Largs mechanic was German U-boat officer

Published 22 Jun 2012 07:30 5 Comments

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Winston Churchill once commented that the thing that frightened him most during the war was the threat posed by the German submarine fleet, the U-boats. And a former U-Boat petty officer became a mechanic in Largs in 1980.

Back in 1945, Josef Beuckmann was a chief petty officer in a German submarine which surrendered to the British.

However, in 1980, we reported that Josef ran a car repair and marine engineering business at 5 Wilson Street in Largs.

In an interview with former 'News' editor John McCreadie, Mr Beuckmann spoke about the day when the Germans held up the white flag.

TheGerman said: "We were in the Atlantic off Ireland when we received orders from the German High Command to surrender. The war was over and the Allies had laid down terms for the cease fire. We sent out an all clear radio message giving our position. We sailed all the next day on our own and finally a fishing vessel from Kyles of Lochalsh escorted us until a British destroyer took us over.

"We were given to understand that we would be sent home within a few weeks but I was a prisoner of war for three years."

Full story in this week's Largs News.

This article appeared in Largs & Millport Weekly News 22 Jun 12

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

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Unregistered User
Jun 22, 13:39
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Now I know that this is just an extract of the article, but to call someone a nazi is a pretty hefty accusation. There had better be some real evidence of this person's membership of the National-Socialist party in the article...

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janbob
1 post
Jun 22, 18:22
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I agree . not all germans were nazis .. and also he says in the article he only expected to be a prisoner of war for a few weeks . prisoners of war in this country were treated very well according to my old dad ... but our men who were kept prisoner of war by the germans and the japanese were very badly treated

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Bill
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Jun 23, 02:50
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I had a Soldbuch (paybook) for a German sub sailor who surrendered at the end of the war and was held in England. In the book was an English drivers license in his name and notations that he used to drive the camp truck on errands outside the camp.

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Hamish
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Jun 23, 11:00
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Nazi, Facist's s and other such terms should not be used against individual's (particularly if they cannot answer back) unless it is proved that they voluntarily believed in such a despicable doctrine.

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Dave
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Jun 23, 19:48
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Agree with all of the above, change the title, this isn't the Daily Mail! >:(

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