Germany, Kriegsmarine. A Wartime Photo Album Belonging to U-38 Crewman Paul Schneider

(U-Boot Fotoalbum). This is a rare and fascinating private wartime photo album belonging to a crewman of U-38, a Type IX U-Boat which saw service throughout the duration of the Second World War. It is constructed of a heavy card stock binding with canvas exterior liner. Four brown-painted magnetic metal rivets are set into the spine, looped with a brown cord which securely maintains the structural integrity of the album. The interior content consists of 20 black card stock pages pasted with 145 black-and-white photographs, most with handwritten captions, retaining all original wax paper dividers. Approximately the first third of the album features images of the owner’s entry into the Kriegsmarine, with depictions of training and service life in Bremerhaven, Flensburg, and in the North Sea. It notably features a photo of the launch of his future ship, U-38, in October 1938. The remainder of the album features a detailed record of wartime life aboard U-38, with candid depictions of the crew at work and on shore leave, as well as combat scenes, including numerous shots of Allied ships being sunk, with survivors in lifeboats. Among the photos is a portrait of Kapitän zur See Wolfgang Lüth, a recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, with Lüth’s handwritten signature clearly visible on the reverse. The album measures 305 mm (w) x 222 mm (h). Some photos have peeled away from their glued positions without separating, and one photo is loose, but there is no evidence of missing photos or any evident wear to the album. This rare and fully-intact private wartime album belonging to an experienced U-Boat crewman is in an extremely fine condition.

Footnote: Commissioned on 24 October 1938, U-38 was a Type IX U-Boat which saw active service throughout the entirety of the war. In the span of 11 patrols in the Atlantic between 19 August 1939 and 29 November 1941, she sank 35 commercial ships for 188,967 gross register tons, becoming one of the Kriegsmarine’s most successful U-Boats. U-38 spent the remainder of the war as a training and testing boat, eventually being scuttled by her crew on 5 May 1945.