A Shadowy Spook’s Eye View Behind the Scenes of WW II

PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ABWEHR (the German Secret Service) during WW II and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people. He gives this secret information especially to SHARKHUNTERS.

PETER and I had exchanged letters some years ago, about the ‘discovery’ of U-1226 by a couple of guys in New England who could find a lost Type VII-C on the dark side of the moon with Hitler’s body in it - if the price were right. PETER is more of a gentleman and does not come out with the word ‘fraud’ or ‘liars’ but he has some things to say about this ‘discovery’. He also has some really excellent insights into the German spies. He writes:

Back to the Boston GLOBE letter. Considering that I have not read the article and the specifics, I can only presume from your letter how much of the usual non-factual drivel was generated to make headlines, irrespective of facts, like any mention of U-530 and U-977! Accuracy seems clearly one of the last things these story writers aim for, contenting themselves more with sensationalism and headline creation mainly instead.

EDITOR NOTE - U-530, commanded by OTTO WERMUTH (1344-1990) had mainly ‘spook’ missions toward the end of the war, and surrendered in Puerto Platte (Argentina) in late July of 1945, some ten weeks AFTER the end of the war in Europe. U-977, commanded by Heinz Schäffer, surrendered in the same place on 17 August 1945 - about three months after the war ended in Europe! Neither knew about the other’s plan to go to Puerto Plata and surrender (so they said) and both stated that they wanted to surrender where their men would be treated with dignity - both had the same reason, but they didn’t even know the other. Schäffer is now dead, and WERMUTH refuses to talk about this mission at all. What is really interesting, is how U-977, a Type VII-C boat, could go all the way from Norway, down past England, back to Norway to put the married crewmen ashore, then all the way to Argentina - on the fuel that a VII-C carried?

PETER continues: During the days in and around Munich, I also had dinner and a long meeting with a now rather elderly fellow who no longer travels, but receives pre-cleared people he remembers and knows, in his secluded lakeside villa. As you can imagine, we talked about several of the still uncertain cases and partially resolved and revealed operations, planned or executed or failed.

Even though U-1226 was not on that list, I phoned him right away to see if he recalled any orders or assignments. His reply was No. As he read the item in the paper likewise, he was not unprepared for the question - this with respect to the ‘spies’ aboard and the landed agents of the Abwehr in New England. We believe the writer might be confused but think they mean U-1230 that landed two poorly trained agents near Boston on 30 November 1944, who surrendered and were seized a few days after reaching American shores. All agents landed in the USA were ‘selected’ with Party and foreign office Nazi guidelines in mind, and then turned over to the Abwehr for training, the majority totally unsuited for the contemplated assignments for various reasons. Consequently, they were all dudes!

EDITOR NOTE: U-1230 was commanded by HANS HILBIG (186-1986) and the two spies to whom PETER refers were ERICH GIMPEL (884-1988) and William Colepaugh, himself a deserter from the US Navy. Dudes? Well, we know that GIMPEL certainly liked the ladies.

U-1226, Type IX-C40 built by Deutsches Werft at Hamburg, launched 21 August 1943 and commissioned by Oblt. Z.S. August Claussen, Class of October 1937 (37-B) on 24 November 1943. Delays in fitting U-1226 with schnorkel equipment accounts for delays in getting the boat through Baltic training.

It left Germany for Horton, Norway near Oslo for final schnorkel training, then refueled briefly in Bergen and departed for the North Atlantic on 30 September 1944 destined as a weather reporting boat to operate between the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada and Maine basically. U-1226 returned briefly to Norway due to schnorkel technical problems shortly after sailing, and departed for its first and only patrol finally on 3 October 1944.

It reported further technical problems with the schnorkel equipment, with the last message dated 20 October 1944. nothing was thereafter heard from U-1226 but based on other intelligence info received, it was finally estimated that U-1226 sunk on 28 October 1944 with all hands but because no specific message or evidence turned up, U-1226 was only posted as missing, presumed lost, due to schnorkel equipment breakdown or failure. A crew of 56 men was reflected as having finally sailed from Norway but because of the indicated ‘uncertainties’ the books were kept ‘open, pending’ rather than reflecting U-1226 as a total loss.

In fact, the commander August Wilhelm Claussen was promoted on 1 January 1945 to Kapitänleutnant, as was done in the case of missing officers on active duty routinely until they would either be declared dead or some turned up as P.o.W.’s instead.

THERE CERTAINLY WERE NO ORDERS FOR ANY SPECIAL LANDING OPERATIONS OR AGENTS aboard who would be assigned for them. Just like some U-boats were lost in diving accidents, some were likewise lost because of schnorkel or other equipment malfunctions such as torpedo tube outer doors or even inner doors busting and breaking, diesel vents breaking etc.

The other matters really need no comment, as they are really nonsensical. They only show the total ignorance of the writer! Sunk in 41 feet of water - perhaps the journalist got confused with meters??? It surely is very unlikely that a small 50 pound bomb would sink a Type IX-C40 unless it damaged it and holed the pressure hull.

The only possibility would be if such a small bomb hit directly upon the diesel airmasts somehow and busted them so substantially that they leaked very strongly into the engine room and eventually sunk the boat but this would be more likely in deep water than in shallow water for many reasons. But if such a small bomb would hole the pressure hull, that would be another story again even if there are many cases just dented the pressure hull but the explosion damaged the outer parts mainly and did not manage to penetrate or damage vital sections or cause severe enough damage for the U-boat to sink.

Perhaps I should also add that, in accordance with the calculated progress of U-1226 from Norway, the location of its last report was then figured to be in the so-called Rosengarten area (ED NOTE - a large mine field known as the Rose Garden) between the Shetlands, Iceland and the Faroes Island group, rather than having reached Newfoundland already or the Canadian coast already, much less Maine or the US coastal area.

More on this in KTB #160 next month. PETER is a nice guy, thinking that these ‘discoverers’ are mistaken. They are not; they made up the story of U-1226 sunk in US waters to bilk money.