by Clay Blair
12 tons of steel
7 tons of optical glass
43 tons of aircraft plans, instruments, arms, and medical supplies
5 tons of 20mm and 37mm ammo
6 tons of equipment for the U-boat bases
1 ton of mail, films, and courier post
1,232 pounds of uranium-oxide ore †
1 disassembled twin-jet ME-262
The U-234 embarked twelve passengers. Eleven boarded in Kiel. These were:
• Two Japanese officers: Air Force Colonel Genzo Shosi (an aeronautical engineer) and Navy Captain Hideo Tomonaga (a submarine architect).
• Three Luftwaffe officers: Colonel Fritz von Sandrath (antiaircraft), Colonel Erich Menzel (communications), and Lieutenant Colonel Kai Nieschling (a military judge).
• Four Kriegsmarine officers: Lieutenant Commander Heinrich Hellendorn (gunnery), Captain Heinz Schlicke (electronics), Captain Gerhard Falk (a naval architect), and Lieutenant Commander Richard Bulla (air-sea cooperation).
• Two civilians from Messerschmitt: August Bringewald (an engineer) and Franz Ruf (procurement).
The chief radioman on U-234, Wolfgang Hirschfeld, wrote* that his skipper, Fehler, was dissatisfied with his first watch officer. He prevailed on passenger Richard Bulla, a friend who had served with Fehler on the merchant-ship raider Atlantis, to take on that position.
Fehler left Kiel on March 25 for Norway. Two days later, the heavily laden boat arrived in Horten. During further snorkel trials, the new VIIC41 U-1301 rammed U-234 abaft the conning tower, tearing open a fuel-ballast tank, spilling sixteen tons of oil into the sea. Unable to dry-dock for repairs in Bergen, Fehler sailed into a quiet fjord near Kristiansand, flooded the boat forward (raising the stern), and his crew carried out repairs.
Finally, the last passenger boarded. He was the flamboyant Luftwaffe General Ulrich Kessler. A specialist in antiaircraft and antiship missiles, he was to be the new German air attaché in Tokyo. He shocked Fehler and others with his derogatory remarks about Hitler and his cronies, Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring in particular.
The U-234 left Kristiansand on April 15. Fehler was dubious about reaching Japan, but nonetheless he snorkeled on for sixteen days, until May 1, when he reached the Atlantic and a storm forced him to surface temporarily. He resumed submerged cruising day after day, surfacing for two hours at night to charge batteries and air the boat.
When Germany capitulated, Fehler was in mid-Atlantic and he chose to surrender to the Americans, so he surfaced and headed westward. After disposing of his Tunis radar detector, Kurier transmitter, and all Enigma and other secret papers, Fehler met the American destroyer Sutton. Rather than be captured, the two Japanese officers committed suicide, each swallowing a dozen Luminal sleeping pills. Fehler secretly buried the bodies in weighted seabags. Sutton took control of the boat and escorted U-234 into Portsmouth to berth with U-805, U-873, and U-1228.
Like other U-boat prisoners, the Germans on U-234 were jailed at Portsmouth. The Navy took the passengers and some officers to Fort Hunt, outside Washington, DC, for extended interrogations. Hirschfeld wrote that the second watch officer, Karl Pfaff, returned to Portsmouth to advise the Americans about unloading the boxes of uranium-oxide ore. Scientists say this uranium ore would have yielded about 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) of isotope U-235 (not a U-boat), about one-fifth of what was needed to make an atomic bomb.
Subsequently this uranium ore “disappeared.” That is, up to 1998 researchers had not found a paper trail tracing its use and/or disposal. The most plausible speculation is that it was shipped to the Manhattan Project’s diffusion factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where in the postwar years it might have been processed into atomic-bomb material.
When Germany capitulated, there were four big German U-boats in the Far East. These were three IXD2 U-cruisers, and one XB minelayer, which, like U-234, had been converted to a cargo carrier. The Japanese took control of these four and commissioned them in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Thus the IXD1 U-195 became 1-506, the IXD2s U-181 and U-862 became 1-501 and 1-502, and the XB U-219 became 1-505. The Japanese interned the German crews, but they were held in fairly comfortable circumstances.
BERLIN: THE FINAL DAYS
As the Third Reich crumbled and self-destructed, two of its most powerful Nazis, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, betrayed Hitler. Power mad and severely addicted to drugs, Göring telegraphed Hitler to propose that he, Göring, replace Hitler as Führer of the Third Reich, Himmler, no less power mad, secretly initiated surrender talks with the West through the Swedish consulate in Lübeck, in the person of Count Folke Bernadotte. When Hitler received Göring’s telegram, he stripped him of all official posts, expelled him from the Nazi Party, and directed that Göring be arrested for high treason. When Hitler learned of Himmler’s defection (via a BBC broadcast), he also stripped him of all official posts and expelled him from the Nazi Party.
Few of the senior officials in the Third Reich remained loyal to Hitler to the very end. One was Karl Dönitz. There are several possible reasons for his steadfastness.
He had sworn a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. His character was so rigidly fixed that he was unable to bend or break that oath.
Mindful of the fact that defections in the Imperial Navy led to the overthrow of the Kaiser in 1918, Dönitz was determined in a knightly manner to prevent repetition of that betrayal, and thereby uphold the honor of the Kriegsmarine.
That by retaining Hitler’s confidence he might eventually gain sufficient power and authority to legally negotiate surrender terms with the West short of “unconditional,” minimize the incursions and plundering by Soviet troops, and prevent the utter and complete dissolution of Germany as a sovereign nation.
That his growing prominence and power with the German people might make him a logical appointee in the postwar years to the job of temporary head of state and put him in a favorable position to win a majority of votes for the presidency of a newly formed, democratic Germany.
That although Dönitz was not an official Nazi Party member, he had in fact become a dedicated Nazi and was Hitler’s most trusted military subordinate.
One thing is clear: Contrary to some speculation, Dönitz did not remain loyal to Hitler because he believed that the new electro boats and other secret weapons could turn the tide of battle or put Hitler in a more favorable bargaining position to negotiate a surrender. No one knew better than Dönitz that the new Type VII and Type IX snort boats and Type XXI electro boats could no longer make a noteworthy impact on Allied shipping; that, indeed, the vaunted Type XXIs were crippled by mechanical defects that could not be overcome in time.
Whatever his motivation, in the last months of the war Admiral Dönitz relentlessly exhorted the men of the Kriegsmarine to soldier on loyally for Hitler and the Third Reich. Often his language took on a threatening tone. Most of his exhortations were intercepted and decrypted by Allied codebreakers, who circulated and preserved them. Some excerpts from that source:*
• On January 31 in a message to “all Sea Defense Commandants,” Dönitz conceded that the advance of the Red Army had brought on a “serious crisis.” It could be overcome, Dönitz told his officer corps, “if every German wholeheartedly obeying the Führer’s orders” performed his duty to the utmost. Everything possible was being done to meet the crisis. He had combed the Kriegsmarine for surplus manpower with which to create several infantry divisions. He had already ordered four naval regiments into action on the Eastern Front.
“Over and above this,” Dönitz went on, “every one of us must prepare himself for this crisis …. We must grow harder. Wailing and complaining is unmanly and shortsighted. Nothing is accomplished by empty, negative talkI cannot rely on officers ... who through too much talking, through an overbearing sense of knowledge, or through miserable feelings of fear express themselves negatively, thereby not only failing in the fulfillment of their duties in leadership but also harming our power of resistance. I will dismiss them and place them at the ar
my’s disposition, with no regard for rank or position.”
• On March 1, Dönitz sent a message to “all U-boats.” “We know,” he said,
that the life of our nation is at stakeWe must lose no time, must use every hour, every day. We fighting men must serve as the best examplesIt is a question of action. From nothing comes nothing. Nothing will be accomplished by mere speech making: “Carry on” or “We will soon throw the Russians out again.” ...
Let us learn to improvise. In this sixth year of the war there are many things no longer at hand to which we were formerly accustomed … Let us attack every task with resourceful spirit and initiative, however things may be going.
Let us fly into the face of all those who want to give up, who adopt the silly motto “It is no longer any use.” Those are the greatest weaklings. They are the ones who let themselves be led to the slaughter like patient cattle.
Let us guard against being stifled by dogma in waging our war. The fortune of war is infinitely many-sided, and, especially in naval warfare, dependent on chance and the combination of so many circumstances that new situations and new combat situations are presented again and again …. A fighting service which is stifled by dogma accomplishes nothing more. Many victorious battles have been waged contrary to all rules of the art of war.
Let us show our enemies that the destruction of Germany will cost them more in blood, treasure and time than they can withstand. Then they will have to give up that aim ... and we will have won the war. Therefore let us exert all our power to the utmost, for example by sinking as many ships as possible for the Anglo-Saxons in total disregard of risk. Then their doubts as to whether the unconditional defeat of Germany is practicable and not too costly will increase.
Let us fly into the face of any German who now becomes the least bit shaky in his loyalty to the National Socialist State and to the Fuhrer. The motives for this are only fear, cowardice and weakness. We are the strong and faithful.
• On March 20, in a message to “all officers,” Dönitz stated that “capitulation is suicide and signifies certain death” and would bring “the speedy or gradual destruction of millions of German people.”
Our honor demands that we fight to the end. The same is required by our pride, which rebels against humbling ourselves before a people like the Russians, before Anglo-Saxon sanctimony, arrogance and lack of culture. Every thought rebels against the possibility of handing over cultivated German territory to Polish mismanagement. Thus stern necessity, duty, honor and pride bid us fight to the last if need be.
Let us not allow to exist... dangers which may injure the fighting morale of the men … Trample them out ruthlessly at their first appearanceBe hard and strict rather than too soft … If circumstances demand making a quick, horrible ex ample of someone, let us not shrink from the task.
For example, it was recently reported to me that discovery was made of an act of sabotage by a German member of the crew of a passenger steamer which was being used for military purposes under control of the Navy. If the captain of this ship had summarily strung this man upon the yardarm in order to quench such crimes once and for all on board his ship, I would have defended this act of the captain under any circumstances. It is thus better to act at once and vigorously than to let such things keep on smoldering... .*
Let us make our troops fanatical. Let us sow hatred for our enemies ... fill our soldiers with passion, so they will feel superior to the enemy.... The more fanatical and passionate the will to fight is in a soldier, the stronger he is....
Let no one brag about old deeds. Whoever fails now in his duty in this decisive hour of our people must be treated ruthlessly, without mercy in view of earlier achievements. The higher he is stationed as a soldier, the more must be demanded of him. In the present fight for life or death of our people, a flag officer as captain who is in a responsible position and fails decisively in his duty to the detriment of our people can atone for this crime only by death.
Let us trust the leadership of Adolf Hitler without reservation. Believe me, in the two years of my activity as Commander in Chief, I have always found that the Fuhrer has always been right in his strategical and operational views. Our military situation would be better off today if all operational military commands had believed without reserve and had acted accordingly without delay. Very often the realization that the Fuhrer was right again this time did not come for weeks but then it was mostly too late. Let us therefore strengthen our troops by faith in our Fuhrer. All in all: let us be proud of the fighting spirit of our Navy. Let us watch over it as our most precious possession. In whatever way the situation may yet develop, the Navy must stand like a belligerent block that cannot be diverted from its task. It will never bow under the hostile yoke.
• On April 7, Dönitz reiterated his demand for loyalty:
We soldiers of the Kriegsmarine know how we have to act. Our military duty, which we fulfill regardless of what may happen to right or left or around us, causes us to stand bold, hard and loyal as a rock of resistance. A scoundrel who does not behave so must be hanged and have a placard fastened to him: “Here hangs a traitor who by his low cowardice allows German women and children to die, instead of protecting them like a man … “
• On April 11, in a long screed, Dönitz again rose to the defense of Hitler.
I turn against the irresponsible and shortsighted weaklings who say “If we had not had National Socialism, all this would not have happened.” If we had not had National Socialism we would already have had Communism in Germany, further unemployment and political chaos. Without the rearmament which the Fuhrer brought us, Germany would have been trampled over by the Russians in their expansionary push to the west....
I turn against the clever people who say we should have avoided the war against Russia in 1941. Had the leadership done that, then the unweakened Russians would have rolled over us long since at a time that suited them. Then those same clever people would have said: “Yes, the leadership should have prevented it with a timely attack on Russia....”
Alone for years the Fuhrer clearly recognized the threat from Bolshevism. Therefore he did away with our disunity and monstrous unemployment, made us powerful in defense and attempted to enlighten Europe. On the other side stands this hate-blinded Churchill, the grave digger of English power, who entered the war in order to preserve the balance of power and to pledge himself to the freedom of small nations. What now remains of power and where has the freedom of the small nations gone? ... [They] are provinces of Bolshevik Russia....
Europe will learn that Adolf Hitler is the single statesman of stature in Europe. Therefore all negative brooding is unfruitful and objectively incorrect. Because it is born of weakness it cannot be anything else, since cowardice and weakness make one stupid and blind....
Again he demanded that flag officers and captains of the Kriegsmarine “clearly and plainly tread the path of soldierly duty”:
The honor of our flag on board is sacred to us. No one thinks of giving up his ship. Rather, go down in honor.... The Kriegsmarine will fight to the end. Some day its bearing in the severest crisis of this war will be judged by posterity. The same goes for each individual....
In the last hours of the Third Reich, the fifty-six-year-old monster Adolf Hitler holed up in his Berlin Führerbunker and drew up a “last will and testament” in which he named Dönitz to succeed him as “President of the Reich and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.” He then married his mistress, Eva Braun, and on the afternoon of April 30, while Eva died of self-inflicted poison, Hitler took poison and also shot himself in the mouth with a pistol. The next day, his ever faithful propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, had a doctor kill the six young Goebbels children (ages three to twelve) with lethal injections of poison. Then, at his orders, an SS orderly shot him and his wife, Magda. Designated aides burned the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun and Goebbels and his wife. Per Hitler’s orders, his “secretary,” Martin Bormann, fled the bunker to carry Hitler’s
last will and testament to Dönitz and to seek a high position in the new German government.
All that remained of the Nazi hierarchy also fled Berlin. Dönitz shifted the naval staff from Koralle to Plon, a small city on an inland body of water midway between Kiel and Lübeck. The senior staff of the former military high command (OKW), including Wilhelm Keitel and Alfried Jodl, moved to the small town of Rheinsberg, north of Berlin, then farther northwest to a site near Krakow, closer to Plön. When the Red Army threatened to overrun those places, Dönitz moved to the naval academy at Murwick, near Flensburg, and established the new German “government” on the large, modern passenger liner Patria, berthed in Flensburg harbor. He was joined there by SS chief Heinrich Himmler and former Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (both futilely seeking jobs) and by munitions chief Albert Speer, OKW generals Keitel and Jodl, the new chief of the Luftwaffe, Robert Ritter von Greim, and the new commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, and others.*
On May 2, Admiral Dönitz assumed the position of chief of state and commander of all German military forces. He broadcast by radio his intentions to the military forces:
My comrades!
The Führer has fallen. True to his great purpose of saving the culture of Europe from Bolshevism, he dedicated his life and met a hero’s death. In him we have lost one of the greatest heroes of German history. In awe and grief we lower the flag for him.
The Fuhrer designated me as his successor and Chief of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. I assume the Supreme Command over all branches of the German Armed Forces with the determination to continue the battle against Bolshevism until the fighting troops and the hundreds of thousands of families in Eastern Germany are saved from slavery or annihilation. I must continue the battle against the English and the Americans as long as they obstruct me in the prosecution of the battle against Bolshevism.