PRELIMINARY REPORT |
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NOTE: |
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| Four officers and 40 ratings from a German U-boat arrived at Newport News, Virginia aboard USATNY (Brazil) at 1700 on November 30, 1942, and were interrogated the following day. The interrogation was cursory and routine as 17 days had elapsed since capture of the prisoners, and as they were to be moved at once to the U.S. Detailed Interrogation Center for intensive questioning. Almost no information of intelligence value was obtained in preliminary interrogation, but a captured diary yielded some evidence. All information contained in this report must be accepted with reserve pending further confirmation. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| HISTORY: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| From entries in the captured diary it is believed that the U-boat was commissioned early in November, 1941, and proceeded to the Eastern Baltic for trials. She appears to have been frozen in at Danzig for several months and to have completed her trials in the spring of 1942, returning to Blohm & Voss for overhaul in June. The boat probably left on its first war cruise on July 23, 1942, being assigned 9 days later to the 9th Flotilla, (possibly based on Brest) and said to be commanded by Kapitänleutnant Lehmann-Willenbrock. The boat seems to have returned from its first cruise on August 17, and to have left on its second | ||||||||||||||||||||
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cruise on September 9, returning to the
same port on October 12. On November 9, 1942, the boat was assigned
to the 29th U-boat Flotilla, based on Spezia, and left on its third
and last war cruise. |
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SINKING: |
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| According to a statement made by Kapitänleutnant QUAET-FASLEM aboard USAT BRAZIL, his boat was attacked by an airplane and bombed at 0945 on November 14, 1942 off Cape Khamis, (French Algeria) 70 miles N.E. of Oran. The hydrophones were damaged and water entered the boat so that it was not possible to submerge. Further bombing and machine-gunning took place and the captain ordered the crew to abandon ship. The U-boat was run into shoal water and a radioman left behind to scuttle ship. This man was subsequently picked up by a British destroyer which had joined the action. The radioman opened the vents and set off scuttling charges in the boat. The crew swam ashore and surrendered to a French officer under the misapprehension that they would be safe in French hands. They were taken to a garrison at Picard where they were fed and quartered. At midnight an American tank company effected their capture. The prisoners were brought to Oran on November 15, and were placed aboard USAT BRAZIL for transport to America on November 16. | ||
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