CHAPTER 11 – THE WAR GOES ON
09:04 (Paris Time)
Wednesday, December 15, 1943
U-Boote Command headquarters, Keroman
Lorient, Atlantic coast of France
‘’Please sit, gentlemen!’’ said Grossadmiral Dönitz in a jovial tone after returning the salutes from his five submarine commanders who had just presented themselves at his request. Ulrich von Wittgenstein, along with Klaus Bargsten, Carl Emmermann, Horst Degen and Ulrich Heyse, took place in the easy chairs and sofa placed in front of Dönitz’ desk, making themselves comfortable as their commander started speaking.
‘’Well, gentlemen, we are now in a brand new war, if I could say so. The Madrid Accords, by mostly eliminating Great Britain from this war and by transferring control of most of its Middle East territories and assets to our allies, has given our country fresh hopes of winning this war. For your information, the fact that we don’t have anymore to fear air or sea attacks from Great Britain against continental Europe has allowed the High Command to free substantial forces from the Western Front, in order to reinforce our Eastern Front and push back the Soviets. A total of 38 divisions, including eleven panzer divisions, are now preparing to move east or have already started to move. Accompanying these ground units to Russia will be two thirds of the Luftwaffe combat and transport air units stationed presently in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. With such an influx of new blood, our forces on the Eastern Front will have a much easier time to then deal with the Soviets and throw them back into full retreat.’’
At that point, Dönitz smiled to Ulrich von Wittgenstein.
‘’I am happy to say that the tungsten metal you brought back from Chile has played a crucial role in stopping cold the Soviet Fall offensive, my dear von Wittgenstein. With our 50mm anti-tank guns and the 50mm guns of our medium Mark III tanks now able to pierce the armor of the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks, our soldiers were able to decimate and push back the latest Soviet armored assaults, causing them huge casualties.’’
‘’I am most happy to hear that as well, Herr Grossadmiral.’’ replied Ulrich, being sincere. Dönitz acknowledged him with a nod, then continued.
‘’About Chile, the defeat of Great Britain has brought us as well a number of other advantages that we are at the moment keeping discrete about. Know that, during the Madrid talks, representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay secretly spoke with our delegation to offer us their support in the form of discreet port refueling rights for our submarines and the exportation of their various natural resources and minerals to Germany. It seems that those countries, and especially Chile and Argentina, have grown quite weary of the bullying ways of the Americans in running roughshod over their economies. They have had enough of that and will now accept our cargo ships and will load them, as long as they come under disguise. They would have been more open about this if not for the fact that Brazil, an important ally of the United States, is looming large as a threat on their borders. Their offer of support is thus presenting us with many new opportunities, one of which is the possibility for our submarines to refuel in either Argentinean or Chilean ports and to station there resupply ships carrying spare torpedoes and fresh food. With such refueling and resupplying points, especially in Chilean ports, we will now be able to attack enemy shipping and ports along the American West Coast. This is where you are coming into play, gentlemen.’’
Dönitz then distributed large envelopes to his five submarine commanders before continuing.
‘’Those envelopes contain your respective mission orders and intelligence materiel concerning your future target areas for your next war patrol, gentlemen. Kapitän von Wittgenstein’s boat will go roam the area off the ports of Vancouver and Seattle and will interdict enemy shipping activity along the Juan de Fuca Strait. Kapitän Bargsten’s boat will go interdict the shipping activity around San Francisco, which has been reopened to ships three months ago after herculean efforts by the Americans to clear the debris of the Golden Gate Bridge which were blocking the entrance to the harbor. Kapitän Degen’s boat will go roam around Los Angeles and the port of Long beach and will disrupt as much as possible the maritime traffic and the coastal activities in those areas. Kapitän Heyse’s boat will do the same around the San Diego area. Finally, Kapitän Emmermanm’s boat will post itself outside the Pacific-side locks of the Panama Canal, which has just reopened last month after extensive rebuilding work. A tanker ship and a cargo ship loaded with extra torpedoes, shells, spare parts and foodstuff will precede you to the Chilean port of Valparaiso, where they will take discrete stations outside the harbor and will serve as your resupply stations. We may also send further north one of those resupply ships, to take a discreet position near an uninhabited island off the coasts of Central America. The goal of all this is for your five submarines to stay on station as long as possible and to paralyze for a long period the enemy maritime traffic along the American West Coast. If we can achieve that, we will choke up the American supply lines to Hawaii and to the South Pacific and will also prevent newly built American warships from going to reinforce the American Pacific Fleet. This should prevent the Americans from eventually regaining the upper hand over the Japanese and will also force the Americans to devote more resources to protect their West Coast, at the detriment of their East Coast and the Caribbean Basin, where more of our submarines will keep the pressure up in the two latter areas.’’
That was when Ulrich Heyse raised one hand to ask a question.
‘’Herr Grossadmiral, you spoke about the threat from Brazil to our new secret allies in South America. What will Germany do to prevent the Brazilians from attacking either Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay or Uruguay?’’
‘’A pertinent question indeed, my good Heyse. What we will do is to station four Type XXI submarines along the Brazilian coast, off its main ports, and harass Brazilian Navy ships and commercial traffic, in order to disrupt the Brazilian economy, cut to size its navy and weaken it to the point where Brazil will no longer be strong enough to attack its neighbors. Our four submarines will also benefit like you from having resupply ships, posted in Argentinean harbors. Apart from weakening Brazil, this will also cut off a major source of food supplies and minerals to the United States. Now, all of your boats have been extensively refitted during the past few weeks, while you were enjoying well earned shore leave time. They also were upgraded with our latest improvements in electronic systems and weapons. In particular, your 12.7 centimeter twin deck guns will now have reserves of shells equipped with German-produced copies of the American proximity fuse, which our good von Wittgenstein was so kind to bring examples to us. As well, your main deck guns have been replaced with a new model of gun with a much increased angle of elevation, to both allow longer ranges against sea and ground targets and to improve its anti-aircraft capabilities. Basically, your new main deck gun mount is a navalized and waterproofed variant of our heavy Flakzwilling 40 anti-aircraft mount. Its elevation range is minus ten to plus eighty degrees and its vertical effective ceiling is 14,800 meters, while its maximum horizontal range is 24 kilometers. In combination with our new proximity fuse, this gun will be deadly against enemy aircraft and, by using airbursts above the ground, will be able to cause much more damage to soft area targets than with the older impact shells. The shining examples given by both the U-800 and the U-900 on how useful a well used deck gun can be against coastal installations pushed me into ordering the series manufacture of this new gun, which will eventually equip all of our Type XXI boats.’’
The five submarine commanders exchanged smiles on hearing that, with Ulrich von Wittgenstein then looking back at Dönitz.
‘’Herr Grossadmiral, another thing that proved very useful is the use of elite commando teams aboard my submarine and on the U-800. I would thus like very much to have again Hauptmann Margraff and his men aboard the U-900 for my next war patrol.’’
A malicious smile appeared on Dönitz’ face on hearing that.
‘’My dear von Wittgenstein, be assured that I am now well sold on the benefit of having coastal raiders and ship boarders on my submarines. Major Margraff, who was recently promoted thanks to his exploits, has used the last few weeks to train more Brandenburg Regiment soldiers in the subtleties of serving on submarines and operating from them, along with how to seize control of enemy ships. I have now a full company of the Brandenburg Regiment qualified for service on submarines, with all its men fluent in the English language and with some of them also fluent in Spanish. Major Margraff and twelve of his men will be traveling aboard your U-900 during your incoming mission, while your four comrades along the West Coast and the ones along the East Coast of America will also have commando teams aboard. As for their use, it will be up to your imagination and their daring to decide what they will do.’’
‘’Thank you, Herr Grossadmiral.’’ replied Ulrich, truly happy. His next war patrol already promised to be a challenging but also an exciting one.