German crewman's button holder nice solid relic aluminium made with original colour recovered from U-Boat U534 which was sunk on the 5th May 1945 by RAF Bombers

This is a German crewman's aluminium made button holder no real damage and still retains some of its original colour and is very solid and a nicely cleaned relic and a nice find from a German u boat. The button holder was recovered from inside U534 which was sunk on the 5th May 1945 and she was recovered in 1993 all these items were sold off by the museum as they had to many items to display and not enough space to do so. A very nice relic from the famous U boat war of the North Atlantic. This item comes with a laminated A5 information sheet with information and photos. 

German submarine U-534 Type IXC/40 U-boat for Germany's Kriegsmarine built in 1942 in Hamburg-Finkenwerder (Deutsche Werft AG - yard number 352) Launched 23 September 1942 and commissioned on 23 December in the same year. Commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Nollau

U-534 was assigned to the 4th U-boat Flotilla, based in Stettin, for training purposes and weapons testing. This included the new acoustic torpedo Zaunkoenig T-5, until February 1943. With the addition of the flak gun and the main gun removed, the U-boat was transferred to the 2nd flotilla based in Saltzwedel in June 1943. U-534 headed for Bergen and arrived on 6 May 1944. Two days later she left on operational duty, along with the U-853 and U-857, for weather reporting duty off the coast of Greenland. Her first war patrol was plagued by an oil leak and bad weather in the North Atlantic. On 11 August 1944 she was attacked by an aircraft but escaped undamaged. Two days later she, along with the U-857 and U-437, was attacked by two Halifax bombers she suffered heavy flak damage, and the U-534 arrived safely at Bordeaux. On the second patrol, 25 August 1944 to 24 October, the boat had to escape the Allied blockade of Lorient in France get back to a friendly port. On 28 October, she arrived in Kiel where she was transferred to the 33rd U-boat Flotilla and underwent an extensive refit in Stettin, which put her out of duty until 1 May 1945. On 5 May 1945, after being notified by the harbour master that there was a partial surrender the U-534 and Nollau decided to form a convoy with two Type XXI U-boats, the U-3523 and U-3503, and continue sailing north on the surface of the Kattegat sea in an area too shallow for crash diving, when two British RAF Liberator aircraft attacked (G/86 George from Tainand E/547 Edward from Leuchars). The crew managed to shoot one bomber down, and nine depth charges from the bombing runs missed, but then the boat received a direct hit by a depth charge from G/86. The U-534 began to take on water as a result of the damage to her aft section by the engine rooms, and sank north-east of Anholt. The shot-down Liberator crashed and all on board the plane were lost. The U-534 had aboard a crew of 52 men; all escaped the sub, and 49 survived to be rescued. Five were trapped in the torpedo room as she began to sink, but they managed to escape through the torpedo loading hatch once the boat had settled on the sea bed. They planned their escape the way that they had been trained, exiting through the forward torpedo hatch once the U-534 had settled on the seabed and swimming to the surface from a depth of 67 metres (220 ft) 3 of these men died by exposure in the sea. The U-boat was found in 1986 and salvaged in 1993 and since February 2009 has been on display in Birkenhead, England as part of the U-boat Story.