Kriegsmarine Gift from a Kriegsmarine Vet.

[Sauce]

One of my clients gave me this a while back, hes a very handy wood carver, and he made me this hand carved copy of the "Zerst?rer 15 Erich Steinbrinck", He served on this ship for the later part of the war,

Let me tell you how nice it is to get a phonecall at 9.00am with a hard german voice saying "Dan I have A Destroyer for you"

We chatted for a bit, but he had to leave at ten, anyhow heres a pic of the model, and some photos he gave me.

Enjoy!

Everything is hand carved from the hull, to the guns and the life rafts, he is very good, and has many other carvings throughout the house, His wind chime is a Stuka, with full markings that spins in the wind

He told me in school, he had a card that showed he was enlisted to go to the Officers training acadamy, The SS used to show up at school and get all the boys to join, he used to have to show this card, becuase when he said no he didnt want to join they would get mad, and say WHAT is wrong with the SS, you have to join!!!!!

But after showing the card, he would be ok.

He had many funny storys ill have to get taped and in writeing, He said at the end of the war they surrenderd to the English, and everyone but the Technical crew was sent to a pow camp, the Tech crew stayed behind to help the english sail it to England, but that night they all got drunk together and the germans started to throw the english overboard, afterthat they were all rounded up and detained, And the russians came in and took the boat.

Zerst?rer 15 Erich Steinbrinck

Does anyone know of a website, where I could research the history of this ship, and crew.

Thanks so much, Id like to put a little book together for him on his vessel.

Thanks

Dan

[Sauce]

The boat and the crew

[Sauce]

Training, and himself as a young man

Hope everyone enjoys.

[Stogieman]

Wow. Nice story and what a great treasure. A talented man, your German friend is!

[Guest Rick Research]

Beautifully done, and I hope signed and dated for the future!

Captain there in the photo was

Werner R?ver

born 27 February 1905, Navy in "Crew 1924"

F?hnrich zur See 1.4.26

Leutnant zS (1928)

Oberleutnant zS 1.7.30 #35 (2nd Torpedo Half Flotilla 1931)

Kapit?nleutnant zS 1.7.35 #2

Torpedo Officer aboard the "Admiral Scheer" in 1936 and

1st Officer onboard Leading Vessel of Commander of Torpedo Boats 1937

Korvettenkapit?n zS 1.8.39 (I don't have the seniority number)

Fregattenkapit?n zur See 1 June 1943 #7

After the war he remained on active duty with the Bundesmarine as a

Kapit?n zur See by 1960 and at least through 1963, retiring sometime after that in that rank.

He was living in Bad Zwischenahn, alive 1985 but leaving his widow Hiltrud by 1991.

[John R]

Dan,

Very nice model. What are the dimensions of this model? If you are going to make a small book on this destroyer, I would make high resolution copies of the photos if they are not yours as a start. The technical information on German destroyers is available from many sources as is their history.

Once you have the photos copied, I would ask your friend to sign the photos and date them plus develop a narrative description of what the photo is representing, ie, time, place and what was going on when the photo was taken.

I have found that the German vets I have talked with in Germany have very clear memories of who are in the various photos that they might still have. Therefore, try to identify all the members of the crew in the photos while you are at it. It is surprising how the names from so long ago are clear, but try to remember the name from yesterday!!! Trick of the mind as we get older.

I would also ask him to engrave his name in the base support stand of the model and date it with his KM WWII rank and also dates of service in the ship. So, it would be first line his name, second his rank, third dates of service.

You have an excellent start, might as well do it all.

John

Edited May 13, 2006 by John Robinson