Hitler's Terror Weapons by Brooks, Geoffrey (life books to read .txt) 📗

Fehler had no confidence in the Japanese Government, however, and, having heard out the plea of the Japanese officers, shook his head with a smile. 126

Hirschfeld discovered that, a short while after, Tomonaga and Shosi had made their way through the boat taking their leave of the crew, Tomonaga distributing among them the watches he had bought in Switzerland.

That same day, Kapitän zur See Rösing, FdU North, signalled Fehler in the Japan cypher:

“U-234. Continue your voyage or return to Bergen. FdU.”

When shown the signal log, Fehler shook his head and said that he was definitely not going back.

Fehler considered that the Allied directive requiring all U-boats at sea to wear a black flag at the periscope head designated them as pirates and he decided to think about the legal position. This suited him because his surrender port based on his current position was Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he was not keen to surrender to the Canadians.

The boat continued to head south while long debates between officers and passengers were held on the question of heading for Argentina or the South Seas, but on 13 May Fehler signalled Halifax for surrender instructions. The Canadian station responded immediately by requesting the position of U-234, and once this had been supplied a course was given to steer for Nova Scotia. Fehler had not the least intention of going there and U-234 now headed at full speed to the south-west in order to cross into the American sea area. At about 2300 hrs, when a Canadian patrol aircraft determined that U-234 was not on the correct course, Halifax sent out more orders to the submarine by radio.

Towards midnight Judge Nieschling reported that Tomonaga and Shosi were lying in adjacent bunks, their arms linked, breathing stertorously and could not be woken. An empty bottle which had contained Luminal sleeping tablets was found on the deck plating nearby. A suicide note addressed to the commander was found during a search of their belongings requesting Fehler “should he find us here alive to leave us alone, please, and let us die”. They had taken their action so as to avoid captivity. In closing they requested that their bodies should not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Americans, and that their diplomatic bag should be weighted and sunk, as it held secret papers useful to the enemy. There was a will confirming the assignment of certain property to members of the crew, and for the captain a sum of money in Swiss francs to be used to inform their relatives that they were dead, but not dishonoured.

Fehler merely said that he would do as they had asked. The game of cat-and-mouse with the Canadians continued over the next day until the signals of the latter were suppressed by American jamming. Because he thought he would get a better deal from the Americans, Fehler had made up his mind to surrender to them, and the Americans were so determined to get their hands on U-234 that they sent their destroyer USS Sutton into the Canadian zone in direct contravention of Allied protocol. The American military authorities were in possession of a passenger manifest for U-234 which they had obtained on occupying the Kiel naval base. The fact that there were two Japanese officers aboard U-234 probably accounted for their unusual interest in the submarine: the first question by the American prize officer on boarding U-234 on 17 May 1945 was not “Where is the uranium?” but “Where are the Japs?”

In fact, not long after the stern lookouts reported the approach of the American destroyer, Fehler sent for the U-boat’s medical officer and said, “Tonight we must get the Japanese overboard. If the Americans get to them, they will do everything they can to bring them round. See to it that they die peacefully.” Dr Walter descended to the lower deck without comment and a few hours later reported the death of Tomonaga and Shosi. Each corpse was sewn into a weighted hammock while the diplomatic pouch and the Samurai sword were bound to the body of Tomonaga after which the bodies were committed to the deep with full military honours.

On 19 May 1945 USS Sutton and U-234 dropped anchor outside the naval port of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and, after all had disembarked, the ten specialist passengers were driven off to a secret destination, the remainder to Boston Jail. Later a few members of the U-234 crew, including Hirschfeld, were quartered in an old naval vessel and assigned to a submarine school in the yards where they were occasionally called upon to demonstrate shipboard equipment, although their principal task was to keep the U-boats in running order.

The Partial Unloading of U-234

During May much of the weapons material, the Me 262 jet and containers of documents had been unshipped and taken off to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On 24 July 1945 Hirschfeld was standing on the conning tower of U-234 with Captain Hatten, a US Navy Intelligence Officer, watching the six steel loading tubes being lifted by crane from the forward mineshafts and deposited on the quayside. The bosun, Schölch, was put in charge of the unloading because the Americans feared that the containers might be booby-trapped. Hirschfeld saw four men approach the steel tubes carrying small hand appliances and when he asked Captain Hatten for an explanation he was told, “They are scientists. They are testing for the uranium with Geiger counters.”

Apparently the scientists discovered that all six steel tubes were contaminated to such an extent with radiation that they could not determine in which of the tubes the ten cases of uranium oxide listed in the loading manifest had been stowed. Schölch knew, but did not inform the Americans of this. Eventually Lt Pfaff was brought from Fort Mead camp and unloaded the ten cases of uranium oxide in exchange for some sort of inducement. Shortly afterwards he was repatriated and then returned to the United States as an immigrant, as did Schölch. Neither