Figure 1.--. |
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Thousands of ships participated in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. Some of these ships and the men who served on them became legends. The U-9 at the beginning of the War slipped into the British ancorage at Scappa Flow and sank a British battle ship (September 1939). An early naval battle was fought off Argentina in the South Atlantic. Three British cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Graff Spee involved in commerce raiding. As a result, the German ship was forced into the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay where the captain blew his ship up (1939). Perhaps the best known ship in the Royal Navy was HMS Hood, a battle cruiser. Thus new that she was sunk by Bismarck was especially shocking (March 1941) and lead to a massive effort to sink Bismarck. The carrier USS Wasp would help to get a tanker through to Malta, preventing a British surrender. The fast tanker SS Ohio was destroyed, but made it through lased to destroyers and decks awash becoming the most famous tanker of the War. The USS Nevada, sunk at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, was the fleet command post for the D-Day invasion (June 1944), but the small Ameeica destroyer USS USS Frankford and other American destroyers played a key role on Omaha Beach. The U-boat fleet was devestated by the Allies, but two U-boats became famous at the end of the War. The U-234 surrenderd to the U.S. Navy with a cargo of enriched uranium intended for the Japanese atomic bomb program. The U-977 managed a notable escape to Argentina. The Japanese were not involved in the Battle of the Atlantic, but they did participate in efforts to exchange material and technology with the Germans. The Japanese submarine I-52 tried to get to France to pick up enriched uranium.
Perhaps the most fabeled American ship of world War II was the carrier USS Enterprise. It was among the three carriers surviving the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack. It then conducted hit-and run attacks before participating in the Doolittle raid on Tokyo and then a critical role at Midway (June 1942). It next played a critical role in he Solomons campaign before the new Essex-class carrier had begun to reach the fleet. The Japanese reported in sunk on several occassions. The carrier USS Wasp would help to get a tanker through to Malta, preventing a British surrender. The fast tanker SS Ohio was destroyed, but made it through lased to destroyers and decks awash becoming the most famous tanker of the War. The USS Nevada, sunk at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, was the fleet command post for the D-Day invasion (June 1944), but the small American destroyer USS USS Frankford and other American destroyers played a key role on Omaha Beach.
Perhaps the best known ship in the Royal Navy was HMS Hood, a battle cruiser sunkby Bismarck (May 1941).
The U-9 at the beginning of the War slipped into the British ancorage at Scapp Flow and sank a British battle ship (September 1939). An early naval battle was fought off Argentina in the South Atlantic. Three British cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Graff Spee involved in commerce raiding. As a result, the German ship was forced into the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay where the captain blew his ship up (1939). Perhaps the best known ship in the Royal Navy was HMS Hood, a battle cruiser. Thus new that she was sunk by Bismarck was especially shocking (March 1941) and lead to a massive effort to sink Bismarck. The U-boat fleet was devestated by the Allies, but two U-boats became famous at the end of the War. The U-234 surrenderd to the U.S. Navy with a cargo of enriched uranium intended for the Japanese atomic bomb program. The U-977 managed a notable escape to Argentina. The Japanese were not involved in the Battle of the Atlantic, but they did participate in efforts to exchange material and technology with the Germans.
Perhaps the best known ship in the Royal Navy was HMS Hood, a battle cruiser. Thus new that she was sunk by Bismarck was especially shocking (March 1941) and lead to a massive effort to sink Bismarck.
An early naval battle was fought off Argentina in the South Atlantic. Three British cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Graff Spee involved in commerce raiding. As a result, the German ship was forced into the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay where the captain blew his ship up (1939).
The U-9 at the beginning of the War slipped into the British ancorage at Scapp Flow and sank a British battle ship (September 1939).
The mission of the U-234 continues to be one of the unresolved mysteries of Worlsd War II. The U-234 was a very large mine-laying U-boat--the XB type mine layer. Because of its size it was converted as a Japan transporter, thus becoming an undersea freighter to carry a much larger cargo than a standard U-boat. Even so it held only a fraction of the cargo of a surface merchant vessel. The U-234 was dispacted to Japan with a cargo of German high-tech equipment. The U-234 departed Kiel headed for Kristiansand, Norway (March 25, 1945). The ship departed Norway for Japan (April 16, 1945). The cargo included drawings, a Me-262 jet fighter in crates, air defense radars and jet engine equipment as well as two German experts on various weapons technologies and two Japanese officers. What made the U-234 especially interesting was 80 gold-lined lead cylinders containing 560 kilograms of uranium oxide marked "For the Japanese Army". There is very limited cargo space even aboard this cargo U-boat. Thus only items of the highest priority would have been loaded. Cpt. Fehler received cease-fire orders (May 4). He decided to surrender to the Americans. The Captain claimed to know nothing about the uranium. The only pupose for the uranium oxide given the state of Japanese nuclear research would have been a dirty bomb. Also aboard were two Japanese officer--Air Force Colonel Genzo Shosi, an aeronautical engineer, and Navy Captain Hideo Tomonaga, a submarine architect. The U-234 was informed of Hitler's suicide (May 1). Naval Highcommand ordered all German submarines to observe a ceasefire (May 4). The order to surrender was then given (May 8). The captain of the U-234 at this time arrested the Japanese officers who subsequently attempted suiside with sleeping pills. The German officers then discussed if they should surrender or proceed to Japan. They decide to surrender and to kill the Japanese who had botched their suiside attempt. This meant that they could not talk to the Americans about the purpose of the uranium oxide. Their bodies were discaded at sea. The captain then contacted naval authjorities in Halifax to arrange a surrender. Finally he decided to surrender to the Americans. The USS Sumter escorted the U-234 to Portsmouth. The U-234 was interned at Portsmouth (May 19). There the Americans learned for the first time that radio-active uranium oxide was aboard. What the Americans did not know was if other U-boats had gotten through to Japan with uranium an nuclear technology. This may have influenced the subsequent American decession to use the bomb on Japan. The nature of the uranium and disposition by the U.S. Navy is shrouded in mystery. Using lead contianers with gold lining was needed because uranium is highly corrisive. This and the lead cannisters susts it was a very high grade enriched uranium. [Hydrick, p.7.] The level of enrichment refers to the percentagecof the U-235 isotope. As far as we know, the Government has never released the level of enrichment which would provide an insight into the German atomic program. It is generally accepted that the Los Alamos team was having trouble obtaining the amount of uranium needed for a bomb. [Goldberg] Some authors believe that the uranium on U-234 was a godsend for the American Manhattan Project and used by the Americans for the bombs used on Japan. Lt. Col. John Lansdale Jr. who worked with the Manhattan Project as a security officer and was responsible for tracking uranium confirms that the German uranium was used to build the bombs dropped on Japan. [Broad] Some authors also wonder about the "infrared proximity fuse" and wether it was actually a fuse connected with the atomic program. Many of these quetions are still unanswered. But the fact that the Germans had enriched uranium strongly suggests that they had made more progress in building a bomb than is recognized by most authors. And it also raises questions about the Japanese atomic bomb program and the extent of cooperation between the Axis allies.
The U-864 a Type IX U-boat which was was used as a Japan transport. Type IX was a large U-boat used for long range operations, but not as maneurable as the smaller Type VII which was the primary type used for combat operations by the Kriegsmarine. Magic intercepts revealed that she had a mission of transporting military equipment to Japan. The Germans report that she carried 67 tons of metallic mercury in 1,857 32 kg steel flasks stored in her keel. The Japanese had purchased the mercury from Axis ally Italy before that country surrendered to the Allies. The U-864 also carried parts and engineering drawings for the German jet fighter and other military supplies. Among her passengers were Messerschmitt engineers Rolf von Chlingensperg and Riclef Schomerus, Japanese torpedo expert Tadao Yamoto, and Japanese fuel expert Toshio Nakai. Japanese Col. Kawashima claims a U-boat with 2 tons of uranium oxide was sunk. [Kawashima] Kawashima did not specify the U-boat or where it was sunk, but he was probably referring to the U-864. [Chen] The U-864 departed Kiel (December 5, 1944). The voyage was, however, delayed by first an accident and then a British air raid on the Bergen U-boat pens where the ship was being repaired raid (January 12, 1945). While undergoing trials it was engaged by the British submarine HMS Venture and sunk in Norwegian coastal waters (February 9). This was the only intentional submerged sinking of a submarine by another submarine during the War. The remains of the U-864 are known, but there is no confirmation that uranium was aboard. The wreck was found (2003), but has not yet been carefully investigated. by the Norwegian Coastal Authority (NCA). We know that it was carrying mercury because a cannister with mercury has been retrieved from the wreck. While uranium is suspected, it has not yet been proved.
The U-977 was a World War II German Type VIIC U-boat launched (1943). Oberleutnant Heinz Schäffer (1921-1979) commanded her ffirst war patrol (May 2). The U-977 sailed from Kristiansand, Norway. His orders were to enter the British port of Southampton and sink Allied shipping. This was a war patrol, it had nothing to do with assisting war criminals espace the Allied vice. At this stage of the War given Allied ASW capabilities, it was a suicide mission. While the
U-boats had been largely defeated and with drawn from the Atlntic (1943), Admiral Dönitz still dispatched some boats to force the Allies to commit resources to the ASW effort. Admiral Dönitz ordered a cease fire in preparation for the coming surrender (May 5, 1945). The U-977 was headed for Southhampton and located north of Scotland. Rather than return to Germany as ordered, Oberleutnant Schäffer decided on his own to sail to Argentina. This was dangerous decesion because the Allies were increasungly able to find and track u-boats. It is not entirely clear why he made this decsion. When the Americans finally wre able to interogate him, he said that he was by Propaganda Minister Goebbels who charged as part of the American Morgenthau Plan, Germany would be turned into into a "goat pasture” and that men were to be "enslaved and sterilized". There is no way to tell if he was being honest, but it seems likely. We do not know how much he knew about NAZI war crimes. He was, however, a verybuoung man (about 24 years old) and my well have belieced NAZI claims. He may have been aware of delays in being repatriated German POWs after World War I. He was probably aware of conditions in Germany after World war I. And prospects in Argentina with its substabtial German community probably did seem more attractive than a defeated and occupied Germany. Married men with families were allowed to disembark. The ensuing 66-day voyage is a matter of some controversy. The Americans who wre tracking the boat and Oberleutnant Schäffer provide varying accounts. One subject at issue is to what extent Schäffer remained submerged. The voyage is often cited by authors writing about escaping war criminals and NAZI gold. There is eve a claim of a scret voyage to Antartica.
The Japanese deployed six fleet cariers at the onset of the Pacific War. The Akagi, Hiryū, Kaga, and Sōryū had some of the most skilled aviators of the War and beginning with Pearl Harbor (December 1941) cut a blazing parg across the Pacific for 6 month as the Japanese carved out their coveted Southe Resource Zone. Shokaku and Zuikaku had less well-trained aviators, but still highly competent one. They played important roles in the South Pacific fighting around the Solomons. The two greatest battkeships ever built were the Mushashi and its sistership Yamato. The Japanese submarine I-52 tried to get to France to pick up enriched uranium.
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