大象传媒

The following story by Terence Robertson is out of copyright and appears courtesy of and with thanks to Mike Kemble, and Captain Frederic John Walker.

Twelve months earlier, on May 27th, 1942, a lithe, fair-haired young officer had been ushered into the private office of Admiral Doenitz at U-boat headquarters in Lorient. He was Kapitanleutnant Hans Linder, commanding officer of the new 500 ton submarine, U-202, and he had been summoned to a briefing for a secret mission. 鈥淭his job is going to take a lot of nerve and cool judgment, Linder,鈥� Doenitz said. 鈥淵our navigation will have to be exact. One mistake might cost the lives of you all and, whatever the cost, you must not lose your boat or your crew. Is that clear ?" Linder nodded. 鈥楻ight. You are to take four secret agents with their equipment to the American coast and land them on Long Island, New Jersey. The actual spot is the beach at Amagansett. You should put them ashore on June 13th and in any event not later than the 15th. Those dates coincide with the new moon which you will need for an approach so close inshore, although you must risk being sighted by some wide-awake coastguard. Remember, the safety of your boat and your crew comes before the lives of the four spies.鈥� 鈥淚 understand, Sir,鈥� replied Linder excitedly. 鈥淲hen do I sail? 鈥淭he passengers join you to-day. You sail to-morrow.鈥� "Yes, Sir.鈥� Linder saluted and returned to his boat to prepare for the voyage. When Linder took U-202 to sea next day, he did not know he was in the van of a determined German effort to invade the United States with fifteen highly trained saboteurs and intelligence agents whose mission was to organise a nation-wide espionage network. The same afternoon, U-584 sailed with five more spies bound for Jacksonville while another U-boat was embarking six others to be landed near Boston. The last group never sailed, but nine agents were already on their way across the Atlantic. This special mission, planned by German Military Intelligence and given the code name 鈥淥peration Pastorius鈥�, was designed to establish secret wireless communication between Germany and America; to provide the nucleus of a spy organisation responsible for supplying general intelligence; to set up a secret saboteur school which would supervise the blowing up of vital military establishments; and to infiltrate into those circles best calculated to be of use in undermining the morale of the people.
The agents were volunteers chosen because they had intimate knowledge of the United States, having lived there or visited the country before the war. One claimed to have lived in New York throughout the First World War, operating as a German spy. But while waiting for the U-boat arm to carry them across the Atlantic, several had consumed too much French wine at Lorient and loosened tongues revealed their real purpose in volunteering. At least three said they intended to give themselves up to the United States Police and spend the remainder of the war in the comparative luxury of a POW camp, apparently preferring this to the Russian front. Reports of their behaviour reached Doenitz who was angered at the thought of risking valuable U-boats for the sake of transporting such characters. In a signal to Berlin, he said: 鈥淭here is every evidence that the special agents are not activated by patriotic motives but rather by adventurous spirits and a desire to seek refuge in the United States. I request 鈥極peration Pastorius鈥� be considered in this light because we cannot on any account risk unduly and with little chance of reward the loss of the submarine involved in their transportation.鈥� (Admiralty Intelligence, or as we now know, more likely Beltchley Park - Enigma) Military intelligence, however, had spent many months and plenty of money in training the saboteur force and was not to be swayed by a 鈥渓ay鈥� report from Lorient. Doenitz was ordered to proceed with the operation as planned. Having given instructions to U-202 and U-584, he managed to effect a compromise by seizing on slight engine trouble in the third U-boat to postpone her sailing for so long that the six agents had their orders cancelled. On board U-202, her four passengers changed into civilian clothes labelled with the name of a well-known New York department store. They carried forged papers and passports, and each was equipped with a brief case into which was stowed explosives in the shape of highly-inflammable 鈥渟tick鈥� grenades and various parts of two wireless transmitting and receiving sets. Between them they carried 5,000 dollars, a list of 鈥渟ympathetic addresses鈥� and the names of hotels suitable for visitors who wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Linder made the crossing on the surface, when out of range of air patrols, and submerged on approaching the United States coast. On the evening of June 13th he lay at periscope depth off the entrance to Long Island Sound in New York harbour. It was a brilliant summer鈥檚 day and the sun went down reluctantly. The four spies took it in turns to look through the periscope at passing ships and chuckled among themselves as they joked with the U-boat鈥檚 crew about what they would do on their first night ashore as self-appointed members of the American community. According to one member of the crew: 鈥淥ur passengers seemed to have been told in Berlin that every American girl looked like a Hollywood film star and would be easier to pick up than a French harlot.鈥� Darkness fell shortly before 11 pm and Linder surfaced for the approach towards the coast. Apart from the new moon, navigation was made easy by the bright lights ashore reflecting on the water and at midnight they were close enough to hear the blaring of car horns and the strains of dance music. Silently, a rubber dinghy was lowered into the water from the foredeck and the four spies, waving good-bye to the officers on the conning tower, took their places while three of Linder鈥檚 sailors rowed them ashore. They landed on Amagansett beach at exactly thirty minutes after midnight, picked up their brief cases, and, after shaking hands with the sailors, vanished across the beach into the dark hinterland of the American continent. At almost the same moment, five of their colleagues were landed on a beach near Jacksonville, from U-584 (Both groups ran into coastal patrols and were arrested. All nine were charged with espionage and six were sent to the electric chair. The remaining three received life imprisonment).
When his rubber dinghy had been safely hauled inboard, Linder let out a deep breath of relief and muttered aloud: 鈥淭hank heaven that鈥檚 over.鈥� He turned U-202 seawards for the safety of open sea; but two minutes later the U-boat shuddered and the crew were shocked into near-panic by a horrible grating noise which seemed to echo through the night. U- was stuck hard and fast on a sandbank on an ebb tide. Despite continued frantic efforts to refloat her during the night, she remained firmly embedded. Linder sent a signal to Lorient informing Doenitz that he had successfully carried out his mission but could not return and had prepared to surrender his men to imprisonment. Then he instructed the crew to set scuttling charges, and settled down to await daylight. At the first greyness of dawn they heard again the loud blaring of car horns; dogs barked and cocks crowed. Luckily, although on the surface, they were hidden by a heavy mist which lay over the sea blotting out the coastline. Gradually the tide turned and began to flow strongly. At 5 am the boat shifted slightly. Linder ordered the crew to sea stations and put both engines astern at full power. Slowly the U-boat moved over the sand, quivering as the propellers gripped the water and strained to pull her clear. Suddenly, the bows shot up and she surged backwards, clear at last. Still cloaked by the mist, Linder headed seawards and made good his escape. (The incident was told to Naval Intelligence Officers, who interrogated the survivors of U-202; and was confirmed by captured documents). This mission cracked Linder鈥檚 nerve and, on return to Brest, he was relieved by Kapitanleutnant Gunter Poser, who became commanding officer of one of Doenitz鈥檚 most favoured U-boats. Under Poser, U-202 made five more voyages, sinking a total of 50,000 tons of Allied shipping before sailing from Brest on April 29th, 1943 on her ninth trip of the war. She was to patrol in the vicinity of the northern convoy routes in mid- Atlantic. During May she was bombed by aircraft, chased by escorts and made several abortive attacks on convoys. Poser, aged twenty-seven, and fairly quick-witted, was a capable captain but a lazy one. He failed to press home his attacks, preferred to lie in wait for targets rather than look for them, and spent most of his time at sea lying on his bunk reading and dozing. On May 2 he was ordered to return to Brest to take fuel on board before sailing to Kiel for a refit. Thankfully, he headed U-202for the Bay of Biscay and began planning his leave. In her thirty days at sea, U-202 had been bombed three times, had dived for twenty-nine aircraft alarms and had been chased five times by escorts. At 10 am on June 1st, a chief petty officer acting as Officer of the Watch sighted mastheads which he took to belong to a convoy. He reported to Poser, who was lying on his bunk, and was told to take U-202 closer to the convoy. Eventually, Poser decided to look for himself. On the conning tower he glanced through his binoculars and went suddenly rigid. 鈥淢y God,鈥� he shouted. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 see any merchant ships, only destroyers. Sound diving stations.鈥� Klaxons clattered through the U-boat and within seconds she was diving to 500 feet. Poser ordered all machinery except the electric lighting generators and engines to be shut down and waited hopefully for the destroyers to pass overhead. He could not be expected to know that he had not seen destroyers, but the sloops of the Second Support Group, already sweeping with their Asdics. And in Starling, the asdic officer, Lieutenant Impey, had already reported: 鈥淚n contact, Sir.鈥�
As he rapped out orders to be signalled to the Group, Walker seemed to come alive with an energy and drive quite new to the old hands from the Stork days. They remembered the grin on his face at the first signs of battle; they remembered the light of sheer joy in his eyes at the prospect of a 鈥渒ill鈥�; now there was a tenseness about him as though he were trying to steer the asdic on to the target by will power alone. He stood behind the compass, completely at home in this struggle, his mind racing ahead to anticipate the evasive tactics his opponent might use. Concern about a possible enemy counter-attack never entered Walker鈥檚 head. 鈥淵eoman, tell Cygnet, Woodpecker and Wren to maintain square patrol at two miles and Wild Goose and Kite to stand by in the outfield to support my attack.鈥� He turned to the asdic officer. 鈥淕oing in to attack now.鈥� His orders to the wheelhouse for full speed were made quietly. Starling surged forward, pulsating with power and her bows cutting foaming waves through the placid sea, her wide white- edged wake vanishing almost imperceptibly into the glassy, even breathing of the swell astern. The 鈥減ing鈥� of the asdic beam echoing from the hull of U-202 came faster as the range shortened. 鈥淪tand by depth charges . . .鈥�: a second later . . . 鈥淔IRE鈥�. Tons of high explosives rolled from the stern rails and were shot from throwers on either side of the quarter deck to curve gracefully into the air. In all, ten charges were rumbling downwards through the water heading for the hidden enemy. For a few seconds there was silence. Then miles of ocean and the waiting stoops shook and quivered under the blasting as the charges went off in a series of deafening, crackling roars. Huge columns of water boiled to the surface and sprayed out into vast fountains astern of Starling. The great cascades of water subsided, leaving spreading whirlpools to mark the position of the attack. But there was no U-boat. Walker settled down to the struggle. His adversary was proving tough to hold and hard to find; he admired an enemy who refused to be panicked into some desperate folly that would lead to easy and swift destruction. He took Starling out for half a mile and turned to regain contact. Next, he ordered Wild Goose and Kite to join him while the other three sloops kept up their patrol ready to pick up the U-boat should she shake off her attackers. Five hundred feet below, the crew of U-202 picked them selves up from the corners into which they had been flung by the force of the depth-charges. Everything movable had been smashed; the lights had failed, and a small leak had appeared in the stern. They had been saved by the inaccuracies of the depth-charge mechanism which had been set to 350 and 550 feet but had probably exploded fifty feet either way. Poser began to wonder if this was an attack he could escape and, for the first time, the crew thought it likely that they would have been better off had they surrendered off the beach at Amagansett a year before. Poser turned to his engineer and ordered: 鈥淭ake her up to 400.鈥�

Continued.....
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