World War II Submarines at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum

From the February 19, 2006 Chicago Tribune. "Submarine plans are the blueprint for Wisconsin collection" by Kristopher Wren.

Gerald Pilger, 81, of Manitowac, Wisconsin can recall the days he spent working on submarines at the Manitowac Shipbuilding Co. in World War II and he says the key to their construction was in their blueprints. These documents were used to construct the 28 submarines built there during the war., many of which were used in the Pacific Theater.

He had a hand in building the first eight, then took the 18th built there to war himself and had three successful combat patrols.

The submarines obviously are no longer made in Manitowac, but Wisconsin Maritime Museum located there has received the drawings of the 28 subs built there from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC.

That just adds to what museum curator Bill Thiessen calls one of the largest repositories of World War II artifacts in the US.

More to Come. --Cooter