U-900 by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6 – BOWMANVILLE

 

08:06 (Paris Time)

Thursday, June 10, 1943

Office of Admiral Karl Dönitz, BdU headquarters

Keroman, Lorient, French Atlantic coast

 

‘’Aaah, my dear von Wittgenstein! Welcome back! How was your first war patrol with the U-900?’’

‘’Intense but satisfying, Herr Admiral.’’ answered Ulrich, dressed in his best uniform. Dönitz gave him a benevolent smile on hearing that.

‘’Well, it was certainly satisfying to my taste…and that of the Führer. Our intelligence is reporting that the British are getting truly desperate and are close to the bottom of their reserves of supplies. A further cut in food rationing was announced by London a week ago for the British civilians and the R.A.F. has cut down drastically on its routine patrols, thus making life that much easier for my U-Boote. But please, sit down!’’

Before taking the easy chair offered by Dönitz, Ulrich put on his desk a large, thick brown envelope.

‘’Here is my patrol report, along with prints of the pictures I was able to take of a few of my British victims, Herr Admiral.’’

‘’Thank you!’’

Ulrich then sat down and waited patiently while Dönitz went through his report. The graying admiral finally nodded his head, apparently quite satisfied.

‘’Thirty-five merchant ships totaling 210,000 tons, plus thirteen British warships confirmed sunk: Kapitän Kretschmer would have been proud of you, my dear von Wittgenstein.’’

‘’Thank you, Herr Admiral: that was the best compliment you could have given me.’’

‘’And you truly deserves it. Just one question: did you seek out those British warships or did you just bumped into them?’’

‘’I bumped into them, Herr Admiral. On the first occasion, I found five British escort ships protecting a group of merchant ships waiting off Liverpool for my mines to be cleared. I had no choice but to sink those escort ships in order to get at the merchant ships. On the second occasion, as I was slowly heading north up the North Channel, looking for preys, I was confronted by six British frigates and destroyers going down that channel in extended line while pinging on active ASDIC mode. Those warships were obviously sweeping down the North Channel to find and sink me and I decided that the best defense then was a good offence, so I ambushed them. By the way, our new T5 ZAUNKÖNING acoustic homing torpedo is a great weapon, especially against frigates and corvettes, which are not fast enough to evade it. Anyway, I managed to sink all six of those warships before continuing up the North Channel. The twelfth British warship I sank was actually a submarine that was posted in ambush at the opening of the North Channel, near the coast of Northern Ireland. Unfortunately for it, our sonars were clearly superior to their sonar and we were able to detect it first and approach it silently. We shot it at nearly point blank range and were able to take a picture of it through our underwater observation dome as it sank to the bottom. Finally, the last warship we sank was a new construction destroyer that had just been completed at the Vickers Shipyards in Barrow-in-Furness. We encountered it doing its sea trials as we were on our way to mine for the second time the approaches to the port of Liverpool.’’

‘’I see! Normally, I would not be happy at one of my submarine commanders taking such risks, but the sinking of all those escort ships and destroyers have had a dramatic effect for our other submarines operating around the British Isles. In order to find you, the British made the mistake of taking nearly all of their anti-submarine capable ships patrolling the Irish Sea and North Channel, along with redirecting the maritime patrol aircraft of their Coastal Command in the area, concentrating them on finding you. That in turn took off a lot of the pressure on our Type VII boats patrolling in adjacent areas. Since you actually sank all those escort ships, that means that there are now wide gaps in the British anti-submarine defenses of the British Isles, gaps that my other submarines have already started to exploit with great success. You may be pleased to hear that, with your own score included, our total tonnage of enemy merchant ships sunk during the month of May in the North Atlantic was 708,000 tons, a near record. Now that two other Type XXI boats and three Type IXD3 boats have replaced you on station and are blocking the northern and southern accesses to the Irish Sea, the British will continue to starve in the dark for the weeks and months to come. With more Type XXI boats coming out of the shipyards nearly every week now, our blockade of the British Isles will soon be airtight. My main worry right now is to find enough good crews for them. That actually brings me on the subject of your next mission.’’

Dönitz then pressed a button on the intercom box sitting on his desk.

‘’Please have the good hauptmann come in!’’

Now quite curious, Ulrich waited in his padded chair while fixing the entrance door. A grin appeared on his face when a Heer⁴ officer entered the office and presented himself to the admiral while saluting him.

‘’Hauptmann Hugo Margraff, here as requested, Herr Admiral.’’

‘’At ease, Hauptmann Margraff! I believe that you already know well Korvetenkapitän Ulrich von Wittgenstein?’’

‘’I certainly do, Herr Admiral!’’ replied the army commando before exchanging a strong handshake with Ulrich, who had got up on his feet. The two men then sat down, Margraff grabbing a second chair and approaching it from Dönitz’ desk. The admiral in turn smiled benevolently at both men.

‘’Two valorous officers indeed! Be assured that I have a worthy mission for both of you, a mission I am sure that you will take at heart. Basically, as you must know already, while Kapitän Kretschmer died in the sinking of his U-800 off Newfoundland, 36 of his crewmembers were able to jump out and were taken prisoner by the British. We now know through our intelligence work that they were subsequently interned in a Canadian prisoner-of-war camp, Camp Bowmanville, situated near Toronto, on the North Shore of Lake Ontario. We have since been able to get more information on that prisoners’ camp, especially through what the prisoners themselves told us by secret codes via their letters to their families. We now know enough about that camp to convince me that we could possibly be able to get to it, enter the camp and bring back to Germany some select prisoners. The priority will be of course to free experienced submarine officers and men, plus experienced Luftwaffe pilots. I thus want you two to take the next few days to study our intelligence on that Canadian camp and to decide if an operation to break free at least some of the inmates is feasible. You will then report to me your conclusions and recommendations. I gave orders for my intelligence staff to help you to the utmost in this. Know that the Abwehr⁵ and the Luftwaffe Intelligence Branch will be helping us in this, as there is some very high level interest in this potential mission…going all the way to the Führer himself.’’

Both Ulrich and Margraff stiffened a bit on hearing that: such high level interest all but guaranteed that they would at least have to try accomplishing that mission, however risky it could turn to be. It was Margraff, as the man who would obviously run the most risks in such a mission, who then spoke up, his voice firm.

‘’Admiral, you can count on us. We will do the impossible…and more!’’

 

15:41 (Paris Time)

Saturday, June 12, 1943

Office of Admiral Dönitz, BdU headquarters

 

‘’So, my good men, do you think that the mission is feasible?’’

Ulrich von Wittgenstein, standing at attention with Hugo Margraff in front of Dönitz’ work desk, answered for the pair.

‘’Yes, Herr Admiral! However, the quality of our false papers and disguises will be primordial for the success of the mission, as we may have to pass through multiple security checkpoints.’’

Dönitz nodded his head in agreement to that.

‘’That is a given. I already have the assurances of Admiral Canaris that his services will provide maximum support to your mission, including by providing false papers, documents, uniforms and civilian clothing. You are thus to go next to Paris, to visit the local Abwehr section there, where your false papers and documents will be made and disguises provided. Hauptmann Margraff, you will have to bring your troopers with you to Paris, so that photos of them could be taken and measurements made for their disguises.’’

‘’That will help us a lot, Herr Admiral.’’ replied Margraff, who then hesitated for a second before continuing. ‘’Uh, there is one more thing that we will need, which may improve a lot our chances of success.’’

‘’I will do my best, Hauptmann Margraff. What is it?’’

What Margraff said then left Dönitz stunned for a moment.

‘’You are not serious, Hauptmann, I hope?’’

‘’Very much, Herr Admiral!’’ replied Margraff without hesitation, resolved to get his wishes.

 

 

09:52 (Paris Time)

Monday, June 14, 1943

Offices of the Abwehr’s Paris division

Hotel Kléber, 7^th Arrondissement

Paris, France

 

‘’You asked for me, sir?’’

‘’Yes, I did, Oberhelferin Blumenthal. Please, take a seat.’’ replied Major Karl Bock, the commander of the Abwehr’s Paris division. As the young woman took place in a chair near his desk, Bock examined her with interest. According to her personnel file, Hanna Blumenthal was 24 years old and had volunteered to serve as an army female auxiliary at the age of 21. However, she had what one could call a ‘baby face’ that tended to soften the attitude of superiors towards her. Whether that ‘baby face’ was natural or the result of Hanna having lied about her true age on enrolment was still an open question to Bock. She certainly was a beautiful girl, with a smooth, oval face, big gray eyes and reddish-brown hair. She also had a feminine body and was a bit taller than the average woman, with a height of 172 centimeters. However, the main reason for which she was appreciated at the Paris offices of the Abwehr was not her beauty, but rather her sharp intelligence, quick mind, competence and overall good nature. Bock could bet that many of his male agents and officers secretly wished that they could date or even marry her. Certainly, any man dealing with her couldn’t help but like her. That was however a problem for what he wanted to discuss with her, but she was still the best choice for the job, in his opinion.

‘’Oberhelferin Blumenthal, I must say that your competences as a radio monitoring specialist are well recognized and that you speak and write English perfectly. You are also an expert Morse radio operator and have been monitoring both American and British military radio transmissions for over two years now, demonstrating great efficiency and expertise in that job. What I have for you is a very special temporary assignment in which your English proficiency will be key. I understand that you once visited the United States and Canada with your parents, when you were a teenager. Is that correct?’’

‘’Only partly, Herr Major: I actually visited four times the United States and Canada during my youth. My father was a high level sales representative for the Telefunken radio manufacturing company and his job required him to frequently visit a number of countries overseas, including the United States and Canada.’’

‘’Oh?’’ said Bock while raising an eyebrow, now seriously interested. ‘’And what other countries did you visit, on top of the United States and Canada, Oberhelferin?’’

‘’Well, I often travelled to France, Belgium and the Netherlands, sir. By the way, I learned French during my high school years and can say that I am a fluent French speaker. I also traveled a couple of times to Italy and Spain, plus went once to Argentina and Brazil. As I said, my father was highly placed in the company and was able to afford to bring me and my mother along many of his business trips, especially in the Summer, during school vacations.’’

‘’Impressive!’’ said Bock, meaning it. ‘’Then, the assignment I have in mind for you would fit you to a ‘T’…if you accept it. Please understand that the mission I am talking about will be a very dangerous one, deep behind enemy lines. In fact, you would be accompanying a few of our soldiers from the Brandenburg Regiment, who intend to infiltrate the United States and then enter Canada. Your job would be to help reinforce the false identities used by our soldiers, mostly by lowering the suspicions of local enemy soldiers and police officers: who would think that German saboteurs and infiltrators would bring a woman with them to the United States and Canada?’’

Hanna was left speechless by this for a long moment, having expecting everything but that. She finally overcame the waves of emotion washing over her and got up on her feet.

‘’Sir, I will be honored to participate in that mission.’’

‘’Excellent!’’ said Bock, also getting up from his chair. ‘’Then, follow me, Oberhelferin Blumenthal.’’

 

Leading Blumenthal out of his office, Bock then walked with her down the main corridor of their floor, then climbing up to the next level and walked down another corridor before entering a large room used by the counterfeiting section. That room was filled with both work desks and storage cabinets, with a dozen men working silently at their desks. There were however as well twenty young men in army uniforms who were obviously not simple desk jockeys, standing or sitting in a corner while reading some documents and papers. Those young men in turn eyed at once with interest Hanna Blumenthal as she followed Bock and approached them. One of the men, a highly decorated hauptmann, saluted Bock when the latter stopped in front of him, while the other young men came to rigid attention.

‘’Sir!’’

‘’At ease! Well, Hauptmann Margraff, I believe that I found the perfect person for the job. Let me present to you Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal, from my radio monitoring section. She speaks and writes perfect English and has visited the United States and Canada a number of times when she was a teenager. Oberhelferin, this is Hauptmann Hugo Margraff, of the Brandenburg Regiment.’’

‘’THE Hauptmann Hugo Margraff who raided the American East Coast from the U-800, sir?’’ replied Hanna, suddenly excited. That made Hugo smile in amusement.

‘’My! I didn’t think that I had become this famous. I hope that I am not as well known by the enemy.’’

‘’Be reassured, Hauptmann Margraff.’’ said Bock. ‘’You are well known only inside the Abwehr, but not outside the service. If you accept her as part of your mission, I will then have false papers and disguises made as well for Oberhelferin Blumenthal. So, if you want to ask her a few questions, now is the time.’’

‘’Thank you, Herr Major!’’ replied Hugo before looking at Hanna and switching to English, speaking with an American accent.

‘’So, miss, tell me in your best American English about your past trips to the United States and Canada.’’

‘’With pleasure, sir!’’ said Hanna in English, adopting a New York accent. She then spoke for a good three minutes while Hugo and his men listened carefully to her. At the end of it, Hugo nodded his head, quite satisfied.

‘’Very good, Oberhelferin! One last question: have you ever fired a pistol?’’

The blank look Hanna gave him was enough of an answer for him and he smiled benevolently to her.

‘’I thought so! However, that was to be expected: our female auxiliaries are not normally trained to handle weapons. Well, expect to have to train intensively on pistol handling and firing during the next week, Oberhelferin Blumenthal.’’

 

15:52 (Paris Time)

Wednesday, June 23, 1943

Weather deck of the U-900, Keroman I submarine bunker

Lorient, France

 

The arrival of the twenty men and one woman of the landing team in the submarine bunker containing the U-900 attracted at once Ulrich von Wiggenstein on the weather deck of his submarine, where he greeted Hugo Margraff with a strong handshake.

‘’Welcome back on the U-900, my friend. Your present team is quite a lot more numerous than your previous one, when you were on the U-800. I also can see that you found what we were looking for to help in our mission.’’

‘’I did! I believe that Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal will do just fine on this mission…if the men of your crew don’t devour her first with their eyes.’’

Ulrich had a short laugh at that before replying with a grin.

‘’I will do my best to keep my crew of perverts on a leash. I will give her a single-occupancy cabin just for her, in the Petty Officers’ quarters, which has its own washroom and shower.’’

‘’That should do. Know that our disguises and mission kit have been sealed in airtight rubber bags, so that they don’t get impregnated with diesel fumes during our trip, something that would give us away at the first sniff by an American.’’

‘’A good idea indeed, my friend. As for you and your men, I have twenty bunks available in the passengers compartment and in the aft torpedo room, close to the Petty Officers’ quarters. Let me guide your group inside.’’

The heavily loaded members of the landing team, each carrying at least two full kit bags, then followed Ulrich and Hugo inside the submarine, entering it via the forward airlock, situated inside the forward blunt edge of the sail. Hanna, who had never been aboard a submarine before and who was expecting some kind of steel sardine can, was left stunned by what she saw as they went down two levels via steep ladders.

‘’Mein Gott! This submarine is quite spacious, contrary to my expectations.’’

Ulrich smiled at that but didn’t speak until he stopped in front of the sliding curtain closing off one of the individual cabins usually reserved for senior petty officers.

‘’Your cabin for the duration of our sea voyage, Oberhelferin Blumenthal. Across the hallway, a few paces back, you will find a washroom with shower reserved for the senior petty officers. You will only need to hook up a special sign saying that a woman is inside to have privacy while you use it.’’

Hanna pushed open the curtain of her assigned cabin and looked briefly inside the six meter square surface of the compartment before smiling to Ulrich.

‘’That is perfect. Thank you, Herr Kapitän!’’

‘’You’re welcome, Oberhelferin.’’ replied Ulrich, who was starting to find her very cute indeed. Hugo Margraff then asked him a question as Hanna went inside her cabin with her luggage.

‘’What about the men that we may free from the Bowmanville prisoners’ camp? Where will they be accommodated for the return trip?’’

‘’Well, each of my junior officers’ cabins have an upper bunk that is normally kept folded away above the fixed lower bunk. Thus, I will have six bunks available for the more senior officers from Bowmanville. The rest will have to share crew bunks in ‘hot bunking’ fashion. I thus could accommodate up to eighty extra people aboard in still fair conditions. If you bring more ex-prisoners than that, then I will have to break out our reserve of folding camp cots from our storage room and be imaginative about where to put them.’’

‘’Well, I doubt that we will be able to travel back to the coast with such a large group without attracting attention. I may have to do some drastic selection once inside Bowmanville, in order to keep my return group to a manageable size. But don’t worry, I will keep my promise: every crewmember from the U-800 that I find will be part of my return group.’’

‘’Thank you, my friend. Those crewmembers may be mostly of low rank but, together, they formed the most deadly submarine crew we ever had. Germany needs men like them.’’

‘’Agreed! Well, let’s show to my men the palace they are going to live in, shall we?’’

 

18:09 (Paris Time)

Crew cafeteria of the U-900

 

Hanna Blumenthal, wearing a dark khaki coverall and an elastic cap covering her hair, meant to prevent as much as possible diesel fumes from impregnating them, shrank at once on entering the crew cafeteria: the large compartment, full of men eating at long tables, had suddenly fallen silent, while over sixty pairs of eyes were now fixed on her. The sudden silence seemingly attracted a large, beefy man with a graying beard out of the nearby kitchen. The man, wearing a cook’s apron, had a brief look at her before twisting his head and shouting at the men in the cafeteria.

‘’DON’T YOU SQUIDS HAVE ANY MANNERS? GET YOUR NOSES BACK INTO YOUR BOWLS BEFORE I START THROWING HOT WATER AROUND!’’

The threat from the old cook worked, with the dinners returning their attention to their food. Hanna smiled to the cook, quite grateful for his intervention.

‘’Thank you very much, mister. That was very considerate on your part.’’

‘’Pah! I have three daughters that are around your age, miss. I am accustomed to keep young stalkers away from them. By the way, I am Matrosenobergefreiter Otto Hannig, chief-cook on the U-900.’’

‘’And I am Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal.’’ replied Hanna while shaking the cook’s hand. ‘’Uh, you seem to be fairly old to have been drafted into service, no?’’

‘’True! I am a veteran submariner from the Great War of 1914. I volunteered to return back into active service.’’

‘’Wow! Your patriotism and dedication is truly admirable, Obergefreiter. Uh, I just arrived aboard this afternoon. How does it work here?’’

‘’Just like in a civilian cafeteria, Oberhelferin. You just go to your left and pick up a food tray, a cup and utensils from those bins, then go to the start of the service counter, where I will be able to serve you with your choice of food.’’

‘’We can choose our menu, on a submarine?’’ asked Hanna, floored. Otto grinned to her in response.

‘’Of course! This is my kitchen and I don’t serve swill in it.’’

‘’Uh, I see! Give me a second, then.’’

Hanna made two steps and grabbed a food tray, a cup and a set of utensils before walking to the start of a service counter set across from a large opening in a partition separating the cafeteria and the kitchen, or galley in naval parlance. There, she was able to examine the contents of multiple food containers set over steam tables. Her eyes went wide at the view of the selection available.

‘’Breaded wiener schnitzel? Beef and vegetable stew? Deep fried cod? Mashed potatoes? Steamed vegetable mix? Mein Gott! Is the menu always this comprehensive?’’

‘’It is!’’ said proudly Otto. ‘’You will also find a self-serve counter on the other side of the room, which has a pot of chicken and noodle soup, a salad bar, a bread bar and dispensers for milk, fresh water, coffee and apple juice.’’

‘’When I think that I was half expecting to eat only soup with some bread and cold cuts while sitting on the floor or on a bunk. I will have a wiener schnitzel, with some mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables, please.’’

‘’Here you are, miss. Bon appétit!’’

‘’Thank you!’’ said happily Hanna before walking away from the service counter with her full food tray. She stopped first at the beverage counter and served herself a glass of fresh milk before going to sit at a table occupied by a few soldiers from the landing team. Like her, they all wore coveralls and elastic head covers and would do so for the duration of the sea trip to the American coast.

‘’Hello guys! I must say that the food aboard comes as a really nice surprise. I will have to be careful not to put on weight.’’

‘’Yeah! You would not want to outgrow your nice British naval auxiliary uniform, Oberhelferin.’’ replied Unteroffizier⁶ Herman Weiss. ‘’On the other hand, I do not regret one minute the field rations we got while serving on the Eastern Front. Half of the time, we ended up with moldy or concrete-hard dry bread and a piece of cheese as our supper.’’

‘’And, how were things on the Eastern Front?’’ asked Hanna, lowering her voice to a near whisper. Weiss understood at once why she did so: things were not going very well on the Eastern Front and propaganda officials didn’t like ‘defeatist talk’. He thus lowered his own voice before answering her.

‘’We have managed to stabilize the front…for now. However, I fully expect those damn Soviets to hit us hard next Winter, at a time when our vehicles and weapons are mostly frozen stiff. You have to give that to them, though: these Soviets are truly tough, fanatical bastards.’’

‘’And…what are our chances of winning over the Soviets, in your opinion, Unteroffizier?’’

Weiss thought his answer over for a moment before speaking.

‘’It will all depend on whether our submarine campaign can succeed in forcing the British to give up the fight and ask for an armistice. If we can manage that and end up fighting only on one front, then I believe that we will win. If not…’’

Weiss didn’t finish his sentence, nor did he have to, as Hanna fully understood what he meant. Her enthusiasm quite tempered now, she concentrated on her food, swallowing back the other questions she had in her mind.

 

23:30 (New York Time)

Saturday, July 3, 1943

Coast of New Hampshire, between Portsmouth and Hampton

United States

 

The two inflatable rubber boats and one large, six meter rowboat, were nearly invisible in the obscurity of the moonless night when they beached on the pebble and sand beach of the coast opposite Cedar Island, the latter being some twelve kilometers offshore. As soon as each boat started rubbing against the bottom, booted feet scrambled out to pull them partially out of the water. A total of 21 dark silhouettes got out of the boats, then helped the fourteen sailors that stayed aboard to unload the numerous backpacks, kit bags and suitcases that had been transported along with the passengers of the boats. Those pieces of luggage, all wrapped in airtight rubber or plastic bags, where then carried inside the tree line bordering the beach. Once the boats were empty of luggage, they were pushed back in the water and the sailors manning them started paddling to return to the U-900, which was waiting on the surface some 700 meters away, its deck guns raised and manned in case an American ship or plane showed up. However, as they rowed away, the rudder man in the rowboat unwound a long, thin insulated wire, one extremity of which was held firmly by two soldiers standing inside the tree line next to the beach. After unrolling and dipping in the water some 500 meters of wire, the rudder man arrived at the end of it and threw it and the small watertight metallic box connected to its extremity in the water. As the transceiver box of the underwater telephone sank to the bottom, some fifteen meters deep, the soldiers on the shore carefully attached the other end of the wire, which was connected to an underwater telephone handset box, to the base of a big tree, then took a few minutes to bury the wire running to the waterline, so that it wouldn’t be found by some passersby. The telephone box was also carefully camouflaged, then the field team regrouped silently around Hugo Margraff inside the trees. There, they all removed the coveralls and head covers they had been wearing during the ten days needed for the U-900 to sail across the North Atlantic from Lorient and to approach covertly the coast of the state of New Hampshire. Their final choice for a landing spot had been a section of the coast where no lights were visible. As other sections of the coast showed plenty of houses with lights on, this meant that this section was either uninhabited, or that the houses along it were not occupied. Hugo Margraff was fervently hoping for the second hypothesis, as this would provide them with a place to hide during their first hours in the United States.

 

With all of his team members now assembled around him, wearing German field uniforms and carrying their weapons, Hugo spoke to them in a low voice.

‘’Alright, we are now on enemy soil. Never forget that and always think before saying or doing anything while in the presence of Americans. One wrong word will be enough to doom the whole mission, so please be careful. Now, me and Feldwebel⁷ Stein will each take two men with us and will follow the shore in opposite directions, in order to look for an adequate place to hide for a few hours. The rest of you will finish unwrapping our kit here. Be quiet and don’t smoke! The burning tips of your cigarettes would be visible hundreds of meters away in this dark night. I should be back in about half a hour.’’

Hugo then disappeared among the trees, followed by two men, while Franz Stein’s group went in the opposite direction, leaving a very nervous Hanna Blumenthal with the remaining team members. She now wore a standard German Army auxiliary field uniform with trousers and was armed with a Walther PPK compact 7.62mm pistol, a small and handy weapon that was very easy to conceal on oneself. Besides her was a civilian suitcase containing her disguises: a British Royal Navy female auxiliary uniform and two female civilian outfits, complete with ankle boots, female shoes and hats. The suitcase also contained her various sets of false documents, plus an official-looking British leather briefcase. On her back, she was wearing a dark civilian backpack containing some field rations, a water bottle and a number of grenades of various types meant to supplement those carried by the commandos.

 

Stein’s group was back first, some 35 minutes later. The second in command for Margraff then reported to the group in a near whisper.

‘’We didn’t find any house within 400 meters. The first ones we found afterwards were all occupied. Any sign of the Hauptmann yet?’’

‘’Nein!’’ replied Unteroffizier Michel Drücker, who was third in the line of command.

‘’Alright! We wait here for him. Sit down and relax as much as possible, but stay quiet.’’

The team members did so, with Hanna sitting down with her back against a tree. Despite having good eyesight, she still could see very little around her, so dark the night was. The thick forest didn’t help either in that matter and her heart was beating fast, due to her nervousness.

‘’Damn, I never would have believed that I would one day be on American soil while wearing a German uniform, holding a pistol in my hands. Wait till the girls back in Paris hear my story!’’

The thought that she may not be able to get back to Germany to tell her story then crossed her mind, making her concentrate back on checking the darkness around her. The Brandenburg soldiers around her were like silent ghosts and were truly impressing her up to now with their professionalism and expertise. To be with them helped markedly Hanna to relax a bit. By the time that Hugo Margraff was back with his two soldiers, some ten minutes later, her heart rate was mostly back to normal. Margraff at once regrouped his team members around him to pass his orders.

‘’We found an empty cottage some 300 meters away, right along the shore. We were able to get into it and explore it and it should make a perfect hideout for us. Grab your packs and kit bags and follow me.’’

Following in single file behind Margraff, the Germans cautiously made their way north through the forest, always keeping the shoreline within sight between the trees. Some fifteen minutes later, the 21 Germans arrived near a two-storey cottage which had its own private beach area with a short wooden wharf. There were however no boats tied to the wharf or visible around the house, which was situated at the end of a private dirt road, while no lights were visible inside the house. Going to a back door facing the beach, Margraff easily opened it, the door having apparently been previously unlocked from the inside, then urged his landing team inside. Hanna felt immense relief once inside the cottage, out of sight, and put down her suitcase and backpack in a corner of the living room, situated on the side facing the beach.

‘’Alright, people, here is what we will do next!’’ announced Hugo out loud. ‘’First, we will organize ourselves and disperse around this house in order to cover every window and door of it, then will start washing ourselves and particularly our hands, faces and hair, in order to eliminate any odor of diesel on us. We will take a day or two if need be to do that: that smell could instantly betray us despite our disguises. Once we will all smell like roses, we will be able to pass to the next phase of our mission: our move inland towards Bowmanville.’’

The Germans laughed briefly at his joke, then started dispersing around the various rooms of the cottage, which proved to be fairly large and well furnished, being apparently the property of a family with at least four young children, if Hugo could judge from the few family pictures they found. At one point, Franz Stein came to him with a local newspaper in his hands.

‘’Sir, I found a newspaper and magazine rack in the living room. This paper is the most recent I found in the pile inside the rack: it is dated from early June.’’

‘’Hum… So, that could mean that this house has last been occupied a few weeks ago. That’s good news for us. Still, we won’t take any chances. Have a warning post established in the forest, near the connection of the dirt road with the coastal highway. Connect that post with this cottage via a field telephone and have two men in German uniforms man the post, with relief every four hours.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’

As Stein walked away to carry out his orders, Hugo gave a brief glance towards Hanna Blumenthal : the young woman may be completely inexperienced about combat and field situations, but she was soon going to be crucial to their mission.

 

08:55 (New York Time)

Monday, July 5, 1943

New Hampshire Route 1A (coastal road between Portsmouth and Hampton)

 

Corporal Andy Sturgis was whistling to himself while driving his big 2½-ton U.S. Army truck down the coastal road, heading towards Boston, where he was due to load a large quantity of supplies and spare parts to be brought back to his National Guard base near Portsmouth. The weather was fine and the coastal scenery was magnificent, making this trip a quite pleasant one. After turning a bend in the road, he spotted something that suddenly made his trip even more pleasant: standing by the side of the road, a big suitcase at her side, was a young woman with her right thumb up in front of her. A hitchhiking girl! Now, according to Army regulations, he was not supposed to stop and pick up passengers during this duty trip, but who would ever learn about this back at base? As he slowed down, he was able to better detail the girl. What he saw only made him more resolved to stop and pick her up, as she was a truly fine-looking young woman in her early twenties. Slowing down progressively and starting to roll on the side of the road, Andy stopped his truck level with the girl and applied the hand brake before extending his right arm to open the passenger door of the cab. Once the door was wide open, he realized that the girl would have some trouble lifting her big suitcase by herself up to the level of the cab. He thus slid sideways on the canvas bench seat and climbed down via the passenger door. From up close, the girl proved more than simply pretty and she flashed a big smile to him before speaking in a New York accent.

‘’Thank you very much for stopping for me, mister. You were very kind.’’

The woman then fetched something out o a pocket of her light jacket and pointed it at Andy. The young soldier’s eyes bulged with shock and surprise on seeing that she was now pointing a small pistol at him. Looking up from the pistol, Andy saw that her expression was now most serious.

‘’Sorry about that, mister, but we needed your truck.’’

‘’We? What…’’

The cold contact of some metallic object against the back of his neck then shut him up, as a male voice spoke from behind him.

‘’Don’t even think about pulling some fancy trick now, Corporal, or I will have to shoot you. Put both hands behind your back, slowly.’’

As Andy did so, two men wearing civilian clothes rushed out of the nearby bushes and solidly grabbed him before clamping a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. A thick cloth then gagged him before he was forcibly lifted up inside the cab, where his feet were also tied. One of his attackers then jumped behind the wheel, while another one sat and put his feet on top of him, making any move by him nearly impossible. Andy had time to see a third man in civilian clothes, standing near the young woman and holding a pistol, before the passenger door was closed and the truck started moving again. However, it turned nearly immediately onto a private dirt road leading to the shore and rolled for a few hundred meters until it stopped and parked beside a two-storey wood and brick cottage. The driver honked the horn once, making two men come out of the cottage and go to the cab. Andy opened his eyes wide in stupor when the passenger door was opened, revealing two armed and helmeted German soldiers! The ‘civilian’ man sitting on him then put the muzzle of his pistol against the tip of Andy’s nose and spoke calmly in good English.

‘’Here is the deal: you behave and stay quiet and we will free you alive and intact once our mission is completed. If you don’t, then we will kill you. All our men have silenced weapons, so don’t even count on that to raise the alarm. Understood?’’

Andy, cold sweat appearing on his forehead, could only nod his head, making the ‘civilian’ smile.

‘’Excellent! Carry him inside, men!’’

As soon as the two soldiers had taken Andy out of his truck, the man who had spoken to him looked at the driver.

‘’Let’s change the plates and markings on this truck.’’

‘’Consider it done, Obergefreiter.’’

 

As soon as the army truck had turned into the private dirt road, Hanna and Hugo returned to their hiding place in a thick group of bushes next to the road, bringing Hanna’s suitcase with them. They then waited for the next radio reports from the men posted some 400 meters away on both sides from their hiding place. Ironically, the Brandenburg men were now using German hand-held VHF radios which were improved copies of the American walkie-talkie radios captured during their previous raids on American soil, when they were being landed from the U-800. Thanks to superior German engineering, the new radios, now being mass-produced for the German forces, were actually more compact than their American ancestor and also had more range. Hugo, who also had a hand-held radio with him, had to wait maybe ten minutes before receiving a warning that a suitable vehicle was approaching, this time coming from Hampton. Grabbing Hanna’s suitcase, he signaled the young woman to follow him before running across the road, to hide in another group of bushes close to the opening of the private dirt road. There, he left the big suitcase on the side of the road and hid, while Hanna took position next to her suitcase. Half a minute later, a black four-door Ford station-wagon appeared out of the next road bend, going at a fairly lazy pace. As it approached her and slowed down, Hanna couldn’t help feel bad when she saw who was driving: it was a priest, wearing a traditional black clergyman suit.

‘’May God forgive me for this.’’ She whispered to herself as the station-wagon was about to come to a halt in front of her. The priest, a man in his fifties with a jovial face, smiled to her from the driver’s seat, speaking through the opened passenger window.

‘’Good day, my child! Where are you going like this with such a big suitcase?’’

‘’To Portsmouth! Is it on your way, Father?’’

‘’It certainly is, my child. Get in!’’

‘’Uh, could you help me put my suitcase in the back first, Father?’’

‘’Of course!’’ Answered the priest before stepping out of his car and going to the back, where he opened the rear gate. As his back was turned towards him, Hugo quietly approached the priest and gently tapped his shoulder, making him twist his head around in surprise. A momentary flash of fear came to his face when he saw the pistol held by Hugo, but he recovered his cool remarkably quickly and gave a no-nonsense look to Hugo.

‘’If this is to rob me, then don’t expect much: I have little cash with me.’’

‘’We only need your car, Father. However, we will have to detain you for a couple of days, time for us to fulfill our mission. If all goes well, you will be able to take back possession of your car on our return.’’

Two more commandos dressed in civilian clothes then showed up, handcuffing the priest and putting him in the back of his station-wagon before driving the vehicle down the dirt road leading to the cottage. Just at that moment, Hugo received another radio message, this time from his man posted north of his location.

‘’Collector, this is Watcher One: I have a large movers’ van approaching from Portsmouth. I see two men in the front cab. Are you a taker?’’

‘’A movers’ van? Hell yes! That would be perfect for us.’’

Hugo then grabbed again Hanna’s suitcase and gave her a curt order.

‘’To the other side, quickly! A movers’ van with two men in the cab is approaching from Portsmouth.’’

The duo hurried at a run across the road, with Hanna taking her original position, her suitcase at her side. The van that soon showed up was a large one, with a cargo box a good seven meters in length. That made Hugo smile in contentment as he was hiding behind a bush: that truck could easily transport discreetly a good thirty men or more. Again, Hanna’s beauty did the trick and the movers’ van stopped in a noise of screeching brakes. This time, however, things were trickier, with two men to deal with. Hugo waited until the passenger in the cab started opening his door, then ran quietly across the rear of the truck while the passenger’s mirror was in the wrong angle. As the co-driver of the van was stepping down on the side of the road, next to Hanna, Hugo ran to the driver’s door and opened it brusquely, pointing his silenced Walther P-38 pistol in the face of the stunned driver, an overweight man in his forties.

‘’Shut down the engine, now!’’

Sensing that the man’s mind was going into overdrive and possibly thinking about a way to drive away, Hugo didn’t take any chance and pulled the man by his left arm, making him fall out of the cab and hit face first the road’s asphalt. Hugo immediately knelt on top of his back while pressing the muzzle of his gun on the driver’s neck.

‘’No fancy tricks or you’re dead!’’

One of his men then arrived to help him handcuff the driver, who was then dragged towards the rear of the truck. Opening one of the two large rear doors, Hugo saw that the cargo box was half filled with pieces of furniture wrapped in thick blankets. That actually suited him fine, as those pieces of furniture would be able to hide men from a quick look inside the van. The two movers were then put inside the box and the truck rolled down the dirt road, leaving Hugo to ponder whether he now had enough vehicles for his needs. He quickly decided that he still needed at least one more vehicle, preferably a truck, so that he would have enough transport capacity for both his men and at least sixty escapees. He thus resumed his waiting with Hanna, hidden inside bushes.

 

Traffic was proving to be rather light this morning along the coastal highway, but Hugo reminded himself that gasoline was rationed for the civilian population, something that cut a lot on the usual travelling. There was also the fact that U.S. Route 1, a major highway, ran parallel further inland to N.H. Route 1A and carried most of the road traffic between Boston and Portsmouth. Finally, after letting pass dozens of unsuitable vehicles, which carried either families with children or were pickup trucks with open rear boxes in which men could not hide from public sight, Hugo hit pay dirt: a solitary U.S. Army bus travelling empty. Again, Hanna’s charms worked their magic and the bus driver, a sergeant, promptly stopped, only to be captured and bundled away. With enough transport capacity in his possession to carry over a hundred men, Hugo knew that he would now be able to pass to the next phase of his mission, once the captured vehicles got new plates chosen from the sets of false plates brought from France.

 

Leaving four of his soldiers who would guard and care for their five prisoners behind at the cottage, Hugo and his remaining soldiers, plus of course Oberhelferin Blumenthal, departed the cottage in their captured vehicles shortly before noon, after everybody had eaten a quick lunch. Each of the four vehicles had aboard a German carrying a hand-held radio, so that Hugo could keep contact with all his men while allowing his vehicle to spread out along the road. The Germans riding in the Army 2½-ton truck and the bus wore U.S. Army uniforms, while two men in civilian outfits rode in the movers’ van. As for Hugo, Hanna and Obergefreiter Heinrich Bayerling, they wore British naval uniforms while riding in the black Ford station-wagon, which now sported diplomatic plates and a British flag. Travelling due West from the coast, the four vehicles started making their way towards Albany and then Rochester, in the state of New York.

 

17:53 (New York Time)

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

 

Lieutenant commander Jeffrey Prescott, from the Navy liaison office to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, was already quite pissed when he finally got a telephone line to the Navy’s Boston regional headquarters.

‘’Hello, Boston? Please connect me with your transport section… What do you mean, they probably are out for supper? We are at war, not on a vacation! Try to ring them anyway!... Hello, Transport Section? This is Lieutenant commander Prescott, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Where the hell is your bus? It was supposed to pick up the navy band that celebrated the latest ship’s launch this afternoon. The musicians are still waiting at dock side to be picked up... What do you mean, you sent the bus this morning? If you did, then your stupid bus driver must have lost himself along the way, or stopped somewhere to visit a girlfriend… Well, check again!’’

Prescott then slammed down his telephone receiver, truly angry.

‘’Bunch of incompetent twits!’’ He spat out between his clenched teeth.

 

21:47 (New York Time)

Service station on the eastern outskirts of Syracuse

State of New York

 

Now that night had fallen, Hugo decided that it was a good time to refill the tanks of his vehicles, before they would jump into the next phase of the mission: the crossing into Canada. Thankfully, they had found on their civilian captives a number of gas rationing coupons, while the two military vehicles contained army requisition vouchers that could be exchanged for gas at civilian service stations. While each of his four vehicles went separately to the service station they had encountered in the outskirts of Syracuse, Hugo thought again about his mission plan. He still could exercise some variants to it while around Syracuse, as he could go from here either North and cross the Canadian border near Watertown, or continue West to Rochester and beyond, to search for suitable boats to steal along the south shore of lake Ontario. One thing that he strongly wished to keep as part of his plan was to be able to use his false British diplomatic identity. His mind finally made, Hugo waited until all his vehicles had filled up, with his two military trucks filling as well their spare jerrycans of gasoline, then met with all of them along a nearby deserted road for an impromptu briefing.

‘’Okay, lady and gentlemen, we are now at a crucial point in our mission: the final approach to Camp Bowmanville. It actually depended a lot on the type and quantity of vehicles that we would be able to capture near our landing point. I have now decided on how to proceed from here. Here is what we will do…’’

 

03:10 (New York Time)

Tuesday, July 6, 1943

Lake Breeze Marina, Point Breeze Road

Southern shore of Lake Ontario, near Carlton

State of New York

 

‘’Pull over, Bayerling, stop the car!’’

On Hugo Margraff’s urging, Heinrich Bayerling slowed down and pulled over their Ford station-wagon on the side of the small road that roughly following the outer perimeter of a small marina. They were now near the small town of Carlton and were in sight of a small marina occupied by a number of sailing boats, privates yachts and fishing boats. Once the car was stopped, Hugo raised his binoculars to his eyes and examined the largest boat visible in the marina. The few lights around the marina helped him detail that boat, along with a large sign near it on the wharf. After nearly a minute of observation, Hugo lowered his binoculars, a wide smile now on his lips.

‘’We have a group fishing tour boat in that marina that should be perfect for our needs. At worst, if we can’t secure it for our use later today, there are a number of other boats that could do the job. Let’s return to our inn now: we need some sleep after driving for half a day.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’ Replied Bayerling, using English. On orders from Margraff, the members of the field team were strictly forbidden to speak in German while under disguise, and this even in private settings. The rest of the team had parked their three vehicles at an inn in nearby Brockport and had rented rooms for the night, in order to take some badly needed rest and be able to shave and refresh themselves in the morning. As for Hugo, Hanna and Bayerling, they had rented rooms at another inn, since their British Royal Navy uniforms would have clashed with the U.S. Army uniforms worn by most of the other members of the team. The happy reactions of the inns’ receptionists at that unexpected influx of customers, along with the mostly empty parking lots of the establishments, had told Hugo that, despite the Summer weather, the local tourism business appeared quite slow. That was actually understandable if you took into account the gasoline rationing and the widespread conscription of men into the armed forces. They were also on a Tuesday, while most leisure travelling normally took place during weekends. All that suited Hugo just fine: less American travelers around meant less risks to his men of being accidentally unmasked.

 

Going back to the small bed and breakfast inn where they had rented rooms for the night in the tiny town of Hamlin, the trio went up to their respective rooms to catch a few hours of sleep. Hanna occupied a tiny room by herself, while Hugo and Heinrich shared a slightly larger room. Taking off his uniform and getting into bed, Hugo took some time to find sleep: the responsibilities he carried on this mission were truly crushing. To be responsible as well for a young woman with zero combat training or experience while deep behind enemy lines only added to his worries. However, his fatigue finally won over and he was able to get to sleep after a few minutes.

 

16:30 (New York Time)

Pilot house of ‘FISHING QUEEN’

At quayside in Lake Breeze Marina

Mouth of Oak Orchard River, South shore of Lake Ontario

 

Kenneth Prentice, already resigned to having another day without customers, was washing the windows of the pilot house of his fishing tour boat, the ‘FISHING QUEEN’, when he saw two men and one woman starting to walk down the wooden wharf to which his boat was tied. The trio wore good quality civilian clothes, something that raised Ken’s hopes of finally having some customers. Dropping his wet sponge and quickly drying his hands, he then went aft to the open rear deck to meet the newcomers. The two men immediately struck him as apparently fit and healthy, while the young woman was a lot more than simply cute. Strangely enough, none of them carried any fishing gear, having only two briefcases, three suitcases and a haversack in their hands. Still, Ken smiled to them and greeted them with a friendly tone when they stepped aboard his boat.

‘’Welcome aboard the FISHING QUEEN, lady and gentlemen! I am Kenneth Prentice, owner and captain of this boat. What may I do for you today?’’

The man who answered him did so with a distinct British accent.

‘’Hello! I am from the British embassy in Washington and my name is Harry Sutcliffe. Me, my wife Ann and Mister Chadwell, also from the British embassy, would like to sail on Lake Ontario and study its shoreline. It is part of a strategic study ordered by my government but I am taking the occasion to offer a little sight-seeing trip to my wife: the poor lass was dying to get out of Washington for a change.’’

‘’I certainly can sympathize with her, Mister Sutcliffe.’’ Said Ken, smiling. This meant a few hours of cruising around, something that would earn him enough money to at least make his day worthwhile. ‘’I can offer you a good four hours of daylight cruising around Lake Ontario for fifty dollars.’’

‘Sutcliffe’ nodded his head at once, apparently satisfied.

‘’The King is paying, so that is quite alright with me, sir. Uh, are you alone to man this big boat?’’

‘’Oh no! I have a mechanic who checks on the engines and also helps me for port handling. Jerry is presently in the engine room, below us.’’

‘’And how fast is your boat, sir?’’

‘’The FISHING QUEEN can top thirteen knots, Mister Sutcliffe.’’ Replied Ken proudly.

‘’Uh, do you have any under-deck accommodations or do you have only this rear open deck available to your passengers?’’

‘’Apart from the crew cabin, there is a small galley, a toilet compartment and two cabins, each with two bunks.’’

‘’Then, your boat should do just fine, Mister Prentice.’’ Said the British man while putting one hand inside his vest, as if to extract a wallet. What he took out was however a silenced pistol, which ‘Sutcliffe’ pointed at a shocked Ken.

‘’No scream, no resistance, or I will shoot you! Henry, go get the mechanic in the engine room and tie him up in his cabin.’’

The said Henry, who also had drawn out a silenced pistol, then quickly disappeared down the deck hatch leading to the lower deck. To Ken’s shock, the young woman also produced a pistol, pointing it on him.

‘’Who…who are you, people? What do you really want?’’

‘’The less known by you, the better for your future health, mister. Now, get inside the pilot house, slowly.’’

As Ken obeyed and walked to the pilot house of his boat, he saw the young woman take out a small hand-held radio from her leather briefcase and talk in it in English.

‘’Escort, this is Lead: you may come in now… The boat’s name is ‘FISHING QUEEN’, at Wharf Number Nine… Acknowledged, out!’’

Once her call was done, the woman went to post herself near the aft access ramp, in plain sight of anyone on the shore. It took only three minutes before a big U.S. Army truck showed up, coming from the nearby Lakeshore Road and then rolling inside the marina, to finally stop near the foot of the wharf to which the FISHING QUEEN was tied up. To Ken’s surprise, twelve armed American soldiers in combat uniforms jumped out of the truck and started coming down the wharf in single file. The old fisherman looked with shock at ‘Sutcliffe’, who spoke before he could.

‘’Mister Prentice, believe me when I say that our fervent wish is to avoid any unnecessary violence here. If you behave, drive your boat correctly and don’t try to raise the alarm, then you will come out of this in good health and with your boat intact and still in your possession. In fact, to prove you that I mean what I say…’’

Hugo then took out his wallet and counted out fifty American dollars before offering them to Ken.

‘’Please take that money, Mister Prentice. We are going to burn your fuel, so it is only fair for us to pay you for your expenses.’’

‘’But, I don’t understand. You are obviously some kind of spy or saboteur and are probably German. You could have simply shot me and stole my boat, yet you want to pay me for my expenses?’’

Hugo gave him a somber look and replied in a neutral tone of voice.

‘’Yes, I am a German, Mister Prentice, but I am a soldier, not a murderer. I intend to bring my mission to a successful conclusion, but also to do it with the minimum of violence. I have nothing against you personally and am no brainwashed fanatic, so I have no wish to kill you unless you force me to. Please, take the money, Mister Prentice.’’

After some hesitation, Ken took the money offered by Hugo and pocketed it. By then, the twelve ‘American’ soldiers, each one carrying a bulging kit bag and a backpack, had stepped aboard and were taking place in the wooden seats around the rear deck, while two of them untied the ropes immobilizing the boat. Ken pointed them with his chin.

‘’And them? They are also German, I suppose?’’

‘’Correct! Be reassured : our mission is not to kill or destroy, unless forced to. It is to free other Germans.’’

Hugo then put one finger on a spot of Ken’s marine chart of Lake Ontario, laid under a protective glass surface on a small map board fixed in front of the steering wheel.

‘’You will now pilot your boat out of the marina and onto Lake Ontario, then will head towards Port Darlington, on the Canadian side of the lake. Make your speed eight knots. Start your engine now. Be careful: I know how to navigate a boat, so don’t try to trick me by heading in the wrong direction.’’

Now resigned to not make any fuss or heroics, Ken started the diesel engine of the FISHING QUEEN by pushing a button and took place behind the steering wheel. He maneuvered his boat slowly and carefully at first, time to get away from the wharf and from the other boats tied up in the marina, then accelerated a bit while going down the entrance channel, turning ninety degrees at the end of it to avoid the rocky breakwater forming a ‘T’ with the channel. Once in open waters, he turned his boat on the heading for Port Darlington, with Hugo checking his compass heading.

‘’Good! Continue like this, Mister Prentice.’’

Hugo then shouted at one of the ‘American’ soldiers sitting around the rear deck.

‘’FELDWEBEL, PLEASE COME TO THE PILOT HOUSE!’’

The soldier in question, who wore the ranks of an American staff sergeant, promptly got up and walked to the pilot house, entering it with his Thompson submachine gun at his side.

‘’Yes, Hauptmann?’’

‘’I am going down to the lower deck to change. Make sure that Mister Prentice here stays on magnetic heading 266 and a speed of eight knots. If some American or Canadian patrol boat shows up, get me at once.’’

‘’Yes, Hauptmann!’’

With Franz Stein posting himself a few paces away from Prentice, his submachine gun at the ready, Hugo went to the deck hatch leading to the lower deck, collecting his suitcase and briefcase at the same time and signaling Hanna to do the same. Both disappeared down the hatch with their luggage, to reappear with Heinrich Bayerling twenty minutes later, all of them dressed in British naval uniforms. Prentice gave the trio a dubious look when they entered the small pilot house of his boat.

‘’You seem to have prepared quite carefully for your mission, mister.’’

‘’Let’s say that this is not my first mission behind enemy lines, Mister Prentice.’’ replied Hugo, smiling. ‘’From now on, please call me ‘Lieutenant commander Blake’. My two comrades are Sergeant Henry Barclay and Supervisor Ann Powell.’’

‘’If you say so, ‘Commander’.’’

‘’That’s the spirit! Now, let’s all of us relax and enjoy this trip.’’

 

The trip across Lake Ontario took close to four hours, during which the FISHING QUEEN met only a few fishing boats and sailing yachts and no patrol boat, either American and Canadian. That didn’t surprise Ken, who knew how pressed for men and war equipment the coast guard services of both governments were at present: the ravages by German submarines along the East Coast had forced the transfer during the last year of many patrol boats from the Great Lakes, which had been deemed of lower priority than the Atlantic Coast. The Sun had just disappeared under the horizon by the time they came within sight of Port Darlington and there was only light from a quarter moon as Ken’s boat approached the entrance channel to the small marina. However, contrary to the Atlantic Coast area, the Great Lakes region was not under night blackout regulations, being deemed out of reach of enemy bombers. Thus, Ken was able to use the lights from Port Darlington to guide himself as he sailed into the entrance channel. There was however little to no activity visible around the marina, something which was understandable in view of the late hour. Only one man wearing the uniform of the Canadian Border Services came to the FISHING QUEEN as it cautiously maneuvered to get alongside one of the wooden wharves of the small marina.

‘’AHOY, FISHING QUEEN! CANADIAN BORDER SERVICES! I WILL NEED TO GET ON YOUR BOAT TO INSPECT IT.’’

It was however Hugo, standing in plain sight on the rear deck in his British naval uniform, who answered the Canadian.

‘’THIS IS LIEUTENANT COMMANDER BLAKE, ROYAL NAVY ASSISTANT ATTACHÉ IN WASHINGTON. I CAME TO VISIT CAMP BOWMANVILLE. I HAVE LETTERS OF AUTHORIZATION WITH ME.’’

‘’VERY WELL, SIR!’’ Replied the Canadian after coming to attention and saluting Hugo, who saluted back. As soon as the FISHING QUEEN was secured with ropes to the wharf, the Border Services agent climbed aboard. The man however made a surprised expression on seeing the ‘American’ soldiers sitting around the rear deck. He nonetheless saluted again Hugo and presented himself.

‘’Corporal Jack Woolworth, Canadian Border Services. May I ask why you came with armed American soldiers, sir?’’

‘’You certainly can, Corporal. The American War Department allotted them to me as an armed escort so that I could effect a transfer of German prisoners of war held in Camp Bowmanville to a special interrogation center in England. That transfer is actually a rather urgent matter. Would there be a way to either call Camp Bowmanville or get a car to carry me there from here?’’

The border agent, a bit intimidated by Hugo’s Royal Navy uniform and taking the American soldiers at face value, didn’t deem it necessary to ask for Hugo’s papers at the time. After all, Canada was part of the British Commonwealth and British citizens were free to enter Canadian territory at will. Instead, he pointed a small, illuminated hut situated nearby along the main quay.

‘’You can call the camp from my duty hut, sir. As for cars, I can get a taxi for you.’’

‘’Thank you, but hold on to the taxi call: I will see first if Camp Bowmanville can send me a vehicle.’’

‘’Very well, sir. Please follow me!’’

 

Followed closely by Hugo, Hanna and Heinrich, the Canadian agent led the ‘British’ trio to his small duty hut, which barely measured three meters by four meters. To Hugo’s satisfaction he didn’t see another border agent when he entered the hut behind Woolworth.

‘’The night shifts here must be quite boring, Corporal.’’

‘’They are, but a good book helps a lot to pass the night. Granted, there is little to no boat activity in the marina at night and fishermen usually wait for the morning twilight before manning their boats and going out. The telephone is right there, sir. I will dial the camp for you.’’

‘’Please don’t give details on the telephone: this matter is highly classified. Just get the camp switchboard and then let me speak to them.’’

‘’As you wish, sir.’’ Said Woolworth, shrugging. He briefly consulted a list of telephone numbers near his telephone before dialing a number and waiting for an answer. A female voice came on the line after the second ring.

‘’Camp Bowmanville switchboard! May I help you?’’

‘’Yes! This is Corporal Woolworth, of the Border Services post in Port Darlington. A British naval officer just arrived here by boat and wanted to call your camp. I am going to pass him to you now.’’

‘’Thank you, Corporal!’’ Said Hugo as he took the receiver presented by Woolworth. He then spoke in the receiver with his best British accent.

‘’Hullo! This is Lieutenant commander Hughes Blake, Assistant Naval Attaché at the British embassy in Washington. Could I speak with the camp Commandant, please?’’

‘’Uh, I will see if he is in his residence at this hour, sir. One moment, please.’’

Hugo had to wait a few seconds before the female switchboard operator came back on line.

‘’I am sorry, sir, but the Commandant’s residence is not answering. I am going to try his office.’’

This time, Hugo had to wait quite a bit longer. He was starting to wonder what was going on when a male voice finally came on the line.

‘’Major Taylor, Commandant of Camp Bowmanville. What may I do for you, Commander?’’

Making his tone reflect some apparent irritation at the delay in getting a response, Hugo replied in a firm, authoritarian voice.

‘’I would like to come and see you to show you a special order I got from the highest levels. However, I am not ready to discuss this on the telephone: this matter is highly classified. I just came from the American side of the lake and am calling from the Border Services post in Port Darlington. I would need you to send me a vehicle and a driver to bring me to your camp.’’

‘’But, I got no advance notification of your visit, Commander Blake. I…’’

‘’Major, it is not my place or yours to discuss the reasons why someone over our heads did not send you a prior notification about my visit tonight. Just send a car to pick me up at Port Darlington, so that we could discuss my mission orders face to face.’’

Hugo then hung up, cutting off the camp commandant, and gave an ironic look at Hanna, acting for Woolworth’s benefit while winking to Hanna.

‘’Another rear area paper-pusher! Well, let’s hope that this Major Taylor is going to send a vehicle promptly enough.’’

Being slightly behind Woolworth, Hanna was able to discretely take out of her service purse a small syringe and, taking the protective cap off its needle, stuck it in the Canadian’s neck, quickly injecting the content in the man’s jugular. The border agent turned around in a flash and had time to glare at Hanna for a fraction of a second before his eyes became blurred and he started to wobble on his feet. Heinrich Bayerling moved quickly behind him to grab him as he then slumped down like a broken puppet. Hugo watched all that impassively: he would have preferred not to have done this, but the suspicious attitude of that Major Taylor was now obliging him to play one of his option.

‘’Alright, Heinrich, go lay him down in the back room of the hut, take his uniform off and then tie his hands and feet and gag him. Next, you will go find one of our men who can fit in his uniform, so that he could stand up in his place in this hut. Hanna, go to the boat and tell Feldwebel Stein to send at once Hohenbascher to splice the main coastal telephone line near this hut. He is then to put in place a local relay inside this hut, so that we could intercept and control all the telephone calls to and from the prisoners of war camp. Hanna, you will stay here with Hohenbascher and Stein to act as a false switchboard link.’’

‘’Understood, Hauptmann!’’

 

To Hugo’s relief, all that was completed before a jeep driven by a graying Canadian reservist soldier finally showed up at the Border Services hut. Going out of the hut with Bayerling before the jeep could stop beside it, Hugo saluted back the driver and put his briefcase in the back of the jeep, where Bayerling took place, before sitting in the front passenger seat and giving a terse order to the driver.

‘’To the camp commandant’s office, please!’’

‘’Right away, sir!’’ Said the reservist, who had time to have a glimpse of a man in a Border Services uniform and of Hannah in her British uniform, visible through a window of the Border Services’ hut, before he put his jeep in gear and turned around towards Camp Bowmanville. Following the narrow coastal road for a bit over one kilometer, the jeep arrived at Camp Bowmanville’s southern gate, which was next to the pebble beach just outside the camp. The jeep then rolled to one of the buildings situated outside of the double barbed wire perimeter fence of the prisoners’ compound. While he stayed apparently impassive, Hugo’s eyes took in every detail of the camp that was visible to him from the jeep, including the nine wooden guard towers around the compound’s fence, occupied by soldiers and equipped with searchlights and machine guns. The jeep’s driver stepped out of his vehicle and pointed the door of the building to Hugo and Heinrich.

‘’The Commandant’s office is inside the command and administrative building, sir. If you will follow me.’’

Not saying a word and looking very ‘British naval officer’, Hugo followed the Canadian corporal inside, with Heinrich close behind him. The trio then found itself inside a fairly large room with a number of work desks and filing cabinets. A lone Canadian Army female auxiliary sitting next to a telephone switchboard and a PA system got up at their entrance and saluted Hugo.

‘’Good evening, sir! Major Taylor, the camp commandant, is waiting for you in his office.’’

As Hugo followed her towards one of the doors visible along a long central corridor, he gave an order to Heinrich Bayerling.

‘’Please wait in the reception room, Petty Officer Barclay.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’ Replied Heinrich, who then took position near the telephone switchboard station. That way, if things went south, he would be able to prevent any call for help from getting out.

 

The Canadian female auxiliary knocked on a door and waited to hear a muffled response before opening it and entering, coming to attention and saluting in front of a Canadian Army major sitting behind a wooden desk.

‘’Sir, Lieutenant commander Blake has arrived.’’

‘’Thank you, miss! You may return to your desk.’’ Replied the major, who then got up from his chair and walked to Hugo as the young woman left the office. While he offered his hand for a shake, his face showed some misgivings and suspicion.

‘’Major Steven Taylor, Commandant of Camp Bowmanville. What may I do for you at this late hour, Commander Blake?’’

‘’You may assist me in my mission, which is both highly important and urgent, Major Taylor.’’ Said Hugo while shaking his hand. He then made a show of putting his leather briefcase on top of Taylor’s desk to open it and extract an envelope from it, presenting it to Taylor.

‘’Here are my mission orders, signed by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff himself. Basically, recent events around Great-Britain have revealed that the Germans have just put into service both a new and highly lethal class of submarine and a new, very fast fighter, plus a new heavy bomber. Those new German weapons have already started to spread havoc and destruction and we need to learn everything we can about them, in order to devise counter-measures against them. Unfortunately, what we presently know about them is very limited. The Imperial General Staff has thus ordered that select German prisoners of war held here in Canada be transferred urgently to Great-Britain, so that they could be questioned in detail in a special interrogation center. In particular, all the crewmembers of the late German submarine U-800 and the Luftwaffe fighter and bomber pilots held here are to be transferred to my custody at once, to be brought under American escort across Lake Ontario and into the United States, where they will be put aboard a waiting British warship. Unfortunately, the urgency of the situation has precluded the usual, and lengthy, administrative process and staff work. I myself had to wait for the American soldiers due to escort the prisoners, which is why I am now presenting myself at such a late hour. You will find a list of the prisoners of interest at Annex ‘A’ of my orders.’’

The Canadian major gave him a quick look before opening the envelope and taking out a folded document. Straightening the pages in his hands, Taylor carefully read the mission order, taking a few seconds to examine the signatures and seals on it. Reading quickly the list of prisoners to be transferred, the Canadian gave Hugo a questioning look.

‘’Why include all the crewmembers of this U-800, instead of only the officers, Commander Blake?’’

‘’Because the new German submarines now roaming the British coasts appear to be near copies of the late U-800. Even a lowly German submarine machinist or radio operator could know details that could be crucial to us. As for the Luftwaffe pilots on the list, we are hoping that some of them may have seen or heard things about the new German fighter and heavy bomber. I cannot stress enough the urgent need to transfer those prisoners to Great Britain, so that they could be interrogated in detail and at length.’’

‘’Still, I would have expected someone from Ottawa to at least call me in advance to inform me that you were on the way, Commander.’’

Hugo made a show of letting some fake irritation appear on his face as his voice hardened.

‘’As I told you before on the phone, it is not my business or yours to question why things were done in a certain way, Major. I have my orders and I expect you to help me fulfill them without any waste of time. If you don’t, then there will be repercussions…from very high above our heads.’’

Taylor, while registering that threat, shook slowly his head.

‘’Not before someone in Ottawa can vet your mission orders, Commander. If you may sit down in that chair, I will place a short telephone call right now.’’

‘’As you wish, Major.’’ Replied Hugo, hiding his suddenly heightened anxiety, before sitting down in the easy chair pointed by Taylor. Hoping fervently that Oberhelferin Hanna Blumenthal and Feldwebel Franz Stein were going to play their roles to the hilt, he watched as Taylor sat back behind his desk and grabbed his telephone receiver.

‘’Hello, operator? This is Major Taylor, Commandant of Camp Bowmanville. Please patch me with the operator at Army headquarters in Ottawa.’’

Taylor had to wait some twenty seconds, a normal delay to switch a long distance call with the existing telephone technology, before another female voice answered him.

‘’Army headquarters switchboard! May I help you?’’

‘’Yes, miss! Please connect me with the senior duty officer at the operations center.’’

‘’One moment, please!’’

Taylor had to wait a few seconds before a male voice came on the line.

‘’Army headquarters operations center, Colonel Massey speaking!’’

Taylor nearly instinctively straightened up in his chair on hearing the rank of his new interlocutor.

‘’Colonel, this is Major Steven Taylor, Commandant of Camp Bowmanville, near Oshawa. I have just received the visit of a Lieutenant commander Hughes Blake, of the Royal Navy, who has a mission order concerning the urgent transfer to Great-Britain of some of the German prisoners held in my camp. However, I received no prior notification or warning about such a transfer and wish to make sure that everything is in order.’’

‘’Camp Bowmanville, you say?’’

‘’Yes sir!’’

‘’Uh, let me check something for a second, Major.’’

Taylor then heard ‘Colonel Massey’ give a few orders around, presumably to his duty personnel, followed by the noise of some paper documents being shuffled through, before Massey came back on the line.

‘’Hum… Does the mission order in question bears the number ‘22386’, dated July 2, 1943 and is signed by Field Marshal Brooks?’’

Taylor checked the mission order in his hand before answering, now reassured.

‘’Uh, that is correct, sir.’’

‘’Then everything is spiffy, Major. Sorry if you were not advised before, but we ourselves have just received a copy of that mission order only a couple of hours ago. It seems that there was some kind of hiccup on the American side of the border that delayed the transmission of the paperwork. You are thus to render maximum assistance to this Lieutenant commander Blake and to expedite the work as quickly as possible.’’

‘’I will, sir! Sorry for disturbing you with this.’’

‘’You did the right thing by checking, Major. Good night!’’

‘’And a good night to you as well, sir.’’ Said Taylor before putting down his receiver and smiling to Hugo. ‘’Well, everything seems to be in order, Commander. I will have the prisoners on your list assembled and loaded aboard trucks right away. What kind of escort force did the Americans provide you?’’

‘’I have a full infantry squad that came across Lake Ontario with me. They are now waiting in Port Darlington. More soldiers are waiting with buses on the other side of the lake.’’

‘’That sounds quite sufficient. Give me a few minutes to get my guard force to collect your prisoners and you will be able to go on your way.’’

‘’Thank you, Major!’’ Replied Hugo, discreetly blowing air out in relief. However, things still could turn sour for him and his mission: some of the prisoners on his fake list knew him and his Brandenburg men and a single wrong reaction or word could be enough to cause the mission to fail.

 

22:35 (New York Time)

Senior officers’ barrack, P.O.W. compound

Camp Bowmanville

 

Kapitänleutnant Konrad List, ex-medical officer of the late U-800, concentrated for a few seconds as he examined the chess board before moving one of his pieces. Kapitänleutnant Werner Jentz, ex-chief engineer aboard the U-800, frowned when he saw that List’s latest move was endangering his queen. With Kapitänleutnant Otto Ites, ex-commander of the U-94, and Luftwaffe Oberst⁸ Hefele watching the chess duel, Jentz took his time to study his counter-move. He was about to grab his queen and move it when a Canadian Army captain entered the communal lounge of the senior officers’ barrack, four armed soldiers at his back.

‘’ALL THE PRISONERS IN THE BARRACK ARE TO ASSEMBLE IMMEDIATELY IN THIS LOUNGE! WAKE UP THOSE ALREADY IN BED!’’

‘’What the…?’’ Managed to say Jentz, surprised, before the Canadian captain walked quickly to his group, assembled around a table.

‘’COME ON! LET’S MOVE!’’

Hefele, who was the senior officer in the barrack, took exception to the harsh tone of the Canadian junior officer.

‘’Now, wait a minute, Captain! Stop barking at us and tell me first what is going on!’’

The captain took a deep breath, time to restraint the words of his response.

‘’Colonel, you and a number of other prisoners are being transferred out of this camp tonight as a matter of urgency. Now, could you please get the other officers residing in this barrack?’’

‘’And where are we being transferred?’’

‘’I don’t know, but you will learn that quickly enough. Now, please get the other officers, sir!’’

Both intrigued and a bit worried, Hefele nonetheless looked at Otto Ites, sitting across the table from him.

‘’Please assemble the other officers here, Kapitänleutnant Ites.’’

‘’Right away, Herr Oberst!’’

 

Within two minutes, the twenty German officers living in the barrack were assembled along one side of the communal lounge, some of them in their pajamas or underwear. The Canadian captain then took out of a pocket a document that he unfolded before speaking in a firm, strong voice.

‘’The following prisoners will immediately pack their things and prepare to leave this camp as part of a transfer: Oberst Hefele; Major Horthens; Major Lechfeld; Major Peschel; Major Sachs; Major Thurmann; Kapitänleutnant Bürgel; Kapitänleutnant Ites; Kapitänleutnant Jentz; Kapitänleutnant List; Kapitänleutnant Steinert; Oberleutnant zur See Graef; Oberleutnant zur See Lindemann and Oberleutnant zur See Schwartz. You have ten minutes to dress, pack up your things and assemble outside. Now, let’s move!’’

Still mystified by all this, the prisoners who had been called up went to their respective rooms to dress and pack up, leaving the German Army officers of the barrack alone in the lounge with the Canadian captain. Before the latter could leave, a suspicious Afrika Corps lieutenant colonel who had been captured in Libya approached him.

‘’Captain, you named only Luftwaffe pilots and Kriegsmarine submarine officers. Why?’’

‘’I am sorry, sir, but I can’t answer your question: this is coming from above.’’

The captain then left with his four soldiers and walked to the next prisoners’ barrack, which contained some of the German junior officers held in Camp Bowmanville. There, he repeated the routine he had used in the senior officers’ barrack, naming eighteen of the residents of that barrack before going to another barrack.

 

The Captain ended up visiting seven barracks, causing a total of 73 Germans to hurriedly pack up and come out of their barracks with their Canadian Army-supplied kit bags containing what little they possessed in the camp. By then, four medium army trucks had rolled inside the compound and had lined up with their tailgates opened and with twelve Canadian soldiers at the ready near them. Before the prisoners were told to climb in the trucks, the Canadian captain who had called them out reread his list, making the prisoners come forward to the vehicles one by one. Hugo, standing with Heinrich Bayerling beside Major Taylor and keeping deliberately some distance with the prisoners while lowering his head a bit, in order for his British service cap to project a shadow across his face, watched carefully the proceedings, with Bayerling ticking off each name on the list as the Germans got into the trucks. At the end of the process, with all 73 Germans now in the trucks with their escorts, Hugo shook hands with Taylor while smiling.

‘’Thank you very much for your cooperation, Major. It was very much appreciated. I will now lead your trucks to Port Darlington, where American soldiers will take over from your men.’’

‘’And I wish you success in getting secrets from those Germans, Commander. Have a good trip back to England.’’

‘’Thank you!’’

Hugo exchanged a salute with Taylor, then climbed with Heinrich in the same jeep that had brought him to the camp. The camp commandant watched on as the trucks and the jeep rolled out of the camp, taking the coastal road leading to Port Darlington. While this would lighten a bit his load in administering the camp, he still had over a thousand German prisoners left in it. Walking back inside the command building, he put down his copy of the prisoners transfer order on his desk, then went out at a tired pace to the small house assigned to him as a residence: today had been quite a long day indeed. Tomorrow, he would have ample time to fill a report on the transfer and send it to Ottawa by the next dispatch rider.

 

23:48 (New York Time)

Port Darlington docks

 

‘’COME ON, FRITZ! GET OUT OF THE TRUCKS AND LINE UP IN TWO RANKS OVER HERE!’’

Bootsmansmaat⁹ Dieter Hannig, being one of the prisoners nearest the rear tailgate of his truck, climbed out of his vehicle and, carrying his kit bag by its strap, went to join the double line of German prisoners forming up besides the four trucks. Hannig may have been a simple cook aboard the U-800 but he had not failed to see that all the survivors from the U-800 were part of the group called up to be transferred. The rest of the group was formed of other submariners or of Luftwaffe pilots, but there were no Heer¹⁰ officers or men present, something that felt strange to him and had awakened some suspicions in him. Looking around him at the obscure marina, which was poorly illuminated by a few well-spaced lamp posts, he noticed a large fishing boat moored at quay-side and on which stood a number of waiting American armed soldiers. They were still too far to be detailed and were also standing in a part of the marina that was not well lit, but their rifles and submachine guns were plainly visible, held at the ready. To his surprise and that of the other prisoners, a young and very pretty woman wearing a British naval uniform then stepped forward from a small hut and took position in front of their group before speaking up loudly in German with a pronounced British accent.

‘’Please listen up, prisoners! I will now call up your names. You will then answer ‘present’ on hearing your name and will proceed to the ‘FISHING QUEEN’, the boat moored to the quay at your left, on which you will board. Oberst Hefele!’’

‘’Present!’’

With each prisoner called up then walking to the boarding plank of the FISHING QUEEN, where American soldiers escorted him aboard the fishing boat, the roll call went quickly, with Dieter being one of the last prisoners to be called, due to his relatively low rank. Walking at a measured pace towards the fishing boat, he was greeted at the foot of the gangway by an American corporal who spoke in good German to him.

‘’Get on the boat and go down the deck hatch to the lower deck.’’

Dieter didn’t reply to that and simply walked up the gangway, stepping on the open rear deck of the boat, where four other American soldiers pointed to him an open deck hatch. Going down the steep ladder leading to the lower deck, he was met at the foot of the ladder by an American sergeant. There was only one problem with that sergeant: Dieter knew him well, contrary to the other American soldiers he had met up to now.

‘’Obergefreiter Drücker?! But…’’

‘’It’s now Unteroffizier Drücker, Dieter. Please restrain yourself and don’t shout or look joyful now: one false step now and our mission could end up in failure. Go on to the crew quarters compartment and stay there until the boat is well on its way. Don’t say anything to the other prisoners who were not part of the crew of the U-800. We will brief you all later on about what is happening. With luck, we will all soon be on our way to Lorient by submarine. And, yes, it is also a pleasure for me to see you again.’’

The two men exchanged a solid handshake before Dieter walked forward to the small crew lounge, which was already packed with prisoners. While the ex-crewmembers of the U-800 present harbored repressed smiles, the other prisoners, mostly Luftwaffe officers, still looked anxious and worried by their unexpected ‘transfer’. Going through the crowd to the assistant cook of the U-800, Matrosenobergefreiter¹¹ Gustav Bouhler, Dieter whispered in his left ear.

‘’It seems that our friends from the Brandenburg Regiment are up to their incredible self again.’’

‘’Yeah! They certainly have brass-plated balls.’’

The two cooks then clammed up, painting wooden expressions on their faces as more prisoners entered the crew lounge.

 

On the ground, near the Border Services hut, Hugo exchanged a last handshake with the Canadian captain in charge of the camp guards as Hanna Blumenthal walked to the FISHING QUEEN.

‘’Well, this concludes this part of my mission, Captain. Thank you again for your assistance and that of your men.’’

‘’It was a pleasure, Commander Blake. Have a good trip back to England with your prisoners.’’

The two men then exchanged salutes before Hugo walked away towards the waiting fishing boat. Three minutes later, the FISHING QUEEN was backing away from the quay where it had been moored and slowly exited the marina, to disappear in the darkness of the night, sailing towards the American side of Lake Ontario.

 

On the FISHING QUEEN, Hugo had Kenneth Prentice push his engine to maximum power, in order to be able to cross Lake Ontario as fast as possible: every hour of darkness was now precious to Hugo and his freed German compatriots, if he wanted to ensure a clean escape. Next, he went to speak to the ex-prisoners crowding the open rear deck, using German.

‘’Gentlemen, please listen to me very carefully. I will also ask you to refrain from shouting or making loud exclamations as I speak. Basically, while you are indeed being transferred out of Camp Bowmanville, it is to go to Lorient, in France, and not to another camp in the United States or Great Britain. My true name is Hugo Margraff, of the Brandenburg Regiment, and the ‘American’ soldiers around you are my men. However, we are still far from safe yet. A single slip of the tongue, a friendly attitude towards your false guards or a word in German at the wrong time and our cover could be blown while still deep within enemy territory. I want you to look glum and resigned when we will dock at an American marina on the other side of Lake Ontario and, in particular, to avoid speaking in German with me or my men, to avoid attracting attention from American citizens that may encounter our group. To cut to the utmost the risks of our land trip to the American East Coast, we will not stop at restaurants or inns during our ten hour trip by bus and truck. We will however stop a couple of times along secondary roads, in the middle of forests, to let you out to relieve yourselves and will pass some food and water to you. If, by bad luck, we encounter some kind of military or police checkpoint, then behave as if you are really prisoners of war being transferred under escort to a new camp in Great Britain. If asked for more details, simply say that you don’t know more than that. Leave the bullshitting to me, please. Another thing: up to now, me and my men have conducted our mission with a minimum use of force and we have not killed or wounded a single American or Canadian yet. I wish for that to continue. You can help me in that by playing your role and by not blowing our cover by speaking German at the wrong time. We will also be travelling with a few prisoners that we are forced to bring with us in order to avoid them giving the alarm early on. I forbid any brutality towards these prisoners, who will be treated humanely and will eventually be released in good health once we will be on our submarine.’’

‘’And how do you expect to fit us all aboard your submarine, Hauptmann Margraff?’’ Asked Kapitänleutnant Otto Ites. ‘’We are close to eighty, not counting your men.’’

That question made Hugo smile.

‘’Do not worry about the living space available aboard the submarine we will use, Kapitänleutnant Ites: we will travel aboard the U-900, a new submarine whose design is very close to that of the late U-800. We will be a bit tight but conditions will still be better than that endured by the normal crews of our Type VII and Type IX submarines.’’

‘’I have a question for you, Hauptmann.’’ Then said Oberst Hefele. ‘’Our group includes only submariners and Luftwaffe officers, but no Heer members. Why?’’

‘’Why? Because we had to present a plausible reason for the choice of prisoners to be transferred out of Camp Bowmanville. Including Luftwaffe pilots to our list was already tricky to explain. To include Heer officers as well would have blown our credibility in the eyes of the Canadians. You may want to mention the two Heer general officers who were interned with you in Camp Bowmanville and ask why we didn’t try to free them as well, to which I will answer that finding excuses to justify their transfer would have stretched credulity too much. Also, past remarks and complaints by many prisoners made in their letters to their families, which were then analyzed by our intelligence experts, mentioned many times that those two generals proved derelict in their responsibilities and duties by refusing to represent their fellow prisoners as senior prisoners and by insisting on living apart from the other prisoners, conducting themselves like some kind of royalty. Their conduct and attitude have been noted at high levels in Berlin and the decision was taken not to risk further our mission by trying to pull them out. Those two generals will however have to answer for their conduct whenever they will return to Germany.’’

Hefele nodded slowly on hearing that answer, understanding what kind of welcome those two Heer generals could expect once back in Germany. They would probably end up facing severe interrogation by the SD, the SS security branch in charge of national security, rather than get handshakes. Hugo then left the rear upper deck, going down the hatch to the lower deck, where he repeated his warnings to the ex-prisoners crowded on that deck. His last visit was to a small storage compartment near the engine room, on the lower deck. There, he spoke to Corporal Jack Woolworth, the Canadian Border Services agent he had met in Port Darlington, who was tied up and gagged. Hugo had decided to have him transferred to the FISHING QUEEN and to lock up his duty hut behind him before the arrival of the prisoners in the marina. That way, Woolworth’s replacement on the morning shift was going to find a locked, empty duty hut, instead of finding a gagged and tied Woolworth inside. Hopefully, that was going to delay by a few more hours the time it would take for the Canadians to become suspicious and understand that they had been duped. Those extra hours could just be enough to have time to reach the coast unopposed and to embark on the U-900 before the alert could be given.

‘’I am sorry for your treatment, Corporal Woolworth, but the final success of my mission depended on it. I fully intend to free you unharmed once my group will reach the coast and will have a chance to escape by sea. I will now remove your gag for the duration of our trip across Lake Ontario, but will keep you tied up. If you need to go to the bathroom, just call the guard that will be posted next to this compartment. Please, no stupid heroics on your part: my men are well trained and dangerous.’’

Hugo then took three steps and bent down to remove the rag that was gagging Woolworth. The Canadian looked up at him with a mix of anxiety and curiosity.

‘’Who are you? Some kind of spy?’’

‘’No, Corporal: I am a German soldier. My mission was to free a number of German prisoners of war from Camp Bowmanville. If all goes well, you will be able to return safely to Canada and your family in maybe two days. I will even provide you with some cash money, so that you can pay for your trip back to Canada.’’

Woolworth eyed Hugo with disbelief at these last words.

‘’This is sounding too nice to be true, mister.’’

‘’True but, as I said earlier, I am a German soldier, not an assassin. It is actually in the interest of me and my men to use as little violence as possible during this mission.’’

Woolworth nodded his head slowly, understanding Hugo’s reasoning.

‘’So that you could avoid the rope if caught. I’ll buy that, mister. For what it’s worth, thank you for your humanity.’’

‘’You’re welcome, Corporal. Someone will soon come to bring you some food and water and also will guide you to the bathroom. In the meantime, stay calm and everything will be fine.’’

Hugo then turned around and walked out of the storage compartment, locking the door behind him.

 

02:55 (New York Time)

Wednesday, July 7, 1943

Seaside cottage near Hampton

State of New Hampshire

 

‘’Heads up, guys! A car just parked in the driveway of the cottage.’’

Alerted by the warning from Gefreiter Wilhelm Stulpnagel, Obergefreiter Emil Heinemann quickly went at a crouch to one of the front windows of the cottage’s lounge and took a peep through it. What he saw was two men in civilian dark clothes step out of a Dodge light pickup truck and then walk quietly towards the front entrance door. The way the men moved cautiously made Heinemann frown.

‘’These guys are acting a bit weird. Alright, Wilhelm, go quickly wake our two other men and return here quietly. I will be watching the front door in the meantime.’’

‘’On it, Obergefreiter!’’

As the young trooper moved silently away to go wake the two other commandos that had been left with them at the cottage to care for and watch their five prisoners, Heinemann silently moved to the front door and posted himself right behind it, gluing his ear to the door panel. He soon heard two men whispering at each other in English.

‘’I told you that this cottage would be unoccupied, Fred. We should have a few hours free for us to take what we want and leave before the Sun will rise.’’

‘’Okay, let me try the door lock first.’’

Heinemann had a hard time not to giggle on understanding the irony of the situation: those two robbers, as they could be nothing else, had certainly chosen badly their target for this night. He then saw someone try the door handle. However, it was locked and the man on the other side only tried briefly before taking his hand off it. A few seconds later, Heinemann heard the faint metallic noise of a crochet being inserted inside the key hole. By then, his three men had joined him, with their silencer-equipped assault rifles pointed and ready. Grabbing his own silenced MP43, Heinemann looked briefly at his men, speaking in a whisper.

‘’Don’t shoot unless necessary. I will now open the door.’’

Grabbing with one hand the locking handle of the door’s lock, Heinemann slowly turned it, then pulled the door wide open all of a sudden. The two civilian men crouched in front of the door found themselves facing four armed German soldiers in full field uniforms, complete with steel helmets and web gear.

‘’Oh shit!’’ could only say one of the robbers, his eyes nearly bulging out, making Heinemann grin ferociously.

‘’Yes, you are definitely shit out of luck, assholes! Get inside and don’t try anything smart.’’

 

 

09:06 (New York Time)

Lake Breeze Marina, at mouth of Oak Orchard River

Near Carlton, State of New York

 

Elizabeth Prentice, having just frantically searched the whole of the FISHING QUEEN while looking for her husband Ken, returned on the open rear deck of the fishing boat, not knowing what to do next. To make matters even more gloomy, a light rain then broke out of the low clouds covering the sky, forcing her to retreat under the roof of the forward half of the rear deck. Elizabeth saw a moment later a silhouette approach the boat along the quay, holding an open umbrella. That silhouette then shouted out towards the boat.

‘’JERRY! JERRY! ARE YOU ABOARD?’’

Elizabeth understood at once that the silhouette was that of Mary Brown, the wife of Jerry Brown, the mechanic who worked the FISHING QUEEN with Ken.

‘’MARY, THIS IS ELIZABETH! COME ABOARD!’’

Mary did so at a near run and soon joined Elizabeth under the overhanging roof, closing her umbrella as she anxiously asked her a question.

‘’Have you seen Jerry, Elizabeth? He didn’t return home at all last night. I thought that he had stayed on the boat overnight to do some repairs.’’

‘’I didn’t see him, Mary, and neither did I see my Ken. I just searched the boat and found no traces of them, even though everything aboard looks alright and in its place.’’

‘’But, they should have come home then after leaving the boat. Where could they have gone?’’

‘’I…I don’t know! This doesn’t make sense at all.’’

‘’Maybe they went to eat something at the Black North Inn…or to drink something?’’ Suggested Mary, making Elizabeth frown.

‘’If Ken did that and scared me for nothing, then he will hear me. Let’s go to the inn!’’

‘’I’m with you! Stay under my umbrella while we walk.’’

 

The two women, braving the rain, walked quickly off the fishing boat, then went at near charging pace to the Black North Inn, a large historical establishment that had been opened around 1850 near the entrance channel of the marina. When they got there and entered the main dining lounge and bar area, they found only a bartender cleaning glasses and five customers eating a late breakfast, none of whom were their husbands. Going to the bar counter, Elizabeth leaned against it while speaking to the barman.

‘’Bill, did you see Ken or Jerry last night or this morning?’’

‘’Uh, I can’t say about last night, as I was not working at that time, but I haven’t seen them here since I unlocked the doors this morning. Why?’’

‘’They apparently went out with the FISHING QUEEN yesterday afternoon but they never returned home. The boat is moored at the quay but is empty and Ken didn’t call me to warn me of anything. The same goes for Jerry and Mary. We are growing quite nervous and just don’t know what to do next.’’

The old barman’s face became somber as he listened to Elizabeth, then pointed to two of the customers having breakfast, who happened to be wearing police uniforms.

‘’Then, I believe that the safest thing would be for you to go talk with those two deputy sheriffs eating at that table. Better play it safe, Elizabeth.’’

‘’Thank you, Bill!’’

Followed closely by Mary, Elizabeth walked quickly to the table occupied by the two patrolmen, who looked up at them with questioning looks.

‘’Can we do something for you, ladies?’’ asked the older policeman, a beefy man in his late forties.

‘’Yes, Deputy! My husband, Ken Prentice, and Mary’s husband, Jerry Brown, went out on their fishing boat yesterday afternoon. They however never returned home, yet I found their boat moored at quayside, empty. We are really getting worried about them and were hoping that they had come here for a bite, but they didn’t. Could you please help us find them, sir?’’

The older patrolman glanced quickly at his partner before putting down his cup of coffee and looking back at Elizabeth.

‘’We certainly can help you both, ladies. How thoroughly did you search their boat, miss?’’

‘’Quite thoroughly, sir. There was no trace of them on board.’’

‘’Still, I believe that it would be a good idea for me and my partner to go look up that boat. Maybe we will find some clue on where your husbands could have gone. Could you please show us the way to their boat?’’

‘’Of course, sir! Thank you so much for helping us.’’

 

Getting up from his chair and leaving some money on the table to pay for his breakfast, the older deputy then signaled Elizabeth to lead the way, then walked out with her, Mary and his fellow patrolman to go to their patrol car. The drive to the marine took only a few seconds. However, as Elizabeth half expected, the two policemen found nothing of worth aboard. Now looking thoughtful, the older officer returned on the open rear deck, where Elizabeth and Mary had been waiting as they searched the boat.

‘’We found nothing that could point to where your husbands could be. Would you mind waiting here on the boat while me and my colleague go around the marina to ask questions?’’

‘’Uh, of course not! We will be inside the pilot house.’’

‘’Good! We should be back in less than one hour.’’

On that, the two patrolmen walked down the gangway, leaving the two women alone aboard the boat.

 

The deputies actually came back to the boat within half a hour. Elizabeth didn’t like the puzzled look now visible on the older officer’s face.

‘’Miss Prentice, according to the harbormaster and a few more witnesses who saw your husband’s boat leave the marina yesterday, a group of U.S. Army soldiers boarded the FISHING QUEEN at around four thirty, along with a civilian trio of two men and one woman, with the boat then leaving the harbor. However, nobody was present when the boat came back, suggesting that it returned very late last night or in the early morning.’’

‘’American soldiers, boarding my husband’s fishing boat?’’ Said Elizabeth, completely mystified. ‘’Why would they do that? My husband had no government contract to carry soldiers around.’’

‘’Well, according to witnesses, those soldiers came to the marina aboard an Army truck, which then left towards the Black North Inn. We are now going to return to the inn to ask more questions there. In the meantime, I would suggest that you and Misses Brown return to your houses and wait there for the results of our inquiries. Could I have your addresses, plus your telephone numbers, if you have any?’’

The older patrolman, taking out a pencil and a small notebook, then wrote down that information before promising to make diligence and to inform them of any progress quickly. Elizabeth had a pinch in her heart as she watched the two policemen leave. She had already been scared for Ken a number of times in the past, when he had gone on the lake during a strong storm, but this was completely different.

 

13:42 (New York Time)

County Sheriff’s station, Carlton

Kent County, State of New York

 

‘’This way please, Misses Prentice and Misses Brown.’’ said Deputy John Hurst as he kept the door of the County Sheriff’s station open for the two women. ‘’As soon as you will have filled your missing person declarations, I will drive you back home.’’

‘’Thank you, sir.’’ Could only say weakly Elizabeth Prentice, by now dying with worries about her husband. Hurst, with his partner Peter Wyatt following behind the two women, was guiding Elizabeth and Mary towards his work desk when his boss, Sheriff Mike Murphy, came to him in quick steps.

‘’Hurst, where were you all that time? You were not responding to our radio calls.’’

‘’I know, Boss, and I am sorry about that: I myself tried to call the station but our car’s radio transceiver is on the fritz…again. We really should replace that piece of junk, Boss. Is something going on?’’

‘’I’m not sure actually. We got a rather cryptic call from the F.B.I. about twenty minutes ago. They would not give me any details but they said that they are acting on an urgent request from the Canadians about an American fishing boat that visited Port Darlington last night. The F.B.I. wants us to check on that boat…if it even exists.’’

Hurst and Wyatt exchanged a quick glance on hearing Murphy’s last couple of sentence, while Elizabeth and Mary froze and stared at the Sheriff.

‘’Uh, what is the name of that fishing boat, Boss?’’

‘’The FISHING QUEEN! You look like you heard about it, right?’’

‘’You could say that, Boss: we just spent a few hours helping these two ladies try to find their missing husbands, who happen to form the crew of that FISHING QUEEN. It is presently moored at the Lake Breeze Marina, where it returned sometimes late last night or in the early morning after leaving the marina yesterday afternoon. We searched the boat and asked questions around and were told that it left the marina yesterday after about a dozen U.S. Army soldiers went aboard.’’

‘’Soldiers…on a fishing boat? That doesn’t make much sense.’’

‘’I agree, Boss, but the fact remains that two men are now missing. I brought their wives here so that they could fill a missing person declaration.’’

‘’I see!’’ Said Murphy before giving a compassionate look to Elizabeth and Mary. ‘’Be assured that we will do everything to find your husbands, ladies. I will now let you in the good hands of Deputy Hurst, while I…’’

‘’SHERIFF, TELEPHONE!’’ shouted the female receptionist of the station from her desk. ‘’IT’S THE F.B.I. AGAIN!’’

Grumbling to himself for the interruption, Mike Murphy walked quickly to the receptionist’s desk and took the telephone receiver presented by her.

‘’Sheriff Murphy speaking!... Yes, we actually have located your FISHING QUEEN: it is presently sitting in the Lake Breeze Marina, just north of Carlton, in Kent County. However, its two-man crew is missing. Could you finally tell me what is going on with that boat?... WHAT? DISGUISED GERMAN INFILTRATORS? YOU MUST BE KIDDING?’’

A few steps away, John Hurst was just in time to catch Elizabeth Prentice as she was crumbling to the floor, having suddenly passed out on hearing the Sheriff’s last words.

 

15:19 (New York Time)

Seaside cottage near Hampton

State of New Hampshire

 

‘’The U-900 is ready to risk surfacing in daylight because of the low cloud cover?... Very well, Feldwebel Stein, tell the U-900 to surface in one hour time and to immediately send ashore all its boats. The ex-prisoners will be waiting near the beach by then. Stay near the underwater telephone unit and arrange the ex-prisoners in boatloads as they arrive from the cottage. I will stay in the cottage until the last minutes to make sure that our own prisoners don’t break free too soon.’’

Hugo, quite satisfied, then put down the receiver of the field telephone linking the cottage with their embarkation point and looked at Michel Drücker, standing beside him.

‘’Unteroffizier Drücker, I am putting you in charge of leading the ex-prisoners to the embarkation point. Be careful and be quiet: we would need only one indiscrete pair of eyes to blow our mission away.’’

‘’Understood, Herr Hauptmann!’’

Hugo next turned towards Oberst Hefele, also standing near him.

‘’Herr Oberst, please impress on your fellow pilots the need to move with caution and stealth when they will leave for our embarkation point. The next couple of hours will be critical for all of us, including for the U-900.’’

‘’I will make sure that they understand the importance of staying quiet, Hauptmann Margraff. Again, I want to state my admiration for the professionalism of you and of your men…and woman.’’

Hugo couldn’t help smile at that mention of Hanna Blumenthal.

‘’To be frank, her conduct during this mission truly impressed me, Herr Oberst. Without her, our mission may well have failed. I will certainly commend her on my return to Germany.’’

‘’And so will I…for all of you! See you on the U-900, Hauptmann Margraff.’’

 

The cottage then emptied pretty quickly as Drücker and a few of the commandos, all now back in German combat uniforms, started leading a long file of ex-prisoners out of the building and into the nearby forest. Soon, Hugo was left with only four of his men in the cottage, with him staying by the side of the field telephone in order to answer any call from the embarkation point. Some ninety minutes later, the field telephone rang, making Hugo grab the receiver in a hurry, his heart beating faster now.

‘’Margraff speaking!’’

‘’Hauptmann, this is Stein. The first boatloads of ex-prisoners are now on their way to the U-900. No signs of shit disturbers yet in the area. I calculate that the second batch of ex-prisoners will be able to get aboard the boats in about forty minutes. We will need a total of three trips to get all the ex-prisoners to the submarine. Then, the fourth trip will be for us. The last of us should thus leave the beach in about two hours.’’

‘’Excellent! What about Oberhelferin Blumenthal?’’

Hugo was able to hear the sigh from Stein then.

‘’I had assigned her to the first batch to embark, but she gave her place at the last moment to our youngest submariner. I however intend to force her to get in a boat for the second trip.’’

‘’Good! Be firm with her on that. As one who was seen in British uniform by the Canadians, she is at risk of execution if she is caught today. Make her understand that.’’

‘’I will, Herr Hauptmann. Stein, out!’’

Hugo slowly put down his receiver, thoughtful.

‘’Damn! That woman will truly have earned her Iron Cross for this mission.’’

 

About ninety minutes later, Hugo got another call from Stein, this time to be told that the last boatloads of ex-prisoners were now on their way to the U-900. It was now time for him and his four last men to move out, but he had one last thing to do first. Retrieving a small holder from his field pack, he took out of it a small object, then went down to the basement room where his ten prisoners were being held under guard. Making his soldier there stand in his back at the ready, Hugo unlocked the door of the dusty storage room where the prisoners were tied up and gagged and crouched in front of the priest from who he had ‘borrowed’ his black station wagon.

‘’Father, me and my last men in this house are about to leave. Since I don’t want to hurt either you or the other nine men here and don’t want you to starve to death while tied up, I am going to cut your ties and take off your gag, so that you can free the other prisoners afterwards. I will however counsel you to free first Mister Woolworth, then the two soldiers here and to free last the two robbers we caught trying to burglarize this cottage: those last two are liable to leave the rest of you high and dry while they take the few valuables here and flee.’’

Taking out a sharp combat knife, Hugo quickly cut the ropes surrounding the priest’s ankles, then the ropes around his wrists, finishing by pulling out the rag gagging the cleric. The latter grimaced a bit while he rubbed his wrists, then looked up at Hugo.

‘’I must thank you for your humanity and compassion, my son: you and your men could have easily killed us to ensure our silence.’’

‘’Father, I am not a murderer, just a soldier doing his duty to his country.’’

‘’Still, you acted like a good Christian would have done.’’

‘’I am actually a Lutheran and a good Christian, Father, but most of all I am a good German.’’

Hugo then pricked the needle of a small syringe in the veins visible in the priest’s left wrist and quickly emptied its content into the cleric’s bloodstream.

‘’Sorry about this, Father, but I will need an extra hour of peace and quiet from you and your fellow prisoners in order to ensure my safe departure. This injection will put you to sleep for about one hour. When you will come around, you will feel disoriented and wobbly for another half hour before you will be able to stand on your feet. Then, you will be free to liberate the others and call for help. Goodbye, Father!’’

The priest was already half passed out when Hugo walked out of the basement room, deliberately leaving its door wide open.

 

17:10 (New York Time)

Cafeteria of the U-900, on the surface off Cedar Island

Coast of New Hampshire

 

Dieter Hannig sat down with a sigh of relief at one of the tables of the U-900’s cafeteria, so alike the one where he had worked in the U-800.

‘’God, what an adventure! I really could use a good cup of coffee right now.’’

‘’WELL, THEN STOP SLOUCHING LIKE THAT AND GO MAKE A POT OF COFFEE, SON!’’

Stunned, Dieter looked up at his father, standing in the door of the galley and wearing both an apron and a severe expression, his fists on his hips. Dieter then jumped out of his seat and ran to his father, to embrace him in a tight hug.

‘’FATHER? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, ON A SUBMARINE?’’

After returning his son’s embrace, Otto Hannig grinned to him in response.

‘’Me? I was simply taking up the slack while you were having your vacation in Canada. Come on: get in this galley and prove to me that you haven’t lost the Hannig touch for cooking.’’

 

09:05 (New York Time)

Friday, July 9, 1943

Oval Office, The White House

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

 

President Roosevelt slapped down on his Oval Office desk the short report that he had just read and gave a discouraged look at his military secretary and advisor, Admiral Leahy, who had brought him the report.

‘’So, the Germans have managed to make us look like idiots…again! I suppose that this camp commandant must be in serious trouble right now, Admiral?’’

‘’He is indeed facing some very hard questions in Ottawa, Mister President. However, I must remind you that we are as guilty, if not even more guilty, of negligence in this case. Those German infiltrators did land on our coast in New Hampshire and travelled all the way to Lake Ontario without being spotted or stopped. The response by the units concerned when those two military vehicles disappeared near Portsmouth was woefully inadequate and way too slow before somebody finally reacted, by which time it was already too late. I have directed a complete public censure about this incident, to avoid generalized panic and paranoia within the country. After this, our citizens would be excused to see German infiltrators everywhere.’’

‘’You did well, Admiral. About those Germans, I must reluctantly give them credit for both imagination and guts. Their plan was masterful and well conducted. What especially surprised and impressed me was the fact that they didn’t kill or wound a single American or Canadian during their mission.’’

‘’Those German commandos were indeed very professional, on top of proving to be humane in the treatment of their prisoners held in that seaside cottage, Mister President. I was actually pointed two things by our military intelligence just before coming to see you. First, this raid has all the hallmarks of the Brandenburg Regiment soldiers who travelled aboard the U-800 in the past and blew up the Boston Naval Munitions Depot and the Panama Canal locks, among other things. Second, and this is a first, a German woman participated actively in that mission.’’

Roosevelt gave a questioning look then at Leahy.

‘’Is that really noteworthy, Admiral?’’

‘’Indeed, Mister President! German agents or infiltrators travelling with one or more women will tend to attract much less attention and suspicions than single young men. This means changing our security procedures accordingly, thus complicating things further for us, as we will now need to have female agents or auxiliaries available to search female suspects when needed.’’

‘’I see! One last thing : how beneficial to the Germans was that raid, really?’’

‘’A lot more than the mere figure of 73 escapees would suggest, Mister President. First, the Germans now know that infiltrating saboteurs and spies inside the United State, or even Canada, is definitely possible, if well planned and executed. This means that we need to reinforce our coastal defenses without delay if we don’t want to suffer more such raids. Second, the 73 escapees were made up of all the surviving submariners from the U-800, plus six experienced U-Boat commanders and 21 experience bomber and fighter pilots. Just those six experienced U-Boat commanders, once given command of sister ships of the U-800, will be enough by themselves to cause untold havoc and losses to our maritime traffic. You know already how precarious our maritime situation and that of the British is in the Atlantic, Mister President. In fact, the latest reports state that the supply situation in Great Britain is now dire and that their military is running on their last reserves of fuel. Only two tanker ships have managed to slip through the German submarine blockade around the British coastal waters during the last two months and the British are becoming truly desperate. Unfortunately, with our own situation in the Pacific being dire, we can’t spare more ships or planes to help the British further than we already do, Mister President. Some British officials are even said to have started to quietly advocate for a negotiated armistice with Germany, to save their country from starvation.’’

Those last words acted like a pin prick on Roosevelt, who eyed Leahy with disbelief.

‘’You can’t be serious, Admiral. Churchill would never approve of such negotiations.’’

‘’No, but Prime Minister Churchill could still be deposed by the British parliament via a vote of no-confidence, Mister President. If the food situation becomes too dire, then anything could become possible.’’

That left Roosevelt in deep, dark thoughts as he pondered Leahy’s words.

 

21:45 (Paris Time)

Sunday, July 18, 1943

Shelter Number Two, Keroman I submarine bunker

Lorient, Occupied France

 

Ulrich von Wittgenstein had fully expected that a military band would be on hand to greet the return of his U-900 in Lorient’s Keroman I submarine bunker. However, as he directed the slow, cautious maneuvers needed to dock his submarine inside one of the heavily protected shelters of the giant bunker system, his heart skipped a beat when he was able to see the crowd of dignitaries and the honor guard waiting on the dock of the submarine shelter: no less than the Führer himself was present, with Admiral Dönitz, Grossadmiral Raeder, Minister Goebbels and Minister Speer standing behind Hitler! Going over his surprise, Ulrich discretely spoke in the intercom unit of the open upper bridge, passing a warning to his crew.

‘’Attention all hands, this is the Captain! Be sure to look sharp when you will step out on the weather deck: the Führer himself is present for our arrival.’’

Ulrich then got close to the transparent canopy covering the upper bridge and saluted as the band started playing the German national hymn, ‘Deutschland Uber Alles’. Giving the last orders needed to dock his submarine, he then hurried inside the underwater observation dome and down to the level of the forward access airlock, where his crew had started to line up in order to be ready to step on the forward weather deck. After a quick, ultimate inspection of his sailors, Ulrich opened the heavy forward access hatch and swung it wide open, engaging its safety retaining mechanism before walking out on the forward weather deck and stopping at attention. His crewmen then formed up in two ranks behind him, with the members of the field team forming a third line in front of the sailors. Ulrich waited that the 73 men freed from Camp Bowmanville had also come out, forming a thick block near the access hatch, before shouting orders to his men.

‘’CREW OF THE U-900 AND OF THE BRANDENBURG REGIMENT, GENERAL SALUTE…SALUTE!’’

With the soldiers of the Brandenburg Regiment presenting arms with their MP43 assault rifles, Ulrich looked straight at Adolph Hitler, still standing on the dock, while saluting him, getting a salute back from the Führer in response. Hitler then started moving towards the gangway now in place between the dock and the submarine, followed by a number of the more senior dignitaries. Ulrich saluted him again, this time in the Nazi fashion, once Hitler stopped in front of him. As a number of official photographers and cameramen filmed the scene, Hitler returned Ulrich’s salute, then presented his right hand, which Ulrich shook.

‘’Kapitän von Wittgenstein, you and your men did Germany proud by your exploits on your mission.’’

‘’Thank you, Mein Führer, but I would have accomplished mostly nothing if not for the members of our field team that infiltrated all the way to Canada. May I invite you to review those brave soldiers, Mein Führer?’’

‘’It would be a true pleasure for me to do so, Herr Kapitän.’’

Taking his cue from Hitler, Ulrich pivoted on his heels and turned towards Hugo Margraff, standing at the extreme right of the front rank formed by his soldiers. Ulrich, Hitler and his senior followers then walked to Margraff, with Ulrich then letting Hitler face directly the Brandenburg Regiment officer. They exchanged Nazi salutes before Hitler shook hands with Hugo, grinning as he spoke.

‘’Hauptmann Margraff, you and your men accomplished an incredible feat during your mission. You both brought great pride to Germany as well as scorn and ridicule on our enemies. For this, it is only just that I personally hand you and your men their just rewards. Herr Volkers!’’

The aide called up by Hitler then stepped forward, followed closely by a more junior aide carrying an opened leather briefcase. On Hitler’s request, Volkers took out of the briefcase a decoration hooked to a black, white and red neck ribbon, waiting for Hitler to remove the decoration already hanging around Hugo’s neck before passing the new decoration to his Führer, who then hooked it around the young officer’s neck.

‘’Hauptmann Hugo Margraff, for outstanding bravery and leadership in the field, I am proud to upgrade your Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves with the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Crossed Swords. Congratulations, Hauptmann Margraff!’’

‘’Thank you very much, Mein Führer!’’

‘’Please accompany me as I meet each of your men, so that you can present them to me.’’

‘’With pleasure, Mein Führer!’’

 

Followed closely by Dönitz, Raeder, Goebbels, Speer and Ulrich von Wittgenstein, Hitler and Margraff slowly went down the line of armed soldiers, with Hitler upgrading the Iron Crosses they already wore and also pinning on those who didn’t have it already a U-Boote Combat Badge, then cementing the award with a solid handshake. Hitler however hesitated for a moment when he arrived at Hannah Blumenthal: according to his own beliefs, the responsibility of German women lay in staying home, procreating and raising children, not in participating directly in combat. However, Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, whispered in his ear, making Hitler nod his head before smiling to Hannah and pinning the Iron Cross Second Class and the U-Boote Combat Badge on her uniform’s tunic.

‘’Oberhelferin Blumenthal, you did all German women proud by your actions behind enemy lines. Congratulations!’’

‘’Thank you, Mein Führer!’’ Replied Hannah with difficulty, the emotion of the moment nearly rendering her speechless. Hitler then went behind her to tour the ranks formed by the sailors of the U-900, also upgrading their decorations. Once that was done, Hitler went to the block of ex-prisoners of war to chat with them and shake their hands. His handshakes and words then were however much less warm, even though he kept a polite tone and smiled: being captured by the enemy was considered by him to be quite a negative qualifier. However, he stayed polite for the needs of the propaganda that this ceremony represented. Finally, Hitler concluded the ceremony by asking to Ulrich a guided tour of the U-900, to which the latter of course agreed.

 

After a good hour touring the boat and being genuinely impressed by the U-900, Hitler asked Ulrich to meet with him, Dönitz, Räeder, Goebbels and Speer in the officers’ wardroom of the submarine. Expecting this meeting to be a purely social gathering, Ulrich was surprised to see Hitler ask Admiral Dönitz to speak first once they sat around the long dining table.

‘’Herr Kapitän, a number of significant events and developments occurred while you were gone for nearly a month on your covert mission. I will thus let Admiral Dönitz brief you on them before speaking further. Admiral!’’

‘’Thank you, Mein Führer! Kapitän von Wittgenstein, I am pleased to tell you that our submarine blockade of British maritime supply lines, to which you contributed greatly with your U-900 in the past months, is starting to bear serious fruits. First, did you encounter or detect any British maritime patrol aircraft on your way back to Lorient?’’

‘’Actually, none, Herr Admiral, something that quite surprised me. Normally, my radar detectors would pick up British radar emissions a number of times while transiting the Bay of Biscay. However, I detected only a lone British cruiser as it transited from the south coast of Great Britain towards the Strait of Gibraltar, with no airborne radar detected. Do you know why it is so, Herr Admiral?’’

‘’I do!’’ Said Dönitz while smiling. ‘’Basically, the British are running out of fuel. They are now burning their last reserves and, as a consequence, had to take a number of very drastic actions. First, their remaining aviation fuel is now strictly reserved for the use of their Fighter Command and of one maritime coastal patrol group protecting the sea approaches to their North Channel, where the supply ships from Canada and the United States have to pass to get to Liverpool. The British fuel situation is so dire that they had to ground the planes of their Bomber Command and restrict their heavy warships to port, unless to respond to an imminent naval surface threat. Even the heavy bombers of the American Eight Air Force are being affected. In fact, the Luftwaffe has started to detect a comprehensive withdrawal out of England of American heavy bombers, with B-17 and B-24 bombers using the fuel already in their tanks to fly to Iceland, where they take on more fuel and then fly back to the United States. To date, nearly half of the American heavy bombers previously stationed in England have left back for the United States in the past two weeks, because they had no more fuel to conduct bombing missions over Europe. With the British Bomber Command grounded for lack of fuel, this means that no German city, port or industrial center has been bombed during all of last week, something that has proved to be tremendous good news for all of us, as you can imagine.’’

‘’But, this is indeed great news, Herr Admiral!’’ said Ulrich, genuinely happy.

‘’Indeed! But the good news don’t stop there. The cuts in fuel supplies to the British Coastal Command and to the Royal Navy have in turn started a nasty closed loop effect for the British: with less maritime patrols being done, the job of our submarines presently blockading the British Isles is being made that much easier and less risky, something that in turn helps us tighten even more our grip on British maritime traffic. Our losses in submarines during the last month have dipped significantly, with us not losing a single submarine around Great Britain during the last week. We are basically well on our way to starve the British into submission, my dear von Wittgenstein, thanks to our submariners.’’

Ulrich, observed carefully by Hitler, was left open-mouthed by those last words.

‘’Then, we could well be close to victory in this war, Herr Admiral.’’

‘’Close but not quite! Even if we succeed in taking Great Britain out of this war, something that is still not done, that still leaves us facing both the United States and the Soviet Union. While our Japanese allies are doing a good job of cutting the Americans to size in the Pacific, we cannot underestimate the tremendous war production capacity of the United States. The Americans still could come back to haunt us, notably if they establish themselves in force in Northern Ireland, where their supply ships can get to with less risk than to England proper. As for the Soviets, they are proving to be a much tougher nut to crack than what we originally estimated. If and when England will be out of the war, we will certainly switch our efforts to defeat the Soviets next, notably by cutting and destroying the Allied convoys bringing weapons and war supplies to the Soviets via Murmansk. However, our nation has right now some more immediate needs concerning the Soviets, needs that you may well be able to satisfy, Kapitän von Wittgenstein.’’

‘’Uh, I don’t understand, Herr Admiral. How could my submarine help in fighting the Soviets, except by helping to sink supply ships heading for Murmansk?’’

‘’A good question, and one I will let the good Minister Speer answer.’’

Now completely mystified, Ulrich looked at Albert Speer, the Armaments Minister, as the latter opened a file on the table in front of him.

‘’Herr Kapitän, the equation of the problem we are facing is simple. One of the major problems our invasion has been facing from the start is the unexpected toughness and performance of the Soviet tanks, particularly their T-34 medium tank and their KV-1 heavy tank, plus the astronomical numbers in which they build those tanks. Right now, only our best, most powerful guns are able to pierce and stop a T-34 or KV-1 tank. Unfortunately, the number of such guns that we have is much lower than the number of T-34 and KV-1s the Soviets are throwing at us. To improve the situation in this case, we would need to either greatly boost the production of our high-velocity tank and anti-tank guns, or to somehow improve the penetrating performance of our lighter guns against Soviet tank armor. The first solution is unfortunately unrealistic, as I am already pushing to the maximum our war production. That leaves us with the second solution: improve the penetration of our lighter guns. That can be done mostly by producing anti-tank projectiles employing tungsten-tipped armor-piercing shells. The problem is that Germany is facing a severe shortage of tungsten, along with shortages of a number of other strategic metals and materials. Right now, we simply can’t obtain more tungsten from our allies. I however remembered the occasion when you and Kapitän Kretschmer came back to Lorient with the U-800, and this after capturing and escorting back three enemy supply ships loaded with refined fuel and aluminum products. My hope is that you can repeat that exploit with your U-900 and steal for us some extra tungsten.’’

‘’You will of course be able to work again with Hauptmann Margraff and his men for that mission and will get the maximum support from our military intelligence services.’’ Added Admiral Dönitz. ‘’This mission is in fact to be considered as a national level top priority.’’

‘’And it will enjoy my full personal support, Kapitän von Wittgenstein.’’ Said in turn Adolph Hitler before getting up from his chair, immediately imitated by the others around the table. Hitler then shook hands with Ulrich, who was still going over the shock of his next mission.

‘’Good luck to you and your men, Kapitän.’’

‘’HEIL!’’ Shouted in unison the officers present, giving the Nazi salute as Hitler walked out of the wardroom.