by Antony Trew
In Fidelix’s operations-room the Vice-Admiral discussed the signal with his staff-officer-operations, Rory McLeod, and the navigator, Lieutenant-Commander Cockburn.
‘What are the facts?’ he asked, proceeding at once to answer the rhetorical question. ‘This morning Vengeful and Violent closed to within five thousand yards of a radar contact, classified submarine. At that range they lost contact. The submarine had dived. The time was 0820. No A/S contact was made so the U-boat was presumably sitting under a temperature layer or conditions were too bad for A/S.’
The Vice-Admiral leant over the plotting table where a stylus scratched the flagship’s course on to a moving sheet. He turned to the radar displays. Pips of light glowing and fading showed the position of the ships in the convoy, the cruiser, the oiler, the corvettes and frigates of the close escort, the Home Fleet destroyers inside the close screen, the escort destroyers and sloops of the outer screen, the little rescue ship astern and the host of merchant ships … an abstract picture of JW 137 plodding through the long Arctic night, rolling and plunging on its way to the Kola Inlet.
‘We completed the wheel to port soon after 0840. That left the U-boat to the south-west of us.’ The Vice-Admiral pulled at his chin with forefinger and thumb. ‘About two hours later – at 1017 to be precise – a B-Bar message was picked up which puts the U-boat there.’ With his thumb he indicated the position on the plot. ‘Because they were nearest the bearing, and since they can steam upwind faster than any of the other escorts, we detached two Home Fleet destroyers to put him down. But they failed to make contact. Radar or otherwise. The U-boat must have dived immediately after transmitting the B-Bar.’
‘Standard practice, sir,’ said Cockburn. The Vice-Admiral eyed him keenly wondering what innuendo lay behind the remark. It was not for nothing that the navigator was called ‘Cocky’ in the wardroom.
‘Sensible chap,’ said Rory McLeod. ‘He wants to stay alive.’
‘Confounded nuisance not being able to operate aircraft in this weather.’ The Vice-Admiral growled his annoyance. ‘Then we get this.’ He held up the Whitehall signal giving the contents of the B-Bar message. ‘They describe it as apparently a weather report. It describes the weather we’re experiencing with considerable accuracy – and we know that U-boats do transmit weather reports. But it has these unusual features. KLEBER could be the name of the commanding officer, I suppose, or a code name for the U-boat. But the four Xs? Any ideas, gentlemen?’
Cockburn shook his head. Rory McLeod said, ‘They may have some cipher significance, sir. An indicator group, perhaps. Who knows?’
‘Quite,’ said the Vice-Admiral. ‘I, for one, don’t. Nor does Whitehall. And now the sixty-four dollar question. Is this weather reporter the U-boat that Vengeful and Violent put down earlier, or another fellow?’
Rory McLeod said, ‘From the plot I would think it’s likely to be the same boat, sir. It has travelled in our general direction between its 0820 and 1017 positions.’
‘In that case one would expect the B-Bar message to have been a sighting report not a weather report.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said the navigator. ‘Unless …’
‘Unless what, Cockburn?’
‘Unless the U-boat was unaware of Vengeful and Violent when it dived at 0820. Could be a U-boat on passage to Kola, making routine dives and transmitting weather reports.’
‘Unlikely,’ said the Vice-Admiral, shaking his head. ‘Even in this weather, if his search-receiver was in trouble I’d have thought his hydrophones would have picked up propeller noises.’ He paused to gather his thoughts. ‘We’ve not altered course since the B-Bar message because the one we’re steering is taking the convoy away from the U-boat. I believe that to be a sensible decision. And in favour of your point, Cock-burn, we do know that a weather report has been made but apparently no sighting report.’
‘I take it, sir,’ said Rory McLeod, ‘that when and if a sighting report is made there’ll be the usual W/T chatter between the German High Command and the U-boats on the Kola patrol line. They’ll acknowledge as they always do, and we’ll get huff-duff bearings and plot their positions.’
‘Yes,’ said the Vice-Admiral, who’d been about to say the same thing. ‘Thank heavens for their tendency to chatter. When they do we shall have something to go on. Now, gentlemen, I think I’d like to get back to the bridge.’
The fifteen U-boats on the patrol line outside the Kola Inlet were disposed along a shallow arc, its highest point south of the Skolpen Bank, its extremities opposite Vardo Point in the West and Voroni Rocks in the East. The arc was a little over one hundred miles long and its average distance offshore ranged from thirty to fifty miles. The U-boats which manned it were about seven miles apart.
The Murman coast was particularly suitable for Schnorchel boats and the three U-boats not on the surface when the High Command’s XXXX signal was made at 1020 were submerged and schnorkelling. Since a radio antennae was raised with the Schnorchel mast all submarines on the patrol line read the signal.
U-0153 was one of three submerged at that time. Her captain, Willi Schluss, was more than ready to accept the discomfort this entailed in return for the security offered by fourteen metres of water over the submarine. Conditions in the boat were unpleasant, and though they were in the lee of the land the weather offshore was decidedly rough. On top of the usual misery of a dark, dripping and humid interior, the Schnorchel float which controlled the air-intake valve was at times covered by seas which closed it. The shutting off of fresh air resulted in the diesel intakes sucking oxygen from the interior of the boat, creating a sudden vacuum which made men gasp for breath, suffer severe headaches and attacks of nausea.
Hugo Kolb, the engineer-officer, was one of those who did little to conceal his contempt for the captain’s tendency to Schnorchel when the boat could have been surfaced. ‘Er will wohl ewig leben … he wants to live for ever,’ said Kolb, a Nazi zealot with pale blue eyes and a bullet-shaped head. Obermaschinist Zeck, his second-in-command, nodded in silent agreement.
‘God knows how he ever became captain of a U-boat,’ said Kolb.
Ivory teeth and the whites of large eyes against a grease-stained face gave Zeck the appearance of a white man made-up to look like a black man. ‘We get killed pretty quickly these days,’ he said. ‘The young and inexperienced have to be used.’
Kolb frowned. ‘Youth and inexperience cannot be helped, but Schluss is a coward.’
Zeck, who took a realistic view of life and longed for a peace which would take him home to his wife and children in Westphalia, said, ‘Well, if he succeeds we too will live for ever, so why complain, Herr Ingenieur.’ Having said that he smiled discreetly to indicate that the remark was not meant seriously. He knew Kolb would not approve and had no wish to offend him.
Kolb’s eyes flashed. ‘That is not the point. We are here to fight the enemy. To serve the Fuehrer and the Reich. Not to see how long we can survive. The chances of making a sighting are good on the surface. There we can make proper use of the search-receiver. Maybe even see something in the semi-twilight. But submerged with the schnorkel.’ He spat expressively.
‘You are right, Herr Ingenieur. But Kapitänleutnant Schluss commands the boat. His orders must be obeyed.’
‘We shall see,’ said Kolb darkly. ‘Wait until we get back to Trondheim.’
‘Falls wir zurückkommen … if we get back,’ murmured Zeck to himself. The obermaschinist had his doubts.
As Willi Schluss read the High Command’s 1020 signal he shivered and his intestines knotted painfully. It was not unexpected. U-0153 had already intercepted Kleber’s 1017 weather report. It had caused Schluss the greatest anxiety. The four Xs and the use of the commander’s name in place of the submarine’s call-sign meant that a convoy had been sighted. Now the High Command was ordering the attack. Worse still, it was to be led by Kleber. Schluss was an imaginative, apprehensive young man, on his first patrol in command. The high rate of mortality among U-boa
t crews had necessitated more and more men like him who had neither the experience nor the courage and resolve for the job, being given command of new construction.
Because he was intelligent and quick to learn he had done well in training flotillas in the Baltic and in Oslo Fjord. It was on his performance there that he had been given command of U-0153. But his lack of aggression, his uncertainty and nervousness had soon become apparent to the crew, and the morale of these young men, themselves sadly lacking in experience, had suffered. Tension between the captain and Kolb the engineering officer, an older and more experienced U-boat man, permeated U-0153. She was an unhappy boat.
Schluss, small, dark, bookish, introverted, came from Karlsruhe. He had been studying economics in Berlin when war came. An intellectual liberal with compassion for peoples of all races and creeds, he had long believed in the futility of war. To find himself involved in one was a traumatic experience. His dislike of a dogmatic Hitlerised father, a minor party official, had not helped. Willi Schluss, at home on leave, or in barracks or afloat, was an unhappy young man with no belief in the justice of the cause he was obliged to fight for. Originally trained for surface vessels, he had spent most of his time in the Gneisenau, first in Brest and afterwards in Kiel and the Baltic. Later when the decision was made to run down the crews of surface ships he had, with thousands of others, been drafted into the submarine service. There he had done his best, but it was an impoverished best. His heart was not in the job.
After he had re-read the High Command’s signal for the third time, Schluss opened the safe in which the confidential books were kept. From it he took a bundle of envelopes marked ‘Streng geheim … top secret’. They were held together by an elastic band. He thumbed through these until he came to one marked Plan X. In the small nook off the control-room which was his cabin he pulled the curtain and with trembling fingers opened the envelope. As he read his fears increased, his mouth dried, and he suffered an attack of dizziness. He had not until that moment known the details of Plan X.
It involved a concentration of submarines in a surface attack at high speed: the old Rudeltaktik … ‘wolf-pack’ tactic long-since discarded because of crippling losses inflicted on these packs by enemy escort forces after mid-1943.
‘It’s incredible,’ he mumbled to himself in subdued hysteria. ‘These Russian convoys are the most heavily escorted ever known. A pack attack on the surface … Why … it’s … it’s asking us to commit suicide. It’s mad. That’s what it is.’ His eyes filled with tears. He fought them back, dried his eyes and concentrated once again on the secret orders.
Plan X, read in conjunction with High Command’s 1020 signal, required the eight U-boats on the western arc of the Kola patrol line to concentrate on the shadowing U-boat – Kleber’s in this instance – the position of which was given. The concentration of Gruppe Kleber, as it was now known in the operations-room at Trondheim, should be completed by 1530.
That, decided Schluss after a stint on the chart-table in the control-room, gave U-0153 a little under five hours to get into position.
In terms of Plan X the shadowing U-boat’s ‘weather reports’ gave – in a new code – the convoy’s position, course and speed at each transmission and would serve as beacon signals, to be re-transmitted by High Command to ensure reception.
The plan also provided that the seven U-boats on the eastern arc of the patrol line – referred to as Gruppe Osten – were to concentrate on a position indicated by a cipher group in the High Command signal. The special code attached to Plan X showed this position to be north-west of the Skolpen Bank. The purpose of the Skolpen concentration was to lure escorts away from the convoy and to act as support and back-stop to Gruppe Kleber.
The U-boats of Kruppe Osten in executing Plan X were to acknowledge all High Command signals and report their positions on each occasion … but they were to make two reports: one upon receipt of the signal, the other at irregular intervals between fifteen and twenty-five minutes after its receipt – and two different call-signs were to be used so that the signals would appear to have come from two different U-boats. This ruse de guerre would lead the enemy to believe that there were fourteen U-boats in the Skolpen concentration, only one less than the total of fifteen on the Kola patrol line.
The eight U-boats of Gruppe Kleber on the other hand were not to acknowledge High Command signals once embarked upon the execution of Plan X. They were to maintain radio silence while making their approach to Kleber’s position from the southward, keeping outside radar range of the convoy’s escort force. Captains of U-boats were reminded that their search-receivers would pick up enemy radar transmissions well outside the range at which the enemy’s radar could detect submarines, particularly in bad weather. As each boat of Gruppe Kleber reached the concentration area it was to trim down, steer the course and speed ordered by High Command, and await a signal from Kleber to commence the attack.
The method of attack would vary, depending upon the circumstances at the time. There were many refinements and alternatives and a code word for each. For example, KLEBER repeated twice, followed by CLOSING DOWN repeated twice, would require the U-boats to dive, seek the protection of temperature layers and allow escort screens to pass over. Thereafter they were to surface astern of the escorts and attack the convoy. It was probable, recorded Plan X, that most enemy escorts would by that time be disposed on the opposite side of the convoy, having been diverted there by signals from Gruppe Osten on the north-west rim of the Skolpen Bank.
Schluss had observed in the preface to the operational orders that Plan X would only be ordered when weather conditions were regarded as favourable – and only if they were such that enemy aircraft could not operate. Since the U-boats would have the advantage of weather and surprise, read the preface, it should be possible to saturate the diluted escort force and inflict heavy losses on the convoy.
If the signal to attack had not come from Kleber within fifteen minutes of the time laid down for completion of concentration – given at 1530 in High Command’s 1020 signal – all U-boats were to attack independently. Under certain circumstances, depending upon the movements of the convoy, Kleber was permitted to order the attack before completion of concentration. Gruppe Osten was to concentrate upon attacking the escorts diverted to the Skolpen Bank.
The High Command’s orders noted that the attack was to be pressed home with hartnäckiger Kühnheit … relentless daring. Fine words, thought Willi Schluss, if one is a staff officer ashore writing the orders. For the U-boat crews in Gruppe Kleber he believed them to be a death sentence.
The operational orders ended with, Having read Plan X and High Command’s signal ordering its execution, you are to proceed at maximum surface speed to the point of concentration.
Willi Schluss decided that some delay might be advantageous so he re-read Plan X slowly and carefully, becoming more and more unhappy as he did so. The knowledge that Kleber was to lead the attack made of his already considerable fears a mindless terror.
Korvettenkapitän Johan August Kleber had been chief instructor in the flotilla in which Willi Schluss had trained. They had met again only two months ago in Trondheim when U-0153 had joined Group North and Kleber had come on board to welcome the new arrival.
Reminded of that occasion, Willi Schluss took a snapshot from his wallet and looked at it sadly. Three officers on the bridge of U-0153, taken on a rare day of winter sunshine in Trondheim Fjord. Willi Schluss, characteristically glum, on the left. Kleber, tall, handsome and smiling, in the centre. Rathfelder on the right. He, too, was smiling. God knows why, thought Willi Schluss. There was nothing to smile about. Schluss knew Kleber only too well. One of the few surviving aces. Noted for his outstanding courage and determination, readiness to accept risks, almost reckless daring. Qualities Schluss regarded with profound misgiving.
‘Oh God,’ he thought in silent misery. ‘Why does it have to be him?’
Pale, emotionally upset, he pulled aside the curtain and went into
the control-room. With the conviction that he was about to commit an act of immolation involving all in U-0153, he gave the order to surface.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Having transmitted the XXXX sighting report at 1017, Kleber in U-0117 continued to shadow JW137 using the search-receiver to keep in touch while remaining outside the range at which the escorts’ radar could detect the submarine.
Semi-twilight in the forenoon, a condition not far removed from the darkness, lasted for about two hours, but low cloud, constant storms of snow, sleet and flying spray kept visibility down to under a thousand metres. The moderate southwesterly gale persisted. Kleber, estimating its strength at force six, was satisfied that under prevailing weather conditions there was no danger from enemy aircraft.
That the German High Command agreed was evident when Ausfeld reported receipt of its 1020 signal to the Kola patrol line. Schaffenhauser, whose duties included those of cipher officer, put the message through the cipher machine and handed it to the captain. Not that Kleber was in any doubt as to its contents. Principal author of Plan X and originator of the sighting report, he knew what it would contain – but for one item, the time by which concentration should be completed. He knew that already the fifteen U-boats off the Kola Inlet would be proceeding to their stations at maximum speed, seven of them making for the north-western rim of the Skolpen Bank, the remaining eight heading for him.
Having handed over the bridge watch to Rathfelder he went down to the chart-table in the control-room. Salt water dripped from his rubber suit, the flesh on his hands and face was numb with cold, but his spirits were high.
Dieter Leuner, third watch officer and navigator, had already plotted the positions of the U-boats off Kola, the estimated position of the convoy, U-0117’s position – obtained by cross-bearings from German radio beacons on the Norwegian coast – and the concentration area north-west of the Skolpen Bank.