Hitler's Grey Wolves

U-Boats in the Indian Ocean

Lawrence Paterson

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781473882751
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Very little has been written about the U-boat war in the Indian Ocean, where almost forty German submarines were assigned to operate from the Malaysian port of Georgetown alongside troops of the occupying Imperial Japanese forces. From that base they sailed across the vast Indian Ocean and into the Pacific. Success in this theatre of war could very possibly have swung the tide of battle in North Africa in favour of Rommel, and the joint operations with the Japanese allowed the Germans to penetrate the Pacific Ocean for the first time, attacking shipping off the Australian coast and hunting off New Zealand. Plans were even made to attack US supply lines.Hitlers Grey Wolves is the story of this forgotten campaign, bringing it vividly to life through Lawrence Patersons incisive analysis, eyewitness testimony and an extensive collection of contemporary photographs.Very little has been written about the U-boat war in the Indian Ocean, where almost forty German submarines were assigned to operate from the Malaysian port of Georgetown alongside troops of the occupying Imperial Japanese forces. From that base they sailed across the vast Indian Ocean and into the Pacific.

Seven

The Atlantic Cordon Tightens

T HE CURTAILMENT of all but one of the four U-boat voyages to France with raw materials was an unexpected blow for Dönitz’s blockade-running plans. A fifth vessel had also been earmarked for the journey, UIT 24 departing Penang for France on 8 February 1944. Collectively BdU had redesignated the Italian submarines that were now serving beneath the Kriegsmarine flag—both in Malaya and at Bordeaux—under the codename ‘Merkator’, issuing pages of detailed instructions during December 1943 for the perilous scheduled journeys and hammering home the need for discreet communications and secrecy, perhaps having in mind of the relatively junior ranks of many ‘Merkator’ officers:

The most important task is the safe passage of the boat to her port of destination. The following are, therefore, necessary:

Avoid contact with the enemy as much as possible;

Proceed outside the operational areas of our own boats and groups;

Bypass areas with increased enemy sea and air reconnaissance as far as possible, without deviating from route too much;

Deviate from any enemy forces reported.

... Always consider when sending messages:

a. How far is Control informed of the situation?

b. What will Control learn from my new situation?

c. Will sending my message prove a disadvantage to other boats here and now? If so, is my message so important that I must take the risk?

d. What is most important to Control if I decide to make a radio message for special reasons, e.g., short weather report, fuel situation and condition of boat?

e. After sending my message, have I expressed myself as briefly, and, especially, as clearly as possible, or can I be misunderstood considering what the others know or do not know?1

UIT 24 was the first ‘Merkator’ boat to attempt to sail from East to West. Oberleutnant zur See Heinrich Pahls, ex-IWO of U 511, departed Singapore on 2 February loaded with 55 tons of tin as well as an assorted cargo of ten extra tons stowed throughout the boat (and within the torpedo tubes). He sailed first to Penang for a five-day layover while his boat was fitted out and her superstructure packed with 115 tons of rubber, then sailed onwards into the Indian Ocean. The long-range, single-hulled Marcello class submarine possessed a range of only 7,500 miles at economical cruising speed and was thus reliant on a scheduled refuelling from Brake during March. However, once she was at sea, the disastrous sinking of both surface tankers combined with recurring engine problems aboard UIT 24 led to her mission being scrubbed as the boat circled in deteriorating weather awaiting beacon messages from first Charlotte Schliemann and then Brake. The fierce seas battered UIT 24, at one point tearing deck planking from the hull and sweeping away the radio antennae, requiring a swiftly rigged replacement in order to receive the expected beacon.

News of the sinking of both tankers caused great anxiety to Pahls: his boat was dangerously short of fuel and unable either to return or to continue west. Emergency messages from BdU were relayed to UIT 24 to the effect that refuelling should be made from the similarly aborted U 532: the rendezvous was scheduled for 18 March and was met only because the engine-room crew aboard the Italian boat alternated electric and diesel engines in order to extend their range. The two boats met as planned, rigging canvas water hoses through which U 532 could pass over diesel into the UIT 24’s virtually empty tanks. Sharks circled the flimsy hoses that slapped the sea surface, causing the German sailors to shoot some dead in order to distract the others from the canvas. Despite still worsening weather 40 tons of diesel was transferred through the hose, which broke apart more than once, requiring every ounce of skill from the engineers to be sufficiently patched. Both boats then headed east and returned to Penang, where they arrived on 3 April.

Pahls’ was the sole Italian boat to begin a crossing from Malaya to Europe, although in Bordeaux UIT 22 had put to sea on 26 January bound for the Far East, an earlier sailing on 19 January having been aborted on account of mechanical problems. Commanded by Oberleutnant der Reserve Karl Wunderlich, the ex-Alpino Bagnolini was a Liuzzi class, long-range, double-hulled cruiser, capable of an impressive 13,000-mile sortie—ideal for Dönitz’s requirements for a transport submarine to Penang. His was also the only ‘Merkator’ boat to remain operational in Bordeaux, the Calvi class UIT 21 having been declared unfit for service and decommissioned in port.2 Laden with ammunition, Naxos radar detector receivers, Enigma keys and spare machine parts for the distant base, UIT 22 slipped through the escalating level of enemy patrol activity in Biscay and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, intent on following the suggested sailing route that passed through grid squares CF 67, DG 56, DS 68, FL 19, JJ 45 and KS 35. It was while passing Ascension Island that Wunderlich’s good fortune deserted him: his boat was sighted and attacked by an American B-24 Liberator aircraft from VB-107 based on the island. In three separate attack runs the aircraft released six depth charges which splashed into the water alongside and caused severe damage to the Italian boat. One man was killed during the attacks by machine-gun fire from the bomber, a periscope was wrecked and, crucially, a fuel tank was ruptured. Wunderlich reported his damage to BdU, although he assured the authorities that even though his boat had shed 32 tons of fuel into the ocean from the punctured tank he could still reach Penang unaided.

The cruise continued. Wunderlich was ordered to pass over one of his Naxos radar detectors to Wilhelm Spahr’s inbound U 178 on or about 11 March as UIT 22 expected to round the Cape of Good Hope. However, once again the Allies’ penetration of the Enigma code net allowed a trap to be set for the two rendezvousing U-boats at their prospective meeting point 600 miles south of Cape Town. UIT 22 reached the allocated grid co-ordinates on 11 March as planned but soon ran foul of enemy aircraft. As Wunderlich cruised slowly on the surface awaiting Spahr, transmitting position reports to BdU (and thus also, unwittingly, to Bletchley Park) to ensure that the rendezvous was successful, he was sighted by a Catalina of No 262 Squadron which immediately went on to the attack:

The first Cat, under Flt Lt F. T. Roddick, attacked and straddled the vessel twice with depth charges and also fired all guns. The U-boat returned fire, damaging the Cat, which marked the datum with a smoke float. The sub listed to starboard and submerged after twelve minutes. After Flt Lt E. S. S. ‘Gar’ Nash arrived [in a second Catalina], he patrolled the area in formation with the Cat of Flt Lt A. H. Surridge. Suddenly he sighted the white wash of a U-boat’s conning tower breaking the surface one mile ahead. He attacked at once, dropped a stick of six DCs and fired all guns. The sub was straddled, the DCs exploded, and it disappeared. Oil and wreckage came up immediately and spread.

About ten minutes later a mushroom of darker oil welled up and spread. The U-boat did not reappear.3

Wunderlich and his entire crew of 42 were lost in the attack, U 178 reaching the rendezvous fifteen hours later and finding the huge pool of floating oil—the last trace of the Italian-built submarine.

With UIT 21 decommissioned in Bordeaux and UIT 22 sunk, the ‘Merkator’ group was reduced to three boats, all stationed in the East. UIT 23, another Liuzzi class boat, was loaded in Singapore during February with cargo destined for Europe, sailing for Penang on 14 February and a final fitting-out with provisions, flak ammunition and fuel for her voyage. (As with the other ‘Merkator’ boats, no offensive torpedo armament was carried.) The ex-Italian was under the temporary command of Oberleutnant zur See Johannes-Werner Striegler after her previous commander, the unfortunate Heinrich Schäfer, had died in Singapore of a heart attack. Striegler had transferred aboard from UIT 25, although he had still not relinquished the previous command for what amounted to a mere transit voyage. It was after one day at sea, and as the boat approached Penang, that disaster struck in the shape of a submerged HMS Tally Ho! approaching from the distance. The crew of submariners, largely from U 511, had been augmented by men from Brake and the raider Michel and were scattered across the deck plating as part of standard operational procedure. Enemy submarines had become a plague within the narrow Malayan waterways, choke-points through which all naval traffic proceeded. With the bare minimum of men below decks, the remainder were relaxing topside wearing life preservers when a single torpedo impacted slightly forward of the conning tower, engulfing the boat in sheets of blinding spray and sending her rapidly, nose-first, to the bottom.

Those blown from the casing struggled through thick upwelling oil as Tally Ho!, still submerged, departed. In Penang there was considerable consternation amongst the assembled staff as to the whereabouts of the overdue submarine. Dommes, on the point of officially beginning his tenure as U-Stützpunkt Leiter and Penang ‘Flotilla Chief’ (scheduled to begin in March), conferred with Penang’s commander, Kandeler, and the pair quickly ordered one of the Arado 196 aircraft out from Penang in search of UIT 23. It did not take long for the struggling survivors to be found in the expanding pool of oil, debris and human remains.

Fourteen men, including Striegler, who had been atop the conning tower at the time, were clustered together as the Arado circled low overhead, landing nearby as the German pilot hatched an improvised plan of rescue. The aircraft could not accommodate all fourteen men—in fact there was no room at all for any passengers aboard the small floatplane— and so five men at a time lashed themselves securely to the aircraft’s floats and the Arado, soon joined by another, began shuttling them to Penang. Unorthodox though this was, all fourteen men reached the base safely, though 31 others were entombed in their boat below the waters of the Malacca Strait.

The remaining two ‘Merkator’ boats would see little action after February 1944, UIT 24 and UIT 25 having been relegated to the unsung, though vital, task of shuttling supplies between Japan and South-East Asia for the remainder of the war.4 An agreement had been reached between Germany and Japan whereby the two boats would carry food from the abundant plantations of South-East Asia to Japan to provide for European nationals both stranded and stationed there and return to Singapore with war matériel from the mainland for primarily Japanese use. Striegler immediately resumed command of UIT 25. He and his engineering crew struggled to keep the boat in operational trim, on one occasion becoming stranded for hours drifting off Java with a pair of blown cylinder-head gaskets before makeshift repairs enabled the boat to return to Singapore.

From Europe further departures of supply and combat boats had been made from harbours in both France and Germany. The unusual Type VIIF U 1062, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Karl Albrecht, had slipped from Kiel on the first leg of her inaugural patrol on 18 December 1943. The elongated hull of the Type VIIF housed 31 torpedoes destined for the Penang base, including ten of the new TV Zaunkönig acoustic torpedoes. Albrecht had worked his way up from the ranks to take command of the new boat, having begun his U-boat career as Steuermann aboard U 19 during 1936, thirteen years after joining the Navy.

The issue of supply at sea had once again proved crucial to German decision-making. During 1941 Germany’s naval supply network had first been devastated by the Royal Navy in the wake of the Bismarck sinking after the location of the surface tankers had been betrayed by broken Enigma messages and careless radio chatter, allowing HF/DF to pinpoint the vital ships. Dönitz had then frantically ordered supply submarines to be constructed, to enable his U-boats to spend longer at sea in action or to extend their patrol radii. While the new Type XIV supply boat could provide fuel, food and other basic supplies to combat U-boats, the large Milchkuh had enough storage only for four extra torpedoes, causing Dönitz to in turn demand a new boat to carry the ammunition necessary for total resupply at sea. He decided to use the trusted Type VIIC basic design, which followed the example of the VIID minelayer by adding a 10.5m section aft of the conning tower. Inside this new area would be enough stowage space for 24 extra torpedoes to be carried, stacked in six columns of four, three columns each side of the boat’s centreline. An additional torpedo loading hatch abaft the stowage space allowed access to the weapons for loading and removal. Like the Type VIID, the VIIF benefited from the additional room by having two extra bunks and a pair of refrigerated food lockers; again as in the VIID, there was additional fuel and ballast bunkerage within the extended saddle tanks and main hull.

Four VIIFs (U 1059–U 1062) had been ordered from Germaniawerft on 22 August 1941 and the first, U 1059, was launched on 12 March 1943. However, by this stage of the war the U-boats had lost their advantage and the idea of tortuously long surface transfers of torpedoes was unrealistic in the face of Allied air power, which was ...