PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent some time working for the ABWEHR during World War II; and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people - and he gives this formerly secret information exclusively to SHARKHUNTERS. PETER speaks about the personnel aboard U-234 when this big cargo-carrying boat tried to make the dash from Kiel to Tokyo in the closing minutes of the War.

Flotten Richter Kai Nieschling was not supposed to try Richard Sorge, whom the Japanese had already convicted and killed, but the former German Ambassador, Army MajorGeneral Ott and others at the German Embassy, including Admiral Paulchen Wennecker, who also had been roped in by Richard Sorge too and had been pumped for information.

KAPITANLEUTNANT JOHANN-HEINRICH FEHLER (32-+-1984)

The combined TV Film show, from what I hear, is going to be far from the truth and the facts as they are not spicy enough for the promoters, thus things had to be jazzed up greatly and things added that never occurred nor existed in 1945!

For my money, Hein Fehler made a gross mistake and committed a serious error of judgment when he surrendered U-234 to the Americans rather than the Canadians, who unquestionably would have treated him and his crew fairer and in a more military way too, as they had more experience with handling of POW's too.

While there were no problems or incidents aboard American destroyer escorts and other ships, what transpired once port was reached is unfortunately quite another thing again and really impossible to justify, even if the Navy put all the blame on the US Army and its civilian employees.

HARRY'S NOTE , A few years before his death, KPLT FEHLER told me that he and his crew were never mistreated by the US Navy.

The main reason why Hein Fehler did not grab me on the spot in Kiel was that I still walked with a walking stick plus one crutch, and had just been declared no longer fit for submarines subject to reassignment, and my papers were being processed and prepared for a surface ship assignment in the Bay of Danzig, which lasted until May 7th 1945 when we were almost the very last units pulling away from Hela with the Russians in hot pursuit mostly attacking with American and British made aircraft but piloted fortunately by Russians, as otherwise none of the ships and probably nobody aboard would have made it back to the West and the few ports not yet occupied by the Russians. Whilst U-Boats followed standing scuttling order REGENBOGEN (Rainbow) even though evoked by Donitz generally, there was no question to sink ourselves as nobody wanted to visit Siberia or worse!

As you surely know, the British keep releasing files and held-back material piecemeal again, now that the 50 year secrecy limits keep running out for some of these papers, files and documents and this will continue for the next three or four years for sure. However, for those files with the 100 years secrecy hold limit, we shall be unlikely to be able to pursue and study them ... alas.

Consequently, among other things, Public Records has 'gone public' with more interrogation files of German U-Boat and Luftwaffe POW's that took place mainly at the Kensington Cage and also at Cockfosters too generally. There, even the trees in the backyard were wired to pick up conversations, not just the rooms, sleeping quarters and toilets.

Considering that U-33 was involved in the URSULA Operation and in fact, was the initial U-Boat where the British captured three rotors for the M-3 ENIGMA Navy coding machine. With other words, where the first step was taken attempting to break those codes. Even if they did not succeed, I think the details of the capture would be an interesting addition to the ULTRA story.

During the night of February 12th, 1940, U-33, under command of Kapitanleutnant Hans Wilhelm von Dresky approached the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland on the Surface with the intention to lay mines during that dark nasty and bitter cold night, hoping to be able to do so unobserved. But things turned out otherwise and the British minesweeper GLEANER with Lieutenant Hugh P. Price as Captain, noticed a dark shape, despite driving snow and dark low Clouds being prevalent. Thus, instead of being able to drop these mines on the surface, U-33 had to crash dive in comparatively shallow water with strong currents and very uneven sea bottom. GLEANER released several series of depth charges and U-33 played dead and hit bottom, where the combination of the mud and currents made it difficult for GLEANER to operate their ASDIC equipment efficiently. Therefore, Price finally decided that GLEANER had lost contact and that the submarine had managed to get away underwater somehow.

U-33 developed leaks and had many equipment problems, but the Chief (L. I. Schilling) managed to fix up things to a point where it was considered possible to rise to the surface once more for the crew to abandon ship and to make some attempt to get rescued, despite the prevalent weather conditions on the surface.

II. W. O. Johannes Becker distributed the eight rotors of the M-3 ENIGMA machine amongst several crewmembers with instructions to immediately drop same into the sea when reaching surface. Three of these rotors were handed over to Senior Petty Officer (Obermachinest) Fritz Kumpf while others only received one or two of these rotors for disposal.

The explosion of the depth charges had put GLEANER’s ASDIC out of operation and Captain Price decided that they had lost contact and that the submarine must have got away somehow underwater. Proceeding on a ‘FIGURE 8’ search courses, GLEANER finally decided to drop another batch of depth charges at 0412h ours. These damaged U-33 further and additional leaks developed. Chief Schilling insisted to start the pumps but Captain von Dresky told him to stop them again, as they made too much noise. However, because at this time over two tons of water had seeped into U-33, it was too heavy to get off the bottom with electrical engines only.

At 0440 hours, GLEANER approached for another attack. L. I. Schilling started the pumps immediately again, figuring there was nothing else to do and the noise could not be heard under the circumstances, but again Captain von Dresky ordered him to shut them down immediately. More water entered U-33 after five close explosions rocked the U-Boat. The Captain now ordered the Chief to get U-33 off the bottom any way he could manage to do so, as there was no sense in remaining bottomed after having been obviously located and just to wait for another attack until a direct hit occurred. The Chief pointed out that navigation underwater with a current running at six knots and the width of the Firth of Clyde not exceeding 15 miles with rocks and many obstacles, would be extremely difficult. Captain von Dresky agreed and decided surfacing and attempting to get away while it was still dark would be their best chance under the circumstances, even though the engineroom folks were uncertain if the diesel engines could still be started due to damage.