Z-1 "Lebrecht Maas"

Guten Abend gentlemen.....

A question if I may about the Kriegsmarine's first destroyer Z-1. I have heard different stories surrounding the demise of this ship. Either by running across German mines or accidently sunk by a Luftwaffe He 111. Does anyone have a good reference(s) covering the details of the Lebrecht Maas last voyage ?

thanks guys

E

 

I dont remember where I read this and it was years ago but, I had heard it met its demise because of hitting one of its own mines.

One of my uboat friends used to be on Zerstorers before joining Luth and U 181. I will send a letter (snailmail ) and will ask and see if he knows anything more about this.

 

Wunderbar ! Ask him the armament fit-flak on the U-181 while he was with Luth please ? !

I had read who knows where that they had just received their 3.7cm weapon and were in action (?) with it and it blew up ! I can only suppose a defective 3.7cm round must have jammed and went off in the chamber out of the clip.......what the heck happened I wonder ?.......arg !

E

 

I dont know if he will know that, Dieter got on board U 181 just after Luth left and Kapitan zur See Kurt Freiwald took over command, but I will ask him that too--just in case

 

Great ! Can he send a signed pic of himself and I will send funds to you directly ?

I am thinking he or I should say, they had the twin 2cm's and 1 3.7cm weapon. Believe that this was pretty standard and that the Kommandeur of the boat had the final say as to what type of fittings were placed on the decks......dang, I wish I knew more about this stuff !

E

 

I think Dieter will be thrilled at signing a photo of himself-ill ask him

The CO DID have a final say-so but a good CO listens to his men.

My letter to Dieter will be sent by friday. Have you heard from Remy yet?

 

Much thanks Carl ! No I haven't heard a thing from Remy yet......he maybe bogged down with other mails this time of year....

E

 

Quite welcome. Remy just might be swamped, I recieved my Christmas Card from him yesterday--along with a card from Bernhard Trenn.

If you dont recieve a letter from him by 1st week in January--let me know and ill ask him if he recieved my letter I sent him for you. Lately I am told, someone was stealing some of his letters.

 

Stealing letters at a special time of the year........people are really low aren't they ? Well I'm not surprised given the times we live in. He will write when he gets thru the pile of letters I am sure. I'll keep U posted on a new book coming my way soon.....thanks Carl for keeping on top of this.

E

 

Quite welcome-glad to.

Unfortunately--some jerk(s) somewhere just HAS to ruin it for us all. I know my letters to heinz Heuer and Gunther Rall for sure were stolen as well as two I sent to Remy after May of this year.

Remy is always on time--usually about 3-4 weeks after you first mail the letter which is pretty quick as you know how ssssssssssssssllloowwwwwww the postal service is.

 

Nothing in my postal box today, so i can only suppose that the postal service has something to do with it too......when sending cash via mail, a guy has to make sure that it is well concealed. Tried sending Ccheck in DM several times and the GErman vets either returned them to me or stated that cash was the way to go since their bacnks would charge them a fee for cashing them in. Very strange since the DM Ccheck in the states is co-signed by several German bankmen and the Ccheck is legit, so what's up with this ?
Let's see what happens by the middle of January. Who know's maybe I'll here from him right after Christmas.......thanks !

E

 

I dont know....my hands are up in the air when it comes to international transactions. I think all bankers get together in one huge meeting somewhere and make plans on making it more difficult than necessary to send money ot checks.

 

Carl :

How do you do it ?.....what I mean is, do you send a money order, DM Ccheck or cash ?, and do you usually try to hide it in some fashion wrapped up in extra paper, or put the monies in one of those non-see-through type envelopes ??
Just curious as I am always looking for a better way to try and honour these vets and not run the risk of losing the funds to someone not deserving....

Erich

 

Usually I send it wrapped in the actual letter, and sometimes I just hide it between two thin pieces of cardboard, and I lable the letter as having a few photos in it--Photos--please do not bend. Sometimes I do send money in a photomailer or just in a plain envelope using a bit of Christmas paper wrapping. Seems to work well enough, but the only fly in the ointment is, that if the le=tter is going to a famous person, some jerk no doubtedly just steals all he can get at that time and happens to be lucky enough to get a few letters with payment in them.

I send only cash, as I cannot afford to get internation money orders or anything else. Remy usually waits awhile and collects the money till he has a decent amount and then goes to the bank to exchange it. I would send him DM if I could just get my mitts on any--but here in Northern Mexico, you just cannot get any--unless you are at the airport and then can only get any if you are about to board an aircraft to fly there.

 

Gotcha on this......sounds very similiar to what I do then.

back to Z-1. Leberecht Maass was the very first destroyer and 3 months after her being commissioned she was sunk. She was accidentally attacked by an He 111 and was hit by 3 bombs, then on taking evasive manuevers, she went into an unknown minefiled and was sunk.......geez !

E

 

Die Luftwaffe unfortunately did the samething to more than several uboats resulting in most or all hands being lost.

 

Richtig !

Yes, the inexperienced bomber pilots the first two years of the war bombed anything that moved but due to more experience this of course changed during 41 till the rest of the war....

E

 

These too, will be I.D'ed when I get that chore/assignment finished.

 

Carl, are you thinking another 5 years of research ?

Again and awfully large undertaking. Maybe access the U-boot archiv's in Cuxhaven for help ?

E

 

Nah, actually just about 30 minutes worth of work, haveing the time to do it is another thing. Actually, the uboat archiv is good, but needs a good going over to make corrections. I cant blame Horst for having mistakes and he has done a heck of a job getting this info. Good thing is, I dont need the archiv.