Original German WWII Kriegsmarine U-751 Photo Album Featuring Pictures of Grand Admiral Raeder – Over 222 Photos, Postcards and Newspaper Clippings Original Items

Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. Now this is a fantastic photo album, full of absolutely beautiful pictures of German U-Boat U-751, which was sunk off the coast of Cape Ortegal, Spain, by the British Royal Airforce. The leather bound album is embossed on the cover with “Aus Meiner Dienstzeit” which translates to “From My Service”.

The album contains over 222 Pictures, Postcards and Newspaper Clippings, some of which are of U-751 and her crew, which makes us believe that this album belonged to a member of U-751. There are other U-Boats present, all unidentified except for U-18. There are also photos of German Navy Grand Admiral Erich Johann Albert Raeder! Raeder was a German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank, that of grand admiral, in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Henning von Holtzendorff. Raeder led the Kriegsmarine for the first half of the war; he resigned in January 1943 and was replaced by Karl Dönitz. At the Nuremberg Trials he was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released early owing to failing health.

Most of the photos are of sailors on shore as well as topside of various ships as well as the U-Boats, they even show torpedoes being loaded on! All of the pages have writing on them, giving a brief description of the photos on each page, making this a wonderful translation and research project.

This is a fantastic album loaded with incredibly detailed photographs. Its not very often you come across a U-Boat photo album, let alone one that is tied to a specific vessel!

Comes more than ready for further research and display.

German submarine U-751
German submarine U-751 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Germany’s Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. Built as yard number 134 of the Kriegsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, she was commissioned on 31 January 1941. She served with 7th U-boat Flotilla until 1 June as a training boat, and as an operational boat until 17 July 1942, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Gerhard Bigalk. U-751 served in seven patrols with the 7th U-boat Flotilla, sinking the escort carrier HMS Audacity. The U-boat was attacked with depth charges from aircraft on 17 July 1942 and sank with the loss of all 48 crew members.

German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-751 had a displacement of 769 tonnes (757 long tons) when at the surface and 871 tonnes (857 long tons) while submerged. She had a total length of 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in), a pressure hull length of 50.50 m (165 ft 8 in), a beam of 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in), a height of 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in), and a draught of 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in). The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of 2,800 to 3,200 metric horsepower (2,060 to 2,350 kW; 2,760 to 3,160 shp) for use while surfaced, two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750 metric horsepower (550 kW; 740 shp) for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.23 m (4 ft) propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 230 meters (750 ft).

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph). When submerged, the boat could operate for 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph); when surfaced, she could travel 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). U-751 was fitted with five 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one 8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.

On 14 June 1941, eleven days into her thirty-three-day first patrol while en route from Kiel to St. Nazaire, U-751 attacked and sank the British ship St Lindsay (5,370 gross register tons (GRT)).

Arriving at St. Nazaire on 5 July, U-751 stayed in port for thirty-four days before going on her second patrol. She attacked no ships on her second and third voyages.

Five days into her fourth patrol, on 21 December 1941, U-751 attacked and sank HMS Audacity, an escort carrier attached with British convoy HG 76.

On 14 January 1942, U-751 left St. Nazaire on her fifth patrol, destined to return on 23 February. Nineteen days into this patrol, on February 2, U-751 attacked and damaged the Dutch ship Corilla, part of convoy HX 173 (8,096 GRT). Two days later, she sank the British ship Silveray, adding another 4,535 GRT to her score. Another British ship, Empire Sun, was sunk another three days later, for 6,952 GRT. The American ships Nicarao and Isabela were sunk in her sixth patrol, on 16 and 19 May 1942, totalling 1,455 and 3,110 GRTs respectively.