A local historian has uncovered an intriguing new twist in the life of the German U-boat captain who was held captive in Bermuda during the Second World War.

Horst Augustinovic discovered that while Captain Harald Lange was incarcerated at the Naval Operating Base he befriended a Bermudian woman called Kate Perinchief who lived close to the base.

Furthermore, the pair exchanged letters once Captain Lange, who was held in Bermuda for nine months between 1944 and 1945, had returned to Germany after the end of the war.

Mr Augustinovic decided to delve into the story of Captain Lange after reading a recent Royal Gazette article highlighting the work of nurse, Shirley Humphreys, who cared for Captain Lange in Bermuda, as well as the 70th anniversary since the capture of the submarine.

“The article ‘My wife and the U-boat secret’ reminded me of an envelope in my Bermuda postal history collection that I have wanted to research for some time,” said Mr Augustinovic. “Addressed to Kate Perinchief at Somerset Bridge, Bermuda, it was mailed on November 18, 1946, by Captain Harald Lange in Hamburg, Germany, and arrived at Somerset Bridge on December 21, 1946.

“I knew that Harald Lange was the captain of the U-505, which the US Navy had captured on June 4, 1944, and brought to Bermuda.

“However, I had no idea as to Kate Perinchief and how Captain Lange would have met her, being confined at the Navy Operating Base and having had a leg amputated.

“So off I went to the Bermuda Archives.”

Mr Augustinovic’s search for Kate Perinchief proved fruitless, but he had more luck when he began to look up information under the name Catherine Perinchief.

He told The Royal Gazette: “It turned out that Catherine Sophia Perinchief owned 8.5 acres of land near Somerset Bridge, which she inherited from her father in 1929.

“In May, 1942, the US Engineers Office requested 2.333 acres of her property “west of the railway tracks” for the building of the Navy Operating Base.

“The offer of £2,500 in compensation was promptly turned down by Kate Perinchief who had valued the 2.333 acres, including one house, a stable and a privy at £8,080.

“In stepped the Bermuda Government who gave Kate Perinchief the choice of ‘compulsory acquisition for US Base purposes’ with an offer of £2,213, or arbitration.

“Obviously a savvy negotiator, Kate chose arbitration, reduced her claim to £4,580 and finally agreed to a payment of £4,000.”

In last month’s Royal Gazette article, Mrs Humphrey’s husband, Jim, revealed that his wife had tried to keep in touch with Captain Lange after the end of the war, but without luck.

However, Mr Augustinovic’s envelope addressed to Kate Perinchief from Captain Lange shows the German submarine captain was able to keep in touch with some of the people he met in Bermuda.

Mr Augustinovic believes Captain Lange and Ms Perinchief must have become friends while he was being held at the US Naval Operations Base.

He said: “Harald Lange returned to Hamburg in May, 1946, and became manager of a large fruit import business. He died in 1967.

“In 1982, Mrs Lange, together with 11 of the original crew members, visited the U-505 for the last time.

“Kate Perinchief, living on her remaining property on the other side of the railway tracks at Somerset Bridge, died in 1963.

“Several Bermudians have told me that when, as children, they were taken to Somerset on the Bermuda Railway, they remember seeing the German sailors in their compound next to the Somerset Bridge station.

“That is most likely where Kate Perinchief and Harald Lange met.

“Unfortunately, Shirley Humphreys could not have known Kate Perinchief, as she would have known how to get in touch with Captain Lange after the war.”

The U-505 was captured 150 miles off French West Africa by the Hunter-Killer Task Group 22.3 before being brought into Bermuda.

On June 19, 1944, the U-505 arrived in Bermuda and was stripped of all its equipment, including two of the new T-5 acoustic homing torpedoes for which the Allies had no effective countermeasures.

The 58 crew members were initially held in Bermuda and later interned at Camp Ruston, Louisiana, were they were isolated from other prisoners of war to prevent them from passing the word that the U-505 had not been sunk.

Captain Lange was the only one to remain in Bermuda until the end of the war.

Mr Augustinovic said: “Capturing the U-505 with its Enigma machine and codebooks presented the Allies with a problem.

“As the British had broken the German Enigma code years earlier, it was crucial that Germany not find out that the codes had been compromised.

“Had Germany changed the codes, it was estimated that it would take the Allies a year to break the new codes and it was therefore decided to bring the U-505 to Bermuda where the secret would hopefully be secure.”