Arthur H. Graubart
After the US declared war on Germany in 1917, Graubart, age 16, tried to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, but was recognized by an acquaintance of his father and sent home after two days.
As a midshipman, he earned the nickname “Speed” or "Speedy" , when one of the members of the track team was injured and Graubart was asked to run in his place.
[1] After graduation in 1925, his first assignment was on board the light cruiser USS Cincinnati, which in 1927 was involved in the Nicaragua "Banana Fleet" operations to protect American refugees during the country's civil war.
[5] Mid-1944, he received orders to report to the Pentagon and became a member of the working group preparing the comprehensive manual on the German Armed Forces, titled U.S. War Department Technical Manual TM-E 30-451: Handbook on German Military Forces,[6] first issued to troops in loose-leaf format from February 1945 on and published on 15 March, 1945.
Naval Forces Germany since December 1944, sent Graubart as his representative to the official surrender of the German Navy at Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's headquarters in Lüneburg, where Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, signed an instrument of surrender of all German armed forces in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark on 4 May 1945.
At a meeting with Soviet counterparts in the Reich Chancellery, he famously got the Russian guards drunk on vodka, and in the resulting alcohol fuelled disorientation, was able to make off with the large swastika banner that had been the backdrop of many of Hitler's speeches.
Graubart was subsequently appointed to TNC's Technical Sub-Committee which had responsibility for preparing the allocation lists and was a member of several Inspection Parties (also called Tripartite Naval Boards) to undertake the detailed work in estimating the seaworthiness and value of ships and in deciding which ships and submarines would be allocated between the three Allies, and the disposal arrangements for the remainder .
On several occasions, he argued for not discharging German Navy units under US and UK control, but to keep them in order to have more Naval capacity ready against possible Soviet actions.
In the distribution of the few remaining German naval vessels after the Potsdam conference, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which had been in company with the Bismarck when she sank the Hood, and had herself landed three hits with her 8-inch shells on the Prince of Wales in that action—was assigned to the US Navy.
[9][10] With a crew of 574 German officers and crewmen under Hansjürgen Reinicke, Graubart departed Bremerhaven on January 13, and headed for Boston, en route stopping for a few hours in the Spitehead's Road.
Graubart refuted all reproaches of fraternization but called his action another example of proper US Navy seamanship - "a captain is never too good to eat with his crew, having crossed the Atlantic Ocean with them".
A subsequent Admiralty enquiry resulted in the investigators concluding: "Absolutely no evidence of drunkenness, either among visitors or within the crew, whose behaviour was at all times correct.
On March 11, USS Prinz Eugen sailed for San Pedro Naval Base on the Pacific coast of the United States, via the Panama Canal.
After debriefing in regard of his activities with Tripartite Naval Commission, his command of Prinz Eugen and his estimate of Soviet intentions and German capabilities, Graubart was appointed Chief of U.S.
Initially, the employees, all former German Navy personnel handpicked by Graubart, who, from his pre-war attaché times, knew too well who was a Nazi and who not, wrote historical studies.
[17] In November 1950, a few months after the outbreak of the Korean war, the U.S. Navy, acting through COMNAVGER, formed three labor service units "to assist in manning the ships, craft and shore facilities of US Naval Forces Germany".
His annual donations enabled the U. S. Naval Academy Alumni Association to fund German language study programs for selected volunteer midshipmen and USNA graduates on active duty.
