Quote:
Originally Posted by C.Evans
Sorry to hear about Niggemeyer and Westphalen. WHen I was visiting the Uboat Archiv in Altenbruch, Susanne and I were told that we had just missed by a day or so, Westphalens visit there.
I had heard that he was a tough one to get an autograph from-not for meanness or anything-just that he did not wish to be bothered more than necessary; about the war. I always wanted to ask him about the book: The Faustball Tunnel - which was about the 17 or so escapees from that POW camp in Arizona.
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Rest your oar, sailor.
Westphalen was a tough autograph to get. That's for sure. But the reason was Westphalen suffered a stroke in 1994 or 95 and he was unable to write his name. That's why many of his signed photos are 'rubber stamped' facsimile's of his signature. He was a kind gentleman and felt badly because he couldn't fulfill the signature requests in his own hand.
Btw, Westphalen could speak very fluent English until his suffered his stroke. After that, he couldn't. Oddly enough, he didn't lose his ability to speak German.