On Saturday, September 28, 2013 8:41:17 PM UTC+8, wrote:
Thanks gentlemen; very much appreciated.

Although not mentioned in this documentary, a little known fact is that Malaysia's Penang Island was home to a fleet of long range German submarines that preyed upon Allied shipping during WWII. They shared a Japanese submarine base. Apparently the submariners of both countries despsed each other, inly due to the Germans' arrogance and sense of racial superiority. A private outfit has cleared the overgrown jungle that has hidden most of the site and it is now open to visitore.

Hmm ... German subs used a few parts of Penang for ports. The main port was a few pens on Pulau Jerejak (aka Pulau Jerjak). Those pens were subsequently converted into a shipyard. And the shipyard still exists, owned and operated I think now by Boustead, a government-linked company that among other things does contract work for the Malaysian navy.

The other areas were Sweetenham Pier (the main port) and a couple of temporary pens on the northern coast.

The U-boots involved were the Monson Gruppe [Monsoon group] working the Indian Ocean and, occasionally, the Pacific. Wikipedia has a page about the Monson Gruppe.

Just N of Penang, one of the Monson Gruppe was sunk in 1945 as she was carrying a load of mercury to Penang, to deliver the mercury to the Japanese. The U-boot went down in 13 m of water. Twenty of the crew got out alive. One wrote a book about it (look for U-858 by Baudzus). Most of the mercury was retrieved in 1972 (a small legal suit was run: Malaysia recognised that Federal Germany owned the mercury). The wreck is still there and is marked on charts (and surrounded, when I last sailed past it by a dozen bamboo stakes driven into the seabed so trawlers don't snag their nets).

So ... (1) the facts are not little known. They're well documented including on the internet and books; (2) the pretense that the so-called Penang War Museum at Batu Maung ("a private outfit has now cleared the overgrown jungle") is just that - a pretense for commercial reasons to suck in the gulls)..

Bil
Penang

Thanks Bill for the info,

I only recently heard about the German subs from a Japanese friend, an old flatmate from university days. His uncle was based in Penang for a while during the war.

When I get back home to Penang, I'll check it all out. On my short trips home by plane, I get little time for myself and am usually busy with my kids, work and friends.

Are you living there or just passing through?
Cao
Peter