Mecklenburger
17th March 2021, 15:19
INTRODUCTION
A few years ago my London publisher asked me to re-translate Heinz Schaeffer's autobiography known in English under the title"U-977" and first published in German in Buenos Aires in 1950.
Heinz Schaeffer died in the 1970's, but his grand-daughter was curious to know whether a fresh look at his book might reveal some overlooked details about the voyage. U-977 was one of two Third Reich submarines which surrendered to Argentina at the end of the Second World War. Where the boat might have been for about a month in the August period of 1945 before surrendering continues to haunt researchers. The boat's whereabouts after 4 July 1945 are difficult to determine but at least I did come up with something, not in Antarctica as was probably expected, but east of Terra Nova at Christmas 1942. By chance I stumbled across what is, in my opinion, the greatest mystery in the history of maritime navigation. Is there an alien deep sea base in the waters east of Canada? Never had there been provable extraterrestrial contacts of this nature before in the history of warfare.
PART ONE (OF TWO)
U-445 was a Type VIIc German attack submarine commanded by Oberleutnant Heinz Konrad Fenn. On this voyage his first watchkeeping officer was Leutnant Heinz Schaeffer.
U-445 sailed from the base at Marviken, Norway on 8 November 1942 and put into St Nazaire, France on 3 January 1943. No ships were claimed sunk or damaged by U-445 during the voyage. No Allied warship was lost in action during the Christmas period 1942. Since at Chapter 8 in his book "U-977" Heinz Schaeffer stated that on Christmas Eve 1942 he had fired the torpedoes which sank an American destroyer, and the claim was not substantiated, he was accused of lying and self-aggrandizement.
In the book, Schaeffer stated that that night he was on bridge watch. It was dark, very heavy seas were running and breaking over the conning tower. He and the bosun's mate saw a shadow ahead in the darkness. A destroyer of typical American build, flush deck and four smoke stacks. Fenn the commander came to his side. The destroyer had slewed to present its full beam. They saw somebody smoking on its bridge. Schaeffer fired one torpedo which missed. The second torpedo was fired when the range had closed to 400 metres. A hit. Great flames rose up, red, blue, yellow and green, then a gigantic column of water before the destroyer sank like a stone. They never saw a lifeboat or raft. 'There was no point in searching for survivors in those seas'.
I applied to see the relevant pages of the U-445 War Diary. It contained an over-large blank space left by Fenn no doubt to be completed later at St Nazaire after discussions about the incident. This would not be normal procedure.
It is clear that Fenn was uneasy about the Christmas Eve enemy warship which he calls a "corvette". At 2030 hrs it had appeared suddenly 2.5 kilometres astern. Weather was misty with hail and very poor visibility. He could not make out the warship through the periscope and the hydrophone operator reported that the corvette was running totally silent.
At 2200 hrs the War Diary entry reads: "Alarm. Corvette in sight at 1000 metres bearing down on us. No radar trace detected by Fu-M-B. No Asdic. No propellor noise. Corvette passed overhead and then zig-zagged. Quadrant AJ 8863." On the German Navy grid chart this position is where lines drawn south from the southern tip of Greenland and due east of the Strait of Belle Isle, Terra Nova, meet.
Upon the return of U-445 to St Nazaire, Admiral Doenitz was bound to have asked Fenn why he had not attacked the enemy warship. In his reply he and Schaeffer would have supplied their account of the sinking of the American destroyer. Doenitz believed in the The Flying Dutchman and since Fenn was not credited with the sinking in the War Diary, somebody obviously concluded it must have been a ghost ship.
The incident might have been forgotten had it not been for the strange saga of U-188 and a large Allied convoy in much the same position a couple of months later, and to which Schaeffer's American destroyer was the prelude.
PART TWO follows.
A few years ago my London publisher asked me to re-translate Heinz Schaeffer's autobiography known in English under the title"U-977" and first published in German in Buenos Aires in 1950.
Heinz Schaeffer died in the 1970's, but his grand-daughter was curious to know whether a fresh look at his book might reveal some overlooked details about the voyage. U-977 was one of two Third Reich submarines which surrendered to Argentina at the end of the Second World War. Where the boat might have been for about a month in the August period of 1945 before surrendering continues to haunt researchers. The boat's whereabouts after 4 July 1945 are difficult to determine but at least I did come up with something, not in Antarctica as was probably expected, but east of Terra Nova at Christmas 1942. By chance I stumbled across what is, in my opinion, the greatest mystery in the history of maritime navigation. Is there an alien deep sea base in the waters east of Canada? Never had there been provable extraterrestrial contacts of this nature before in the history of warfare.
PART ONE (OF TWO)
U-445 was a Type VIIc German attack submarine commanded by Oberleutnant Heinz Konrad Fenn. On this voyage his first watchkeeping officer was Leutnant Heinz Schaeffer.
U-445 sailed from the base at Marviken, Norway on 8 November 1942 and put into St Nazaire, France on 3 January 1943. No ships were claimed sunk or damaged by U-445 during the voyage. No Allied warship was lost in action during the Christmas period 1942. Since at Chapter 8 in his book "U-977" Heinz Schaeffer stated that on Christmas Eve 1942 he had fired the torpedoes which sank an American destroyer, and the claim was not substantiated, he was accused of lying and self-aggrandizement.
In the book, Schaeffer stated that that night he was on bridge watch. It was dark, very heavy seas were running and breaking over the conning tower. He and the bosun's mate saw a shadow ahead in the darkness. A destroyer of typical American build, flush deck and four smoke stacks. Fenn the commander came to his side. The destroyer had slewed to present its full beam. They saw somebody smoking on its bridge. Schaeffer fired one torpedo which missed. The second torpedo was fired when the range had closed to 400 metres. A hit. Great flames rose up, red, blue, yellow and green, then a gigantic column of water before the destroyer sank like a stone. They never saw a lifeboat or raft. 'There was no point in searching for survivors in those seas'.
I applied to see the relevant pages of the U-445 War Diary. It contained an over-large blank space left by Fenn no doubt to be completed later at St Nazaire after discussions about the incident. This would not be normal procedure.
It is clear that Fenn was uneasy about the Christmas Eve enemy warship which he calls a "corvette". At 2030 hrs it had appeared suddenly 2.5 kilometres astern. Weather was misty with hail and very poor visibility. He could not make out the warship through the periscope and the hydrophone operator reported that the corvette was running totally silent.
At 2200 hrs the War Diary entry reads: "Alarm. Corvette in sight at 1000 metres bearing down on us. No radar trace detected by Fu-M-B. No Asdic. No propellor noise. Corvette passed overhead and then zig-zagged. Quadrant AJ 8863." On the German Navy grid chart this position is where lines drawn south from the southern tip of Greenland and due east of the Strait of Belle Isle, Terra Nova, meet.
Upon the return of U-445 to St Nazaire, Admiral Doenitz was bound to have asked Fenn why he had not attacked the enemy warship. In his reply he and Schaeffer would have supplied their account of the sinking of the American destroyer. Doenitz believed in the The Flying Dutchman and since Fenn was not credited with the sinking in the War Diary, somebody obviously concluded it must have been a ghost ship.
The incident might have been forgotten had it not been for the strange saga of U-188 and a large Allied convoy in much the same position a couple of months later, and to which Schaeffer's American destroyer was the prelude.
PART TWO follows.