NotesIntroduction
1. Interview with Hans Rudolf Rösing, 12 October 2001.
2. Established on 7 October 1736 by August III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, it was second only to Saxony’s Order of the Crown of Rue; the Military Order of St Henry was awarded to serving officers, either for conspicuous personal bravery on the battlefield or, more frequently in the case of officers of higher rank, for merit in positions of great responsibility.
3. Interview with Hans Rudolf Rösing, October 2001.
4. Dresdner Anzelger, 11 November 1940; quotation from Frau Ernestine Suhren, Teddy’s mother.
5. Suhren, Reinhard, Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 13.
6. Ibid., p. 15.
7. Ibid., p. 16.
8. The previous year, the commander of the Emden had been Fregattenkapitän Karl Dönitz, a man soon to play a major role in Suhren’s life.
9. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 19.
10. Ibid., p. 32.
11. Interestingly, his brother Gerd had also become the first Engineering Officer to be awarded the Knight’s Cross, on 21 October 1940.
12. Interview with Hans Rudolf Rösing, 12 October 2001.
13. Nasses Eichenlaub, pp. 68-9.
14. Excerpt from Suhren’s speech, Hamburg, 1954, published in Wiedersehen in Hamburg, 1954.
15. By July 1942, U 564 had sunk thirteen ships, totalling 63,346grt, and seriously damaged five others.
16. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 113.
17. Busch, Harald, So War der U-Boot Krieg.
Chapter One
1. During the months of May and June, U 564 operated off the coast of Florida, sinking four ships and damaging three others.
2. Geisler had served aboard U 564 since its commissioning. Son and namesake of a Knight’s Cross-holding Luftwaffe General, Geisler subsequently held various training and administrative posts, ending the war as commander of the Type XXI U 3049, although this boat was still under construction at the end of hostilities.
3. Interview with Reinhard Suhren, 1981, A1981/22/002, Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
4. By the end of the year, ‘Triton’ had finally been broken, and from then until the end of the war only periodic brief lapses were suffered by the Allies in reading German coded messages.
5. Interview with Reinhard Suhren, 1981, A1981/22/002, Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
6. U 564 KTB.
7. U 751 was not the first Biscay casualty for July 1942. Jürgen von Rosenstiel’s U 502 had been depth-charged by a No 172 Squadron Wellington bomber on 6 July – the first successful sinking using the newly introduced Leigh Light.
Chapter 2
1. U 564 KTB.
2. See Paterson, First U-Boat Flotilla, pp. 138-40.
3. Dönitz had earmarked the chateau for his personal use before Hitler ordered him to Paris following the Allied raid on St-Nazaire. Thus, Rösing and his fortunate staff inherited the building – which was fully equipped. The chart copy was maintained as a back-up in the event of damage to the main chart at BdU headquarters.
4. HMS Erne had been scheduled to sail with OS.33 but had been withheld after being deemed by the Admiralty to have had ‘insufficient practices and cannot be considered efficient’. Thus Erne remained in Britain for flotilla exercises before joining the 15th Escort Group.
5. HMS Gorleston had begun life as the US Coast Guard Cutter Itasca. She was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1941 under the Lend-Lease agreement.
6. U 564 KTB.
7. After Action Analysis, Lt-Cdr Gibson, Senior Officer 42nd Escort Group, PRO ADM 237/145.
8. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 104.
9. Ibid., p. 106.
10. U 564 KTB.
11. The prefix ‘Empire’ was given to ships that the British Ministry of Shipping ordered built for the British Government or to those purchased, taken as war prizes or requisitioned. The Ministry of Shipping merged with the Ministry of Transport to become the Ministry of War Transport (MOWT) in 1941. A total of 196 vessels of the ‘Empire’ range were sunk during the Second World War.
12. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 108.
13. Two other canisters were developed for launching from the Pillenwerfer. The first was a miniature torpedo that carried no warhead but an electric motor that would circle at a given depth and simulate the noise created by a U-boat’s electric drive before its small battery became exhausted. The second more closely mirrored Hitler’s original intention and contained oil which rose to the surface, creating a small slick for attackers to see. Neither saw operational use.
14. Suhren may well have benefited from a freak accident during Gorleston’s Operation ‘Raspberry’. Blast from one of the depth charges had hurled debris and petrol from the disintegrated Empire Hawksbill through the sloop’s open wheelhouse window, temporarily blinding all exposed personnel.
15. Interview with Herbert Waldschmidt, 27 September 2002.
16. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 110.
17. PRO ADM 237/145.
18. Report on Proceedings from HMS Gorleston s captain, PRO, ADM 237/145.
19. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 111.
20. Ibid., p. 112.
21. Ibid., p. 115.
Chapter 3
1. Interview with Georg Seitz, Mannheim 2000.
2. Nasses Eichenlaub,. p112.
3. Ibid., p. 76.
4. Interview with Reinhard Suhren, 1981, A1981/22/002, Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
Chapter 4
1. U 564 KTB.
2. The 10th U-Flotilla’s headquarters were situated in Lorient. Shortly afterwards, U 463 and all the other tankers were transferred to the newly raised 12th U-Flotilla, centred at Bordeaux. After four successful refuelling voyages, U 463 was attacked and sunk on 16 May 1943 by an RAF Halifax bomber from No 58 Squadron south-west of the Scilly Isles and lost with all fifty-three men aboard. By June 1944, following a concerted Allied drive to ‘kill7 the tankers, all ten operational Milchkühe had been destroyed.
3. Interview with Herbert Waldschmidt, 27 September 2002.
4. After 60 hours in their lifeboats, the Norwegian steamer Nordstjernan rescued the Swedish vessel’s crew.
Chapter 5
1. Interview with Reinhard Suhren, 1981 (A1981/22/002), Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
2. See Paterson, Second U-Boat Flotilla, p. 136.
3. They were later landed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
4. The fifty-one men were later landed variously at Key West, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama.
Chapter 6
1. Interview with Reinhard Suhren, 1981, A1981/22/002, Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
2. Wattenberg and his men were later handed over to American intelligence officers, who found them disciplined and security-conscious. Wattenburg, the former communications officer aboard Admiral Graf Spee, was later housed in an Arizona POW camp in Papago Park, from where he hatched and mounted an ambitious escape plan. Along with twenty-four others, he escaped via a 250-foot tunnel, picked through solid granite with screwdrivers and coal shovels. Of those who attained freedom, Wattenburg was at liberty the longest – thirty-six days – before being recaptured in Phoenix.
3. Nasses Eichenlaub, p. 123.
Epilogue
1. Gabler formed the Ingenieurkontor Lübeck company in 1946, specialising in submarine design. He retired in January 1979.
2. U 564 KTB.
3. Excerpt from Suhren’s speech, Hamburg, May 1954, published in Wiedersehen in Hamburg, 1954.
4. Author interview, 19 October 2002, Munich.
5. US Navy, Interrogation report of Klaus Bargsten, O.N.I. 250-G/serial 14.
6. 1st U-Flotilla KTB, 14 July 1943.
7. After three nights in a rubber dinghy, Benson and his four crewmen were rescued by the French fishingtrawler Jazz Band. They were subsequently landed at Morgat on the Crozon peninsula and handed over to German troops stationed there.
8. Rösing and Suhren were held primarily to be called as witnesses in the Nurembürg trial of Karl Dönitz. They were determined to speak in their Grossadmiral’s defence, but they were never called.
9. Erich Topp, Odyssey of a U-Boat Commander, pp. 82-4.