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Signatures on this item | |
*The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
Name | Info |
Maschinenobergefreiter Otto Peters (deceased) *Signature Value : £50 | Born 8th May 1919, Otto Peters joined the Kriegsmarine in April 1939. Posted to Bismarck, he was one of the first to join the crew at the Blohm and Voss shipyard in his hometown of Hamburg. As a leading stoker, Otto was on fire-watch when he heard over the tannoy that the Royal Navy had 'undertaken all necessary efforts to sink the Bismarck', and recalls that he knew at once their days were numbered. Otto was picked up after the sinking by the Cruiser HMS Dorsetshire, there were just 115 survivors from the crew of over 2000. Otto Peters died in December 2013. |
Matrosengefreiter Willi Treinies (deceased) *Signature Value : £55 | Born 9th February 1922, Willi was called up into the Kriegsmarine in 1940. After the training he was posted to join his first, and only ship, the Bismarck, where he served in the ship's 15 cm artillery and ammunition magazine, until she was sunk on 27th May 1941. One of a tiny handful of men from the magazines to survive to survive, Willi spent the remainder of the war as a POW. |
Unteroffizier Heinrich Kuhnt (deceased) *Signature Value : £45 | Born 22nd April 1917, Heinrich joined the cruiser Karlsruhe in July 1937, and served on her until she was put out of action by the submarine HMS Truant in Kristians and Fjord. He was immediately sent to join the Bismarck, serving as a Petty Officer in the turbine room, and with Otto Peters he was picked up by the cruiser HMS Dorsetshire. He remained in captivity until the end of the war. Heinrich Kuhnt was at his battle station, the Portside Turbine Compartment, during Bismarck's final fight on 27th May 1941. Kuhnt participated in the planting of scuttling charges on the cooling water intakes before abandoning the Bismarck. Kuhnt was one one of the 25 sailors rescued by the destroyer, HMS Maori. He was imprisoned in England for almost a year then sent to Canada. He remained there until the end of the war. After the war Heinrich Kuhnt started working for the Max Mueller Company until retiring in 1980. Heinrich Kuhnt sadly died on the 11th of July 2010 in Hannover at the age of 93 years. |
The Aircraft : | |
Name | Info |
Ar196 | With the loss of the German surface fleet, the A-1s were added to coastal squadrons and continued to fly reconnaissance missions and submarine hunts into late 1944. Two notable operations were the capture of HMS Seal, and the repeated interception of RAF Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley bombers. Although it was no match for a fighter, it was considerably better than its Allied counterparts, and generally considered the best of its class. Owing to its good handling on water, the Finnish Air Force utilized Ar 196s just for transporting and supplying special forces patrols behind enemy lines, landing on small lakes in remote areas. Several fully equipped soldiers were carried in the fuselage. The first Arado Ar 196 to fall into allied hands was an example belonging to the German cruiser Admiral Hipper, which was captured in Lyngstad, Eide, by a Norwegian Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11 seaplane of the Trøndelag naval district on 8 April 1940, at the dawn of the Norwegian Campaign. After being towed to Kristiansund by the torpedo boat HNoMS Sild, it was used against its former owners, flying with Norwegian markings At 03:30 on 18 April, the Arado was evacuated to the UK by a Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service pilot. The plane was shortly thereafter crashed by a British pilot while on transit to the Helensburgh naval air base for testing. At the end of the war, at least one Arado Ar 196 was left at a Norwegian airfield and kept in use as a liaison aircraft by the Royal Norwegian Air Force for a year on the West coast. |
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