Reinhard Hardegan Part 1

This is the interview we did in 1994 with Korvettenkapitän REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985). You may own a copy of this videotape – details at the end of this article.

SHARKHUNTERS: In 1942, you first visited the United States and you left quite an impressive trail behind you. Now you are very, very popular when you come to the United States. What is it like now to come and to meet people and even to meet veterans who had opposed you at that time?

Captain HARDEGEN: Yes it’s very funny because in the United States, I am much more popular than in Germany. In Germany, no one is interested in submarines and World War Number Two. But the Americans, they have quite another feeling and I always said ‘I am not an American submarine Captain, I was a German one.’

Doesn’t matter, and I had a very impressive connection in, I guess it was in Jacksonville at a book signing. Two ladies came to me and they said to me ‘Our papa was Captain of the CITY OF ATLANTA and you sunk it, and please will you sign with a personal note?’ “You sank Father’s ship, but you didn’t kill Father.”

This was very difficult for me, and when I gave them the two books, one of the ladies embraced me and said ‘You sunk Father’s ship, but you didn’t kill Father. That’s a big difference.’ It was the most impressive thing that I had in the United States. I don’t know if in Germany, they will say the same thing to English or Russian or something like that, and it shows the feeling of the Americans. That’s quite another way and they said also that it was war, Father had two guns on board and perhaps if he would be more lucky, he would have sunk but you were more lucky and you sunk him.

SHARKHUNTERS: I have heard many American veterans of the navy say similar things – they would say that they never thought about attacking or destroying people – they were trying to destroy a ship, or they were trying to destroy a vessel. That was the same way, then, for the Germans?

Captain HARDEGEN: Yes, yes. We are destroying ships and no persons. If it was possible, in the first (early) time of the war, we could also rescue people. I had once from an auxiliary cruiser, the bos’n three weeks on board my boat and I also rescued the whole crew of a Norwegian tanker and I was in connection with one, he was here in my home, and I had a very good friendship with him. That was the PAN NORWAY.

EDITOR NOTE – SS PAN NORWAY was a 9,321 ton Norwegian motor tanker which was sunk 26 January 1942 by U-123 under Captain HARDEGEN using the deck gun.

SHARKHUNTERS: There was a change in the war. In the beginning of World War Two, there were events where survivors were picked up, where rescuers were assisted, where you might give some supplies and directions to shipwrecked sailors.

Captain HARDEGEN: Yes, yes – but afterwards, we sunk the ship.

SHARKHUNTERS: But then, within a year or two, that was no longer possible. It was too dangerous.

Captain HARDEGEN: Yes. In the moment of the airplanes covered the whole Atlantic, it was not possible because they had aircraft carriers, in the middle of the Atlantic. In the first time, they had only the airplanes near the coast but at the end of the war, they had all over, airplanes, and so it was not possible. Then they had the radar and they came from the clouds, and so on night and day. It was impossible to rescue people.

SHARKHUNTERS: Did you suspect that the naval code had been broken or did you just think that the enemy had gotten so much better?

Captain HARDEGEN: During the war, I didn’t think it was broken because we were always told Schlussel M (the Enigma) was so safe that it was not possible to crack and it was a big astonishment for us to learn years and years after the war, that they cracked Schlussel M; the Enigma.

SHARKHUNTERS: To go back a moment to the North Carolina coast and the sinking of the CITY OF ATLANTA – do you recall that event; how you spotted the vessel and how you approached it and made the target?

Captain HARDEGEN: No, I don’t remember the CITY OF ATLANTA especially. It was near the coast and I sunk her and I have at the moment, no special memories of this.

SHARKHUNTERS: You had two very successful visits to the United States. When you came back the second time, did you expect it to be as unprotected as it was the first time?

Captain HARDEGEN: No, the second time it was a little bit more difficult. They had more airplanes and more destroyers and so they learned a little bit more and it was not so easy as it was in the first patrol.

SHARKHUNTERS: When you came back now, you were very well received. You received your honors, they made a film about U-123. What was it like to be a star?

Captain HARDEGEN: Oh, I was not a star. I can’t say it.

SHARKHUNTERS: Shortly thereafter, you were told that you were not going to be going to sea again as a U-Boat Skipper, how did you feel at that time. You had wanted to stay at sea, I believe.

Captain HARDEGEN: How did I feel? I got a new command in Germany. I was educating the new submariners in Gottenhaven Gdynia and afterwards I was in torpedo school, I was in the headquarter and had a lot of other commands, but no special fields.

SHARKHUNTERS: If you were in the training flotilla, you were advising students – what would you advise a Skipper to look for in his Number One (I.W.O.)? What kind of qualities would make for a good Number One?

Captain HARDEGEN: You make very difficult questions. I can’t answer that. I don’t know my feelings fifty years ago.

SHARKHUNTERS: You commanded both a Type II U-Boat and a Type IX U-boat, and I’m sure that you had many friends who commanded Type VII U-Boats. Can you tell me something about the way that submarine captain felt about these different boats and about the differences in operating them?

Captain HARDEGEN: At first, I made two patrols on a Type IX-B, which was U-124 as a Watch Officer and then I was commanding a Type II-D, a small boat and was not so comfortable as a IX-B and I was with this boat around the coast of England and so on, and I sunk one ship.

Then I commanded U-123, it was also a Type IX-B and that was much more comfortable. I was never on a Type VII. The first Type VII I was ever on board, I was advising submarine commanders at Gotenhafen afterwards, also on the Type VII but not before.

SHARKHUNTERS: Did you like your Type IX?

Captain HARDEGEN: Yes!

SHARKHUNTERS: What about it – a long range boat?

Captain HARDEGEN: Yes, long range boat and you had much more possibilities than with a small boat, such as a Type II. They had only five torpedoes and on the big boat you had eighteen or twenty torpedoes, so had much more possibilities.

SHARKHUNTERS: Let’s talk about your battle with the CAROLINE. That’s the only example of a battle with a Q-Ship in the Second World War. That was very common in the First World War. Tell me from the beginning, about this incident.

EDITOR NOTE – A “Q” Ship was a freighter, tanker etc. that was modified to carry heavy guns which were hidden behind false walls, crates etc. The ship was disguised to look like an old ship, too easy to pass up but too small to waste a torpedo. The plan was to lure the U-Boat to the surface, then drop the covering off the guns and blast the U-Boat with the heavy guns before it could dive. In the Second World War, the US Navy came up with this idea to counter the U-Boats that were running wild of the American east coast.

This was known as ‘Project LQ’ and run by Captain Lew Farley. Three old ships were bought by a false company which was really the US Navy – two tramp steamers SS CAROLINE and SS EVELYN as well as an old trawler. CAROLINE was renamed USS ATIK, EVELYN was renamed USS ASTERION and the trawler was renamed USS EAGLE. We did a story on this operation when we profiled U-123 in a previous issue of the KTB. This went very wrong for the US Navy as only CAROLINE/ATIK made contact with a U-Boat, and was lost with all hands.

Captain HARDEGEN’s reply is rather lengthy and since this is a very important piece of history, we will hold it over to KTB #179 next month. You will really enjoy it.

Reinhard Hardegan Interview

Reinhard Hardegan Part 1
Reinhard Hardegan Part 2
Reinhard Hardegan Part 3