Scharnhorst / Willi Gödde

From the Washington Naval Treaty to the end of the Second World War.
northcape
Senior Member
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Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:31 am

Scharnhorst / Willi Gödde

Post by northcape »

By pure chance and through rather unlikely circumstances I got introduced to the grandson of petty officer Willi Gödde, one of the very few Scharnhorst survivors from the battle of the northcape. The grandson (Arne) currently stays in Kansas to finish his PhD, and I am actually from Austria and some crooked ways of life also brought me to Kansas for some months. I find it very peculiar that, being from a landlocked country, I meet a close relative from a key person in a battle in the arctic sea in a different continent and in a state which also is as distant from the ocean as possible.

This odd story aside, I hopefully can catch up with Arne in December and have a chat about his memories on his grandfather. He says he remembers one or two things which are not in the known documentaries. Although I doubt he has a lot of detailed knowledge about the Scharnhorst and the events of Christmas 1943, do you have any suggestions what I should ask him?