My sad duty to report the passing of Otto Giese.

Just yesterday, I recieved this very sad news. Now U 181 has only one Officer still living, he is: Leutnant Engineer--Dietrich Hille.

Otto Giese--friend and comrade, rest in peace sir.

More on this tomorrow.

 

Arg, another one gone !

- Salute -

Erich

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by C.Evans:
Just yesterday, I recieved this very sad news. Now U 181 has only one Officer still living, he is: Leutnant Engineer--Dietrich Hille.

Otto Giese--friend and comrade, rest in peace sir.

More on this tomorrow. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Is that the same Otto Giese who wrote shooting the war.

 

Bad news mate,another one gone.

 

Dear Bish and Paul: Sorry it took me so long to get back. Sadly yes, he is one and the same who wrote Shooting The War. He passed away in a retirement home in Lucrene Florida some days ago. At least he lived to see 93 years, but still not enough in my book.

Take care guys.

 

More info about Otto Giese just in from my friends in Germany.

Philipp Otto Giese was 86--I was mistaken on his age. He passed away on September 29th 2001.
He was born November 8, 1914 in Bremen, Germany.

He retired in Florida as a Merchant Marine Captain and was a full member of the Presbyterian Church.

 

My friend :

Have you thought seriously of putting up a tribute page with bio's and pics of the members of U-181.
I for one would love to know more about these brave men of the high-seas.

Gruß

Erich

 

Otto :

I'll be looking forward to it.........

Tschüß

E

 

Thanks guys, I will try to get all their info I can get, so the page can be a great page. Right now I only have sketchy info and some of my info is in storage and I dont know when I will be able to find some of their letters.

One thing I was really touched by was, when I was able to send all the photos I had taken of the comrades in Bad Camberg, and as a gift to Franz-Josef Hawran (Deceased on May 12th this year ) I was absolutely thrilled at recieving a letter from his grandson, telling me how much he enjoyed seeing all these photos of his comrades again, and how happy he was because of my gift.

Shortly after he recieved these photos, he finally lost all of his eyesight and was totally blind the last several months of his life. I do hope that to make him happy, I certainly hoped that he was able to remember some of the images of his comrades that I sent to him as he could no longer view them.

His grandson told me that Franz-Josef loved looking at all the photos time and time again. It makes one feel better knowing that one had a very positive effect on a gentlemans life near the end of it. That was how I was able to comfort myself a bit when I recieved the sad news of his passing. I thought about what his grandson Daniel had said to me in the snail and emails. It would be nice that Franz-Josef Hawran, actually gained more time here because of being happier near the end.

Please forgive me for sounding a bit wierd, but I said that because of this below:

Its reminded me of a story about my grandmother. My grandmother was in a Hospital in Houston, Tx. I dont remember what she was so ill with, but, she had been in a Coma for sometime and wasnt expected to make it.

Well, I along with my mother, went there to stay with her. I had on this wild colored shirt on--neon Pink-neon Green and neon yellow, to be exact.

Well, apparently a miracle happened.

This shirt was so brightly colored that it could practically light up a dark room with a candle.

Shortly after Iwe arrived (possibly an hour? or less?) my grandmother came out of a Coma. My grandmother told me that somehow she sensed the colors, and she awoke-saw that she had visitors--my mother and I.

This actually freaked out her Doctors and Nurses, because NOTHING they tried could wake her up or get her out of a Coma. Then here comes a relative, wearing a neon tri-colored shirt and she awakens.

My grandmother was NOT expected to have been able to live through that very day--yet lo and behold--she lived a few more years! In my own way, I sure hope that because I did make an impact on someones life (Hopefully I did for Franz-Josef) hopefully he was willing to live longer because of it and in the meantime--being a joy to his family at being in better spirits.

See what I mean? It makes me feel good to think that that COULD have been the case, as it was with my grandmother.