This is the interview with Kapitän DIGGINS that we did in January of 2000, which became part of the History Channel’s presentation entitled Dangerous Missions: the U-Boats, produced by Digital Ranch under ROB LIHANI (5989-2000).

Kapitän DIGGINS was Skipper of U-458, was Präsident of the VDU (Verband Deutscher U-Bootfahrer or German Submariner’s Association) and was so highly thought of that he is currently the Ehrenpräsident (President Emeritus) of that organization.

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: My name is Kurt Diggins. That’s a real British name and in this connection I may say that my great grandfather was of British origin and he came eighteen hundred and forty-nine to Hamburg and from that time we lived in Germany.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe how you joined the U-boat force and how did you become a captain?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: Well, I lived as a small boy at Kiel and from that time I was very much interested to join the Navy especially because my brother, my father and a cousin of my father, they both had been engineers of submarines in the First World War. And that was something of a guideline for me to become a Naval officer. I am not a real born submariner. I joined the Navy in 1934 and at the beginning of the war, I was in the pocket battleship GRAF SPEE and I took part at that time in the battle of the River Plate and they all will know what happened there. That means that the ship was destroyed in the River Plate because the government of Uruguay didn’t give enough time to repair and to make the ship again seaworthy. Then everybody will know that the crew of the ship was brought to Buenos Aires - that is I remained in Uruguay because the intention of the Captain Langstorf was that I should become a naval attaché. We had in South America only one naval attaché and he lived at that time in the Argentine - in Buenos Aires.

SHARKHUNTERS: Tell us about your first patrol on a U-boat.

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: The first patrol in the U-boat was in 1941 on board of U-751. That was an Atlantic cruise and after that mission, I became the commander of U-458. That was a new boat, built at Kiel and I have to undergo the whole training of that time and then I started for a trip in August 1942. That was a mission at first - - oh, I should say in this connection, the boat normally should go to the north and then we got the crossing for a trip to the north.

But, I was sent to Cape Hatteras and there it was very warm and I was in that area but, the boat was not successful. We saw no ships at this place. We had sunk two other ships before going to that place and then, I got the order to go up to the St. Lawrence and at the St. Lawrence, we met no ships. Nowadays I know that by the British Secret Service, the British Navy, knew exactly that German submarines were in that area and therefore there were no commercial ships. That was a long trip, and I asked the German BdU (U-Boat High Command) to go back from that area and cross the Atlantic to find a convoy. They said no, you have to stay there. That was an order. I said well, Iwill stay there as long as I can.

And so I did. I returned to St. Nazaire and I had only nine hundred liters of fuel. Completely empty and that was some kind of risk but then I have got a very, very good engineer.

SHARKHUNTERS: When you are on these patrols, what is life like inside the U-boat?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: At that time, well we had a mission and we wanted to have some success. But we hadn’t. And that is some kind which is not very lucky. But the humor of the crew was very, very good. And perhaps you will remember the picture of the boat (DAS BOOT) by Buchheim. There was quite another thing that the boat was at sea for a very, very long time but in this case, I must say my crew was not disturbed in that way. We always find a way to keep them busy. We had our own newspaper and we made some talks with some and the crew was always very, very satisfied. The only thing - no success.

SHARKHUNTERS: Is it hot this U-boat or was it cold?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: I already mentioned that we had the clothes and dress for the northern sea, but not for Cape Hatteras. And it was very, very warm for us. And there was very - - one queer thing. The cook of the submarine - - I don’t remember what the reason was that I asked to come to me to make a report. I was somewhat angry. And he came and reported and, after that, he turned around. And what I saw was, he has a blanket and just small bands - - that was only thing which covered the back of that fellow. I couldn’t smile - - only smile and sent him away. That was - - well, that was a human boat. We have had no problems at that time.

SHARKHUNTERS: Were you ever attacked?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: Yes.

SHARKHUNTERS: Please describe that for us.

The First U-Boat to pass Gibraltar!

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: There were no attacks during the first mission. But later on, on the eleventh of October 1942, the boat got the order to enter the Mediterranean. At that time there was no good feeling to go into the Mediterranean and it was not very easy for me to pass Gibraltar. Then there were a lot of destroyers and other watch-keeping ships and I always have to dive and but no depth charge, but I always could escape and I said well, we will stay underwater and try it once more the next night. And the next morning at ten o’clock I went to have a look through the periscope and I saw Gibraltar - - the Rock of Gibraltar on the left side. That means we have passed the narrow. It was for the first time that the German submarine entered the Mediterranean underwater.

And, it was not very easy but I had learned at school that there are, in the narrow of Gibraltar, two kinds of currents. There is one current going out from the Mediterranean and there is one going at least at sixty meters, which is going in - - into the Mediterranean. And that was the way I took and it was not easy to keep the course of the boat because we had only a very low speed. And the currents drifted the boat from the course more than twenty degrees. And you have to look to find the right way. At that time, well I reached the harbor but later on I had six missions in the Mediterranean and I learned what it means to get depth charged and bombs and, well, during an attack against the convoy. The boat came a little bit too near to a destroyer and the destroyer disturbed my periscope. And when we came up to the surface later on, we saw this top of the periscope lying on the bridge.

SHARKHUNTERS: What is it like to actually be in submarine during a depth charge attack?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: I wouldn’t describe in this way perhaps as you want it. I would say it in the way you saw the picture of DAS BOOT and there have been depth charge attacks. And there was a lot of noise. There was trouble in the crew (in the movie). In my boat, quite a difference. There was no noise at all and everybody was quiet and you couldn’t could see in the faces of the crew and I always had the feeling the crew knew exactly that I would take the right measures. In attack with depth charges, but it was an attack with bombs by an aircraft and we had to make a crash dive, and one of the men said, well, Captain, it is useless. I said, press the air in the tanks to go up. And, he said, it’s useless.

SHARKHUNTERS: I don’t understand what you mean. What was useless?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: He meant the boat was going down. It was a high speed dive and when he said, it is useless, then he meant that we couldn’t bring the boat again up to the surface. If you are in such a situation, you have to blow out the water of the tanks, press in the air, to have the drift to go up. And that was what he meant. But, there was no fear - - no, he was, well, it’s going in the right way and it will happen as it will come. And that is a big difference to that what Buchheim made in his picture of DAS BOOT. I have quite another thing in my feeling.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe being attacked from the air?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: Well, it happened in the Bay of Aegean, and it was I think it was about ten o’clock in the morning. The airplane came and it was observed too late and then we make the crash dive and, well, I think it was twenty meters. The bombs exploded. They caused a lot of trouble. Later on, as I already told, we came up again to the surface and the engines now, the vacuum and a lot of other trouble, but the idea was what to do now. At first I said, well, I thought we have no chance to bring the boat home.

And, therefore, I said, well, we have to stay here and wait. Everybody can eat what he wanted. And so, they always a box of tins was apples with pie and they had good a dine, and in the afternoon, I think it was about two o’clock, the chief engineer came and told me the diesel engines can go with slow speed. What to do now? I didn’t know what the observations the British had made. In the meantime we had had another attack. And so far I decided we will stay on this place that the British may have the idea the boat cannot drive furthermore. So we didn’t and remained there with another attack and we equipped the guns to keep the airplane away. But we remained there until the evening dawn. And then the engines were clear and with slow speed, we went to the Spanish coast and then back to Toulon.

SHARKHUNTERS: As a Captain of a U-boat, is there something that you feared most?

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: Well, I thought a lot of things which I had to fear as a U-boat Captain. On one hand, is I had the mission. That means commercial warfare in this case. I have the responsibility for the crew and I have the responsibility for the boat. That means in this kind, the mission and that is the as I see a very high responsible, you have to wage. The mission you have to have success or not success and the responsibility. What does it mean? You will try to have success, risk a certain portion of a risk. And that is a problem you have as a captain of a ship. The risk - is it in your responsibility that the boat and the crew will have no success and that is always the problem, very difficult for me to say it in a language which is not my language. And that is what I just covered with the word responsibility. You have the mission and you have the responsibility for your crew. That is what I learned when I was on board the battleship GRAF SPEE. There Captain Langsdorf said, well, the lives of that crew is more than the fight without any tactical success. The same for a U-boat commander.

SHARKHUNTERS: At the end of war, when Großadmiral Dönitz continued sending U-boats out when it was so dangerous, do you agree with that decision?

Guest of the Queen

CAPTAIN DIGGINS: No. I had quite another situation. And I just will describe it in this way - - in my own way. In August 1943 I became a guest of the Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain.

You know, what I mean. The boat was damaged in August 1943 in the knee of Malta. The reason was at that time the American troops had already landed on Sicily and the German Chief Officer of Submarines in the Mediterranean said and all the captains should go in the east part of the Mediterranean. That means the Isle of Salamis. And on the way the boat was destroyed by two British destroyers which came from Malta. CAPTAIN DIGGINS boat, U-458, was attacked and destroyed on 22 August 1943 by the Royal Navy destroyer escort HMS EASTON and the RHN (Greek Royal Hellenic Navy) destroyer escort PINDOS off Pantellaria. Eight of the men of U-458 were lost.

This interview will conclude in KTB #165 next month but you may have it in its entirety on our Tape H-78 for only $30 (plus $5 shipping). Enjoy it again & again in your home.