SOS - Fate of German Ships
SOS - Fates of German Ships is a West German booklet series that was published in 200 editions by Arthur Moewig Verlag in Munich from 1953 to 1960 . It was reissued from 1975 to 1981 by Pabel-Verlag under the title SOS - Schiffsschicksale auf den Meer der Welt and from 1995 it was presented again under the title Der Landser : SOS - Schiffsschicksale auf den Meer der Welt . The cover pictures and interior illustrations of the first edition are all by the marine painter Walter Zeeden . Parallel to the series of SOS - Fate of German Ships , the SOS special volumes were published from 1957 to 1960 , of which there were 30 issues. Except for the first 3 SOS special volumes , whose cover pictures were created by Karl Stephan, Lochham / Graefelfing, the remaining 27 pictures were again made by Walter Zeeden. In addition, the publication series Anker-Hefte was published by the same publisher from 1954 to 1960 . Seafaring all over the world in 95 issues, in which analogous events mostly from Anglo-American seafaring history were thematized.
Arthur Moewig-Verlag concluded the popular SOS and ANKER booklet series with SOS booklet number 200 and number 30 in the SOS special volumes .
In 2019 it was discovered by chance based on some original paintings by Walter Zeeden that the cover pictures for the SOS issues numbers 201 and 202 had already been ordered and produced by him. Walter Zeeden delivered both pictures to Arthur Moewig-Verlag on July 14, 1960 :
- Planned issue 201 Bark Titania - Cover picture: Titania in a hurricane
- Planned booklet 202 Torpedo boat Seeadler - cover picture: Seeadler in battle with British speedboats and under fire from the enemy. Dover coastal batteries in the Channel
For the SOS special volumes , Walter Zeeden provided the cover picture for the announced SOS special volume number 31 Tragedy on the North Cape - sinking of the battleship Scharnhorst . So marked by him on the original. Due to the discontinuation of the SOS series, this issue, already written by Fritz-Otto Busch, appeared as number 37 in the soldiers' stories series as a special volume . About the soldiers' stories special volume 39 by Wilhelm Wolfslast with the title: Until self-destruction. The Japanese submarines in World War II and a cover picture by Walter Zeeden are currently not known.
Authors and topics
The authors of the series were a. Otto Mielke (until his death in 1958), retired corvette captain . D. Fritz-Otto Busch , as well as his brother Dr. Harald Busch , Jens Janssen (pseudonym for Jochen Brennecke , Schönwalde), Rolf O. Becker, Garbsen or Wilhelm Wolfslast, Dortmund. Authors for the SOS special volumes were u. a. Wilhelm Wolfslast and Joh. Schulz (pseudonym for Franz Kurowski , Dortmund).
Initially, the publisher of the SOS series a. Captain Fred Schmidt for merchant shipping and vice-admiral Walter Lohmann for the navy. After their death, Lohmann sank in 1955 and Schmidt in 1957 with the Pamir , vice-admiral a. D. Kurt Caesar Hoffmann former commandant of the battleship Scharnhorst , Erich Gröner and most recently Jochen Brennecke .
In the series of events are mainly German naval and maritime history with a focus on First and Second World War dealt. There were also marine casualties such as the involvement of the Hamburg cargo steamer Falke in a coup in Venezuela in 1929, the sinking of the freighter Melanie Schulte in 1952 and the sinking of the four-masted barque Pamir in 1957. Fred Schmidt's death on the Pamir also ended his work on the series. Partly the normal ship operation was shown, for example the activities of the fishing protection boat Meerkatze , the sailing school ship Grand Duchess Elisabeth , the lightship Elbe 1 or the whaling mother ship Jan Wellem .
Some issues also deal with events in German colonial history or German gunboat policy such as the battle of Tres Forcas in Morocco in 1856, the Herero and Nama uprising in German Southwest Africa in 1904, the Sokehs uprising on Ponape in 1910, the Boxer uprising in China in 1900 or the Eisenstuck Affair in Nicaragua 1878.
As far as known, the volumes of the first edition all have a bibliography and source list.
Issues of the first edition
- Otto Mielke: express steamer "Bremen". Happiness and the end of a giant, 1953
- Otto Mielke: Heavy cruiser "Blücher". His first and last stand
- Otto Mielke: Sail training ship "Admiral Karpfanger". Journey of no return
- Otto Mielke: Hapag steamer "New York". SOS - Save our souls!
- Otto Mielke: Battleship "Bismarck". battle of the titans
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship "Monte Cervantes". Drama in Tierra del Fuego
- Otto Mielke: Minesweeper "M1". The tiger of the fjords
- Otto Mielke: Sail training ship "Duchess Cecilie". Escape over 12,000 miles
- Otto Mielke: battleship "Scharnhorst". A giant's odyssey
- Otto Mielke: express steamer "Columbus". A giant ship sinks itself
- Otto Mielke: Destroyer "Wilhelm Heidkampf". The battle for Narvik
- Otto Mielke: express steamer "Europe". Despite all storms
- Otto Mielke: Motor tanker "Heinrich Riedemann": five torpedoes
- Otto Mielke: Auxiliary cruiser SMS "Wolf". On a pirate course in the Pacific
- Otto Mielke: Ironclad "Admiral Graf Spee". The trap of Montevideo
- Otto Mielke: "U47" - Günther Prien. The bull of Scapa Flow
- Otto Mielke: express steamer "Cap Arcona". Drive to doom
- Otto Mielke: Ship of the line "Schleswig-Holstein". A steel champion
- Otto Mielke: steamer " Luise Leonhardt " / lightship "ELBE 1". North Sea - Murder Sea
- Fritz Otto Busch: Heavy cruiser "Prinz Eugen". From Greenland to the South Seas
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship "Melanie Schulte". Lost in the Atlantic
- Otto Mielke: "U 83" and "U 199". Not back from patrol
- Otto Mielke: Passenger motor ship "Wilhelm Gustloff". Disaster at night
- Fritz Otto Busch: Light cruiser "Cologne". One coat of arms - three fates
- Otto Mielke: Steamer "Taube". Stranded on Prerow Bank
- Fritz Otto Busch: Destroyer "Erich Koellner". Destroyer fight in the Ofotfjord
- Hans Boetticher: "U 9" and "U 29". With Weddigen on a war voyage
- Otto Mielke: Motor tanker "Altmark". The "Cossack" affair, 1954
- Otto Mielke: Barque “School Ship Pommern” / Tug “Heros” - A heroic rescue
- Otto Mielke: SM: Small cruiser "Dresden". The last ship of the cruiser squadron
- Otto Mielke: Outpost boats "Blitz" and "Orkan". Against mines, bombs and torpedoes
- Otto Mielke: whaling mother ship "Jan Wellem". On the whale hunt in Antarctica
- Otto Mielke: Heavy cruiser "Admiral Hipper". Convoy battle in the Atlantic
- Otto Mielke: express steamer "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse". From luxury steamer to auxiliary cruiser
- Otto Mielke: "U 69". Periscope southward
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship "Seattle". Blockade breakers
- Fritz Otto Busch: Turbine ship "Windhuk". Blockade breakers
- Otto Mielke: Turbine ship "Windhuk". Five men in one boat
- Otto Mielke: Auxiliary cruiser "Orion". Around the globe
- Otto Mielke: Hapag steamer "Hansa" ex "Albert Ballin". From Hamburg to Manhattan
- Otto Mielke: Battleship “Tirpitz”. The last German giant
- Otto Mielke: Steamer "Bulgaria". Steerless in the Atlantic storm
- Otto Mielke: "U 159". A bang in front of Cape Town
- Otto Mielke: Imperial mail steamer "Manila". Between Singapore and New Guinea
- Otto Mielke: survey ship "Meteor". 67,000 miles of the Atlantic voyage
- Otto Mielke: Commercial sturgeon cruiser "Komet". Siberian ice trip
- Otto Mielke: submarine cargo ship "U-Germany". A merchant ship sails underwater
- Otto Mielke: Passenger steamer "Berlin". Boiler explosion!
- Otto Mielke: SM small cruiser "Königsberg". In the narrow corner
- Otto Mielke: “Thor” fish steamer. The sea struck
- Otto Mielke: "Togo" night hunting lead ship. The strangest ship in the Navy
- Fritz Otto Busch: Liner "Oldenburg". This time it got serious
- Otto Mielke: four-masted barque "Pamir". The last German windjammer, 1955
- Otto Mielke: Battle cruiser "Goeben" and small cruiser "Breslau" (1). Under the Turkish crescent
- Otto Mielke: "U 156". The "Laconia" case
- Otto Mielke: SM "Sperrbrecher A" (steamer "Rubens"). Creep to East Africa
- Otto Mielke: The IS boat flotilla. Speedboats in the Black Sea
- Otto Mielke: Freight steamer "Falke". A great piece
- Otto Mielke: "U 333". Ali Cremer the sea wolf
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship "Hamburg". A typhoon is raging
- Otto Mielke: SMS "Emden". Bravo, little cruiser!
- Otto Mielke: “Przemysl” engine saver. In unauthorized ways
- Otto Mielke: Heavy cruiser "Lützow". Bombs off Spain
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship "Monte Rosa". The last of the Hamburg-Süd
- Fritz Otto Busch: Small cruiser "Regensburg". “Z vor!” On the Skagerrak
- Otto Mielke: “Cobra” seaside resort steamer. The battle of the black balls
- Otto Mielke: Passenger steamer "Imperator". A nation's pride
- Otto Mielke: Motor tanker "Charlotte Schliemann". As a submarine supplier in the Indian Ocean
- Otto Mielke: Kaiserjacht “Hohenzollern”. Imperial sea voyages
- Dr. Harald Busch: Submarine "U 516". Hunted wolves
- Otto Mielke: steamer "Irene Oldendorff". The Maritime Administration meets
- Fritz-Ludwig Dechow: auxiliary warship "Doggerbank". In the lion's den
- Otto Mielke: SMS "Amazone". The grandmother of the German Navy
- Otto Mielke: ocean-going ferry "Germany". The floating train station
- Otto Mielke: SM small cruiser "Karlsruhe". Ready for battle!
- Otto Mielke: aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin". The great unfinished
- Otto Mielke: rotor ships "Buckau" and "Barbara". Admired, praised and forgotten
- Otto Mielke: Submarine "U 20". The "Lusitania" case
- Otto Mielke: Luxury passenger steamer "Oceana". Capsized in the port
- Otto Mielke: 3rd and 7th torpedo boat semi-flotilla. Hussars at Sea, 1956
- Otto Mielke: "U 196". 225 days on patrol
- Otto Mielke: Marine ferry cream "F 617". They ran over the devil's feet
- Otto Mielke: Turbine steamers "Vancouver" and "Tacoma". Assassination attempt in San Francisco
- Otto Mielke: SM gunboat "Iltis" (1). Against wreckers and pirates
- Otto Mielke: "Meerkatze" fishing protection boat. The guardian angel of deep sea fishermen
- Otto Mielke: Battleship "Gneisenau". A colossus made of steel
- Otto Mielke: express steamer "Kronprinz Willhelm". Wanted, pursued and not found
- Otto Mielke: SM gunboat "Iltis" (2). The Boxer Rebellion in China
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship “Wappen von Hamburg”. From the old convoyer to the modern "music steamer"
- Otto Mielke: Light cruiser "Emden" (III). The first cruiser of the Reichsmarine
- Otto Mielke: SMS "Niobe". A tragic end
- Otto Mielke: "U 21". A man saves the Dardanelles
- Otto Mielke: Freight and passenger steamer "Munich". A dangerous cargo
- Otto Mielke: Commercial sturgeon cruiser "Kormoran". He sank the "Sydney"
- Otto Mielke: Light cruiser "Leipzig". The last cruiser of the Kriegsmarine
- Otto Mielke: Motor ship "Ermland". Blockade trip to Japan
- Otto Mielke: "Goeben" and "Breslau" (2). Battles in the Black Sea
- Otto Mielke: Steamer "Adolph Woermann". An African from Hamburg
- Otto Mielke: Schnellboot "S 42". Black nights in the Black Sea
- Otto Mielke: SM fleet flagship "Friedrich der Grosse". Scapa Flow - the grave of a fleet
- Otto Mielke: Tanker "Glückauf" and "Esso Deutschland". Petroleum drivers - then and now
- Otto Mielke: "Goeben" and "Breslau" (3). The light cruiser's last voyage
- Otto Mielke: Destroyer "Hermes" ("ZG 3"). The only German Mediterranean destroyer
- Otto Mielke: Navy airship "L 38". Zeppelins - a great idea
- Otto Mielke: four-masted barque "Commodore Johnsen". The largest motor glider in the world
- Otto Mielke: Auxiliary cruiser "Thor". He defeated three British auxiliary cruisers
- Otto Mielke: Lifting vessels “Energy” and “Endurance”. A serious impact
- Otto Mielke: Small cruisers “Mainz” and “Ariadne”. August 28, 1914
- Otto Mielke: Passenger steamer "Cap Polonio". Popular thick ships of Hamburg-Süd
- Otto Mielke: Submarine "U 38". 300,000 GRT sunk
- Otto Mielke: Emergency lifeboats "Borkum" and "Norderney". Lifeguards - tougher than the sea
- Otto Mielke: SM gunboat "Habicht". Expedition against the Hereros
- Otto Mielke: Destroyer "Z 38" (1). The "Black Panther"
- Otto Mielke: SM auxiliary cruiser "Seeadler". The “sea devil's” great journey
- Otto Mielke: Sea tanker "Frieda". Suicide mission
- Otto Mielke: "RC Rickmers" - and "Sophie Rickmers". Sunk under a foreign flag
- Otto Mielke: Light cruiser "Nürnberg". German cruiser flying the Soviet flag
- Otto Mielke: U-hunter "Uj 1709". As a listener on the submarine hunt
- Otto Mielke: Airship "ZR III" / "Los Angeles". A life for aviation
- Otto Mielke: Submarine "U 505". Captured by the US Navy
- Otto Mielke: Freight steamer "Wilhelm Russ". We were in Leningrad
- Otto Mielke / Walter Flachsenberg: Submarine "U71". Single driver in the North Atlantic
- Otto Mielke: Gunboat "Albatros". Stationed in the South Seas
- Otto Mielke: Freight steamer "Helga Bolten". Serious accident in a hurricane
- Otto Mielke: SM auxiliary cruiser "Möwe" (1). The first breakthrough in the blockade
- Otto Mielke: Destroyer "Z 38" (2). The Black Panther's fight and end
- Otto Mielke: SM armored cruiser "Blücher". The Battle of Dogger Bank
- Otto Mielke: Hapag express steamer "Vaterland". Albert Ballin and his work
- Otto Mielke: "U 16" - "U 27" - "U 41". The "Baralong" case
- Otto Mielke: SM auxiliary cruiser "Möwe" (2). His second trip
- Otto Mielke: Ship of the line "Schlesien". One of the old guard
- Otto Mielke: Heavy cruiser "Admiral Scheer" (1). A convoy was wiped out
- Otto Mielke: Fisheries research ship "Anton Dohrn". Fishermen - researchers - fishing areas
- Otto Mielke: Navy airships "L 10" to "L 16". Airships over England
- Rudolf Ressel / Otto Mielke: "Polar Front" outpost boat. As a radio operator on outposts
- Otto Mielke: Submarine "U 977". We snorkel our way through
- Otto Mielke: Freight steamer "Emma Sauber". In the service of the black diamonds
- Otto Mielke: SMS “Frauenlob”. Sunk in the Battle of the Skagerrak
- Otto Mielke: Auxiliary cruiser "Widder". Trade war against lone drivers
- Otto Mielke: “Fairplay” tugboat. Dangerous work
- Otto Mielke: Auxiliary steamer "Queen Luise". Mines off the Thames
- Otto Mielke: Fjord Guard "Windhuk". Nothing new before Bergen
- Otto Mielke: Submarine "U53". America course
- Otto Mielke: Passenger steamers “Reliance” and “Resolute”. Their field was the world
- Otto Mielke: Destroyer "Friedrich Eckoldt". Between Brest and Kirkenes
- Otto Mielke: Paddle Steam Corvette "Danzig". The first Prussian steam corvette
- Otto Mielke: Minesweeper "M 437". We from the mine sweep
- Otto Mielke: Police boat "Hanover". Water police in action
- Otto Mielke: Submarines "UB 81" and "UC 71". Happy rides - tragic end
- Otto Mielke / Josef Traub: “F 523” and “F 607” marine ferry boats. The hell of Sicily
- Otto Mielke: Navy airships "L 57" and "L 59". Daring flight to Africa
- Otto Mielke: Submarine "U-Flak 1". As a U-Flak trap in the Bay of Biscay
- Otto Mielke: SM auxiliary cruiser "Prinz Eitel Friedrich". In the wake of the cruiser squadron
- Otto Mielke: Destroyer "Z 1". Our new German Navy
- Otto Mielke / Albert Röhr: "Hermann von Wissmann" steamer. On the lakes of German East Africa
- Friedrich Ludwig John: The first German submarine. The iron seal
- Wilhelm Wolfslast: SM large cruiser "Hertha". The Germans to the front!
- Otto Mielke / Albert Röhr: " Hedwig von Wissmann " steamer . War and Peace on Lake Tanganyika
- Rolf O. Becker: Monsoon boat "U 178". Harder than steel
- Jens Janssen: Auxiliary cruiser "Pinguin". List was his most powerful weapon
- Jens Janssen: Tugboat “H. 6. S. ". Small - but powerful
- Rolf O. Becker: Steamer "Mjöllnir" ex "Nankin". The pinch with the bacon bug
- Jens Janssen: Submarine "U 68" (1). Under the Southern Cross
- Wilhelm Wolfslast: SM small cruiser "Cormoran". Battle for Ponape
- Jens Janssen: Deep sea fish steamer "Cologne". A hand's breadth below the Arctic Circle
- Jens Janssen: SMS "Ayesha". Men of the "Emden" fight by
- Jens Janssen: "Tierra del Fuego" fishing cutter. Gunther Plüschow's adventurous ride
- Jens Janssen: Heavy cruiser "Admiral Scheer" (2). 155 days cruise
- Jens Janssen: Motor cargo ship "Adolf Leonhardt". Men in the hurricane
- Jens Janssen: “Choising” steamer. The Odyssey of the "Emden" Landing Corps
- Jens Janssen: SM small cruiser "Wiesbaden". Sunk with the flag waving
- Jens Janssen: Submarine "U 77". Undemanding - but tough
- Jens Janssen: Sail training ship "Pamir". The tragedy in the Atlantic
- Jens Janssen: Motor ship “Rio Grande”. All bad things came in threes
- Jens Janssen: Submarine "U 68" (2). With the polar bear group off Cape Town
- Jens Janssen: Sailing training ship “Grand Duchess Elisabeth”. White sails over blue waves
- Jens Janssen: Auxiliary mine layers “Passat” ex “ Storstad ”. Mines in front of Australia's ports
- Jens Janssen: "Johannes Krüss" fish steamer. Death-defying mission in the Arctic
- Jens Janssen: cruiser frigate "Leipzig" I (1). For the first time iron instead of wood
- Jens Janssen: Mine clearance boat "R 39". Ride over the powder keg
- Jens Janssen: Turbine ship "Bremen" ex "Pasteur". An eventful life story
- Jens Janssen: Heavy cruiser "Admiral Scheer" (3). Hunting in the Indian Ocean
- Jens Janssen: Submarine "U 23". The misunderstood radio message
- Jens Janssen / Werner Krüger: Bark "Fortuna". Helmsman Ablass turns the tables
- Jens Janssen / Werner Dette: SM torpedo boat "S 31". Sunk in the minefield
- Jens Janssen / Werner Krüger: Motor ship “Flavia”. The rescue of the burning cable layer
- OV: steamer "Bahia Blanca". Bad luck in luck
- Jens Janssen / Werner Krüger: Schnellboot "S 199". The secret of "S-Achim"
- Jens Janssen: Submarine "U 123". With stationary machines into the depths
- Jens Janssen: Heavy cruiser "Admiral Scheer" (4). Port Dickson no longer answers
- Bodo Herzog: SM submarine "35". The most successful submarine in the world
- Jens Janssen: Stranded in front of Celebes
- Jens Janssen / RF Feldmann: Submarine "U 453" / "U Nürnberg". 17 patrols in the Mediterranean
- Jens Janssen / Willi Heidel: five-masted full ship "Preussen". Glory and end of the largest yard ship
- Poetters: Motor ship "Lahnstein". The first big lakes trip
- Jens Janssen: Auxiliary cruiser "Atlantis". 622 days without a shipyard or port
- Jens Janssen: Ship 23 = auxiliary cruiser "Stier". That became the fate of the "bull"
- Jens Janssen / Gottfried Wolfrum: Minesweeper "M 277". M-frame in the sewer
- Jens Janssen: cruiser frigate "Leipzig" I (2). The Amoy Pan War
- Jens Janssen / Paul Rothfahl: Submarine "U 99". Two horseshoes on the tower
- Author unknown: Bark Titania . Title unknown. This booklet was no longer published
- Author unknown: Torpedo boat Seeadler . Title unknown. This booklet was no longer published
Special books
- U-boat twilight (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Duel in the Pacific (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Käpp'n Kuddel and his ship (Günther Lampert)
- Speed boats ran! (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Barrier breaker Sparhawk (Günther Lampert)
- The canal flounder (Günther Lampert)
- Night of Annihilation (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- The great race (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Skagerrak (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- The gauntlet of the sea (Ralf Mewissen)
- The Bremen is on fire! (Jens Janssen)
- Cruise against death (Joh. Schulz)
- Alone against a world (Rolf O. Becker)
- U 861 on a long journey (Joh. Schulz)
- Hell Bucks (FL John)
- From Coronel to Falkland (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- The Battle of Midway (Werner Kortwich)
- Despite death and the devil (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Fall camouflage! - Fire free (Rolf O. Becker)
- The death journey of the convoy PQ 17 (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Torpedo - go! (Joh. Schulz)
- Tsushima (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- "U 977" 66 days under water (Heinz Schaeffer)
- War at the end of the world (Ralf Mewissen)
- Five Volunteers for Satan's Island (JE MacDonnell)
- Ruler of the Sea (Wilhelm Wolfslast)
- Between Rio and Freetown (Joh. Schulz)
- Stand "Z" in front! (Ralf Mewissen)
- Inferno Pearl Harbor (Volker Rehburg)
- Fight of the Little Fish (Joh. Schulz)
- Tragedy at the North Cape. Sinking of the battleship Scharnhorst. (Fritz-Otto Busch) This booklet was published as special volume 37 soldiers' stories .
literature
- Klaus F. Geiger : War novels in the FRG. Content and functions . Tuebingen 1974.
- Heinz J. Galle: Folk books and book novels. Vol. 1: The boom after 1945 - from Billy Jenkins to Perry Rhodan . Dieter von Reeken Verlag, Lüneburg 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3232-2 .
- “Blue Boys” as “Landser” at sea - car stereotypes and enemy images in marine booklets 1953 to 2013 , in: Jens Westemeier (ed.): “So was the German soldier ...” The popular image of the Wehrmacht , Paderborn (Ferdinand Schöningh) 2019, pp. 247–266. ISBN 3-506-78770-5
- Rüdiger von Ancken, Lars U. Scholl : The marine painter Walter Zeeden (1891–1961), Oceanum Verlag, Wiefelstede 2016, ISBN 978-3-86927-409-6 .
Web links
- Cover pictures of the 200 issues of the first edition 1953-1960 at romanhefte-info.de
- Example for the cover design: Volume 58, Freight steamer “Falke”. A great piece
- Cover pictures of the special issues at romanhefte-info.de
- Cover pictures of all editions (1-223) from 1995 to 2013 of the new edition in Der Landser presented ... at romanhefte.de