KORVETTENKAPITÄN KENTRAT — From the cruiser Emden to U-196

We have gathered all the archives of Korvettenkapitän Kentrat and will be presenting an exceptional colour album devoted to the career of this distinguished sailor, featuring more than 600 photographs and documents.

Born in 1906 in Moselle, he entered the Reichsmarine in October 1925 as an ordinary seaman and rapidly rose to become an officer. We follow him, across all these periods with photographs, during his two-year cruise aboard the Emden, the Hessen, during the Spanish Civil War, aboard the Deutschland (attacked by the Soviets), and the Schlesien. In 1939 he joined the U-Boote, serving aboard U-25, then took command of U-8 from May 1940, and then U-74, with which he rescued three survivors from the Bismarck.

He received the Ritterkreuz in December 1941. He took command of U-196 in September 1942, with which he completed the longest U-Boot patrol on record — 225 days at sea — returning to Bordeaux on 23 October 1943.

In September 1944 he was posted to the Kriegsmarine naval base at Kobe in Japan, where he remained until the end of the war. We then find him in the company of former Admiral Dönitz within veterans' associations after the war. He died on 9 January 1974.

This album presents a rich collection of illustrations, largely captioned in his own hand, including 130 photographs relating to U-196 and twelve exceptional period colour photographs (with his dog Polo, returning from a mission aboard U-196, the submarine on the open sea), along with documents and personal effects. It is a work unlike any other in its presentation, retracing step by step the career of this distinguished sailor through his personal documents, the letters he wrote to his parents during port calls, his uniform items, and more.