U-boat collector. This is a very detailed Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine intelligence manual, "Geheim" and "Berlin 1943" marked, covering just about every major harbor, bay, towns and airfields on Iceland. The German war machine knew so much about the country and the military encampment there, that me and my friends are amazed. Does any one else have a similar manual? If you have one marked "Ireland" please let me know!

Thanks for the info Gordon. This clock came directly from Commander Prellberg?s daughter along with some other things. This clock is all I got from the estate. Regards Hinrik

John, Iceland has no Navy, only Coast Guard, which has small patrol ships and helicopters. There is no military force in the country, but of course the population is just about 300.000. We do have a small NATO peacekeeping force in Afganistan. Regards Hinrik

Micheal, Are all the others in private collections? Regards Hinrik

James and others, This is not so correct. Here are some facts about the 3 "Cod wars" between Iceland and the UK: 1) 1958 Iceland moves it territorial waters line, from 4 miles out to 12 miles. A lot of foreign ships were coming up to the shore line and over fishing the waters, with big trawlers. 2) 1972-73 Iceland moves its territorial waters boundary to 50 miles. This was done to prevent the fishing stocks from being depleted, due to over fishing by big UK trawlers. Conflict ended with a fishing agreements between the 2 countries. 3) Nov 1975 - June 1976 Iceland moves the territorial line to 200 milies in accordance with other nations doing same regarding natural resorces. This was the biggest one, bringing the countries close to war. Icelandic Coast guard ships used a locally invented contraption to cut the cables of Foreign ships fishing nets, with some measure of safety to both ships. A number of Royal Navy ships enterd the area and start chasing and ramming the much smaller Icelandic ships. Some shots were fired. I think that the behaviour of the Royal Navy Commaders was bad, and its just luck that nobody got killed when they were ramming the ships. In one case, a UK fishing ship was leaving the 200 mile zone, but was ordered my a Naval Captain to return back into the zone and fish there. Iceland cut the diplomatic ties with UK, and threatened to close down the Nato base in Keflavik, bringing the Americans in on the Diplomatic descussion. One of our current Coast Guard Captains, is a friend of mine and was a Shipsmate on one of the Icelandic ships. I see from reading about this on English speaking websites that some of the writing there has error?s and seams a bit bias toward the British point of view. Iceland was and still is very dependable on the fishing industry, and we can see today that this was a right move towards protecting the fish stocks, when we look at what has happened to the fishing industry in the Sheatlands islands for an example. Regards Hinrik Steinsson

Micheal, Thanks for the photos and info. So this lamp was used as a signaling device? Your collection is great, thanks for sharing. I have been told that the Tachretter was used after the war. Do you think this one is post war? Regards Hinrik

Hi guys, Can some of you post wartime photos that show what type of clocks were mounted inside the subs? I am very interested in see the clock in the radio room. I think it is suposed to look like this on? This one came from the estate of Wilfried Prellberg, Commander of U-19 and U-31. Regards Hinrik Steinsson

Here is one in a museum in the USA: http://www.museumofworldwarii.com/TourText...manMilitary.htm They have some nice U-boat items. Regards Hinrik

Very nice one Micheal, here is mine. Unfortunatelly no box.

Just acuired this one also, from a Dr. working on a U-boat. Nice "U" stamp and uniform photo. Well...that is about it, but I guess I am off to a good start, considering on 2-3 months of collection U-boat stuff. This will be in our future museum in Iceland. Looking forward to see your replies. Hinrik Steinsson Reykjavik Iceland

Soldbuch from man that served on Cruiser Koln and then went to U-719. KIA on that boat.

Soldbuch from member of U-386. I saw on an earlier post the Gordon also has one from the same boat. Wonder if they were both killed in action, while serving on U-386.

"O. K. H" dataplate. I spoke to Paul Darcy, U-boat collector in Ireland, and he said that his lamp is also with this marking. Can anyone explain why the Heer would have a searchlamp marked for "marine"?

Manufactures Dataplate

Cased Search light. This is marked "Oberkommando der Heers" but still some people seam to think this was used in U-boats. Does anyone here have photos that shows this in use?

U-48 + emblem

Photo that came with it. Is it Herbert Schultze?

I got this Silver cup on Ebay. Seller also had a photo album from U-48, but I missed out on that. The photo shown came with it. Do you guys know the men in the photo? Is is Herbert Schultze? The cup is nicely engraved with the 7th Flottila emblem, orignally designed for Gunther Prien if I am not mistaken. Still waiting for it in the mail. It has "54.700 to" engraved on it. I was wondering if this could of been made in honor of Herbert Schultze?s second patrol, but with a slightly over estemated tonnage sunk? Actual tonnage after second partol was: 51.930. What do you guys think? Hinrik

NCO Gray lether jacket and pants.