Franz Machon

Machon died in 1968 after suffering from an allergic reaction to a bee sting. At the time he was working as a chef at the Bungalow Hotel in Birchington-on-Sea.

In the next several minutes, all 51 crewmen died, except for Machon. He and a boatswain's mate opened the torpedo loading hatch. Because his crewmate had no snorkel, he let him go first and quickly followed. After exiting the boat, his crewmate got confused about the direction to the surface and swam horizontally, only to lose himself between the hull and the superstructure. Upon reaching the surface, Machon swam around for roughly 1.5 hours, unsuccessfully looking for his partner until an inflated life jacket was dropped to him from a circling airplane from the 99th Bombing Squadron. This was soon followed by a drop of a thermos outfitted with water, a signal pistol, paddles and about 200 feet (61 m) of rope.

On 16 April 1945 he was handed over to the Polish authorities. He briefly settled in Wirek, Poland, before relocating to the United Kingdom. He married Alice Homer in Thanet, Kent, in 1951.

On 2 October 1942, several hundred kilometers north of Cayenne (at position .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}06°50′N 52°25′W / 6.833°N 52.417°W / 6.833; -52.417), U-512 was intercepted by depth charges from an American Douglas B-18 Bolo of the 99th Bomb Squadron. The German U-boat quickly filled with water, and left the entire crew panicking in fear. Soon, the entire cabin was filled with chlorine gas and the crewmen began to cough. (It was guessed that the chlorine gas was produced from the batteries of the electric torpedoes.) A short time previously it had been discovered that the escape lungs had been improperly stowed and that the majority of them had become wet from a buildup of condensation in the boat. Soon, air pressure in the compartment began to mount and speech became very difficult. Men began to collapse rapidly from the combined effects of chlorine and high pressure. Others started to bleed from the mouth and ears in agony.

Matrosengefreiter Franciszek Machoń (18 March 1918 – 1968), known as Franz Machon and later as Frank J. Machon, was the only survivor of the sunken German submarine U-512, and one of few World War II U-boat survivors. His story strikes remarkable similarities with Klaus Bargsten of U-521. After his capture, Machon agreed to help the United States Navy observe behaviour characteristics of fellow German prisoners of war.