CHAPTER 6 – BOWMANVILLE
08:06 (Paris Time)
Thursday, June 10, 1943
Office of Admiral Karl Dönitz, BdU headquarters
Keroman, Lorient, French Atlantic coast
‘’Aaah, my dear von Wittgenstein! Welcome back! How was your first war patrol with the U-900?’’
‘’Intense but satisfying, Herr Admiral.’’ answered Ulrich, dressed in his best uniform. Dönitz gave him a benevolent smile on hearing that.
‘’Well, it was certainly satisfying to my taste…and that of the Führer. Our intelligence is reporting that the British are getting truly desperate and are close to the bottom of their reserves of supplies. A further cut in food rationing was announced by London a week ago for the British civilians and the R.A.F. has cut down drastically on its routine patrols, thus making life that much easier for my U-Boote. But please, sit down!’’
Before taking the easy chair offered by Dönitz, Ulrich put on his desk a large, thick brown envelope.
‘’Here is my patrol report, along with prints of the pictures I was able to take of a few of my British victims, Herr Admiral.’’
‘’Thank you!’’
Ulrich then sat down and waited patiently while Dönitz went through his report. The graying admiral finally nodded his head, apparently quite satisfied.
‘’Thirty-five merchant ships totaling 210,000 tons, plus thirteen British warships confirmed sunk: Kapitän Kretschmer would have been proud of you, my dear von Wittgenstein.’’
‘’Thank you, Herr Admiral: that was the best compliment you could have given me.’’
‘’And you truly deserves it. Just one question: did you seek out those British warships or did you just bumped into them?’’
‘’I bumped into them, Herr Admiral. On the first occasion, I found five British escort ships protecting a group of merchant ships waiting off Liverpool for my mines to be cleared. I had no choice but to sink those escort ships in order to get at the merchant ships. On the second occasion, as I was slowly heading north up the North Channel, looking for preys, I was confronted by six British frigates and destroyers going down that channel in extended line while pinging on active ASDIC mode. Those warships were obviously sweeping down the North Channel to find and sink me and I decided that the best defense then was a good offence, so I ambushed them. By the way, our new T5 ZAUNKÖNING acoustic homing torpedo is a great weapon, especially against frigates and corvettes, which are not fast enough to evade it. Anyway, I managed to sink all six of those warships before continuing up the North Channel. The twelfth British warship I sank was actually a submarine that was posted in ambush at the opening of the North Channel, near the coast of Northern Ireland. Unfortunately for it, our sonars were clearly superior to their sonar and we were able to detect it first and approach it silently. We shot it at nearly point blank range and were able to take a picture of it through our underwater observation dome as it sank to the bottom. Finally, the last warship we sank was a new construction destroyer that had just been completed at the Vickers Shipyards in Barrow-in-Furness. We encountered it doing its sea trials as we were on our way to mine for the second time the approaches to the port of Liverpool.’’
‘’I see! Normally, I would not be happy at one of my submarine commanders taking such risks, but the sinking of all those escort ships and destroyers have had a dramatic effect for our other submarines operating around the British Isles. In order to find you, the British made the mistake of taking nearly all of their anti-submarine capable ships patrolling the Irish Sea and North Channel, along with redirecting the maritime patrol aircraft of their Coastal Command in the area, concentrating them on finding you. That in turn took off a lot of the pressure on our Type VII boats patrolling in adjacent areas. Since you actually sank all those escort ships, that means that there are now wide gaps in the British anti-submarine defenses of the British Isles, gaps that my other submarines have already started to exploit with great success. You may be pleased to hear that, with your own score included, our total tonnage of enemy merchant ships sunk during the month of May in the North Atlantic was 708,000 tons, a near record. Now that two other Type XXI boats and three Type IXD3 boats have replaced you on station and are blocking the northern and southern accesses to the Irish Sea, the British will continue to starve in the dark for the weeks and months to come. With more Type XXI boats coming out of the shipyards nearly every week now, our blockade of the British Isles will soon be airtight. My main worry right now is to find enough good crews for them. That actually brings me on the subject of your next mission.’’
Dönitz then pressed a button on the intercom box sitting on his desk.
‘’Please have the good hauptmann come in!’’
Now quite curious, Ulrich waited in his padded chair while fixing the entrance door. A grin appeared on his face when a Heer4 officer entered the office and presented himself to the admiral while saluting him.
‘’Hauptmann Hugo Margraff, here as requested, Herr Admiral.’’
‘’At ease, Hauptmann Margraff! I believe that you already know well Korvetenkapitän Ulrich von Wittgenstein?’’
‘’I certainly do, Herr Admiral!’’ replied the army commando before exchanging a strong handshake with Ulrich, who had got up on his feet. The two men then sat down, Margraff grabbing a second chair and approaching it from Dönitz’ desk. The admiral in turn smiled benevolently at both men.
‘’Two valorous officers indeed! Be assured that I have a worthy mission for both of you, a mission I am sure that you will take at heart. Basically, as you must know already, while Kapitän Kretschmer died in the sinking of his U-800 off Newfoundland, 36 of his crewmembers were able to jump out and were taken prisoner by the British. We now know through our intelligence work that they were subsequently interned in a Canadian prisoner-of-war camp, Camp Bowmanville, situated near Toronto, on the North Shore of Lake Ontario. We have since been able to get more information on that prisoners’ camp, especially through what the prisoners themselves told us by secret codes via their letters to their families. We now know enough about that camp to convince me that we could possibly be able to get to it, enter the camp and bring back to Germany some select prisoners. The priority will be of course to free experienced submarine officers and men, plus experienced Luftwaffe pilots. I thus want you two to take the next few days to study our intelligence on that Canadian camp and to decide if an operation to break free at least some of the inmates is feasible. You will then report to me your conclusions and recommendations. I gave orders for my intelligence staff to help you to the utmost in this. Know that the Abwehr5 and the Luftwaffe Intelligence Branch will be helping us in this, as there is some very high level interest in this potential mission…going all the way to the Führer himself.’’
Both Ulrich and Margraff stiffened a bit on hearing that: such high level interest all but guaranteed that they would at least have to try accomplishing that mission, however risky it could turn to be. It was Margraff, as the man who would obviously run the most risks in such a mission, who then spoke up, his voice firm.
‘’Admiral, you can count on us. We will do the impossible…and more!’’
15:41 (Paris Time)
Saturday, June 12, 1943
Office of Admiral Dönitz, BdU headquarters
‘’So, my good men, do you think that the mission is feasible?’’
Ulrich von Wittgenstein, standing at attention with Hugo Margraff in front of Dönitz’ work desk, answered for the pair.
‘’Yes, Herr Admiral! However, the quality of our false papers and disguises will be primordial for the success of the mission, as we may have to pass through multiple security checkpoints.’’
Dönitz nodded his head in agreement to that.
‘’That is a given. I already have the assurances of Admiral Canaris that his services will provide maximum support to your mission, including by providing false papers, documents, uniforms and civilian clothing. You are thus to go next to Paris, to visit the local Abwehr section there, where your false papers and documents will be made and disguises provided. Hauptmann Margraff, you will have to bring your troopers with you to Paris, so that photos of them could be taken and measurements made for their disguises.’’
‘’That will help us a lot, Herr Admiral.’’ replied Margraff, who then hesitated for a second before continuing. ‘’Uh, there is one more thing that we will need, which may improve a lot our chances of success.’’
‘’I will do my best, Hauptmann Margraff. What is it?’’
What Margraff said then left Dönitz stunned for a moment.
‘’You are not serious, Hauptmann, I hope?’’
‘’Very much, Herr Admiral!’’ replied Margraff without hesitation, resolved to get his wishes.
09:52 (Paris Time)
Monday, June 14, 1943
Offices of the Abwehr’s Paris division
Hotel Kléber, 7th Arrondissement
Paris, France
‘’You asked for me, sir?’’
‘’Yes, I did, Oberhelferin Blumenthal. Please, take a seat.’’ replied Major Karl Bock, the commander of the Abwehr’s Paris division. As the young woman took place in a chair near his desk, Bock examined her with interest. According to her personnel file, Hanna Blumenthal was 24 years old and had volunteered to serve as an army female auxiliary at the age of 21. However, she had what one could call a ‘baby face’ that tended to soften the attitude of superiors towards her. Whether that ‘baby face’ was natural or the result of Hanna having lied about her true age on enrolment was still an open question to Bock. She certainly was a beautiful girl, with a smooth, oval face, big gray eyes and reddish-brown hair. She also had a feminine body and was a bit taller than the average woman, with a height of 172 centimeters. However, the main reason for which she was appreciated at the Paris offices of the Abwehr was not her beauty, but rather her sharp intelligence, quick mind, competence and overall good nature. Bock could bet that many of his male agents and officers secretly wished that they could date or even marry her. Certainly, any man dealing with her couldn’t help but like her. That was however a problem for what he wanted to discuss with her, but she was still the best choice for the job, in his opinion.
‘’Oberhelferin Blumenthal, I must say that your competences as a radio monitoring specialist are well recognized and that you speak and write English perfectly. You are also an expert Morse radio operator and have been monitoring both American and British military radio transmissions for over two years now, demonstrating great efficiency and expertise in that job. What I have for you is a very special temporary assignment in which your English proficiency will be key. I understand that you once visited the United States and Canada with your parents, when you were a teenager. Is that correct?’’
‘’Only partly, Herr Major: I actually visited four times the United States and Canada during my youth. My father was a high level sales representative for the Telefunken radio manufacturing company and his job required him to frequently visit a number of countries overseas, including the United States and Canada.’’
‘’Oh?’’ said Bock while raising an eyebrow, now seriously interested. ‘’And what other countries did you visit, on top of the United States and Canada, Oberhelferin?’’
‘’Well, I often travelled to France, Belgium and the Netherlands, sir. By the way, I learned French during my high school years and can say that I am a fluent French speaker. I also traveled a couple of times to Italy and Spain, plus went once to Argentina and Brazil. As I said, my father was highly placed in the company and was able to afford to bring me and my mother along many of his business trips, especially in the Summer, during school vacations.’’
‘’Impressive!’’ said Bock, meaning it. ‘’Then, the assignment I have in mind for you would fit you to a ‘T’…if you accept it. Please understand that the mission I am talking about will be a very dangerous one, deep behind enemy lines. In fact, you would be accompanying a few of our soldiers from the Brandenburg Regiment, who intend to infiltrate the United States and then enter Canada. Your job would be to help reinforce the false identities used by our soldiers, mostly by lowering the suspicions of local enemy soldiers and police officers: who would think that German saboteurs and infiltrators would bring a woman with them to the United States and Canada?’’
Hanna was left speechless by this for a long moment, having expecting everything but that. She finally overcame the waves of emotion washing over her and got up on her feet.
‘’Sir, I will be honored to participate in that mission.’’
‘’Excellent!’’ said Bock, also getting up from his chair. ‘’Then, follow me, Oberhelferin Blumenthal.’’
Leading Blumenthal out of his office, Bock then walked with her down the main corridor of their floor, then climbing up to the next level and walked down another corridor before entering a large room used by the counterfeiting section. That room was filled with both work desks and storage cabinets, with a dozen men working silently at their desks. There were however as well twenty young men in army uniforms who were obviously not simple desk jockeys, standing or sitting in a corner while reading some documents and papers. Those young men in turn eyed at once with interest Hanna Blumenthal as she followed Bock and approached them. One of the men, a highly decorated hauptmann, saluted Bock when the latter stopped in front of him, while the other young men came to rigid attention.
‘’Sir!’’
‘’At ease! Well, Hauptmann Margraff, I believe that I found the perfect person for the job. Let me present to you Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal, from my radio monitoring section. She speaks and writes perfect English and has visited the United States and Canada a number of times when she was a teenager. Oberhelferin, this is Hauptmann Hugo Margraff, of the Brandenburg Regiment.’’
‘’THE Hauptmann Hugo Margraff who raided the American East Coast from the U-800, sir?’’ replied Hanna, suddenly excited. That made Hugo smile in amusement.
‘’My! I didn’t think that I had become this famous. I hope that I am not as well known by the enemy.’’
‘’Be reassured, Hauptmann Margraff.’’ said Bock. ‘’You are well known only inside the Abwehr, but not outside the service. If you accept her as part of your mission, I will then have false papers and disguises made as well for Oberhelferin Blumenthal. So, if you want to ask her a few questions, now is the time.’’
‘’Thank you, Herr Major!’’ replied Hugo before looking at Hanna and switching to English, speaking with an American accent.
‘’So, miss, tell me in your best American English about your past trips to the United States and Canada.’’
‘’With pleasure, sir!’’ said Hanna in English, adopting a New York accent. She then spoke for a good three minutes while Hugo and his men listened carefully to her. At the end of it, Hugo nodded his head, quite satisfied.
‘’Very good, Oberhelferin! One last question: have you ever fired a pistol?’’
The blank look Hanna gave him was enough of an answer for him and he smiled benevolently to her.
‘’I thought so! However, that was to be expected: our female auxiliaries are not normally trained to handle weapons. Well, expect to have to train intensively on pistol handling and firing during the next week, Oberhelferin Blumenthal.’’
15:52 (Paris Time)
Wednesday, June 23, 1943
Weather deck of the U-900, Keroman I submarine bunker
Lorient, France
The arrival of the twenty men and one woman of the landing team in the submarine bunker containing the U-900 attracted at once Ulrich von Wiggenstein on the weather deck of his submarine, where he greeted Hugo Margraff with a strong handshake.
‘’Welcome back on the U-900, my friend. Your present team is quite a lot more numerous than your previous one, when you were on the U-800. I also can see that you found what we were looking for to help in our mission.’’
‘’I did! I believe that Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal will do just fine on this mission…if the men of your crew don’t devour her first with their eyes.’’
Ulrich had a short laugh at that before replying with a grin.
‘’I will do my best to keep my crew of perverts on a leash. I will give her a single-occupancy cabin just for her, in the Petty Officers’ quarters, which has its own washroom and shower.’’
‘’That should do. Know that our disguises and mission kit have been sealed in airtight rubber bags, so that they don’t get impregnated with diesel fumes during our trip, something that would give us away at the first sniff by an American.’’
‘’A good idea indeed, my friend. As for you and your men, I have twenty bunks available in the passengers compartment and in the aft torpedo room, close to the Petty Officers’ quarters. Let me guide your group inside.’’
The heavily loaded members of the landing team, each carrying at least two full kit bags, then followed Ulrich and Hugo inside the submarine, entering it via the forward airlock, situated inside the forward blunt edge of the sail. Hanna, who had never been aboard a submarine before and who was expecting some kind of steel sardine can, was left stunned by what she saw as they went down two levels via steep ladders.
‘’Mein Gott! This submarine is quite spacious, contrary to my expectations.’’
Ulrich smiled at that but didn’t speak until he stopped in front of the sliding curtain closing off one of the individual cabins usually reserved for senior petty officers.
‘’Your cabin for the duration of our sea voyage, Oberhelferin Blumenthal. Across the hallway, a few paces back, you will find a washroom with shower reserved for the senior petty officers. You will only need to hook up a special sign saying that a woman is inside to have privacy while you use it.’’
Hanna pushed open the curtain of her assigned cabin and looked briefly inside the six meter square surface of the compartment before smiling to Ulrich.
‘’That is perfect. Thank you, Herr Kapitän!’’
‘’You’re welcome, Oberhelferin.’’ replied Ulrich, who was starting to find her very cute indeed. Hugo Margraff then asked him a question as Hanna went inside her cabin with her luggage.
‘’What about the men that we may free from the Bowmanville prisoners’ camp? Where will they be accommodated for the return trip?’’
‘’Well, each of my junior officers’ cabins have an upper bunk that is normally kept folded away above the fixed lower bunk. Thus, I will have six bunks available for the more senior officers from Bowmanville. The rest will have to share crew bunks in ‘hot bunking’ fashion. I thus could accommodate up to eighty extra people aboard in still fair conditions. If you bring more ex-prisoners than that, then I will have to break out our reserve of folding camp cots from our storage room and be imaginative about where to put them.’’
‘’Well, I doubt that we will be able to travel back to the coast with such a large group without attracting attention. I may have to do some drastic selection once inside Bowmanville, in order to keep my return group to a manageable size. But don’t worry, I will keep my promise: every crewmember from the U-800 that I find will be part of my return group.’’
‘’Thank you, my friend. Those crewmembers may be mostly of low rank but, together, they formed the most deadly submarine crew we ever had. Germany needs men like them.’’
‘’Agreed! Well, let’s show to my men the palace they are going to live in, shall we?’’
18:09 (Paris Time)
Crew cafeteria of the U-900
Hanna Blumenthal, wearing a dark khaki coverall and an elastic cap covering her hair, meant to prevent as much as possible diesel fumes from impregnating them, shrank at once on entering the crew cafeteria: the large compartment, full of men eating at long tables, had suddenly fallen silent, while over sixty pairs of eyes were now fixed on her. The sudden silence seemingly attracted a large, beefy man with a graying beard out of the nearby kitchen. The man, wearing a cook’s apron, had a brief look at her before twisting his head and shouting at the men in the cafeteria.
‘’DON’T YOU SQUIDS HAVE ANY MANNERS? GET YOUR NOSES BACK INTO YOUR BOWLS BEFORE I START THROWING HOT WATER AROUND!’’
The threat from the old cook worked, with the dinners returning their attention to their food. Hanna smiled to the cook, quite grateful for his intervention.
‘’Thank you very much, mister. That was very considerate on your part.’’
‘’Pah! I have three daughters that are around your age, miss. I am accustomed to keep young stalkers away from them. By the way, I am Matrosenobergefreiter Otto Hannig, chief-cook on the U-900.’’
‘’And I am Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal.’’ replied Hanna while shaking the cook’s hand. ‘’Uh, you seem to be fairly old to have been drafted into service, no?’’
‘’True! I am a veteran submariner from the Great War of 1914. I volunteered to return back into active service.’’
‘’Wow! Your patriotism and dedication is truly admirable, Obergefreiter. Uh, I just arrived aboard this afternoon. How does it work here?’’
‘’Just like in a civilian cafeteria, Oberhelferin. You just go to your left and pick up a food tray, a cup and utensils from those bins, then go to the start of the service counter, where I will be able to serve you with your choice of food.’’
‘’We can choose our menu, on a submarine?’’ asked Hanna, floored. Otto grinned to her in response.
‘’Of course! This is my kitchen and I don’t serve swill in it.’’
‘’Uh, I see! Give me a second, then.’’
Hanna made two steps and grabbed a food tray, a cup and a set of utensils before walking to the start of a service counter set across from a large opening in a partition separating the cafeteria and the kitchen, or galley in naval parlance. There, she was able to examine the contents of multiple food containers set over steam tables. Her eyes went wide at the view of the selection available.
‘’Breaded wiener schnitzel? Beef and vegetable stew? Deep fried cod? Mashed potatoes? Steamed vegetable mix? Mein Gott! Is the menu always this comprehensive?’’
‘’It is!’’ said proudly Otto. ‘’You will also find a self-serve counter on the other side of the room, which has a pot of chicken and noodle soup, a salad bar, a bread bar and dispensers for milk, fresh water, coffee and apple juice.’’
‘’When I think that I was half expecting to eat only soup with some bread and cold cuts while sitting on the floor or on a bunk. I will have a wiener schnitzel, with some mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables, please.’’
‘’Here you are, miss. Bon appétit!’’
‘’Thank you!’’ said happily Hanna before walking away from the service counter with her full food tray. She stopped first at the beverage counter and served herself a glass of fresh milk before going to sit at a table occupied by a few soldiers from the landing team. Like her, they all wore coveralls and elastic head covers and would do so for the duration of the sea trip to the American coast.
‘’Hello guys! I must say that the food aboard comes as a really nice surprise. I will have to be careful not to put on weight.’’
‘’Yeah! You would not want to outgrow your nice British naval auxiliary uniform, Oberhelferin.’’ replied Unteroffizier6 Herman Weiss. ‘’On the other hand, I do not regret one minute the field rations we got while serving on the Eastern Front. Half of the time, we ended up with moldy or concrete-hard dry bread and a piece of cheese as our supper.’’
‘’And, how were things on the Eastern Front?’’ asked Hanna, lowering her voice to a near whisper. Weiss understood at once why she did so: things were not going very well on the Eastern Front and propaganda officials didn’t like ‘defeatist talk’. He thus lowered his own voice before answering her.
‘’We have managed to stabilize the front…for now. However, I fully expect those damn Soviets to hit us hard next Winter, at a time when our vehicles and weapons are mostly frozen stiff. You have to give that to them, though: these Soviets are truly tough, fanatical bastards.’’
‘’And…what are our chances of winning over the Soviets, in your opinion, Unteroffizier?’’
Weiss thought his answer over for a moment before speaking.
‘’It will all depend on whether our submarine campaign can succeed in forcing the British to give up the fight and ask for an armistice. If we can manage that and end up fighting only on one front, then I believe that we will win. If not…’’
Weiss didn’t finish his sentence, nor did he have to, as Hanna fully understood what he meant. Her enthusiasm quite tempered now, she concentrated on her food, swallowing back the other