by Clay Blair
* Battleships Howe, King George V, Nelson, Rodney, Valiant, and Warspite; carriers Indomitable and Formidable. Since some of these warships came from the Home Fleet and Tirpitz was still in Norway, Admiral King sent seven warships to Scapa Flow for the months of June and July: two new (1942) battleships (Alabama and South Dakota) and five new (1941-42) destroyers (Ellyson, Emmons, Fitch, Macomb, and Rodman). In August the old carrier Ranger and the heavy cruisers Augusta and Tuscaloosa replaced the American battleships in the Home Fleet and, to distantly reinforce Home Fleet, the new American battleship Iowa moored in Argentia, Newfoundland, until late October.
* The Type VIIC41s U-996, U-1011, and U-1012 were damaged beyond repair. Two small (300-ton) Type XVIIIA Walter hydrogen-peroxide boats, U-792 and U-793, were damaged, another setback to that futile program. It was estimated that the dislocation of shipyard workers at the Blohm & Voss plant caused a loss in production of twenty-five to thirty Type VIICs, Owing to the obsolescence of this U-boat type and the shift to construction of “electro boats,” the practical effects of the air raids on the U-boat force were insignificant.
* At the time of the award, his confirmed sinkings were nine ships for about 33,000 tons and damage to several others.
* The 1,000-ton Flutto, and the 600-ton mediums Nereide, Acciaio, Ascianghi, and Argento. In addition, Allied forces sank three large Italian submarines that were transferring from Taranto to safer bases: the 1,600-ton minelayer Pietro Micca and the new 2,200-ton cargo carriers Romolo and Remo.
† Thus Italian submarine losses during Husky were nine.
* U-277, U-307, 11-387, U-713, U-737.
† The new VIIC U-670, commanded by Guido Hyronimus, age twenty-four, was rammed and sunk in tactical exercises by the target ship Bolkoburg. Twenty-two men, including Hyronimus, were rescued; twenty-one were killed. The aged school VII U-34, commanded by Eduard Aust, age twentytwo, was rammed and sunk by the tender Lech, with the loss of four men. The new VIIC U-977, commanded by Hans Leilich, age twenty-five, was disabled in a collision and relegated to the Training Command. The new VIIC U-474, damaged in an Allied air raid on Kiel, had to be scrapped. The IXD2 U-cruiser U-859, commanded by Johann Jebsen, age twenty-seven (from the VIIC U-565 in the Mediterranean), was severely damaged in an air raid at Bremen. The VIIC U-736 and the IXC U-845 were also delayed by various command or technical problems.
‡ Of the seventeen boats that sailed to the North and Middle Atlantic, four were Type XIV “Milk Cow” U-tankers; three were Mediterranean-bound; one, U-441, was a flak trap in Biscay; one was a VII assigned to a mine-laying mission off Morocco. Four other boats sailing to the North Atlantic were pressed into service as provisional tankers. Thirteen of the seventeen (76 percent) were caught in the RAF Biscay offensive, Musketry, and sunk.
§ Including ten boats of group Monsun assigned to the Indian Ocean.
* Commanded by a retired British admiral, the Honorable Sir H. Meade-Fetherstonhaugh, who was recalled to service as a lieutenant to assist in sailing American-built ships for the Royal Navy to England.
* With a score of twenty-seven confirmed ships for 152,904 tons sunk, Emmermann ranked fourteenth among all U-boat skippers in the war.
† At the time of the award, his score was nine confirmed ships sunk for about 63,000 tons.
* U-179, U-182, U-197, U-199, U-200, U-847. Two other failed IXD1 U-cruiser designs, U-180 and U-195, were undergoing conversion to cargo carriers.
† See Plate 7.
‡ U-459, U-461, U-462, U-463, U-487, U-489.
* In the month of July 1943, Allied shipyards produced about two hundred new vessels for about 1.3 million gross tons. American yards produced 165 ships for 1.13 million gross tons, British and Canadian yards thirty-six ships for 183,000 gross tons. (Commonwealth figures are based on a total production of 2.2 million gross tons in 1943 divided by twelve months and assuming an average ship displacement of about 5,000 gross tons.)
* U-359, U-406, U-466, U-591, U-598, U-604, U-662.
* Two, U-J19 and U-449, by Support Group 2. See Plate 6.
† One, U-504, by Support Group 2. See Plate 6.
‡ At fifty men per boat, personnel losses would be 5,450. Allied records show that 733 of these were rescued and captured.
* U-68, U-437, U-448, U-505.
* Nor that Enigma could be broken, nor that high-frequency direction finding (Huff Duff) was an effective U-boat locator.
* The 1-8 reached Lorient on September 8. She had on board an extra fifty Japanese submariners to bring back another gift from Hitler to Tojo, “Marco Polo II,” the IXC40 U-1224. The 1-8 sailed home about October 1 and reached the Far East in December.
* Hans Ey and Horst Elfe, ex-skippers of U-433 and U-93, respectively; Kretschmer’s first watch officer on U-99, Hans-Joachim von Knebel-Döberitz, and others.
* Lone Wolf (1993).
* On a skiing trip to the Tyrol between war patrols, Henke had leaped to the defense of a local Innsbruk family that was under heavy-handed attack by the Gestapo.
* From Matloff, Strategic Planning (1959).
† Escorted by the British carrier Illustrious, the American carrier Ranger, three heavy cruisers, destroyers, and land-based aircraft.
* Two more medium-size Italian submarines, Velella and Topazio, were sunk by British forces in the Mediterranean on September 7 and 12, respectively. The big U-cruiser Cagni, on patrol in the Indian Ocean, put into Durban, South Africa, on September 21 to surrender and from there proceeded to the Mediterranean, where she became a training ship for Allied ASW forces.
* At the time of the award, his score was six confirmed ships sunk for 39,650 tons and one 7,200-ton Liberty ship damaged.
† At the time of the award, his confirmed score was one freighter of 6,415 tons and four sailing vessels.
* See Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret (1974).
* As the name implies, these were routes to be followed by vessels that fell behind the convoy to which they were assigned. Succeeding convoys would follow those same routes and pick up and incorporate the stragglers.
† Document courtesy of Dr. Timothy P. Mulligan, NARA. Found in Box 1279, “U-boat Logs,” NSA History Collection, RG 457. Other NSA documents relating to this agent report are in Boxes 192 and 1276.
* Basically, Stichwort was an additive procedure. Enigma historian Ralph Erskine has given the following example in three-rotor Enigma. The communications officer at Control radioed to the U-boats a single word, say “baden.” The simple numerical substitutions for the letters in “baden” are 2 (for “b”), 1,4,5, and 14. Each of those numbers was to be used as an additive to the Enigma daily keys. For example, if the rotors for the day were II, V, and IV, the U-boat officer would add the “b” (or 2) in “baden” and chose rotors IV (II plus 2), VII, and VI. The numerical equivalents of the other letters in “baden “ were used as additives to the daily ring and plug-board settings. See Erskine article “Ultra and Some U.S. Navy Carrier Operations.”
* The identity of the “Swiss American” in the U.S. Navy Department has not come to light. Nor has his or her fate.
† The VII U-988, commanded by Erich Dobberstein, rammed and sank the VII U-983, commanded by Hans-Heinrich Reimers. Five crew of U-983 were killed. The VII U-346, commanded by Arno Leisten, was sunk in an accident with the loss of thirty-seven hands. The VIIs U-476, commanded by Otto Niethmann, and U-718, commanded by Helmut Wieduwilt, collided. The U-718 sank with the loss of forty-three hands. The VII U-745, commanded by Wilhelm von Trotha, rammed and sank the VII U-768, commanded by Johann Buttjer, but all hands survived. A raid by Allied aircraft on a Kiel shipyard on December 13 destroyed the VII U-345, commanded by Ulrich Knackfuss. Accidents or command changes delayed the VIIs U-712 and U-761, the VIIF (cargo) U-1059, the IXC40 U-845, and the XB minelayer U-233.
‡ Not counting the XB minelayers, XIV U-tankers, or IXDl and IXD2 U-cruisers, but including the eight v p e VII flak boats and all other attack boats in France undergoing battle-damage repair
s or modifications.
* As related, Fairwing 7 was initially composed of four squadrons in the ETO: VP 63 (12 Catali-nas based in Wales) and VB 103, VB 105, and VB 110 (36 B-24s based at St. Eval, southwest England). Lacking Leigh Lights, the B-24s were not yet properly equipped to fly patrols at night, and when they did they had to employ flares, an unsatisfactory stopgap. A fourth squadron, VB 111 (12 B-24s), arrived on October 1 for training, but a month later it was transferred to Fairwing 15 in Port Lyautey, Morocco.
† On September 4, six JU-88s—a constant hazard—damaged and forced a B-24 of VB 103, commanded by J. H. Alexander, to ditch. After thirty-six hours in a life raft, all ten aircrew were rescued by a vessel that delivered them to Spain, where they were briefly interned but soon repatriated.
* Chaser, Pursuer, Searcher, Striker, Ravager.
† As related, at this time the U. S. Navy had five Bogue-class “jeep” carriers on Atlantic convoy-escort duty (Bogue, Block Island, Card, Core, Croatan), as well as the larger Sangamon-cl&ss Santee.
‡ At Nuremberg, in a somewhat far-fetched refutation of the Allied charge that he had ordered U-boat skippers to shoot shipwrecked survivors, Dönitz introduced Witt’s comment on Albrecht’s patrol report plus a confirming statement from Witt to argue that the German policy was to rescue shipwrecked survivors, not shoot them.-
* Merchant Aircraft Carriers (or MAC) ships—not to be confused with the catapult merchant (CAM) ships—were 8,000- or 9,000-ton grain ships or tankers fitted with flight decks 433 to 485 feet long. The grain ships carried four Swordfish; the tankers, three. Nineteen MAC ships (thirteen tankers, six grain ships) were commissioned and were attached to 217 convoys. None sank a U-boat, but the recoverable Swordfish in 4,177 sorties attacked and held down or drove off many U-boats.
* It was, of course, advantageous for the Germans to accept exaggerated claims for the debut of the T-5 torpedo. Postwar records showed that in these initial attacks U-boats had sunk two warships with T-5s only, the destroyer St. Croix and the corvette Polyanthus, and that they had wrecked the frigate Lagan.
* On one of these ships, Oregon Express, it was the third time the second mate radio operator, Birger Lunde, had been sunk in the war. His earlier lost ships were Taranger (1941) and Blink (1942). After the war he became an American citizen and was captain of several American merchantmen.
† Translated into English, this revealing sixteen-page, single-spaced, typed report, entitled “Convoy Operation NR5, Zaunkönig Convoy,” was found at the Navy’s Operational Archives, Box T-95, Folder 136.
* Accordingly, the British deactivated this new support group.
* A similar device, developed by the Canadians, was dubbed “CAT Gear,” an acronym for Canadian Anti-Torpedo.
* Replacing Catalina Squadron VP 84, which returned to the United States.
* Recounted in G. Jones, Autumn of the U-boats (1984).
† In Franks, Search, Find and Kill (1995).
* Prosecutors at Dönitz’s Nuremberg trial introduced this paragraph and linked it to the so-called Laconia order of the year before to reinforce the charge that Dönitz ordered his U-boat skippers to deliberately murder shipwrecked crews. D5nitz rebutted that since rescue ships were “heavily armed” and carried “aircraft” and often served as “U-boat traps,” they were legitimate targets and, in any case, the Germans were “justified” in “sinking such [merchant ship] crews” because they were not helpless civilians but combatants in every sense of the word. Rescue ships were not, of course, heavily armed nor did they carry aircraft, like the CAM and MAC ships. However, unknown to Dönitz, during the war and at the time of his trial, rescue ships were fitted with Huff Duff to help locate U-boat shadowers and for that reason alone could be considered legitimate targets.
* In his two years of service in the Atlantic U-boat force, von Forstner sank fifteen confirmed ships for about 63,400 tons, and damaged three for 28,784 tons. Two of the latter for 16,700 tons were finished off by two other boats.
* According to Wise, Sole Survivors of the Sea (1994).
* Gretton logged that during twenty-five days at sea his group had steamed 6,700 miles and had refueled at various convoys six times. For Plomer in Sunflower, it was the third kill in six months.
* Within a period of about two months, four U-boats disabled by Allied aircraft (U-760, U-617, U-566, and U-966) had scuttled or beached on Spanish territory. The British occupation of the Portuguese Azores and the Allied diplomatic pressure on Madrid hinting at invasion doubtless dampened the enthusiasm of Spanish officials to repatriate German U-boat crews. As a consequence, Dönitz ordered that all damaged boats making for Spanish territory be scuttled offshore so that the crews could claim they were “sunk” by the enemy and therefore entitled by international law to repatriation.
† U-269, U-625, and U-62% all veterans.
* The standard flak array, which required a new bridge structure to accommodate it, was, at absolute minimum, two twin 20mm on the bridge and one 37mm with splinter shields on an aft bandstand. The VII U-986 was fitted with thirty experimental antiaircraft rocket launchers around the tower, but the rocket gear was deemed “not promising” and therefore not adopted.
† An analysis of the T-5 results on December 1 concluded that of seventy-one fired by Atlantic and Mediterranean boats since about September 20, forty hit (56 percent), twenty-two misfired, and nine failed in the tube (“hot runners”) or shortly after ejection from the tube (“prematures”). The supposed “hits” were said to have sunk thirty—repeat thirty—destroyers, probably two other destroyers, and one submarine. Confirmed results: four destroyers sunk (Orkan, St. Croix, Bristol, Buck) plus irreparable damage to another (Quail). One sloop (Chanticleer) was irreparably damaged. One frigate (Itchen) was sunk, plus irreparable damage to another (Lagan). One corvette (Polyanthus) was sunk. Three minecraft were sunk (Skill, Hythe, Hebe). Total: not thirty or thirty-two, but nine warships sunk and three damaged beyond repair.
* Geider was the son-in-law of an Imperial Navy man who had served as a boatswain on Dönitz’s U-boat in World War I. According to an American intelligence report, during the boat’s thirty-six-day layover in Norway, the original engineering officer, Fritz Ammon, insulted Geider with “Vituperative language.” As a consequence, Geider had him arrested and court-martialed. According to the American reports, Ammon was sentenced to three months in jail and reduced in rank.
* Including the XB U-220, returning from a mine-laying operation in the Americas, pressed into service as a provisional refueler.
* In November and December 1943, 1,466 ships in thirty-seven convoys crossed the North Atlantic with no losses to U-boats. The Empire Housman, damaged on December 30, did not sink until January 3, 1944.
* Including the VII U-343, which had given U-762 an emergency fuel supply on November 7.
* Credited with sinking three fleet destroyers and hits on another and shooting down a plane, at the time of the award Franke’s confirmed score (all on U-262) was four ships for 13,935 tons, including the Norwegian-manned corvette Montbretia.
* In his two years in the Atlantic force, Schug had made eight war patrols in U-86 and had sunk only two confirmed ships: a 342-ton sailing vessel by deck gun and a 4,300-ton Greek freighter by torpedo.
* Not counting the four-stack destroyer Borie, which rammed and sank U-405 and then sank from her own collision damage. As related, U-boats sank two other American destroyers in the Mediterranean: Bristol and Buck.
* Exploiting Enigma decrypts in the South Atlantic during the first week of January 1944, the old American light cruiser Omaha and modern destroyers Somers and Jouett sank or forced the scuttling of three other inbound blockade-runners: Rio Grande, Weserland, and Burgenland. After the loss of these six vessels, a colossal disaster, no other Axis surface ships in the Far East attempted to run the blockade to France.
* In a postwar reassessment, when it was discovered that Kett had unsuccessfully attacked U-73, the Admiralty credited pilot Cornish wi
th the kill of U-431.
* See C. Jackson, Forgotten Tragedy (1996).
* While commanding U-155, from August 1941 to February 1944, Piening sank twenty-six confirmed ships for 141,521 tons, including the British “jeep” carrier Avenger, British troopship Ettrick, and five tankers. He ranked sixteenth among all U-boat skippers.
* The contingent had arrived on the island in early October.
* A scornful term for the Führer.
† The Kusch case still evokes heated debate among German U-boat veterans. The account here closely follows that of Heinrich Walle in Nicosia and Stokes (1991). See also Klenck (Luttitz).
* On this maiden voyage, Guadalcanal lost five airmen and fifteen of her twenty-one aircraft to wear and tear, accidents, or heavy weather. Her arrival in the Atlantic raised the number of American carriers primarily on ASW duty in that theater to eight: Block Island, Bogue, Card, Core, Croatan, Guadalcanal, Santee, and another new vessel, Mission Bay.
* In most accounts, the type VII U-264, commanded by Hartwig Looks, is erroneously identified as the first boat to sail into combat with a snorkel. In a trial run off France with several flotilla commanders and chief engineers embarked, Looks had a disastrous snort failure that delayed his departure to February 2, a full month after the U-539 sailed.
† See Wiggins, Torpedoes in the Gulf (1995), pp. 116-17 and Appendix 5.
* In his magisterial The Creation of a National Air Force, vol. 2 (1986).
† At the time of the award, February 3, 1944, his confirmed score on the duck U-140, the VII U-96, and the U-543 was five ships for 16,165 tons, including the 200-ton Soviet submarine M-94 and a 416-ton Portuguese trawler, claimed (and credited) as an enemy submarine.
* At the time of the award, his confirmed score was eight ships sunk for 50,000 tons and the sailing vessel.
* Sea Nymph, Sceptre, Stubborn, Syrtis, Thrasher, and Truculent.
* Cameron and Place, who survived, each won a Victoria Cross.