11:28 (New York Time)
Thursday, January 1, 1942
Control room of the U-800
Off the northern coast of Haiti
Otto smiled with satisfaction as he did a second tour of the horizon with his watch periscope, seeing nothing threatening and without a single ship within sight.
‘’That storm seems to have moved on and out of the way and I can see the Sun piercing out of the clouds. Time to get some fresh air and do a sextant reading. SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE!’’
With Rudolph Dollman blowing air in their ballast tanks and Werner Nielinger at the helm pulling on his aircraft-type control stick, the U-800 started emerging from under the waves in less than twenty seconds. As soon as his submarine was stabilized on the surface, Otto gave a few orders on the intercom.
‘’Secure from diving stations! Engine room, throttle up our diesels to the maximum: I want our batteries recharged completely as quickly as possible. Leutnant streib, arrange a rotation of the men on deck so that they could take in some sunrays. I will allow a third of the crew at a time on deck, in rotations of one hour each. Have our sewage tanks purged, our garbage bags thrown overboard and our compressed air bottles refilled immediately: we don’t know how long we will be able to stay on the surface.’’
‘’Yes, Herr Kapitän!’’
Getting his binoculars, his sextant and his marine chronometer from a drawer under the navigation plot table, Otto then climbed up to the open bridge atop the conning tower of his submarine. There, a lukewarm wind and bright sunshine greeted him, making him take with delight a deep breath of fresh air: he may be a submarine ace, but he still liked to enjoy the Sun and fresh air as much as he could. His men were quick to use this too rare occasion to be able to freely walk around shirtless and smoke a cigarette in the open. The hard working Dieter Hannig also came on deck, but to throw weighed bags of garbage into the sea. The sight of a few sharks diving for the garbage bags then attracted a few amused comments from the German sailors. As the Sun reached its zenith, Otto carefully noted the time shown on his marine chronometer, set on Berlin Time, and the height of the Sun, data that he was going to use to calculate his exact location. Briefly going back down to the control room to plot his new position and refine the course given to his helmsman, he then returned up on the bridge, wanting to profit from the Sun like his men. A thermos bottle of American-made hot chocolate was soon brought up by the assistant cook, Gustav Bouhler, and circulated between Otto and the four men on lookout duty on the bridge.
The second rotation of men to come out for sunrays and a smoke had been on deck for maybe twenty minutes when one of the lookouts shouted a warning.
‘’SOLITARY RAFT AT OUR TWO O’CLOCK, APPROXIMATE DISTANCE OF 900 METERS!’’
Pointing his own binoculars, Otto had to mentally congratulate his lookout: the raft in question was barely visible as a large dot and appeared only at intervals as it bobbed up and down on the waves.
‘’HELM, STEER TO STARBOARD TO HEADING 150 DEGREES! ACCELERATE TO TWELVE KNOTS! RESCUE TEAM ON THE DECK! DOCTOR LIST REQUESTED ON THE DECK AT ONCE WITH HIS MEDICAL BAG! THOSE ON RELAXATION WALK ARE TO RETURN INSIDE.’’
As his men on the open deck ran back inside, they were quickly replaced by six men equipped with life vests, ropes and boat hooks. The submarine’s doctor, Oberleutnant zur See Konrad List, a graying naval reservist who had served in World War One as a young ship’s doctor, showed up on the heels of the rescue team. With the distance to the raft quickly diminishing, Otto was able to see that there were people inside the raft. Soon, one of them started waving his arms frantically, having obviously spotted the approaching submarine. Two more occupants then started waving their arms as well, while two small shapes kept laying down. Otto’s heart sank when he finally was able to see better those two shapes: they were children, very young children! Grabbing his megaphone, Otto shouted a warning to his waiting rescue team and to Doctor List.
‘’THERE ARE THREE ADULTS AND TWO YOUNG CHILDREN ABOARD THE RAFT. THE CHILDREN ARE NOT MOVING AND ARE TO BE TREATED AS TOP PRIORITIES!’’
Right now, Otto didn’t care what nationality those survivors were and he suspected that his men didn’t care either. While they were presently at war, the old laws of the sea still had precedence in his mind. Otto personally had never heard of any German submarine captain having its crew shoot at survivors floating in the water or sitting in rafts and lifeboats, even though he knew that British propaganda had accused more than once U-boote men of doing just that. The fact that young children were in distress only spurned him further to run to the rescue of those unfortunate souls.
With the helmsman occupying the upper helm position in the forward underwater observation dome and thus able to more easily steer the U-800 towards the raft, the submarine soon bumped gently against the raft, with two sailors immediately catching with their boat hooks the rope handles fixed to the raft, thus allowing the other sailors to grab the survivors, who were clad in night clothes, and pull them on the deck. Doctor List immediately examined them, starting with the two children, who were mere toddlers. He briefly looked up and aft towards the conning tower’s open bridge to shout his diagnosis for Otto’s benefit.
‘’THEY ARE ALL ALIVE, HERR KAPITÄN, BUT THEY ARE DEHYDRATED AND WEAK.’’
‘’GET THEM TO THE INFIRMARY, QUICKLY!’’ Shouted back Otto before activating his ship’s intercom. ‘’Leutnant Margraff, please contact me on the open bridge via telephone!’’
As he waited for Margraff to call back, Otto eyed the five survivors as they were gently led inside the submarine via the forward access hatch of the conning tower. Two of them were mere toddlers, one boy and one girl. There was also a young couple, probably American or British by their looks, plus one Hispanic-looking man in his thirties. The latter one was the only one of the group to wear a full set of clothes and definitely looked like a civilian sailor, possibly a deck hand. The ringing of the telephone held inside a waterproof steel box welded to the bulwark of the open bridge then took Otto’s attention away from the survivors. Grabbing the telephone handset and bringing it up to his face, he spoke briefly in it.
‘’Kapitän speaking!’’
‘’This is Leutnant Margraff, Herr Kapitän. You wanted to speak with me?’’
‘’Yes! We just rescued five persons found in a raft: three adults and two small children. They are presently being led to our infirmary. I want you and two armed men to go to the infirmary and to interview them gently once Doctor List will have finished treating them. Get their names, particulars, on what ship they were and how they ended up in a raft. You will then report back to me with that information. Again, be gentle about it, unless of course one of the men starts acting stupid.’’
‘’Understood, Herr Kapitän! I’m on it!’’
Hooking back the handset and closing the intercom box, Otto then shouted at the two sailors who had finished pulling the now empty raft aboard.
‘’IS THERE ANY SHIP MARKING ON THAT RAFT, MEN?’’
‘’YES, HERR KAPITÄN!’’ Answered one of the sailors. ‘’IT BELONGED TO A M.V. ESPERANZA.’’
‘’GOOD! BRING IT INSIDE: WE COULD ALWAYS HAVE A USE FOR IT IN THE FUTURE.’’
Watching first his two men drag the small raft inside the conning tower’s forward airlock, Otto was then about to make an intercom announcement in order to let his crewmen return to the open deck for their Sun exposure when one of his lookouts shouted, alarm in his voice.
‘’AIRCRAFT APPROACHING FROM TEN O’CLOCK! DISTANCE: SIX KILOMETERS!’’
Otto’s reaction was immediate: this was no time to waste time by wondering if that aircraft could be a threat or not.
‘’DIVE! DIVE! DIVE! EVACUATE THE BRIDGE!’’
His four lookouts took only seconds to disappear down the access hatch of the bridge, with Otto closely following and firmly closing the hatch behind him before sliding down the ladder, landing with a thump three paces from the control room’s entrance hatch. The watch officer, Franz Streib, passed him a number of informations as soon as he ran inside the control room.
‘’All hatches are closed and the diesels and schnorchel are shut down, Herr Kapitän. We are ready to go down.’’
‘’Then, push down hard on the diving planes and push electric engines full ahead! Flood the ballast tanks and make our depth 300 meters in a hurry! Turn ninety degrees to port as soon as we are fully submerged.’’
‘’Aye, Herr Kapitän!’’
Two decks lower, the young couple in the group of survivors looked at each other when they heard the repeated ‘honk’ of some kind of alarm. Jennifer Kaiser-Coolidge was still under the shock of realizing that they had been retrieved by a German submarine, on top of being worried sick for her children, and gave a fearful look at her husband John.
‘’What is happening now, John?’’
‘’I’m not sure, but I think that this submarine is about to dive, judging from the reaction of the crewmen around us.’’
John then lowered his voice to a near whisper and made as if he was kissing his wife’s temple.
‘’If they ask about me, tell them that I am simply a junior shipping company administrator in Miami and that we were coming back from vacation in Puerto Rico.’’
Jennifer, who was no empty-headed blonde, nodded briefly her head at those words. To be frank, her biggest worries right now were about little Helen and Robert, who were being carried in the arms of two sailors. John, who was looking around with intense curiosity at the interior of the submarine, couldn’t help wonder about how spacious the compartment they just stepped down into was. It looked like some sort of cafeteria, with rows of long tables and service counters. The submarine suddenly went nose down at a steep angle while the noise from its propellers increased dramatically. John and Jennifer, like the Puerto Rican sailor saved along with them, had to cling to a nearby table in order not to lose their balance. A few seconds more and the submarine, still diving steeply, turned sharply to the left, rolling like a plane in a stunning display of agility for such a big boat. John even had to help Jennifer, who was about to lose her grip on the table because of the centrifugal force of the turn. Yet, the submarine kept diving deeper and deeper, something that started to worry John. One of the Germans saw his expression and smiled to him in an effort to reassure him and Jennifer, speaking in a broken English.
‘’No worry! This is emergency dive. We will be okay.’’
‘’How deep can this submarine go?’’ Asked John spontaneously. The German was about to answer him but thought better of it and grinned.
‘’Sorry: classified information.’’
The submarine then shook slightly as the survivors could hear distant underwater explosions, which made the same German sailor smile again.
‘’Depth charges, too shallow: no worry! Please follow!’’
Going aft, the group of five survivors and four Germans soon entered a small compartment that appeared to John as being the boat’s infirmary. Just the fact that there was such a thing on a submarine was most unusual but, while small, it seemed well equipped and had two double bunk beds for patients, plus a treatment table surrounded by counters and storage closets for medical equipment and supplies. The graying German doctor who had examined them quickly on the upper deck had the sailor carrying little Robert lay him on the examination table and hold him in place. He then removed the wet, salt-incrusted night gown of the toddler boy, leaving him naked on the table, so that he could examine and treat him better. Sponging him down to remove the salt on his skin, he then applied an ointment on his face and arms, which had been burned by the Sun, and finished by making him drink slowly some water. Giving the boy to his mother, List then treated the small girl in a similar way, to give her to her father at the end of it. For Jennifer, List smiled to John while pulling closed a privacy curtain separating the treatment section from the bunk beds and waiting area, speaking in good English.
‘’So that your wife can be treated with appropriate privacy, mister.’’
‘’I understand, Doctor. Thank you for helping us.’’
‘’I am simply fulfilling my oath as a doctor, mister.’’
John then had to wait on one of the two chairs of the cramped waiting area, along with the Puerto Rican sailor and two German sailors. John used that time to nod and smile at the Puerto Rican, shaking his hand as he spoke.
‘’I have to thank you again for helping save my wife and children, Ricardo.’’
‘’It was a pleasure, Mister Kaiser. My only regret is for not having been able to help the other people on the ship. I am afraid that we are probably the only survivors from the ESPERANZA.’’
‘’I am afraid of that as well, Ricardo. That storm came in so suddenly and without warning.’’
‘’What will happen now with us, Mister Kaiser? Will these Germans keep us as war prisoners?’’
‘’I hope not! I have no wish to see my family being brought as prisoners to Germany.’’
As if their words had conjured some bad blood, the hatch of the infirmary was then opened and a German soldier in full combat field uniform stepped inside, with two more soldiers visible on the other side of the hatch. All three were armed and wore steel helmets, making them quite intimidating. The one who had entered then surprised John by his polite tone and excellent, nearly accent-free English as he addressed John and Ricardo.
‘’Welcome aboard the U-800, gentlemen. I am Lieutenant Hugo Margraff and me and my men will be in charge of your surveillance while you are aboard this submarine. Do not worry about your well-being: you will be well treated, as long as you behave sensibly. While we cannot drop you right away in some friendly port, you will be released at the first occasion we will meet with an unarmed civilian ship or get to a neutral port. That could however take a week or two. I understand that were five of you, by the way.’’
‘’My wife is being examined by your doctor on the other side of that curtain and she has our small daughter with her.’’
‘’I see! If you don’t mind, I would have a few questions for you. First, may I have your names?’’
‘’Of course, Lieutenant! I am John Kaiser and my wife’s name is Jennifer. My son, who is two and a half years old, is named Robert, while my four year-old daughter is named Helen. We are American citizens.’’
‘’And you, mister?’’ Asked Margraff, looking a the Puerto Rican sailor.
‘’My name is Ricardo Montes and I was a deck hand on the ESPERANZA. I am Puerto Rican.’’
Margraff, who was noting down that information in a small notepad, looked again at John.
‘’Next, on what ship were you and where were you heading? How did you end up in a life raft?’’
‘’We had booked passage on the M.V. ESPERANZA, a mixed cargo and passenger transport, in San Juan and were heading for Miami when a sudden storm swamped our ship in the middle of last night. I am afraid that we are the only survivors from the ESPERANZA.’’
‘’I am sorry to hear that, Mister Kaiser. May I ask what was the reason of your trip to Miami?’’
John then did his best to keep a straight face and even voice as he lied to Margraff.
‘’Me and my family were returning from a Christmas period vacation in Puerto Rico. I work as a junior administrator in a Miami shipping company.’’
If Margraff doubted the veracity of his words then, he didn’t let it show up and closed and pocketed his notepad and pen before looking down and smiling at little Robert, who was sitting naked on John’s lap.
‘’I will go see what I can find as new clothes for you, your family and Mister Montes. If it may reassure you, we do have spare beds available for all of you.’’
‘’Your submarine certainly seems to be unusually comfortable and spacious, Lieutenant. Are all German submarines this comfortable?’’
John’s question made Margraff burst into genuine laughter and it took him a couple of seconds before he could answer him.
‘’Hardly! The U-800 is in a class of its own in about everything, as the British have learned the hard way lately.’’
To John’s disappointment, Margraff didn’t elaborate about that and left, to be soon replaced by a sailor wearing a cook’s apron and carrying five steaming tin cups in his hands. He handed two of the cups, which turned out to contain hot coffee, to John and Ricardo, plus a cup of hot chocolate for little Robert. He then made signs about his two remaining cups, obviously not knowing English. John understood him easily enough and spoke to his wife through the privacy curtain.
‘’Jennifer, the cook brought a cup of coffee for you and a cup of hot chocolate for Helen.’’
‘’What a fine man!’’ Jennifer said before slipping two hands through the curtain separation, taking the cups offered by the cook, who then departed. Helping first his toddler son to drink a bit of his hot chocolate, John then took a sip of his coffee and felt like coming alive again.
‘’God, I really needed that coffee! I wouldn’t mind a good meal as well.’’
‘’We will take care of that as soon as you have all been examined and then given clothes and a bed, mister.’’ Replied the German doctor through the curtain.
‘’Thank you, Doctor, for everything. The crew of this submarine certainly proved to be most decent up to now.’’
‘’Well, you shouldn’t believe all that Allied propaganda about Germans being blood-thirsty automatons, Mister Kaiser.’’
‘’What about the Japanese, then?’’
‘’Can’t say that I know much about them, mister, so I won’t venture an opinion on that. You should however be more worried in the long term with Stalin.’’
On that, John couldn’t argue with List.
John and Ricardo had time to be inspected and treated by Doctor List before Lieutenant Margraff returned with some clothes for the survivors. The adults ended with baggy mechanics’ coveralls and rubber boots, while the two toddlers got simple T-shirts with their bottoms cut to the appropriate length, just above their ankles. They were then led out of the infirmary and shown two double bunk beds situated in the compartment forward of the cafeteria. One of the double bunk bed had two sides hidden by blankets hooked from the ceiling and forming a sort of privacy curtain. Margraff pointed at the curtained-off bunk bed while facing John and Jennifer.
‘’That double bunk bed is for the use of Madam Kaiser and of her two children. Mister Kaiser, Mister Montes, you will use that bunk bed nearby. If you will now follow me, we will be able to provide you with a decent meal.’’
The group then stepped aft into the crew cafeteria, where Margraff showed them one of the tables.
‘’If you will please sit down at that table, the cook will have something for you soon. Uh, does any of you have any sort of food allergy?’’
‘’Just to British food.’’ Quipped John, making Margraff laugh again.
‘’I have to say that I must agree with you on that. I had to eat captured British field rations a few times and they were nothing to shout about.’’
Margraff then disappeared behind a partition separating the cafeteria from what had to be the kitchen. He came back after a minute.
‘’Your food will be ready in ten minutes. In the meantime, you will find fresh bread, butter and jam at the service counter behind that partition to your left. If you will now excuse me, I will have to take care of other things for a while. Two of my men will however stay with you. Both speak good English, by the way.’’
‘’Uh, wait, Lieutenant!’’ Said Jennifer, making Margraff stop. ‘’Can you explain to me why you and your men, who are Army soldiers, are on a submarine?’’
Her question made Margraff grin with malice.
‘’Why? So that American soil could bear the marks of German boots, Madam Kaiser.’’
On that, Margraff walked out of the compartment, leaving the Americans to ponder his words. They however forgot about them when the cook brought a big serving pot that he suspended just above the table, using hooks apparently devised to that effect. Jennifer was about to ask why the pot was suspended but understood by herself when she saw the pot gently sway as the submarine rolled and pitched slightly.
‘’Hey, this is a good idea! It sure prevents spillage of food in heavy seas.’’
The cook then distributed large bowls and utensils around the table before ladling out a thick stew of meat and vegetables, serving the two children first, followed by Jennifer and then the men. He next brought fresh bread, still warm from the oven, and tin mugs filled with water. The smell of the stew was enough to convince the adults to forget that they were prisoners aboard a German submarine, with everybody soon eating the stew with gusto. To the children’s delight, freshly baked chocolate biscuits followed for dessert.
Forty minutes later, with everybody well stuffed, John looked at one of the two soldiers that had been watching them from another table.
‘’What happens now?’’
His question seemed to amuse the German, who shrugged.
‘’Now, we wait!’’
‘’Wait for what?’’
‘’Wait for the Captain to make his next move. That could however take a few days, or even a week or two. It will depend on what we encounter on our path.’’
‘’Days? And what are we going to do to spend the time in this submarine, especially with two small children?’’
‘’You can sleep, read, play cards or chess, listen to music, watch the sea…’’
‘’Woah! How are you supposed to watch the sea while inside a submerged submarine?’’
The two German soldiers exchanged a look, then the older one got up from his bench seat.
‘’I will go see if I can get permission for you to go observe the sea. I won’t be long.’’
John, Jennifer and Ricardo looked at each other, utterly confused, as the soldier went upstairs to the next deck, but didn’t dare comment out loud about it in the presence of the other soldier. The soldier finally returned twelve minutes later, a smile on his face.
‘’The Captain has authorized the use of our underwater viewing domes by you, but no more than two at a time, and that includes the children. Madam Kaiser, if you will follow me with one of your children. Your husband will be able to follow with your other child in fifteen minutes.’’
Seeing that Jennifer was unsure about following the German, John encouraged her with a nod.
‘’Go ahead, Jennifer: go with Helen. I don’t believe that anything bad will happen.’’
‘’Okay! Come, Helen: we are going to watch something.’’
‘’What are we going to watch, Mommy?’’ Asked the small girl in her tiny voice.
‘’I don’t know yet, sweetie.’’
Still a bit apprehensive, Jennifer Kaiser took Helen’s right hand and led her while following the German soldier, who led her up two levels inside a small lift cabin, then made her and Helen climb two sets of ladders. When she emerged from the last steel deck hatch, she found herself in some kind of steel cylinder topped by a thick transparent dome. Outside of the dome was a sort of glass and steel canopy and beyond that…the sea. The submarine was actually fairly close to the surface, with the sunlight above the sea illuminating the waters to an appreciable depth. Jennifer then found herself able to clearly see all the fish and objects between the surface and her position, and this for nearly 200 meters all around.
‘’My God, this is incredible! Look at all those fish to our right, Helen!’’
‘’I see them, Mommy.’’ Replied her daughter, getting excited. As her daughter marveled at the fish swimming around, Jennifer gave a warm smile to the German soldier who had guided her up to the dome.
‘’Thank you so much for letting us profit from such a fantastic experience, mister.’’
The German nodded his head soberly, acknowledging her thank you.
‘’We are human beings like everyone else, madam, and seeing your kids being happy and healthy makes us happy. We may be conducting war operations right now, but the Captain will never let any act of abuse or violence be committed against you or your children.’’
That left Jennifer to ponder those words for a long moment afterward.
19:50 (New York Time)
Otto Kretschmer’s cabin
Otto was reading a book in bed while still fully clothed when someone knocked on the door of his cabin.
‘’YES, COME IN!’’
One of the electronic warfare section’s operators, Josef Knocke, then entered and came to attention.
‘’Herr Kapitän, we just intercepted and decoded a Royal Navy secret message that may be of high interest for us. Here is the decoded text.’’
Getting up from his bed and grabbing the message offered by his sailor, Otto read it quickly, then grinned from ear to ear.
‘’Indeed, my good Knocke! With this, we will be able to serve a nice surprise to those Englanders. Good work, Knocke!’’
‘’Danke, Herr Kapitän!’’ Replied proudly the sailor before leaving the cabin. Otto, the message still in his hands, hurried to the control room, where he checked quickly his navigational chart. He grinned again when he saw that he would be effectively in time to surprise the British and possibly inflict them a painful blow.
07:43 (New York Time)
Sunday, January 4, 1942
U-800, off the entrance to Willemstad Harbor
Southern coast of Curacao, Dutch West Indies, Caribbean Sea
Otto, standing at the search periscope and watching his intended prey approaching on time over the eastern horizon, was not a little surprised, not to say frustrated, when his sonar operator shouted a warning from his station a few paces away.
‘’Three ships approaching from the west-northwest, Herr Kapitän! From their speed and group formation, I would say that they are warships.’’
‘’Gott und Himmel! Can’t a man greet properly a British gentleman without being disturbed?’’ Quipped Otto while doing a half turn to look towards his stern. Focusing his periscope lens, he effectively saw three smoke trails and three far-off silhouettes in the distance, apparently traveling in a single column. With both the approaching British heavy cruiser HMS DEVONSHIRE and the three newcomers still a good seven kilometers away at a minimum, too far yet for their radars to have a realistic chance of detecting his periscope, Otto retracted the head of his periscope under the surface. He then went to the sonar section, standing behind one of the two operators and looking at their cathode displays.
‘’Can you give me at least a possible identification, Herr Grote?’’
‘’The most I could say right now is that one of the three units sounds distinctly bigger and more powerful than the two other newcomers, Herr Kapitän.’’
‘’Hmm, sounds like a cruiser or battleship escorted by two destroyers. Hell, that could complicate our job a bit this morning.’’
‘’Bah! You will eat them all for breakfast without even breaking a sweat, Herr Kapitän.’’ Replied the chief sonar operator, making Otto smile and attracting a playful slap on the back of the head from his Captain.
‘’Flattery will get you nowhere, Grote. Keep good track of both these ships and the British cruiser. I will be at the tactical plot table.’’
Walking to the nearby tactical plot, where Ulrich Von Wittgenstein was plotting their original target, Otto examined the picture forming on the plot while thinking about how to proceed. The U-800 was at periscope depth at a distance of maybe two kilometers south of the entrance channel of Willemstad Harbor, the capital of the Dutch possession of Curacao, itself close to the coast of Venezuela. His original plan had been to first ambush and sink the incoming British heavy cruiser, then to dive and move around the island before surfacing again and bombard with his deck gun the huge refinery and oil tank farm complex bordering the Willemstad Harbor. Now, he was going to be forced to juggle more balls at the same time. His first watch officer gave him a questioning look as Otto was thinking.
‘’Should we still engage today or wait for a better occasion, Herr Kapitän?’’
‘’Those who wait for better occasions never get to achieve much, Ulrich. We will attack this morning…and in grand style. Have all our tubes loaded with G7e eels set on contact detonation and running depth of three meters and be