11:09 (London Time)
Wednesday, October 8, 1941
Prime Minister’s official residence
10 Downing Street, London
United Kingdom
‘’OVER 2,400 MEN DEAD OR MISSING? WHAT ABOUT THE GERMAN SUBMARINES WHO CAUSED THAT DISASTER?’’
Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, shrank as Prime Minister Churchill reacted as badly to the bad news as he had predicted. The old admiral, sickly and worn out by his heavy responsibilities as the head of the Royal Navy, answered Churchill in a subdued tone.
‘’Actually, Mister Prime Minister, we have reasons to believe that a single German submarine was involved in that attack. That submarine unfortunately evaded the extensive search launched afterwards by the six escort destroyers of our battle group.’’
Churchill in turn gave Pound a dubious look.
‘’A single submarine? How could you say that, in view of the mayhem caused off Iceland? At the minimum, the Germans had to be aware in advance of our Operation E.J. in order to be able to ambush our battle group the way they did.’’
‘’We actually intercepted a short and rather terse radio message from a German submarine that was sent a few hours after the attack. ULTRA{2} managed to decode it this morning.’’
‘’And what did that message say, Admiral?’’
‘’It was sent by a U-800, to the headquarters of Admiral Dönitz in France and said that it had sunk the KING GEORGE V and the VICTORIOUS after encountering them northeast of Iceland while they were apparently heading towards Norway. The message ended with the sentence ‘am now resuming mission.’ There were no further messages intercepted from that U-800 after that, Mister Prime Minister.’’
‘’What type is that U-800?’’
‘’We don’t know, Mister Prime Minister. This is the first mention made of the U-800 anywhere in the radio traffic we have intercepted to date.’’
Both discouraged and frustrated, Churchill went to his office chair and sat on it, then looked up gravely at Pound.
‘’So, one lone German submarine managed to get to Iceland without being detected, somehow crossed path with our battle group and sank our two warships before escaping and continuing on with an unknown mission. It sounds as if this German submarine commander thought of sinking our ships to be just a side note to its main mission. In a way, it makes the whole thing even more disturbing. Do we have an inkling of what may be the main mission of this U-800, Admiral?’’
‘’We can only guess about that, Mister Prime Minister, but an obvious possibility would be that this submarine will go down to Newfoundland and the Canadian East Coast to harass our shipping in that area. With the skill shown by the commander of that U-800, I would take such a possible threat very seriously. However, with a minimum of ten torpedoes expended against our battle group, that U-800 probably has half a dozen or less torpedoes left aboard, so that should limit any future losses to us. Uh, what degree of censorship do you want put on the news of the loss of the KING GEORGE V and of the VICTORIOUS, Mister Prime Minister?’’
‘’The news won’t come out until I decide otherwise, Admiral.’’ Replied coldly Churchill. ‘’The one thing that you can tell around is that I want that U-800 found and sunk!’’
In contrast, the same news were greeted with jubilation in Berlin and quickly exploited widely by the German propaganda machine. However, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels was intelligent and smart enough not to divulge anything about the U-800 or Kapitän Kretschmer, simply saying that a U-boot had sunk the two British capital ships off Iceland. As for Admiral Dönitz, apart from being overjoyed by that major success, which would do much to put him and his U-boote arm in the good graces of the Führer, he was relieved to see that his risky bet of supporting Doctor Premingen against the Nazi hierarchy was being vindicated. He was tempted to send further orders by radio to Kretschmer but finally decided not to. For one, his wily submarine commander would most probably not answer him. For another, Kretschmer had just proven that he could take good decisions and show initiative without help. Dönitz thus simply let Kretschmer in peace and wished him well mentally for the rest of his mission. The only Germans dismayed by the news of the sinking of the KING GEORGE V and of the VICTORIOUS were the few U-boote commanders who had been hoping to grab the title of ‘U-boot Ace of aces’ from ‘The Tonnage King’, with their prospects having just grown much dimmer.
16:36 (Iceland Time)
Friday, October 10, 1941
Control room of the U-800
Submerged and on schnorchel
Off the East Coast of Greenland
The navigator of the U-800, Leutnant zur see Franz Streib, pointed on the chart to Otto Kretschmer the update position he had just calculated.
‘’I can confirm to you that we are within the surface stream of the East Greenland Current, which hugs the East Coast of Greenland and flows south-southwest. My latest sextant measurement showed that the current is actually adding a good two knots to our true speed relative to land. We are thus sailing at a true speed of twelve knots, Herr Kapitän.’’
‘’Excellent!’’ Replied Otto, grinning. ‘’This will both save us many tons of fuel and speed our arrival off Halifax. What about the Labrador Current, which we should encounter in three days off the coast of Labrador?’’
‘’That one will be even more of an help to us, Herr Kapitän, as its stream speed is rated between six and ten knots. We could thus either greatly cut our travel time by keeping our current diesel power up and thus sail down the coast of Labrador at true speeds of sixteen to twenty knots, or we could throttle down our engines once inside the Labrador Current and keep a true speed of twelve knots, while saving dozens of tons of fuel and becoming extremely quiet, with our engines outputting only enough power to add five knots or less to the current’s speed. Which would you prefer, Herr Kapitän?’’
Otto thought carefully his answer, speaking only after a few seconds spent examining the chart laid out on the navigation plot table.
‘’The waters around Newfoundland are bound to be lousy with patrol aircraft and warships, especially after the raucous we made off Iceland. Being fuel efficient and quiet suits me just fine, Franz. Just make sure that we don’t slip out of the current’s stream during our trip down the coast.’’
‘’You can count on me, Herr Kapitän.’’
‘’I always do, my dear Franz. I’m going to go down to the crew mess, to see what our good cook has listed for supper on the menu.’’
Streib nodded his head at that: the subject of the quality of food aboard a submarine was no trivial matter, as the crew morale depended a lot on it. Up to now, Matrosen Obergefreiter Dieter Hannig had been performing at his customary masterful culinary level, producing a variety of meals as appetizing as they were nourishing. Streib however had to recognize that the exceptional facilities found aboard the U-800 had to help greatly Hannig in his job.
Using the deck hatch situated forward of the control room, Otto climbed down two decks and stepped on the level of the upper deck, inside the crew mess compartment and a few steps away from the entrance of the kitchen. Otto couldn’t even call that kitchen ‘small’, as it was positively gigantic compared to the standard found on other submarines. An appetizing smell immediately caught his nostrils, smell that pulled him inside the kitchen, where he found Hannig and his assistant, young Gustav Bouhler, at work in front of their ovens and stoves. Both cooks came immediately to attention on seeing Otto, who waved at them to relax.
‘’At ease, men! I was just coming to see what you were putting on the menu for diner this evening.’’
Hannig, a slightly overweight and definitely easy-going man, grinned to Otto and opened the door of one of his electric ovens to show him the big skillet inside, releasing a wave of tempting odors into the kitchen.
‘’The men should be pleased tonight, Herr Kapitän: I have broiled lamb with mint sauce on the menu, accompanied by boiled potatoes and cabbage and with freshly baked bread with butter to go along. There is as well a cake as a dessert for the finale. We also still have fresh milk for our beverage bar, on top of hot coffee, tea and apple juice.’’
While utterly impressed by the composition of the menu, Otto couldn’t help eye Hannig with some suspicion.
‘’My dear Smutje, could you tell me where you found all those ingredients for this fantastic menu? I never saw fresh lamb on the menu in the past on other submarines.’’
Hannig grinned again while wiping his hands with a cloth towel.
‘’Herr Kapitän, if I told you, you could then become implicated in things that could be deemed to be criminal affairs by the Kriegsmarine.’’
Understanding at once what Hannig was alluding to, Otto approached him and put a friendly arm around his shoulders, a smile on his face.
‘’Please do tell me about that, my dear Smutje. You know that I am a curious man, do you?’’
‘’Uh, as you wish, Herr Kapitän.’’ Said Hannig, now sweating a bit more. ‘’To make a long story short, I was watching the ground support personnel in Kiel as they poured hundreds of tons of diesel fuel into our tanks. I then thought that a few hundred liters less of that diesel fuel wouldn’t really hurt us during our long patrol, while a better scale of rations would certainly help the morale of the crew. So, I filled a few fuel cans with diesel fuel and, along with a few of our men who come from the Schleswig-Holstein region around Kiel, toured the farms belonging to their families, relatives and friends in a requisitioned truck. I then bartered that diesel fuel in exchange for things like fresh meat, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, wheat flower and apple juice.’’
‘’I see!’’ Said Otto, his grip firming up around Hannig’s shoulders and his smile appearing even more forced. He let the cook stew in his juice for a couple of seconds before showing a true smile and patting Hannig’s back.
‘’I admire men with initiative and imagination, my dear Hannig. Keep up the excellent work!’’
Otto then left the kitchen, allowing the poor Hannig to blow air in relief.