The "Mein Weg Nach Scapa Flow" Book...

[kapitanprien]

Since I have a page devoted to this catastrophe in my U-Boat Site:

priens-u-boat-site.webs.com/regardingmeinweg.htm

I had thought about buying an old copy of it. (It would be one of those 'just for the record' sort of buys...).

I happened to go into Amazon.de and noticed they had them cheap - attempted to buy one but ran into a notice saying that it couldn't be shipped to my U.S. address (how lovely ). So, I started from the beginning again on the main page and noticed this:

www.amazon.de/Mein-Weg-nach-Scapa-Flow/dp/3000263454/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291741816&sr=1-3

Evidently - 2 years from now, it looks like someone is going to 're-publish' this book. I do wonder if they are going to put in the corrections that I had wanted so long ago when the manuscript was first being drawn up (FYI - This book is actually ghost written).

Sometimes I have to admit that I get this blinding rage when people do these things...

I rather wish they'd just consult me.

I am curious to see if this will be just as catastrophic as the first edition...I'm already in my 'Grrr' mode:

[Laurasia]

Wow! If someone had written an "autobiography" of Hans & filed it with lies & deliberate misrepresentations I would be livid too. Perhaps you should write your own account of Prien's life?

Sincerely,
Laurasia

[msmir]

Oh wow that would be frustrating to read that, it's not like you can do anything about it in a new incarnation!! Oh I would be angry, plenty angry too!!

[kapitanprien]

Well I had done what I could starting back in 2007 with making many corrections on the Wiki page - and since then many other people have stepped up and added more information and corrections as well. The only thing I couldn't fix was the collision regarding the San Francisco passenger ship because of it being 1- original research, and 2- undocumented (despite the fact that I had even emailed the HAPAG company and posted their reply in my U-Boat site.

I did what I could in my U-Boat site by compiling a new biography of myself - although I don't know how long it will take before it really reaches the public (could be a few years till it really 'gets out there').

I've seen other stupid...and I mean "How could you miss that?!" stupid mistakes being made. In the uboataces.com site I had to email them to correct my awards that I earned - they didn't have the Oak Leaves with the Knight's Cross. I had also emailed them THREE times about the photo they have up on Pg 8 of their Scapa Flow article that it is NOT my boat - that what they have shown is a Type VII C and NOT B (my boat was a Type VII B). I explained to them the difference - which is easily identifiable...and still they have not yet corrected it.

In the book I just got, Doenitz's Crews - that author too made the same stupid mistake of putting a photo of a Type VII C in, in the photo section of me and had a caption to another photograph incorrect.

I realize I can't go around fixing every bloody copy - but holy canoli people - you'd think that some honest corrections to things like that site for example, would be welcomed.

*grr*

[Laurasia]

I can definitely understand your frustration, Prien. There is a photograph in common circulation that is supposed to be the Hans Bothmann that ran Chelmno, but it is actually an unidentified NCO instead.

It's not even the Hans Bothmann that worked on your boat either! I mean I know that Hans (& versions of it) is a VERY common name for that area, but I really can't see there being 3 "Hans Bothmanns" active in WWII at the same time. Who knows though, I guess that stranger things have happened. Finding out that you also had a Hans Bothmann as part of your crew was strange enough. LOL!

Sincerely,
Laurasia

[kapitanprien]

Oh cripes...

Well at least with the Wiki site - I got somewhere. That's one of the first sites that come up.

Yeah...that was rather bizarre...