
Photographs Signed by famous Commanders Otto
Kretschmer and Erich Topp


U-Boat collection.U-boat is the anglicization of the German word U-Boot (help·info), itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot (undersea boat). The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both world wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and the United States to Europe. The distinction between U-boat and submarine is common in English-language usage (where "U-Boat" is used to refer exclusively to the German naval submarines of the First and Second World Wars) but unknown in German, in which the term U-Boot refers to any submarine.What follows is a collection of the autographs of two of the most famous German U-Boat commanders Kretschmer and Topp.

Otto Kretschmer (May 1, 1912 - August 5, 1998) was a German U-Boat commander of the Second World War, and was the most successful Ace of the Deep. From September 1939 until being captured in March 1941, he sank 47 ships for a total of 274,333 tons. For this he received the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, among other commendations. He earned the nickname "Silent Otto" both for his successful use of the "silent running" capability of the U-Boats as well as for his reluctance to make Nazi propaganda broadcasts.His most successful patrol occurred in November-December 1940. During that patrol, Kretschmer and U-99 sank three British armed merchant cruisers, HMS Laurentic (18,724 tons), HMS Patroclus (11,314 tons) and HMS Forfar (16,402 tons). Laurentic and Patroclus were sunk on the night of 3-4 November after they responded to distress calls from the 5,376 ton British freighter Casanare, which U-99 had mortally wounded about 250 miles west of Ireland. Forfar was sunk a month later on 2 December while steaming to join up with and escort outbound convoy OB-251. Put together, the three AMCs totalled over 46,000 gross tons. These three successes earned Kretschmer the number-one spot on the Aces list, and was never surpassed. Klaus Bargsten served aboard U-99 under Kretschmer, before being promoted to captain himself and becoming the sole survivor of U-521 on June 2, 1942.On his last patrol in March 1941, he sank 10 more ships, but these were to be Kretschmer's last victims. During a counterattack by British escorts, U-99 was disabled by depth charges dropped from the British destroyer HMS Walker. On March 17, Kretschmer surfaced and scuttled his boat. Three of his men were lost, but Kretschmer and the remainder of U-99's crew were captured by the British. Even though Kretschmer only served three years out of seven in WWII, he would never be surpassed in terms of tonnage sunk. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class, the U-boat War Badge, the Iron Cross 1st Class, the Knight's Cross, the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, and the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.He spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp in Canada.He died in an accident while celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary.

Erich Topp (1914 - 2005). Topp was the 3rd most successful German U-Boot (submarine) commander of World War II. He joined the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) in 1934, serving his first stint after being commissioned as Leutnant zur See (Ensign) on the light cruiser Karlsruhe in 1937, before transferring to the U-Bootwaffe (submarine fleet) in the same year.He was given his first command – U-57 – on 5 June 1940, leading her on two missions during which the boat managed to sink six ships. She was sunk after a collision with a Norwegian vessel on 3 September 1940.
Topp survived to take command of U-552, with which he mainly operated against convoys in the North Atlantic, sinking 30 ships and crippling several others on ten patrols. One of his victims during this period was the destroyer USS Reuben James, the first US warship to be sunk in WWII on 31 October 1941.

This offering is 2, 8 in.x 10 in, photographs of Otto Kretschmer and Erich Topp (as shown) and each photograph is signed by each man with a black fountain pen signature. Both Kretschmer and Topp have designated on the photos the # of the U-boat they were last commanding in WW II.

Price:$475.00

Note: A photograph of the destroyer USS Reuben James will be included in the lot for use in framing.

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