THE LONE WOLF (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 22 – OPERATION TORCH

 

16:32 (Berlin Time)

Sunday, November 8, 1942

Ski resort, Krummhuebel, Lower Silesia

Germany

The Kriegsmarine officer’s feet hurt and his lungs were nearly on fire when he finally met up with Otto Kretschmer along the mountain trail, a good eight kilometers away from the ski resort in Krummhuebel. There were also seven other men with Kretschmer, all dressed in hiking boots and Winter coats.

‘’Aah, Kapitän Kretschmer: I catch you at last! I am Oberleutnant zur See Ernest Bollinger and I was sent by Admiral Dönitz to get you and bring you back to Lorient, where you and your crew are urgently required.’’

Otto, who was smoking a Cuban cigar, frowned at those words while returning the salute from Bollinger.

‘’Already? But the admiral had promised me and my crew a month of quiet leave.’’

‘’He truly intended to keep his word on that, Herr Kapitän, but the Allies decided otherwise. They just started an amphibious invasion of the Vichy French territories in Morocco and Algeria and Admiral Dönitz needs all of his available submarines to counter that invasion. Your U-800 in particular is to deal with the American invasion fleet off the Casablanca area in Morocco.’’

‘’My U-800 was undergoing a thorough maintenance refit in Lorient. Has that refit been completed yet? And what about rearming and resupplying? I can’t be expected to return to sea overnight.’’

‘’Admiral Dönitz has given orders to accelerate the work on your submarine and he will brief you personally on the state of your U-800 once you are back in Lorient. Are these men members of your crew, Kapitän Kretschmer?’’

‘’Yes, they are. Why?’’

‘’Then, they are to come back with you as well. I have a plane ready for us in Hirschberg.’’

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Otto sighed and looked with regret at the magnificent mountainous countryside around him. The pure mountain air had done wonders for him and the group of crewmen who had accompanied him to his home area and he could have stayed here forever. However, duty called…again.

06:15 (Paris Time)

Monday, November 9, 1942

BdU Headquarters, Lorient

France

‘’Korvettenkapitän Kretschmer, reporting back for duty, Admiral.’’

‘’At ease, my good Kretschmer!’’ replied Karl Dönitz after returning Otto’s salute. ‘’Please, sit down, so that I can properly brief you on what has caused your recall from leave.’’

Otto took the padded chair offered by Dönitz and looked at the map of North Africa pinned on the admiral’s map board: that map had not been there the last time that he had visited this office. Not wasting any time, the admiral went to that map and, using a wooden pointer stick, designated in succession three locations along the Moroccan and Algerian coasts.

‘’Early in the morning of yesterday, a large Allied amphibious fleet attacked multiple points along the Moroccan and Algerian coasts and started landing troops and supplies. The reports on what followed are confused but it seems that the French Vichy forces in those areas resisted and fought, at least at the start of the invasion. However, they were not able to push back into the sea the American and British troops which had landed and some French units have already surrendered or stood down. Our job will be to attack the ships of that invasion fleet and cause as much damage as possible, in order to limit the amount of troops, equipment and supplies that the Allies can land in Morocco and Algeria. Since your U-800 is much larger than our other submarines and would have some difficulty to pass stealthily through the Strait of Gibraltar to attack the fleets off Oran and Algiers, I have decided to assign you to attack the fleet anchored off the Casablanca area. That fleet is reportedly split into sub-elements which landed troops at Safi, 220 kilometers south of Casablanca, at Fedala, twenty kilometers north of Casablanca, and at Mehdia, 130 kilometers north of Casablanca. We estimate that invasion force off Casablanca to consist of one reinforced army corps, supported by a

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strong naval task force consisting of a few escort carriers, three battleships and a few cruisers and destroyers, plus dozens of troopships, transport ships and auxiliaries. Your priority targets will be the transport ships: we want to cut off the troops already landed from their supplies and stop reinforcements from landing. By the way, our radio intercepts indicate that the fleet off Casablanca, along with the troops landed, is purely American. The force off Oran is a mixed American-British one, while the force off Algiers is British.’’

‘’That mission is fine with me, Admiral, but what about my boat? It was undergoing a thorough maintenance check and needed to be fully rearmed and resupplied. When will it be ready for sea again?’’

‘’Early tomorrow morning!’’ replied at once Dönitz, making Otto frown. ‘’I gave your boat top priority with my maintenance, repair and resupply teams.’’

‘’Tomorrow morning? But this sounds rushed as hell, Admiral! Are you sure that the job will not be bungled as a result of this haste?’’

‘’I don’t think so, my good Otto: my best submarine maintenance engineer was put in charge of the U-800’s refit and he is presently using all the maintenance teams available in Lorient. Your boat is presently swarming with technicians and specialists. I can also give you a piece of good news that may help you feel better about this rushed departure: your U-800 is presently being rearmed with a full complement of a new type of torpedo, the T-3. The T-3 has a new combined magnetic and contact pistol for its warhead that has been thoroughly tested and is fully functional. With that new magnetic pistol, you will be able to fire a single torpedo under a ship, which will then explode under the keel and break that ship in two. With that new T-3 torpedo, you will be able to use to the maximum your legendary accuracy. By the way, you will be the first to be armed with the T-3. Yes?’’

‘’Uh, don’t take this wrong, Admiral, but I would like that the Japanese Type 96 torpedoes that I had in my aft torpedo room be kept there and that only the forward torpedo room be reloaded with your new T-3 torpedo. The Type 96 has unequaled performances in speed, plus a massive warhead, two things that make it ideal to attack large, fast warships which could otherwise evade our slower German torpedoes. I also have one Japanese naval officer and four sailors who would be available to maintain and fire those Type 96 torpedoes.’’

Dönitz thought over that for a moment before nodding his head.

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‘’Granted! I will give orders right after this meeting to have those Japanese torpedoes kept in your aft torpedo room. As for your crew, every effort is being done to reassemble it here as quickly as possible. Thankfully, the Luftwaffe has given me full assistance by providing transport planes on demand and with top priority to get your various crewmen back to Lorient. It seems that the gift of aviation gasoline and aluminum metal that you brought back from the Falklands, along with those centimetric radar sets, has done much to improve our relations with the Luftwaffe.’’

‘’Talking of those centimetric radars, how long before we could get warning receivers set to those new radar frequencies?’’

‘’Well, normally such new detectors take many months to design and develop before they can become operational. However, having in our hands examples of those new radars is making the job a lot easier for our specialists. That new ‘magnetron’ thing in particular was a real wakeup call for our experts, who are now hard at work reverse-engineering the American radar sets. With luck, we will be able to equip your U-800 with a centimetric radar detector in about two to three months, while the Luftwaffe may get airborne centimetric radar sets in its aircraft in about five to six months. Unfortunately, you will have to leave for your next war patrol without such a detector.’’

‘’That’s alright, Admiral: I never lounge around on the surface for any length of time anyway.’’

‘’Then, I believe that we are done here. Go see my intelligence officer after this, so that he can provide you with detailed charts and maps of the Moroccan coast, along with the appropriate current and tide information. We will continue to keep in contact via one-time pad codes for this operation. Good luck, Kapitän Kretschmer!’’

‘’Thank you, Herr Admiral!’’ replied Otto, getting up from his chair and saluting before pivoting around and walking out of Dönitz’ office.

23:08 (Paris Time)

Friday, November 13, 1942

Headquarters, Western Task Force of Operation Torch Casablanca, Morocco

Major General George S. Patton Junior had just finished writing a letter to his wife and was getting ready to go to bed when someone started knocking insistently on

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the door of his room, a luxury suite of the hotel in Casablanca that he had requisitioned as his headquarters.

‘’YES, COME IN!’’

His naval aide, a lieutenant commander, entered at once with an expression on his face that made the old general frown.

‘’What is it, Commander Stockwell?’’

‘’Sir, someone has started attacking our fleet off Casablanca. The heavy cruiser AUGUSTA and the destroyers BUCK and LUDLOW have been sunk, along with five transport and cargo ships. We think that a German submarine pack is now operating off Casablanca. More ships are being sunk as we speak.’’

‘’WHAT?’’ shouted Patton, instantly furious. The U.S.S. AUGUSTA had carried him to North Africa for this operation and had been the flagship of his naval component. Some of his staff had still been aboard the heavy cruiser tonight. ‘’WHAT THE HELL ARE OUR DESTROYERS DOING? SITTING ON THEIR THUMBS?’’

‘’Uh, they are doing the best they can, General, but they seem unable to locate and strike these submarines.’’

A nasty thought then struck Patton’s mind.

‘’How much of our army equipment and supplies have been landed up to now, Commander? Are we in danger of losing our sole nearby source of supplies?’’

‘’I will need to check on that, General. I will get back to you soon with an answer.’’

The Navy officer then nearly ran out of Patton’s suite, leaving the general fuming with frustration. All thoughts of sleeping now gone, Patton decided to shave and put on a fresh uniform before going down to his operations center, situated in a banquet hall of the hotel.

It was in the operations center that his naval liaison officer came back to him with his promised answer.

‘’General, as of midnight, all the troops and nearly all the army vehicles have been landed, but only 24 percent of the army supplies have been unloaded from the ships.’’

‘’Only a quarter of my supplies are ashore, Commander?’’ replied Patton, distinctly unhappy with that information. ‘’Where is Rear Admiral Hewitt? I will need to speak with him.’’

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From anxious, the expression of his naval aide turned somber.

‘’Rear Admiral Hewitt went down with the AUGUSTA, General. Furthermore, I am pained to have to tell you that we suffered more casualties at sea in the last two hours: the escort carrier SANGAMON was torpedoed and sunk, along with the destroyer EDISON and seven more cargo ships. The last cargo ship to be hit was at dockside when it was torpedoed. I am afraid that we probably won’t have more than forty percent of our army supplies ashore by daybreak, General: the rest is already at the bottom of the sea.’’

Patton had to sit down, struck hard by these news. By daybreak, he learned that a further ten cargo ships, along with the escort carrier SANTEE and the light cruiser BROOKLYN, had been sunk. Then, the submarines which had attacked his force seemed to vanish without a trace, leaving his American expeditionary force literally high and dry with only thirty percent of its planned supplies, until more supplies could be shipped from across the Atlantic.

19:24 (Paris Time)

Saturday, November 14, 1942

Control Room of the U-800

On submerged approach to the Strait of Gibraltar

‘’HELM, DIVE TO DEPTH OF 280 METERS! SPEED: SIX KNOTS! TO ALL THE CREW: WE NOW ARE ON SILENT RUN MODE.’’

Lieutenant Commander Takeshi Nagaoka, who was standing beside the navigation plot table with Leutnant Hermann Spielberger, gave a curious look to Otto when the latter approached the plot table.

‘’I thought that the Strait of Gibraltar had the reputation of being a very dangerous point of passage for German submarines, what with all the British ships, patrol aircraft and minefields protecting the strait.’’

‘’That is true…for normal U-Boote, but the U-800 is not a normal U-Boote. We can dive much deeper than any Type VII or Type IX submarine and can stay submerged much longer while going much faster. We will stay at a depth of 280 meters until we pass the Camarinal Sill, the shallowest point of the strait at 300 meters. Then, we will dive even further, to a cruising depth of 350 meters, our operational limit. There, well under the thermal cline layer and way beyond the fuse settings of Allied depth charges,

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we will be both completely safe and nearly undetectable. The bottom floor will in fact get deeper as we go eastward, to attain 900 meters by the time we enter the Mediterranean proper. With all the transport ships of the American force off Morocco which were still carrying cargo now having been sunk, there was no sense for us to waste more time there. We will find plenty more targets off Oran and Algiers, Commander.’’

‘’I don’t doubt that one minute, Herr Kapitän.’’ said Nagaoka, smiling.

Otto’s predictions came true, the U-800 negotiating the Strait of Gibraltar in less than nine hours while apparently encountering no obstacles on its way. Otto stayed deep and silent for another four hours, time to clear the heavily patrolled zone around the mouth of the Mediterranean, then accelerated to ten knots while still on batteries. The U-800 finally went back up to deploy its schnorchel and recharge its batteries after nightfall on November 15, a technical feat that Nagaoka had not believed possible. By then, they were less than 130 nautical miles from their next target: the coastal waters off Oran, in Algeria.

01:36 (Paris Time)

Monday, November 16, 1942

U-800, forty nautical miles northwest of Oran

‘’I think that we have a bunch of really big fish approaching us, Herr Kapitän. We are talking about at least five big, fast warships, plus about seven to ten smaller warships, all coming generally at us at a speed of about fifteen knots. From the way they have been doing long loop circuits off the Algerian coast, my bet would be that these ships are a carrier task group.’’

‘’I agree, Herr Grote.’’ said Otto Kretschmer while bent over the shoulders of his senior hydrophone and sonar operator. ‘’They are too far from the coast to be a gun fire support group and they certainly are not some transport group. The radio reports we got during the last day said that the Allies are now well established on the ground in Algeria, but have minimal ground-based air support. Let’s take an ambush position to await these ships. How long before they are on us?’’

‘’I would say less than one hour, Herr Kapitän.”

‘’Good! We will be ready for them. Advise me the moment that they change course or speed.’’

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‘’Will do, Herr Kapitän!’’

Otto then left the claustrophobic sonar section and returned into the control room, where he went to the navigation plot table and made a few quick calculations. With that done, he grabbed the microphone of the nearest intercom set and activated it.

‘’Attention all hands! This is the captain speaking! We have a flotilla of major warships, possibly an aircraft carrier group, approaching us. Go to your battle stations now…quietly!’’

Otto’s well drilled and experienced crew went into action at once, donning their special felt overshoes before walking quickly to their various battle stations. Lieutenant Commander Nagaoka, according to a now well-established drill, went aft to join the four Japanese torpedo specialists in the aft torpedo room, where all the remaining Type 96 and Type 92 torpedoes were stored. There, he was going to be able to translate into Japanese to his sailors any orders from Otto, as he had done off Casablanca, where the Japanese torpedo men had more than proved their effectiveness, as well as their eagerness. Staying under the thermal layer and letting his towed passive hydrophone array float above it while slowly cruising at three knots, Otto made sure that no surface ship could detect him before he went into action.

With his preys within a few nautical miles and on a near collision course with him, Otto slowly rose from the depths while having his helmsman turn on a course perpendicular to that of the incoming enemy ships. The unique sensors arrangement of his boat was going to allow him to triangulate in purely passive hydrophone mode the position and distance of the incoming enemy ships, using the long baseline between his towed hydrophone array, trailing 300 meters behind his propeller, and his ‘Grosser Balkon’ bow passive hydrophone array, situated a full hundred meters ahead of his propeller. Within four minutes, Ulrich von Wittgenstein, manning the tactical plot table near the fire control calculator machine, was able to give Otto a full report on the incoming flotilla.

‘’We have the enemy plotted down, Herr Kapitän. The lead enemy ship is now 4,000 meters from us and coming up at a speed of fourteen knots. The enemy is sailing in three parallel columns, with the heavy units in the center column. The lead center unit is a probable battleship, followed by two probable aircraft carriers and a cruiser. The wing columns are formed of six probable destroyers each, with a distance of about 2,000 meters between each column.’’

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‘’Did you say ‘two aircraft carriers’?’’ said Otto, not believing his luck. Ulrich smiled at his reaction.

‘’You heard right, Herr Kapitän. Where do you want us for the first attack?’’

‘’Let’s slide quietly in a waiting position between the center column and the wing column to its starboard. We will keep our bow pointed outward and will use time-on-target tactical shooting, with our bow tubes engaging two destroyers with one G7e T-3 each and with our stern tubes firing two Type 96 torpedoes at each aircraft carrier. We will then turn around and fire three G7e T-3s at the battleship and two at the cruiser. Once our tubes are empty, we will crash dive to a depth of 300 meters and reload our tubes out of reach of the enemy. But first, let’s reel in our towed array before we go into battle.’’

‘’Aye, Herr Kapitän!’’

Watching and listening as his men acted on his orders, Otto went briefly to the tactical plot table and took a glimpse of the symbols now marked with colored grease pencils on the illuminated transparent glass surface, estimating mentally the times each of his moves would take while glancing at his watch. Going next to his attack periscope, he partly raised it out and gave more orders.

‘’HELM, GO TO PERISCOPE DEPTH AND REDUCE SPEED TO TWO KNOTS! FIRE CONTROL TEAM, BE READY TO ENTER FIRE DATA! BOW AND STERN TORPEDO ROOMS, FLOOD ALL TUBES AND BE READY TO FIRE. COUNTER-MEASURES, BE READY ON MY COMMAND TO RELEASE TWO BOLD CANISTERS.’’ Taking frequent, quick glimpses at his watch, Otto waited for his hydrophone senior operator’s final piece of information, given in a bit of a tense voice.

‘’The lead ships of the enemy columns are now passing us, Herr Kapitän. The second ships in the columns will pass us in about forty seconds.

‘’FIRE CONTROL, STAND BY!’’

Twenty seconds later, Otto raised the head of his attack periscope above the surface of the water for the first time and immediately pointed it at the third destroyer of the starboard column, visible in the moonlight.

‘’FIRST TARGET, RELATIVE HEADING 140 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!’’

‘’FIRST TARGET, SECOND HEADING 131 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!... FIRE SOLUTION COMPUTED!’’

‘’MATCH BEARINGS AND SHOOT TUBE ONE!’’

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‘’TUBE ONE FIRED!’’

‘’SECOND TARGET, RELATIVE HEADING 025 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!’’

‘’SECOND TARGET, SECOND HEADING 016 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!... FIRE SOLUTION COMPUTED!’’

‘’MATCH BEARINGS AND SHOOT TUBE TWO!’’

‘’TUBE TWO FIRED!’’

As his first two torpedoes, German G7e T-3 set to pass under their targets and explode under their keels, went on their way at thirty knots, Otto performed a half turn to point his attack periscope aft. What he saw made his heart jump from excitement.

‘’THIRD TARGET: ILLUSTRIOUS-CLASS BRITISH AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN SIGHT, RELATIVE HEADING 160 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!’’

‘’THIRD TARGET, SECOND HEADING 165 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!... FIRE SOLUTION COMPUTED!’’

‘’MATCH BEARINGS AND SHOOT TUBES NINE AND TEN!’’

‘’TUBES NINE AND TEN FIRED!’’

Otto, having just fired at the second aircraft carrier in line, then pointed at the first carrier, nearer to him, as two speedy Type 96 rushed out at fifty knots.

‘’FOURTH TARGET: ANOTHER ILLUSTRIOUS-CLASS CARRIER, RELATIVE HEADING 183 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!’’

‘’FOURTH TARGET, SECOND HEADING 195 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!... FIRE SOLUTION COMPUTED!’’

‘’MATCH BEARINGS AND SHOOT TUBES ELEVEN AND TWELVE!’’

‘’TUBES ELEVEN AND TWELVE FIRED!’’

‘’RELOAD ALL EMPTY TUBES! HELM, TIGHT TURN TO PORT! COME TO HEADING 270!’’

‘’TURNING TO HEADING 270, AYE!’’

‘’IMPACT OF FIRST TORPEDO IN TEN SECONDS!’’ announced Wolfgang Leeb, who was assisting Ulrich von Wittgenstein at the tactical plot table. The U-800 was still turning nearly on the spot, with Otto already pointing his periscope at the lead ship of the central column, when a muffled underwater explosion was heard through the

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steel hull. The crewmembers didn’t explode in happy shouts then, realizing that they were still in the thick of it and that their captain needed to concentrate on his next moves.

‘’FIFTH TARGET: REPULSE-CLASS BRITISH BATTLECRUISER! RELATIVE HEADING 005 DEGREES! MARK!’’

‘’MARKED!’’

A series of five separate underwater explosions was heard as Otto announced his second relative heading on the battlecruiser, then ordered the firing of three of the bow tubes. Nearly hyperventilating from the intense concentration and tension of his job, Otto switched his attention to the last ship of the central column, a DIDO-Class anti-aircraft cruiser, and fired two more torpedoes, then lowered his periscope.

‘’HELM, EMERGENCY DIVE TO 300 METERS! HEADING, 085 DEGREES! RELEASE BOLD CANISTERS IN TWENTY SECONDS!’’ More underwater explosions were heard as the U-800 dove down like a plane while turning tightly, forcing its crewmembers to hold tight to hull fixtures in order not to lose their balance. Two short bursts of compressed air announced the ejection of the two ‘Bold’ canisters, which then started producing clouds of hydrogen bubbles on which active sonar pings would reflect, giving false echoes and hiding the true position of the submarine to the sonar operators of the now frantic escort destroyers.

Otto’s planned move proved salutary, as the U-800 leveled off at a depth of 310 meters just as dozens of underwater explosions well above it could be heard, marking the detonations of salvoes of depth charges. Those depth charges however caused no more than some noise, the U-800 being way too deep to be affected by them. Otto used a few seconds then to happily shake hands with his crewmen in the control room.

‘’Well done, men! However, that job is not finished yet. We still have to assess the damage we caused and finish off our wounded targets. How long before all tubes are reloaded, Ulrich?’’

‘’About 25 minutes, Herr Kapitän.’’

‘’Good! In the meantime, let’s turn around to follow that wounded flotilla and see what the enemy will do next, apart from wasting dozens of depth charges.’’

On the surface, the commander of the destroyer escort was nearly pulling his hair out as his destroyers crisscrossed the dark ocean while releasing salvo after salvo of depth charges, all without any apparent effect except for killing thousands of fish. The

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carriers ILLUSTRIOUS and INDOMITABLE were already in dire shape, the torpedoes which had hit them having proven to be very powerful ones. The battlecruiser RENOWN was listing heavily, its belly slit wide open by three under the keel explosions, while the cruiser ARGONAUT had broken into two pieces and was sinking. The destroyer commander had also lost two destroyers, each broken in half by single torpedo hits which had exploded under their keels. The screen commander had never seen such deadly torpedoes, nor such incredibly accurate shooting by a submarine.

‘’SIGNAL TO ALL DESTROYERS: STOP DROPPING DEPTH CHARGES, SLOW DOWN TO FIVE KNOTS AND DO PROPER RADAR AND ASDIC SWEEPS!’’ A shout from a lookout then made his head snap around towards the stricken RENOWN.

‘’SIR, THE RENOWN: IT IS CAPSIZING!’’

The screen commander felt a hard lump in his throat as he watched the old 36,000-ton battlecruiser turn over and then sink in the dark, huge air bubbles and white foam escaping from its breached hull: He had served before on the RENOWN and knew many of the 1,200 officers and men who were presently dying right under his eyes. He had to shake himself up to come out of his gloomy contemplation. Looking around at the general situation of the stricken flotilla, he became angry when he saw that one of his destroyers had not obeyed his orders and was still dropping depth charges in the water.

‘’WHAT THE HELL DOES JARVIS THINKS THAT HE IS DOING? SIGNAL THE NERISSA TO IMMEDIATELY STOP DROPPING DEPTH CHARGES!’’

‘’AYE, SIR!’’

The next half hour brought no good news to the screen commander, as repeated ASDIC sweeps found no trace of any submarine, as if their attacker or attackers had simply vanished. In that same half hour, the carrier ILLUSTRIOUS also capsized and sank, followed one hour later by the INDOMITABLE despite the heroic efforts of its damage control teams. In both cases, the two aircraft carriers owed their final fate to the fact that the torpedo hits had cut all power to the pumps and fire hoses, making it impossible to fight the massive flooding and fires. The screen commander had just sent off a radio message to the British Mediterranean Fleet Headquarters in Alexandria after ordering four of his destroyers to start picking up the survivors floating on the surface of the ocean, when a lookout shouted again.

‘’SIR, THE NEPAL SEEMS TO HAVE DETECTED SOMETHING: IT IS ACCELERATING AND TURNING TO THE EAST.’’

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Bringing his binoculars up to his eyes, the screen commander watched the H.M.S. NEPAL as it charged alone towards the rear of the formation. That charge however abruptly ended when a powerful underwater explosion right under the keel of the destroyer raised the warship out of the water, where it dropped back in two pieces.

‘’BLOODY HELL! HOW CAN TORPEDOES CONSISTENTLY EXPLODE RIGHT UNDER OUR KEELS? THESE MUST BE NEW GERMAN TORPEDOES.’’ To his renewed rage, that was the last thing he saw that day which proved that a submarine had been present in this piece of ocean. Others had that dubious privilege, as a total of sixteen cargo ships, all of them still full of equipment and supplies, were sunk in or near Oran Harbor at daybreak, along with the British light cruisers HMS ARETHUSA and HMS AURORA. Then followed two days of tense calm for the surviving Allied ships of Operation Torch, as they waited for the proverbial second shoe to drop and as the commanders of the landed ground forces were pondering the perilously low state of their reserves of supplies. However, no more torpedoes hit them again.

The relief of not experiencing more submarine attacks was cut short when the British battleship HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH hit a sea mine and was seriously damaged as she was entering the harbor at Alexandria, Egypt, on November 19. A tugboat and a minesweeper also fell victim to the extensive minefield that ended up closing off Alexandria Harbor for more than five days, throwing a further wrench into the Allies’ already disturbed war schedule. All that bedlam actually profited the Italian Navy and Marshal Rommel’s Africa Corps, as a number of Italian supply convoys were able to go through unmolested and land their precious cargo in Benghazi, thanks to the frightful naval losses suffered by the Allies in the Mediterranean at the hands of the U-800.

08:06 (Paris Time)

Thursday, November 26, 1942

Submarine pen, Keroman I submarine bunker complex Lorient, France

Admiral Karl Dönitz was in a very good mood as he crossed the gangway between the pen’s quay and the top deck of the U-800: The Allied invasion of North Africa had utterly fizzled by now, with the landed Allied troops immobilized by lack of

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supplies and with the heavy losses in transport and cargo ships rendering their resupplying and further sea travel problematic, all that thanks to the good works of the U-800 and its master. His handshake with Otto Kretschmer was both warm and firm.

‘’Congratulations! You again performed miracles, my dear Kretschmer.’’

‘’You can thank both my crew and the new T-3 torpedo, Herr Admiral.’’ replied Otto proudly. ‘’The T-3 is truly fantastic! All the ones I launched detonated as expected, right under the keel of my targets. Cargo ships and destroyers needed only one hit to break in two and sink, while two T-3s would sink a light cruiser and put in deep trouble even a battleship. I am afraid that all those other U-Boote captains who are hoping to take my place one day as the ‘Tonnage King’ are going to wait a long time indeed.’’

‘’Well, how about you starting to infuse some of your science to our future skippers, Fregattenkapitän Kretschmer? I am in mind of making you the Chief Instructor at our U-Boote School.’’

Otto noticeably straightened up on hearing that. To be promoted to fregattenkapitän, a rank equivalent to that of ‘commander’ in the British and American navies, certainly pleased him, but any idea of leaving the U-800 troubled him.

‘’Admiral, please don’t think that I am ungrateful, but I want to stay in command of the U-800. There is so much still to be done, while the window of opportunity for victory is getting smaller every month, thanks to the gigantic industrial and manpower output of the United States on the Allies’ side. I personally think that two or three well-planned war patrols by the U-800 in the Atlantic and along the American East Coast could starve Great Britain into asking for an armistice, while growing naval losses could convince the Americans to sue for peace.’’

While somewhat disappointed, Dönitz had to say that Kretschmer’s opinion was essentially correct. The latest intelligence reports were mentioning growing bickering between American and British leaders, bickering that had intensified after the North Africa invasion fiasco, a scheme that had been pushed on the Americans by Prime Minister Churchill at the expense of the support given to the American forces now fighting for survival in the Pacific. Kretschmer then added on to his response.

‘’Admiral, what we need is more submarines like the U-800, and quickly! If we had ten submarines like it right now, we would be able to sweep the British and American navies from the Atlantic and completely cut the supply lines between the United States and Great Britain. If you want me to instruct our young skippers, then I have free bunks for up to eight more junior officers aboard the U-800. I would also

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propose that Kapitänleutnant von Wittgenstein, my First Watch Officer, is more than ready for his own command.’’

Dönitz immediately liked the idea of having a few prospective submarine skippers sail under Kretschmer aboard the U-800: it would then become a sort of school at sea, while the U-800 would be able to continue hitting hard the Allies under the able command of Kretschmer.

‘’Your idea certainly has a lot of merit to it, Kretschmer. As for the good von Wittgenstein, your efficiency reports on him certainly would justify giving him a command of his own. The first of the Type XXI submarines now being built, the U-900, should be completed in about two months. While slightly different from your U-800, the U-900 is still a near twin to your boat and our good Wittgenstein should feel at home in it. If you can spare him now, he could start selecting and training a crew for the U-900 as his new command.’’

‘’Admiral, this would be perfect, in my opinion. He knows me well, knows my tactics and handles a submarine like a pro. I am thus ready to let him go take command of the U-900 and to let a limited number of my present crewmember follow him to his new command.’’

‘’Excellent! How about we move to your posh officers’ wardroom, so we can discuss the future operations of your U-800 in private?’’

‘’I would be most happy to, Admiral. We still have some fine Cuban rum and cigars in store in the wardroom…’’

09:11 (Washington Time)

Friday, November 27, 1942

Cabinet conference room, White House

Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

‘’We should have never gone for that North Africa landings scheme, Mister President. With only half of the naval resources and military supplies wasted on Operation Torch, we could have restored our positions in the South Pacific and stabilized the situation there. In fact, we should stop simply pandering to every strategic whim of Prime Minister Churchill and remind him that we are not a damn British colony anymore!’’

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The fiery words and tone used by Admiral King stung Roosevelt, but he didn’t scold him for that, as King’s opinion was quickly gaining support around Washington and the rest of the country. The Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, who normally was in tune with Roosevelt despite being a member of the opposition Republican Party, nodded his head at King’s words.

‘’I would tend to agree with Admiral King on that, Mister President. We can’t afford anymore to give priority in everything to the British at the expense of our own men in the Pacific.’’

‘’But, if we stop our support of the British, they won’t be able to hold on against Germany.’’

King then took on him to counter Roosevelt’s argument.

‘’They certainly would do much better if they stopped wasting and dispersing their resources to preserve their precious empire, Mister President! Prime Minister Churchill should also stop thinking of himself as a grand strategist and stop interfering with war planning with his disjointed schemes. God knows that he already has committed enough strategic blunders to deserve to be fired. Think about the Norway and Greek Campaigns. Think about how he stabbed the French in the back at Mers-el-Kebir in 1940, or about how he was bragging about Singapore being an impregnable fortress. Talking of the French, the British just managed to piss them off again, just as we needed them most to support us in North Africa.’’

‘’What do you mean, Admiral King? What are you alluding to?’’

‘’What I am alluding to, Mister President, is the fact that the British units landed around Algiers as part of the Eastern Task Force of Operation Torch basically ignored the orders and directives of Major General Ryder, our man initially in charge of the force, and forcibly seized all the supplies and fuel they could find at the local French bases, and that over the protestations of the French commanders in Algiers.’’ General Marshall, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army, then added his two-cent to the discussion.

‘’About that incident, Mister President, I received a message from Major General Ryder at the time and then inquired about it with General Eisenhower, in Gibraltar. I then learned from him that the British units acted that way with the direct consent and knowledge of the British High Command, which had deemed that a necessary move.’’

‘’And what did your precious protégé, General Eisenhower, do about that, General Marshall?’’ fired off King, attracting an irritated look from the powerful Marshall.

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‘’Basically, he told me that he let that go, in the name of allied cooperation.’’

‘’Did you remind him that he is an American officer, and not a British one? Our own troops could suffer the consequences of any bad blood with the French.’’ Marshall didn’t bark back at that because King was unfortunately right. Marshall himself had not been happy about Eisenhower’s weak stance and had already given him a few harsh words via encoded message.

‘’Yes, I lambasted him about that, then contacted Field Marshal Brooke. I was then most disappointed to hear Brooke justify the seizure by force of the French supplies.’’

‘’Why am I not surprised by that?’’ said King in a sarcastic tone. ‘’For the British, only themselves and their empire counts. Mister President, I am frankly tired of this and believe strongly that our resources should be used primarily to support and reinforce our men fighting and dying in the Pacific, not to support Prime Minister Churchill’s ill-advised strategic schemes.’’

Instead of replying to King, Roosevelt looked at Marshall.

‘’And what were the actual consequences of that British move in Algeria, General?’’

‘’They were actually more severe than a superficial look would show, as they were both military and political. The French high command in Algiers has ordered all the French troops in North Africa to defend their barracks and supply depots, with force of arms if need be, and to stay static. All discussions about French Army units joining our eventual advance into Tunisia have also been cut by the French. Major General Ryder did his best to repair the broken pots, but British General Anderson has now taken effective command of the British troops in Algeria and is basically ignoring Ryder. All in all, our planned advance eastward into Tunisia has yet to materialize, while the Germans and Italians have started to send reinforcements to Tunisia from across the Mediterranean.’’

‘’Excuse me, but could we finally talk about something else than North Africa?’’ said King, becoming seriously pissed. ‘’We wasted enough men and resources on that worthless scheme, so let’s not waste more words here about it. What about the Pacific and Australia? We still have thousands of men trapped and slowly starving on Ndeni, while Australia is now effectively surrounded by Japanese bases. Should I remind you all here that the American public is caring a lot more about our men abandoned and trapped in the South Pacific than about some French North African colonies?’’

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Roosevelt stiffened, getting angry at all that opposition to a strategic move he had agreed to with Prime Minister Churchill.

‘’I do care about our men in the South Pacific, Admiral King, but the landings in North Africa were only the first step before chasing the Germans and Italians from Libya and then landing in Sicily and Italy.’’

‘’That future outcome is now less than obvious, Mister President.’’ said politely but firmly General Marshall. ‘’In view of the present situation of our troops in North Africa and with their tight supplies’ situation, I don’t see them able to go on the offensive before we could send them more supplies and ships. If you add the French animosity the British just caused, then I predict that the whole thing could easily turn into a quagmire. I was never fond of that British insistence on invading Europe through its so-called ‘soft underbelly’ and the present situation tends to confirm my opinion about it. Our nation has suffered during the last year a number of painful blows and also severe losses at sea. We need to concentrate our remaining forces until our industries can deliver more ships and until we can finish training all our new divisions. Right now, Operation Torch has been nothing but a dilution of our war effort, done mostly to accommodate the demands of the British. I would have much preferred, as you know already, to have started concentrating our troops in Great Britain instead, in anticipation of a direct landing in France next year.’’

Admiral Leahy, the President’s chief of staff and leading military advisor, then added his opinion to the discussion.

‘’Mister President, I would tend to concur with both Admiral King and General Marshall. I would add that our invasion of Morocco and Algeria has put the Vichy government of Marshal Pétain in a very difficult situation with the Germans, who are now showing signs of wanting to invade and grab the parts of France they haven’t occupied yet. In a way, that British blunder of taking by force French depots, by hardening the opposition of the local French forces, has temporarily saved Vichy France from such a German invasion, but Hitler could decide at any moment now that he needs to take the South of France in order to prevent further Allied landings in the Mediterranean.’’

‘’But we have a strategic understanding with Prime Minister Churchill concerning our war plans in the Mediterranean and Europe.’’ protested Roosevelt. ‘’We can’t just renege on our word and go back on that understanding!’’ Henry Stimson, a man who had been loyal to Roosevelt in this war, replied to him while staring hard at him.

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‘’Mister President, if I may. What I am going to say now is as a Republic Party member who has the best interests of the United States at heart. When you agreed with Prime Minister Churchill to provide American troopships and escort warships to carry British troops to India last November, in flagrant violation of the America Neutrality Act, you barely avoided impeachment by the Congress, thanks only to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which took everybody’s attention somewhere else. Now, congressmen and senators alike are again grumbling, this time about the way our men have been sacrificed in the South Pacific while we keep pouring most of our resources in support of Great Britain. The American public opinion is also souring on this, as we can gather from the avalanche of angry and frustrated calls and letters congressmen and senators have been receiving lately. I believe that you need to show to the American public that the demands of Prime Minister Churchill do not have priority over the needs of our own servicemen and of our nation.’’

Roosevelt was left speechless for a moment as he measured the extent of the opposition to his war policies he was presently facing in this room. Stimson then delivered what amounted to an ultimatum.

‘’If you persist in accommodating the demands of the British at the expense of our servicemen in the Pacific, Mister President, I will then have no choice but to resign my present position as your Secretary of War.’’

‘’But, what about the troops we landed in North Africa?’’

‘’Let’s transfer them to the Pacific, Mister President!’’ replied at once Admiral King, slamming his hand on the conference table. ‘’We presently have the equivalent of nearly five army divisions sitting in Morocco and Algeria, doing nothing but waiting for more supplies. I say that we should shift those units to Australia and then concentrate solely on rebuilding our strength there. Right now, because of this ‘Germany first’ policy, our territory of Hawaii is finding itself isolated and threatened by Japanese forces in the Pacific, while our valiant Marines are starving on Ndeni. Even Australia is at serious risk. Let’s switch to a ‘Japan first’ policy and concentrate most of our war effort into defeating Japan. The threat of a German invasion of Great Britain is long past now anyway and the British only need supplies from us to keep resisting, that is if Churchill would stop wasting his resources as well as ours just to preserve his precious British Empire.’’

‘’What about my bomber force in Great Britain?’’ asked Lieutenant General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold, the commander of the Army Air Forces. King replied to him at once.

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‘’What about them? Our heavy losses in shipping between our eastern ports and Great Britain has drastically cut the amount of fuel, ammunition and spares that we could send them. Right now, my Atlantic Fleet has suffered so many losses that it has less than half the number of destroyers it actually needs to properly escort the convoys we send to Great Britain. The fact that the Germans changed their codes this Summer further hurt our efforts to prevent German submarines from hitting those convoys. This is all to say that you can’t expect a bigger flow of fuel and bombs to get to your heavy bombers, Hap. We might as well recall them from Great Britain and base them in Australia, where they would be able to really hurt the enemy.’’ Seeing that nearly all of his military top leaders, along with his own secretary of war, were solidly against him, Roosevelt swallowed with difficulty his personal pride and looked around the big conference table.

‘’Alright, gentlemen, what do you counsel that we do then?’’ To his surprise, it was Henry Stimson who spoke first.

‘’First off and most importantly, Mister President, we need to officially switch the priorities of our war effort from Europe to the Pacific. An American territory, Hawaii, is at real risk of attack and invasion by the Japanese, while any possibility of a German invasion of Great Britain is quite remote. Great Britain can manage to defend itself for the next year or two, time for us to build significantly our war machine and get properly ready. As for any hypothetical German invasion of the United States, the chances of that happening are about zero. I would also say that you need to tell Prime Minister Churchill about that change of war priority, rather than simply discuss it with him. If you don’t, then you risk losing the support of both the Congress and the American public, Mister President.’’

As Roosevelt swallowed that, King used that chance to give his own recommendations.

‘’Mister President, our navy is in serious need of rebuilding its strength, something that will take well over a year. Our new fleet aircraft carriers will not start to enter service before next January, and then at a rate of only one per two to three months. We will need them in the Pacific and I intend to keep only destroyers and light cruisers in the Atlantic, on convoy escort and coastal defense duties. Everything else should go to reinforce our Pacific Fleet. Furthermore, we should take as a priority the mission of saving our men trapped in the South Pacific. We owe nothing less than that to them.’’ General Marshall was next.

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‘’I concur with Admiral King, Mister President. In furtherance to the goal of assisting our men in the Pacific, I am of the opinion of reloading on ships our troops presently located in North Africa and to send them to the Pacific. I would allocate two of the five divisions thus made available to the defense of Hawaii, while the three other divisions would go to Australia. General Arnold, how many of your heavy bombers presently in Great Britain would you be ready to switch to Australia?’’ Henry Arnold wiggled in his chair at that question: he, for a long time, had the dream of being able to prove his pet theory about the power of heavy bombers to win a war by themselves, something he had hoped to show in Europe. However, he was now in the distinct minority here.

‘’I can switch six of my heavy bomber groups to the Pacific, while leaving most of their escort fighters in Great Britain, where they would help the R.A.F. defend England from German air attacks, General Marshall.’’

‘’We will need lots of fighter aircraft to defend Australia against Japanese air attacks, Hap.’’ cut in King, evidently not satisfied. Arnold nodded after a short hesitation.

‘’Alright! I will send to the Pacific all my P-38 long range fighter units presently in Great Britain or slated to be sent to England. The P-38, as a twin-engine fighter, is eminently suited to the vast expanses of the Pacific.’’

Both King and Marshall nodded their heads at that, satisfied. Roosevelt however had one objection left.

‘’What about the German submarines which are devastating our coastal shipping lanes and attacking our convoys to Great Britain? We need to be strong enough in the Atlantic to keep them in check or at least limit our losses.’’ The men around the table were silent at first, not knowing what to reply to that. The one who finally spoke up was one who had stayed silent up to now and who was not expected to say much anyway: Vice-President Henry A. Wallace, who held the powerful positions of Chairman of the Board of Economic Warfare and of the Supplies Priorities and Allocation Board.

‘’I hate to say this, gentlemen, but what if we made a deal with the Devil? What if we could arrange an armistice with the Germans, ideally with Great Britain included into that deal? That would allow us to concentrate our resources to fight the Japanese during the next year or two, apart from saving thousands of our sailors from being lost at sea.’’

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The men around the table immediately stared hard at him with either indignation or disbelief in their eyes. That is except one: Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

‘’You must know that Prime Minister Churchill will never agree to such an armistice, Henry.’’

‘’Churchill will never agree to anything but his own ideas and opinions anyway!’’ replied Wallace testily. ‘’I agree with the notion that we must switch our war effort to the Pacific. However, if we continue to suffer the full wrath of German submarine attacks along our East Coast, attacks that we presently are not able to stop, then we will continue to lose dozens of ships and tens of thousands of tons of vital war supplies every month, with Great Britain ending with receiving only a fraction of what we are trying to send it. To stop those submarine attacks would presently require us to concentrate even more of what is left of our navy into the Atlantic, rendering a Pacific campaign impossible. As for Churchill’s opposition, he may soon be forced to

reconsider his options when Great Britain will be close to starvation thanks to the German submarine campaign in the Atlantic.’’

‘’I am sorry, Henry, but I will never make a pact with Hitler.’’ then said firmly Roosevelt. ‘’We will have to find military ways to counter those German submarines along our coasts, while sending more forces to the Pacific. Maybe some of our heavy bombers from England could be used to patrol our East Coast, to detect and chase away those pesky German submarines.’’

Most of the participants to the meeting nodded in agreement at that, with Wallace’s proposal for an armistice then quickly dismissed…at least for the time being.