A Kriesmarine Leather Deck Coat to a Sailor Lost on U-859

An absolutely superb and hardly worn example of a Kriegsmarine ¾ Length Leather Deck Coat attributed to Machinistermaat (Junior Non- Commission Engine Personnel) Alfons Gunkel who was lost on U-859 on the 23rd September 1944 at the age of 28 in the Malacca Straits during a mission to deliver Mercury to the Japanese.

Obtained directly from the grandson of Alfons Gunkel in 2004, the jacket is accompanied by correspondence between him and the collector to whom he sold it to at that time. Some of his facts are slightly inaccurate as is the case with the passing of time. He was unsure of the U-Boat number and thought his grandfather was lost while an officer, in fact he was a junior non-commissioned officer. He goes on to say that his Grandfather had ordered the Coat form a tailor in the families hometown of Eschwege, but sailed on his last voyage before the Coat was ready for collection. It was later collected by the family and passed to the grandson in later years.

Originally delivered with typically private purchase fire gilded buttons by Assmann a complete set of grey buttons were also included by the Tailor. Both original sets accompany the Coat although neither are at present attached.

Constructed in a soft grey leather, this textbook issue Coat has two flapped hip pockets and two side slash pockets.

Closed by four rows of buttons in a double breasted style, a fifth row enabled the lay flat lapels to be buttoned to the top the collar then closed by and held in place by a leather strap with plastic buttons.

Overall condition is excellent, the leather in near new condition and free from damage or wear. Inside, the lining is a grey / black wool with one internal pocket and no moth damage or wear, the elasticated storm cuffs excellent.

Being a privately purchase item there is no KM property stamp.

U-859 was built in Bremen during 1942 and 1943, and was heavily adapted following her completion in July 1943, with the addition of a Snorkel to enable her to stay underwater for longer during the hazardous passage to Penang in Malaya. Consequently, she was not ready for war service until the spring of 1944, when following her working up period and modifications she departed Kiel for the East.

Although U-859 only had a single war patrol from which she never returned, her six month career was highly eventful and carried her halfway across the world and into an entirely different theatre of conflict.

Commanded by Kapitänleutnant Johann Jebsen, U-859 sailed from Kiel for Penang on 4 April 1944, carrying 31 tons of mercury in metal flasks destined for use in the Japanese munitions industry, and (according to some sources) uranium oxide also destined for Japan. She avoided shipping lanes and during her time in the North Atlantic, remained submerged for 23 hours every day, running on her schnorkel, surfacing for just one hour per day at 23:00, later reduced to 15 minutes. Three weeks into her voyage, Jebsen saw a target he could not refuse. The MV Colin, formerly an Italian freighter taken over by American authorities and registered in Panama, was slowly steaming unescorted in the North Atlantic following engine failure. Three torpedoes sank her before the U-859 went on her way southwards.

The boat's voyage continued smoothly for the next two months, and she rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean without further trouble. On 5 July she was spotted by a Lockheed Ventura aircraft, which swooped down on the boat only to be brought down by the anti aircraft guns. There were no survivors from the aircraft's crew. One rating of the U859 was killed and one officer seriously injured. (Other sources say the attacking plane was a Catalina anti-submarine-plane)

Her second victim was her most famous, and became one of the most famous treasure shipwrecks of the Twentieth Century. The unescorted Liberty ship SS John Barry was transporting a cargo of 3 million silver one-riyal coins from Aden to Ras Tanura in the Persian Gulf as part of an American government agreement with the Saudi royal family; the silver coins had been minted in America for Saudi monarch King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud and were stacked in huge boxes in the hold, and went down with the ship when she was torpedoed at 15°10′N 55°18′E, about 100 miles south of the entrance to the Arabian Sea. A massive salvage operation in 1994 succeeded in retrieving many of the lost coins.

Three days later another unescorted merchant, the British SS Troilus was also sunk, with six hands drowned.

On 23 September U-859 was running on the surface, within 23 mi (37 km) of Penang and the end of her voyage, when she was intercepted in the Malacca Straits by the British submarine HMS Trenchant, which had been forewarned of her arrival date and route by decrypted German signals. In difficult conditions with a heavy swell running and a second U-boat thought to be lurking, Trenchant's commander Arthur Hezlet carried out a snap attack using his stern torpedo tubes, hitting U-859 amidships. The U-boat sank immediately in 50 m (160 ft) of water with several compartments flooded, and 47 men drowned, including her commander.

Twenty of the crew did manage to escape however, opening the hatch in the relatively shallow sea and struggling to the calm surface. Eleven of the survivors were picked up by HMS Trenchant immediately following the sinking, and the remaining 9 were picked up by the Japanese after being adrift for 24 hours and were taken ashore to await repatriation.

In 1972 a total of 12 tons of mercury were recovered from the U-859 and brought into Singapore. The West German Embassy claimed ownership of the mercury. The Receiver of Wreck took possession of the mercury, and the High Court of Singapore ruled that "the German state has never ceased to exist despite Germany's unconditional surrender in 1945 and whatever was the property of the German State, unless it was captured and taken away by one of the Allied Powers, still remains the property of the German State.

A beautiful coat with a fascinating history