U-Boat Scourge

by J Eugene Porter

  Brand placed the photo next to the file followed by photos of the control room of an American S-class submarine. These were the oldest boats in use by the U.S. Navy, some dating back to the end of World War I. They were serving in the Pacific even though their living conditions were horrible in the tropics. The newer fleet boats like the Gato class were much larger with air conditioning, which was very valuable not only for the quality of life of the crews but for lowering humidity in the boat and reducing electrical problems caused by the dampness inherent to submarines. The German subs did not have air conditioning and the crews who ventured to the southern Atlantic and beyond suffered in the heat of the tropics.

  A knock at the door alerted the gunny who opened it to a marine private from the stockade command carrying a large mug of coffee, sugar bowl and a pot of cream on a steel plate, which also included two bottles of Coca-Cola. The private put the plate on the table, and also pulled out a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes and a pack of matches. The lieutenant thanked the private who exited under the continuous stare of the gunny.

  Brand spoke his broken German to the petty officer, “Well, seems they brought everything I asked for and even an extra bottle of Coca-Cola. Have you ever had one of these before?”

  The petty officer looked at the bottle and said, “No, I have heard of it, but I have never had one before.”

  “How do you like your coffee, Obermaat Schiller?”

  Schiller looked at the container of milk and the big bowl of sugar and replied to Brand, “Sir, I would like both the sugar and the cream.”

  Brand passed Schiller a spoon. “Here, make it up the way you like. I like a little sugar in mine because my mother always had it that way, and so I guess I do, too. The older men kid me, saying I should learn to drink it black and thick. But what I say is that if you have the right ingredients, you should have it anyway you want. Right?”

  “Yes, Lieutenant, I would agree with you on that. Sugar is very rare in Germany, and I would love to have all of this in the bowl to share with my family back in Bavaria. But, I guess that is not possible.”

  Brand opened the bottle and took a big drink. “Boy, do I love these things. A doctor friend told me one of these drinks has as much caffeine in it as two cups of coffee. Have you heard that about coffee, the caffeine I mean?”

  Schiller was stirring in his second heaping spoon of sugar as he heard the young lieutenant talk about caffeine. “No, Lieutenant, I have not heard about this thing called caffeine, but the men in the U-boat fleet all talk about how the coffee will keep you awake better than anything else.” He took a sip and let out an audible, “Wow,” then took another sip. He looked at Brand saying, “Thank you, Lieutenant, for the kindness. This is very good coffee, much better than what we get on the boats or in France.”

  Brand avoided making eye contact, but felt the first tremor of information passing to him. It did not take a genius to figure out that this crew was based in France in either Lorient, St. Nazaire, or La Rochelle. That the German opened up for just a minute to say anything of use was important. Brand decided to play along and see where all of this went.

  “Well, sugar and good coffee are all from the Caribbean and further south. I do think we grow a lot of sugar in the swamplands of Louisiana and maybe Florida, but I just don’t know. I was never a farmer. I grew up in the mountains of Arizona. Do you know anything about Arizona, Herr Obermaat?”

  Schiller shook his head no.

  “Well, Herr Obermaat, Arizona is where all of the cowboys come from. You know, the wild west, Indians, gunfights. You know, don’t you?”

  Schiller lit up immediately saying, “Yes, the cowboys and Indians. All the movies I saw before they were no longer allowed into Germany. Men on horses and Indians shooting guns or bows and arrows. Yes, this I know. You grew up there?”

  Brand moved in closer, “Yes, Schiller, I grew up in the mountains of Arizona. I shot mainly deer and a few bears but never Indians. They were my good friends and showed me a lot of ways to live in the wilderness. Great people from that part of America. You should tour the country after the war is over.” Brand left it there to see what the petty officer would say or do. It did not take long.

  “Lieutenant, in Arizona, are there many farms like in Germany?”

  “Herr Obermaat, yes there are many farms, but we call them ranches. We do raise some big crops in the southern part of the state, but it is very much a desert there. Have you ever seen a desert before?”

  Schiller took the bait and said, “Yes, I have been in North Africa briefly, but I did not like the heat. I grew up in the mountains of Bavaria. My family raised milk cows and we grew some grain. That is why I joined the navy to see the world, but what I have seen makes me want to go home to the mountains.”

  Brand shook his head in agreement saying, “I feel the same way, I plan to go back to my home in Arizona and maybe become a doctor or dentist. I like being on the land but,” he showed his right hand that had bulging knuckles from the days of hay baling and cleaning out stables, “I would like to have less strenuous work.”

  Schiller smiled and looked at his hands as well and said, “I agree with you. I loved working with the cows, but milking them each morning and evening became more demanding and left me with little time to do much else. I learned to work on some farm equipment, and that got me into the navy as a machinist.”

  Brand was connecting more dots but did not want to rush the conversation. He picked up one of the photos of the S-class submarines and showed it to Schiller. “This is one of our submarines. It is not very good like yours but then it takes a good mechanic to make anything work well.”

  Schiller looked at the submarine and saw many similarities, but the conning tower on the American boat seemed way out of proportion to the size of the boat. Foolish on the part of the Americans to have such a large tower on such a small boat. He felt his Type IX was the best even though it had a very slow dive rate. As he handed the photo back to the American, he saw another photo of the inside of the conning tower and what appeared to be the American control center. Brand noticed this and handed it to the German. “Sure, no big secret on this one either. I guess all submarines look alike anyway. I have never been on one of these boats, and I don’t intend to. Too small and dangerous.”

  The German was now intently studying the photograph and could make out some of the instruments that appeared to be just like his submarine. He saw the big diving levers like those on his submarine. He looked over at Brand who was not paying attention to him but was busy drinking the last drop of Coca-Cola.

  Brand looked back at Schiller after he knew the petty officer had been staring at him and quickly said, “Oh sorry, Schiller, I was thinking about the mountains and not about the war. So, your boat looks like this one, I guess?”

  “Yes, it does, but I think my boat was much larger in the control room than this boat. It looks very small like one of our training boats when I first went into the service after I had finished my engine room training.”

  Interesting, Brand thought, he had not divulged this earlier nor was it on his record. Perhaps he was in the control room when the boat was attacked and could get out faster than the others in the black gang who may have perished. Might as well push some more and see where this leads.

  “Herr Schiller, tell me, when the war ends do you want to go back to the farm or with your new mechanical skills want to stay in the navy or maybe get a land-based job working with diesel or electric motors?”

  Schiller was finishing his last sips of coffee and sat back to contemplate the young man’s question. “I think I will stay on land. If you know a diesel and all the pumps and gears of a submarine, you can work on anything on land. Perhaps, I will get a job on the railroad working on big trains. I think I would like that.”

  Brand opened the pack of cigarettes and handed it to Schiller saying, “If you smoke, go ahead and light up. The big marine will not care. I don’t smoke so take it with you if you want.”

&
nbsp; Schiller who was getting a small ration of cigarettes, immediately opened the pack and pulled out one of the American cigarettes and lit it. He knew American tobacco made all the difference compared to the horrible things the German navy gave him, which was still far superior to anything handed out to the army.

  Brand looked at the file again and this time pulled out a photograph of an American PBY to see what the petty officer would say. “Tell me, Herr Schiller, have you seen one of these planes before?”

  Schiller saw the plane and asked, “Did you know one of those planes sank my boat and killed our captain and many men?”

  Brand feigned ignorance, “No, I am sorry to have shown you this. I was just wondering if this plane is like your big four-engine planes?”

  Schiller almost clammed up for good but smiled back at the baffled teenager in the officer uniform. “Herr Lieutenant, the German plane is vastly superior to your slow flying boat. Your plane got lucky, that is all. Our people simply did not see it soon enough to dive so the attack by your planes was successful. I cannot say anything more.”

  Brand again showed artificial grief over the photo, apologizing, “Herr Schiller, I am very sorry to show you this photograph. It must bring back painful memories of the loss to you and your crew. I apologize for my inconsiderate behavior.” Brand spoke in a halting way to demonstrate he had a poor command of the German language and an even worse command of the various tense forms. Brand quickly pulled all the photos back into the file and then again told the German, “I am very sorry, and I hope you will not think of me poorly for this, how you say, mistake.”

  Schiller felt the young American was truly contrite, something a German officer would never do. “No, Lieutenant, your plane was able to get low enough on the sky to sneak up on us. It was a well-performed attack. We use the same skills when sneaking up on your ships. I guess it is war and war alone that makes us enemies.”

  Brand considered that last remark and decided to ask more questions that would be useful to the Allied side. He had opened a dialogue with the petty officer, and any information he gleaned could help in slowing or stopping the U-boat menace.

  At last, on a pre-arranged schedule, a marine guard came in to retrieve Petty Officer Schiller who thanked Brand for the time, coffee, and especially the cigarettes. He had no idea how helpful he had been by being so open to the young lieutenant.

  Over the course of the next two days, Brand interviewed ten other enlisted men from the U-boat and spent fifteen to twenty minutes with each one. Some were quite closed in their answers, but others, like Schiller, were more forthcoming. Some of the information he developed from these conversations was a good estimate of the range of the Type IX, diving ability and even through some mathematical gaming, an idea of the maximum crush depth. He also learned about the problems the Type IX sometimes had in maintaining trim, plus battery problems were causing distress in the more common Type VII boats. He was able to discern information about past voyages of the sunken U-boat, plus information about previous boats, commanders, training locations and current basing in France.

  His biggest discovery was about the supply submarines being dispatched to the Central and South Atlantic. These expanded versions of the Type IX had enough extra torpedoes to resupply up to five boats, as well as additional fuel and food to maintain a boat in U.S. waters for an additional four weeks. This was bad news and had to be corroborated with the British and forwarded to Admiral King.

  Hartung was totally unaware of the ruse he was involved in. He figured Brand was an inept aide to a reluctant and bored reserve captain who didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Jameson made sure the deception was complete by verbally abusing both Flannigan and Brand at dinner on the first night. He had told Brand that he would be transferred as soon as he could arrange it and make sure he never held a security clearance. Brand and Flannigan were equally negative to others about the reserve captain and his disliking non-academy officers and ROTC graduates. The plan the three of them had hatched back in Washington worked its magic, and they decided to play it until the end. But, Jameson decided he wanted a go at the executive officer of the U-boat, and that would require a different approach.

  27

  5 March 1942

  Charleston Navy Yard

  • Dutch continue a losing battle for Java. Batavia is reported evacuated.

  • Burma--Lt. Gen. Sir Harold Alexander arrives at Rangoon to take command of the Burma Army.

  After two days of interviews that went seemingly nowhere, Lieutenant Commander Hartung was amazed that Captain Jameson wanted to talk to the executive officer, Kapitanleutanant (Lieutenant) Erich Milner who had been very disagreeable from the start of his incarceration. When Milner came into the room, he saw there were three other officers in the room with Hartung. Being a good German naval officer, he jumped to attention and saluted the U.S. Navy captain. His salute was returned by the captain who introduced himself in halting German as Fredrick Jameson. He also introduced an American marine captain named Flannigan and lastly, he introduced Lieutenant Junior Grade Brand. He was told to sit down and did so with a severe glower on his face.

  Before Hartung said a word, Milner began to speak in German aimed directly at the captain. “Sir, I would like to protest your interviews with the members of my crew. You have talked to many of my enlisted men and provided them with cigarettes to bribe them into talking and this is a violation of the Geneva Treaty.”

  Hartung spoke first to the German officer, “Duly noted, Herr Milner. I shall be happy to forward it to higher authorities.”

  Milner again spoke this time looking at Hartung, thinking the other Americans were not very literate in German. “Commander Hartung, I want to know what is the purpose of this meeting. You know I will not provide you any details on the operation of my ship or its crew. If you want me to repeat my name and rank, so be it.”

  The captain now looked at Milner and said in much better German surprising both he and Hartung, “My dear Kapitanleutanant Milner, it is not our intention to ask you for any information that would violate your oath as an officer of the Kriegsmarine nor violate the Geneva Convention. We would hope that in a different situation, you would afford us the same courtesy, do you understand?

  Milner was taken back by the quality of the captain’s German and his attitude and replied, “Thank you for being so understanding, Captain. I would not want to be impertinent, but you have to understand my situation and that of my crew.”

  “Certainly, Herr Milner, or may I call you Erich?”

  “It seems improper, but if you wish to call me Erich, that would be all right. You are the senior officer and can do as you wish.”

  “Thank you, Erich, I appreciate your allowing me to call you by your first name. It is so much easier. Now, I am not here to ask you a lot of questions that you will not answer. Rather, I am here to brief you on the war.”

  Milner looked at the captain very strangely, and so did Hartung who became very uncomfortable with the situation assuming this reserve captain was incompetent at best and was about to divulge classified information.

  “Mr. Brand, would you like to give Erich some updates on the war?” Jameson looked at Brand who opened a file and pulled out some papers and photographs.

  Now, in flawless German that totally surprised Hartung, Brand began with an introduction. “Herr Milner, the captain requested I bring you up to date on the war between our two countries. You are probably able to listen to some radio broadcasts in your quarters, and there are many in your crew who probably speak some English, so much of this will come as no surprise.” Brand now began a synopsis of the war effort in the European theater as well as the Russian theater. This took about five minutes, and when he finished, Brand asked if there was need for clarification. Milner shook his head no, even though he would like to hear more about the German successes on the Eastern Front where he had several relatives fighting the Bolsheviks. He knew the failure to seize Moscow in December ended in retreat a
nd the number of casualties was enormous on the German side, which concerned him more than anything else. Brand saw this and decided to ask Milner a question.

  “Kapitanleutanant Milner, do you have relatives on the Eastern Front?” Brand kept his eyes on the papers so he would seem unconcerned about his answer.

  “Yes, there are several members of my extended family in the army fighting these Russian pigs.” His comment was laced with hate and at the same time, Brand thought, there was a serious amount of concern on his part for the family members engaged in the fighting.

  “So, I guess it is better to be fighting us on the sea than in the coldness of Russia,” Brand said as he shuffled through more papers.

  “Yes, it is much better and cleaner at sea than in the cold of Europe, but I don’t seem to understand why you care about this.” Milner glanced at the captain then back at the young lieutenant.

  “Good question, Herr Milner. We must care about everything in war, don’t you agree?”

  “Yes, I guess it involves us all in some way or another.” Milner’s voice lost its edge.

  Brand decided to take another shift in the conversation. He held up a photograph of a U-boat and handed it to Milner. “Is this your boat, Herr Milner?”

  Milner had never seen the photograph before and held it very closely so he could make out its hull. His boat did not have a number on it, but it did have a crest of a large pelican that was his captain’s favorite bird. He had always said a pelican was very awkward looking, but when it swooped into the sea, it always caught something tasty, just like his submarine. Milner did not say anything but continued looking at the photograph.

  Brand gave him another picture, this time of the same boat but with splashes all around it from explosions. “Tell me, Herr Milner, were you up top when the attack began or were you in the control room?” The lieutenant stared at Milner while he waited for an answer.