by Clay Blair
Nine Type IXs sailed from Norway to the Americas in March. These included four new boats and two older boats with new skippers. On April 12, U-boat Control designated seven of these as group Seewolf, leaving out U-530 and U-548, the older boats with new skippers. Group Seewolf was to attack shipping along the U.S. East Coast from New York southward; the two older boats were to attack shipping in waters of Canada and the northeast United States coast. Two of the chosen seven aborted with snort failures, but both resailed after a week of repairs, delayed but still elements of Seewolf.
Fully aware of these German plans from OP20G’s Enigma decrypts and almost dead certain that the boats of group Seewolf were the long-anticipated V-l launchers, Tenth Fleet and Admiral Ingram deployed massive naval and air forces to intercept them. These were two hunter-killer groups consisting of the “jeep” carriers Mission Bay and Croatan and twenty escorts in northern waters and two hunter-killer groups consisting of the “jeep” carriers Core and Bogue and twenty-two escorts in more southerly waters.
U-boat Control directed the seven boats of Seewolf to rake westward along the North Atlantic convoy routes and to ruthlessly pursue any contacts, because “we must sink ships!” Snorting slowly westward, making barely one hundred miles a day, these boats found no targets. To avoid this U-boat menace, as well as the hideous winter weather, Allied authorities routed North Atlantic convoys well to the south.
American naval forces sank five Seewolf boats. Owing to heavy storms that impeded air operations and to the difficulty of spotting snorts, surface warships got credit for almost all of the killing.
• On April 15, according to Tenth Fleet, two destroyer escorts of the Croatan group, Stanton, commanded by John C. Kiley, and Frost, commanded by Andrew E. Ritchie, sank the new IXC40 U-1235, commanded by Franz Barsch, age thirty-three. There were no survivors and no positive evidence of a kill.
• The next day, according to Tenth Fleet, these same two warships sank the new IXC40 U-880, commanded by Gerhard Schötzau, who celebrated his twenty-eighth birthday that day. There were no survivors or positive evidence of a kill from that boat either.
• On April 22, according to Tenth Fleet, while inbound to Argentia in “mountainous seas,” two other destroyer escorts of the Croatan group, Carter, commanded by F.J.T. Baker, and the Neal A. Scott, commanded by P. D. Holden, sank the IXC U-518, commanded by Hans-Werner Offermann, age twenty-three. Again, there were no survivors or positive evidence of a kill.
• On April 23, the veteran IXC40 U-546, commanded by Paul Just, sailed into the zone guarded by the hunter-killer groups of the “jeep” carriers Bogue and Core. Spotting the Core, skipper Just boldly ran in to attack. However, a patrolling Avenger from Bogue, piloted by William W. South, spotted U-546 and drove her under with depth charges.
This sighting, of course, set in motion a massive hunt. The next morning, one of Core’s destroyer escorts, Frederick C. Davis, commanded by James R. Crosby, got U-546 on sonar. Moments later Paul Just fired a T-5 at Davis and it hit with a shattering blast. Davis sank quickly with the loss of 126 from her crew of 192, including her skipper.*
Nearby destroyer escorts of the Core group raced to the site of the Davis sinking to rescue survivors and find her killer. For ten hours eight determined destroyer escorts probed the seas with sonar and fired off Hedgehogs and depth charges. Finally, the noted veteran Flaherty, commanded by Howard C. Duff, a ship that a year earlier had helped kill Henke’s U-515 and capture the U-505, hit U-546 with Hedgehogs and blew her to the surface. Four or five other warships nearby opened fire with guns and U-546 sank swiftly.† Five warships rescued thirty-three of her crew of fifty-nine, including Just.
Allied authorities rushed the German survivors to Argentia to elicit what information they could about the supposed attack on American cities by V-l or V-2 missiles. Paul Just charged in his memoir ‡ that the Americans beat and tortured them. Seeming to confirm Just’s charge, Samuel Eliot Morison wrote: “They were a bitter and truculent group of Nazis, who refused to talk until after they had been landed at Argentia and had enjoyed a little ‘hospitality’ in the Marine Corps brig.” § Of course, Just had no knowledge of the V-l or V-2 attack.
• In the early hours of May 6, the veteran destroyer escort Farquhar of the Mission Bay hunter-killer group, returning to New York, got a close sonar contact. This was the IXC40 U-881, a Seewolf boat commanded by Heinz Frischke, which had aborted with snort problems and resailed on April 7 and was therefore lagging. Farquhar’s watch officer, Lloyd R. Borst, fired off a quick pattern of thirteen depth charges. These destroyed U-881 with the loss of all hands. This kill occurred on the same day that other American warships got the U-853 off Block Island.
The other two Seewolf boats, the IXC40 U-805 and the IXC40 U-858, achieved nothing and surrendered at sea to U.S. naval forces. The destroyer escorts Otter and Varian, sailing from Argentia, took control of U-805, commanded by Richard Bernardelli, age thirty-six. The destroyer escorts Carter and Muir, also sailing from Argentia, took control of U-858, commanded by Thilo Bode, age twenty-seven. These warships and/or others escorted these boats to the Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire.
The seven boats assigned to group Seewolf sank only one ship, the destroyer escort Frederick C. Davis. In return, five of its seven boats were sunk, manned by about 250 men, thirty-three of whom were captured.
The two older boats with new skippers that patrolled to Canadian and northeastern American waters in March achieved slightly more than group Seewolf.
• The IXC40 U-548, commanded by Erich Krempl, age twenty-three, sailed from Norway on March 7. East of Norfolk on April 18, Krempl sank the unescorted 8,300-ton American tanker Swiftscout. Five days later, he torpedoed and damaged another tanker, the 7,345-ton Norwegian Katy, which was towed into Lynnhaven Bay, Virginia. A hunter-killer group that included the veteran destroyer escort Buckley, commanded by E. H. Headland, raced out to hunt U-548 to exhaustion. Guided by Tenth Fleet, on April 19, Buckley and another destoyer escort with a famous pedigree, Reuben James, found and destroyed U-548 with the loss of all hands.
• The IXC40 U-530, commanded by Otto Wermuth, age twenty-four, sailed from Kristiansand on March 4. Wermuth had made a number of patrols as watch officer on the earlier IXs U-37 and U-103, but he had not yet commanded a U-boat in combat. In two years in the Atlantic, U-530 under Kurt Lange had accomplished little or nothing. On this voyage, her crew and her skipper were mostly young new hands.
Wermuth had orders to patrol near Halifax. When he found no worthwhile targets there, Control directed him to go south to New York waters. In the period from May 4 to 7, Wermuth encountered ships of several convoys (probably of Halifax 354 and/or Outbound North 298) that had scattered in dense fog. He shot nine of his fourteen torpedoes at these vessels, but all missed or malfunctioned.
When Wermuth learned of Germany’s surrender, he decided to flee to Argentina. After all hands except a few enlisted men approved of this idea, Wermuth jettisoned his five remaining good torpedoes, ammo, and secret papers and headed south. On July 10, the boat reached Mar del Plata and surrendered to the Argentine Navy.
Argentine and American intelligence officers thoroughly interrogated all fifty-four Germans of the crew, seized logbooks, and inspected the boat. Although none of these officials found anything exceptional to report, Latin American newspapers were soon ablaze with all sorts of nonsense, including the assertion that U-530 had smuggled Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun (and/or Martin Bormann and others) out of Germany to Argentina.*
Had Hitler or Bormann elected to flee Germany by submarine, it is unlikely that he or they would have chosen the aging IXC40 U-530, commanded by a green skipper, twenty-four-year-bid Otto Wermuth. There were plenty of big new IXCs, the XB U-234, and some new IXD2 U-cruisers on hand, as well as numerous battle-wise U-boat skippers beholden to Hitler for medals and other considerations, for example, Wolfgang Lüth, then commandant of the naval academy in Mürwick, who wore the Ritterkreuz with Oak Leaves, Sword
s, and Diamonds, and whose last command was the U-cruiser U-181. No other crewman of (7-550 has come forward to verify the assertions of Farago et al.
There is another point. Had the Allies put any credence in the stories that Hitler or Bormann had fled Germany in a submarine, they doubtless would have charged Dönitz and his underlings with the serious offense of aiding and abetting the escape of war criminals. Yet not even the slightest suggestion of this charge arose in the lengthy investigations for Dönitz’s trial at Nuremberg or during the trial itself.
Apart from the resailing U-881 of group Seewolf, four IXs sailed to the Americas in April to attack shipping.* Two were new boats. One was an experienced boat with a new skipper.
• The first to sail, on April 1, was the new IXD2 U-cruiser U-873, originally converted to a cargo boat. She was commanded by Friedrich Steinhoff, age thirty-five. Earlier in the war, Steinhoff had commanded for a full year the IXC U-511, the boat that Hitler gave Tojo (“Marco Polo I”). During that year, Steinhoff had been assigned briefly to R&D at Peenemünde, where German rocket scientists were developing the V-l and V-2. They had fitted U-511 with experimental topside antiaircraft rockets that could be fired from a submerged position, but the tests were not sufficiently encouraging to justify further work in that direction.
What has not come to light is whether or not the Allies had made the connection between Steinhoff’s U-511 and his U-873 and his work with rockets. If they had, it might have lent credence to the suspicion that U-boats intended to hit New York with V-l missiles. More likely, U-boat Control reconverted Steinhoff’s U-873 to an attack boat and sent her to America to serve as a provisional refueler and supply vessel with a doctor, Carl Wilhelm Reinke, on board.
When Germany capitulated, Steinhoff and several officers considered fleeing to South America. However, the crew objected and after jettisoning her T-5s, all secret papers, the Tunis radar detector, and Kurier radio transmitter the boat prepared to surrender. The American destroyer escort Vance took control of U-873 and escorted her into Portsmouth on May 17. Apparently naval personnel (or Marines) handled Steinhoff and his crew roughly. An official Navy investigation followed. After transfer to Boston’s Charles Street Prison, Steinhoff broke the glass of his watch and committed suicide by slashing his wrists.*
Next to sail, on April 6, was the new IXC40 U-889, commanded by Friedrich Braeucker, age twenty-five. He snorted slowly across the Atlantic but saw no targets. When Germany capitulated, he surrendered to a local Canadian group escorting the outbound Slow Convoy 175: the corvette Dunvegan and three minesweepers. Dunvegan and the minesweeper Rockcliffe escorted U-889 toward Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Two Canadian frigates, Buckingham and Inch Arran, took over escort near Sable Island and observed by swarms of journalists in an aircraft, entered Shelburne on May 14.
The experienced IXC40 U-1228, commanded by Friedrich-Wilhelm Marienfeld, age twenty-five, defied superstitions and sailed from Kristiansand on her third patrol on Friday, April 13. He was to operate off New York. When the war ended, he kept going westward and jettisoned torpedoes, secret papers, the Tunis and Kurier receivers and transmitters, and other gear. On May 11 off the Grand Banks, the U.S Navy destroyer escort Neal A. Scott took control of U-1228 and escorted her into the Portsmouth Navy Yard on May 17.
The experienced IXC40 U-1231, commanded by a new skipper, Helmut Wicke, age twenty-four, sailed from Norway on April 27. When Germany capitulated, he surrendered to British forces and put into Loch Eriboll on May 14.
One boat sailed from Norway to the Americas in May. She was the veteran IXC40 U-802, commanded by Helmut Schmoeckel, age twenty-seven. He left Bergen on May 3 to patrol off New York. However, when Germany capitulated, he surrendered to British forces and put into Loch Eriboll on May 11.
LAST PATROLS TO AND FROM THE FAR EAST
Six U-boats sailed between Norway and the Far East in 1945: four from the Far East and two to the Far East.
Three boats in the Far East set off for Norway in January. Since there were no more surface tankers or U-tankers anywhere, the IXD1 cargo carrier U-195, commanded by Friedrich Steinfeldt, sailed to the Indian Ocean on January 26 to serve as a provisional refueler. The boat carried out this task and returned to the Far East on March 4. When Germany capitulated, the Japanese took control of U-195 and renamed her 1-506.
The patrols in brief:
• The IXC U-510, commanded by Ritterkreuz holder Alfred Eick, sailed from Jakarta, Java, on January 10. He had 150 tons of cargo: wolfram, tin, raw rubber, molybdenum, and caffeine. As arranged, he refueled from Steinfeldt in U-195 in the Indian Ocean. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope on February 23, Eick sank the 7,100-ton Canadian freighter Point Pleasant Park which was sailing alone. Believing he could not survive without a snorkel, on April 24, he put into St. Nazaire to get one. He was still there when the war ended.
• The IXC40 U-532, commanded by Otto-Heinrich Junker, sailed from Jakarta on January 13. He also carried about 150 tons of cargo like that in U-510. A month later he met Steinfeldt in U-195 and refueled. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Junker sank two ships sailing alone in the Atlantic: the 3,400-ton British freighter Baron Jedburgh and the 9,300-ton American tanker Oklahoma. When Germany capitulated, U-532 was in the Iceland-Faeroes gap. Following Allied instructions, Junker surrendered and British ships escorted the boat into Loch Eriboll on May 10.
• The IXD2 U-cruiser U-861, commanded by Ritterkreuz holder Jürgen Oesten, sailed from Surabaya, Java, on January 14. He also carried about 150 tons of cargo similar to that in U-510 and U-532. In the Indian Ocean, Oesten met those two and gave some fuel to Eick in U-510. The boat did not attempt to sink shipping and reached Trondheim on April 18.
• The last boat to sail was the IXC40 U-183. She was commanded by Fritz Schneewind, who had brought the U-511 (“Marco Polo I”) to the Far East in July 1943 and had been there ever since, well over a year and a half as skipper of U-183.
Allied codebreakers intercepted Japanese and German messages and predicted that U-183 was to leave Surabaya on about April 12 for a war patrol off New Guinea. He actually left Surabaya on April 21 to cruise homeward.
The Americans, meanwhile, had directed the American fleet submarine Besugo to lie off Surabaya and sink U-183. On April 23, the commander of Besugo, Herman E. Miller, found U-183 running on the surface and shot all six bow tubes. One or more torpedoes hit, and the U-boat sank instantly. There had been seven men on U-183’s bridge, including the officer of the deck, Karl Wisniewski, a warrant quartermaster. Although he suffered from a broken leg, collarbone, and ribs, he alone survived, and Besugo rescued him. Sixty Germans perished.*
Two boats sailed from Norway to Japan in 1945.
The first was the snort-equipped IXD2 U-cruiser U-864, commanded by Ralf-Reimar Wolfram, age thirty-two. He left Bergen on February 5 with cargo for the Japanese. This included plans and parts for the Messerschmitt ME-163 Komet rocket-powered interceptor and the ME-262 twin-jet fighter, as well as signed contracts authorizing the Japanese to legally manufacture these aircraft; plans for other aircraft (JU-1 to JU-6 and “Campini”); plans for “Caproni-” and a “Satsuki”-type submarines; plans for radar manufactured by the Siemans company; and 1,857 flasks of mercury. The passengers included a number of German and Japanese aircraft engineers.
Apparently the snort on U-864 failed and Wolfram aborted to Bergen. One of the British submarines that maintained a continuous watch on Bergen, the small (600-ton) Venturer, commanded by James S. Launders on his eleventh patrol, intercepted U-864 on April 9, while both boats were submerged about thirty-five miles off Bergen. Launders, who won a DSO for sinking the VII U-771 off northern Norway in November 1944, had sailed from Lerwick on February 2. The sonar watch on Venturer picked up loud sounds and shortly thereafter, the periscope watch sighted a “thin mast” and soon, two “masts” or periscopes. With uncanny skill, Launders set up and fired four torpedoes by passive sonar and guesswork at eighteen-second intervals from three thousand yards, their
depth set at forty feet.
One or more torpedoes hit, destroying U-864 with the loss of all hands and her valuable cargo. Launders inspected the site by periscope, seeing much oil and “wood” and what might have been a topside torpedo or storage canister. He then returned to Lerwick to well-deserved high praise. He was the only British skipper in the war to sink two German U-boats and the only skipper of any nation to sink another submarine while they were both submerged.
The second U-boat to sail from Norway to the Far East in 1945 was the big XB minelayer U-234. During her construction at the Krupp Germania yards in Kiel in May 1943, she had been severely damaged by an Allied air raid and was therefore much behind schedule. Commissioned on March 2, 1944, she was commanded by Johann-Heinrich Fehler, age thirty-four. After her trials and workup with snorkel, U-boat Control ordered that she be converted to a cargo carrier, removing some mine-launching shafts and using others for storage, as well as other areas and four topside containers. When she was completed, German technicians estimated that U-234 could carry 250 tons of cargo and sufficient fuel and provisions for a six- to nine-month trip.*
According to Allied documents, the type and amount of cargo for U-234 was determined by the Marine Sonder Dienst Ausland, headed by a Commander Becker. An officer of that agency—a Lieutenant Commander Longbein—served as loading officer. The second watch officer of U-234, Karl Ernst Pfaff, was Longbein’s onboard counterpart. These and others stored the following cargo on U-234:
74 tons of lead
26 tons of mercury