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. Here he tells us:

The Sowjet Russian submarines L-15 and L-16…these two Russian submarines had left Vladivostok in order to travel through the Panama Canal to Northern Europe, to join the Barents Sea Sub Fleet in Polarnoye and/or Murmansk. In the event L-15 made it as far as Glasgow, Scotland and was repaired and reconditioned there by the British and after lengthy overhaul, continued to Polarnoye and operated lateron off northern Norway mainly.

L-16 however, which had separated from L-15 during stormy weather, as they had been instructed to travel closely together in case of repairs and breakdown problems. L-16 was torpedoed and sunk on the 11th of October 1942 by the Japanese submarine I-25, commanded by Akeji Tagami, on position 46º 41’N x 139º 56’W. Tagami also commanded I-11 lateron.

These two Soviet submarines had made an intermediate refueling stop at Dutch Harbor and were supposed to make the next intermediate call at San Francisco for further refueling and resupplying. Tagami thus assumed that they must be American submarines, but I-25 could only approach an attack position for one of them eventually, due to the rough sea and poor visibility.

I-25 had sunk two American steamers earlier on this patrol. On 4 October sank the tanker CAMDEN of 6,653 tons and on 6 October sank the tanker LARRY DOHENY of 7,038 tons.

When the Japanese found out and realized that L-16 had been a Sowjet Russian warship they immediately offered full compensation to Moscow and paid same promptly, without questioning the sum demanded by the Russians. The Japanese also apologized formally and offered also compensation for the dead crewmembers to their respective families, that was likewise paid over. However, no doubt, the Communists just pocketed the money and the widows and families never received even a dime.

I visited Japan for the and in the dark of Tokyo and after some heavy partying my wallet was stolen by one of the very professional pocket thieves (pick pockets) who evidentially did not realize that I was a foreigner. We had enough change to get back to the Okura Hotel somehow. Lo and behold – when I got my key, there was also my wallet – a nice gift for compensation and a profound letter of apology.

‘So sorry, dear Sir, will not happen again! Have a good time in Japan!!!’

The Japanese police allow their criminal gangs-unions to make a living as long as they do not get too brazen, but foreigners and whites are tabu and the police would beat them unmercifully if they find out and we had complained or reported the theft. Just another philosophy in the Far East!!!

In this connection, one should point out that from all the Lend-Lease shipments, the largest percentage traveled to Vladivostok and then by the Trans Siberian railroad to Moscow and the European Russia. The Japanese observed their neutrality with Sowjet Russia METICULOUSLY and left all American flag steamers proceed unmolested to Vladivostok and the very few Sowjet flag ships too with cargo. The L-16 sinking was the ONLY accidental sinking and attack made.

Much to the aggravation of Admiral Paul Wenneker in Tokyo and both Raeder and Dönitz. The second largest shipping route and the second highest freight volume used the Persian ports, now Iranian ports. These were not really accessible for Axis attacks due to geography. Both the British and later Americans and the Russians occupied Persia, dividing that country in two halves. The railroads were modernized too, to make more shipments possible. The father of the Shah was kicked out, as being too friendly to Germany. His son, whom Chomeni in turn threw out, was just a minor boy then. BUT, the Murmansk convoy run got the big publicity for political and public relations reasons, all Communists everywhere demonstrated for more ships to Murmansk, but when the war finished in Europe by June 1945, Murmansk and Archangelsk had handled only 22.7% of all shipments and could not have been handled more anyway, for onward transport bottlenecks. Many goods rotted away on the piers in Murmansk.

Hitler Assassination Bomb

I realize after the Rahmlow story, I have not had much time to devote to much else. It was a fact that Germany could not produce the moldable plastic explosives nor the acid times exploders used to set and odd shaped or other bombs off. Personally speaking, I would not bet on the fact that Wilhelm Canaris himself authorized the provision of these captured materials; possibly did not even get informed about the hand-over. As, in my experience, such type of deals were often arranged at somewhat lower levels of command for many reasons. HOWEVER, concerning your notes – it was never the job of the Abwehr or the Navy/Army security to protect Hitler and his OKW headquarters. This was strictly an SS job. SS Führer Rattenhuber was the responsible man in charge of the Führer’s safety and security, with several hundred special SS security trained men.

Hitler became ‘unhappy’ with Canaris and the Abwehr because from 1942 onward they could practically never furnish ‘desirable’ information to Hitler directly or via Keitel, who was the direct contact of Canaris and lateron Gehlen too. Hitler only wanted information that suited his expectations and fitted in positively with his plans. But those times were gone forever. Only negative information in Hitler’s view was provided, as anything positive would just have to be manufactured and made to order.

Keitel eventually prohibited that any of the intelligence people came with negative information. He preferred no information rather than bad news. That would upset the Führer and set Hitler off on one of his rampages and screaming as well as making speeches for hours, bringing all work to a complete stop at the Rastenburg – WolfSchanze headquarters.

A Popularity Problem?

Incidentally, according to Gestapo and SD records out of Himmler’s and Gestapo Müller’s offices, it appears that the Stauffenberg attempt was the 38th or 39th try to kill Hitler since he had assumed power in 1933. Naturally, the Abwehr was not involved in the entire lot either. To my knowledge, the plastic explosives were used before that on three different occasions; once before in the Rastenburg, twice in Russia when Hitler made Army visits or inspections and all three attempts failed.

While you reflect me as a full time Abwehr man, this is not quite correct. I was wounded three times – the first two times rather lightly, what was called a ‘Heimat Schuss’ in Russia – a bullet wound to get home leave and a rest & recovery period in Germany. The third time was very severe and the medicos had given up – but the determined nurses pulled me through, working beyond the call of duty almost for weeks. Because I speak Spanish, this got me into the Abwehr between recovery periods and before I was declared again both fit for shipboard service & U-boat service too.

Initially, primarily for U-boat security and sabotage protection of the U-boat pens. After all, there were 50,000 Spanish ‘Republican’ refugees working during the construction – all Communists, Anarchists, Trotskyists and whatever else, who had crossed the French border in the spring of 1939 from the Catalonia area around Barcelona mainly, when the Reds in Spain finally collapsed. There were also between 40,000 and 65,000 French laborers, many extreme left wingers and Communists…..but the OT (Organization Todt) the German Federal Government’s construction company who had previously built the autobahns and the West wall fortifications, handled and hired work forces.

‘Beefsteaks’???

There were also thousands of Dutch, Belgian and Italian workers involved during certain periods. Believe it or not, but the Abwehr managed that there was not a single case of sabotage that could be proven to have committed at or in the bunkers, the pens, by any foreign workers…..each and every case where evidence was ferreted out, the sabotage had been done by GERMAN workers that had been brought in or transferred from German shipyards for work in France. Naturally, there were unquestionably quite a few socalled ‘beefsteaks’ among these German union labor types who had joined the S.A. (Sturm Abteillung) the Stormtroopers, to keep their jobs, had previously been associated with the various Communist groups…..thus ‘beefsteaks’…Brown on the outside, red on the inside.

As you will imagine, sabotage by single determined craftsmen is not easy to be found out in time and prior to the real damage happening – small defects of mechanical kind can do the job. Things break only after some use and once the U-boats were out to sea, before something did break down or blow up, etc. There were some instances when sabotage could not be proved, only assumed, as well as some cases where sabotage was clearly evidenced. However, the culprit could not always be nailed right away, though usually after a while as such people tend to become careless, just like burglars or other repeat type of bad boys.

The Spaniards we kept 100% clean, most of them were highly skilled craftsmen too. I myself always just told them – who is suspected of causing trouble, much less actually causing it, will be suspended immediately and promptly taken to the Spanish border to be turned over there to the Spanish Guardia Civil, who had all of them on their black lists anyway.

The French had put them in dirty camps, refused them working permission and these men swallowed their political convictions and were just content to have jobs and some money combined with better food.

Another great look into history that only SHARKHUNTERS Members get to see. Thanks PETER – we’ll see you in September.