This record was kindly provided by the generous assistance of Tony Cooper
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REPORT OF INTERROGATION OF CREW OF "U 95," A 500-TON U-BOAT, |
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SUNK ON 28th NOVEMBER, 1941, IN POSITION APPROXIMATELY |
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36° 21' N. AND 03° 27' W. |
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I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS |
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Prisoners from "U 95" and "U 433" arrived at the Interrogation Centre together on 21st December, 1941, and were interrogated at the same time. | ||
Both this report and the report on "U 433" contain only such information as concerns these boats, general information obtained from these prisoners will be embodied in the subsequent report on "U 451." | ||
As some weeks had elapsed since their respective boats were sunk until prisoners were interrogated and because they had ample opportunity of conversing together, interrogation proved difficult. | ||
Prisoners stated that "U 95" had made seven war cruises and had sunk approximately 60,000 tons of shipping. | ||
II. CREW OF "U 95 " |
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of the total complement of "U 95," 45 in all, only four Officers, two Chief Petty Officers, one Petty Officer and five ratings survived. | ||
The Commanding Officer, Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant-Commander) Gert Schreiber, was born in 1912 in Hirschberg, Silesia, and belonged to the 1931 term, to which, amongst others, Prien and Lemp also belonged. He was of small stature, well-spoken, but determined not to answer any questions, even those which were of no significance to the war. He was married and had one child. | ||
His determined character was exemplified in his almost successful attempt to escape, with Oberleutnant zur See Ey of "U 433," from captivity whilst in Gibraltar. As Leutnant zur See (Sub-Lieutenant) in 1936 and again as Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) in 1937 he had served in "U 34," commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant-Commander) Sobe, then in the U-Flotilla "Saltzwedel." | ||
In 1938 he served as Torpedo Officer in the cruiser "Königsberg" and was promoted to Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant-Commander) in October, 1939. Schreiber had spent some time in Spanish waters, possibly during the Civil War, and made a war cruise with Kapitänleutnant Jürst in "U 59" early in 1940. | ||
It seems probable that "U 95" was commissioned during the first half of 1940 and that Schreiber was her only Commanding Officer, in which case he may previously have completed a U-Boat Commanding Officer's Course early in 1940 and then been appointed to stand by his U-Boat some weeks before commissioning. He had been awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class, in November, 1940. | ||
The First Lieutenant, Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) Egon Rudolph, 26 years of age, belonged to the 1935 term. He was promoted to Leutnant zur See (Sub-Lieutenant) in April, 1938. He was an extreme Nazi, unpleasant and bloodthirsty. He was confident that an attack on Gibraltar and the invasion of Great Britain would be successfully accomplished with great brutality. | ||
The Junior Officer, Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) Hans Ipach, was born in 1917 in Saxony and belonged to the 1935 term. He was married. In 1938 he had been transferred to the Air Force, in which service prisoners stated, he had over a hundred operational flights to his credit, having flown Heinkel aircraft and been awarded the "goldener Frontflugspange" decoration. (This oakleaves decoration is awarded to officers who have made 110 operational flights.) He had been serving in the Air Force for four years and had experience with torpedo and rescue aircraft. He returned to the naval service during the summer of 1941 and had, in consequence, little U-Boat experience. He was very self-confident and arrogant. | ||
(C 43833) * 2 | ||
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Leutnant M.A. (Sub-Lieutenant in Marine Artillery) Kraupa-Tuskany joined "U-95" before her last cruise, replacing Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) Hesernann, who had previously been the First Lieutenant. He was a Viennese, 31 years of age, and claimed to have been a journalist interested in photography. He was clearly a political upstart and no doubt, through influence, had succeeded in obtaining a commission in the Marine Artillery without, however, possessing any knowledge of guns. As far as could be ascertained, he had no naval qualifications, although he was a keen yachtsman, with some Mediterranean experience. | ||
The Engineer Officer, Oberleutnant (Ing.) (Lieutenant (R) ) Korda and two Midshipmen under training, Schrimpf and Gruschwitz, did not survive. | ||
The two surviving Chief Petty Officers were sound and capable men of some experience. The Chief Quartermaster, 28 years of age, had previously served in the Hamburg-America Line and had joined the Navy in 1933, had served in other U-Boats, possibly "U 9" in 1939 and "U 44" in 1940, and had earned the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd Class. He had a knowledge of the Mediterranean and of all types of warships; he kept a watch as officer of the watch and assisted the Commanding Officer with the navigation. The Chief Boatswain's Mate, aged 25, had joined the Navy in 1936, had served in the destroyer "Hermann Schoenemann"; he was drafted to the U-Boat arm early in 1940, and appears to have joined "U 95" on commissioning. He expressed the opinion that he would have preferred to have remained in surface ships. | ||
The surviving Boatswain's Mate was only 24 years of age and had joined the Navy in 1936. He had undergone training in the Third Minesweeping Flotilla, at Cuxhaven, and joined the U-Boat service at the end of 1939 and was drafted in August, 1940, to the Administrative Headquarters of the Third U-Boat Flotilla, then based on Kiel, subsequently transferring, early in January, 1941, to the Seventh Flotilla at St. Nazaire. He appears to have been drafted to "U 95" in March, 1941. | ||
The five surviving ratings were young men with little experience, although it was stated that nearly everyone had made previous cruises, especially the technical ratings. On the whole, the morale and health of officers and men appeared to be good, with the exception of one or two ratings who suffered from shock and loss of memory as a result of the torpedo detonation which sank their boat. They had, as usual, been well drilled in security matters, were stubborn when under interrogation and apprehensive of microphones. | ||
III. EARLY HISTORY OF "U 95 " |
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"U 95" was a 500-ton U-Boat, Type VIIC, of the series "U 93" to "U 102," built by the Germania Yard, Kiel. Of the last 12 survivors, no one had stood by her during the final states of construction, had taken part in her trials or had been on board during her first two cruises, with the possible exception of Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant-Commander) Schreiber, who proved adamantly reticent and was useless for interrogating purposes. Details of "U 95's" early history are, therefore, necessarily incomplete. | ||
As "U 93" is known to have been commissioned in June, 1940, and "U 99" and "U 100" in April and May, 1940, respectively, it seems probable that "U 95" was commissioned at about the same time. She was laid down in June, 1939, before the outbreak of war. | ||
On one of her first two cruises, probably the first, "U 95" sailed from her base in Germany to Lorient. It may be assumed that she took the route northabout round the Shetlands to the Atlantic. | ||
Survivors' knowledge of "U 95's" movements date from March, 1941, when a Petty Officer prisoner joined the U-Boat in Lorient. | ||
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IV. EARLIER CRUISES OF "U 95" |
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(i) Third War Cruise of "U 95" | ||
A Petty Officer prisoner stated that "U 95" sailed from Lorient on her third war cruise at the beginning of March, 1941. It would appear that she came speedily into contact with a convoy in the North Atlantic, and the prisoner claimed that she succeeded in torpedoing four ships during night time. "U 95" was detected by the convoy's escort and suffered an attack during which 20 depth charges were counted. None of these depth charges damaged the U-Boat. With her remaining torpedoes "U 95" succeeded in torpedoing two further ships which were sailing alone. These last two ships were claimed by the prisoner to have been of approximately 6,000 tons each. | ||
(N.I.D. Note. This may be an exaggerated account of the attack on O.B.293 on 7th March, 1941. Four ships of the convoy were torpedoed, but two of these succeeded in reaching harbour. "Wolverine" and "Chelsea" dropped a number of depth charges on a contact without visible effect. A number of U-Boats took part in this attack, including "U 47" (Prien). "U 99" (Kretschmer) and "U 70" (Matz). The latter was sunk later on the same day by "Camelia" and "Arbutus.") | ||
As "U 95" had expended all her torpedoes, she put back to St. Nazaire, having been at sea some three weeks. She claimed six ships sunk, totalling 32,000 tons. | ||
The single prisoner who had taken part in this cruise stated that on arrival in St. Nazaire he was immediately drafted to "U 90" to take the place of the Boatswain of that U-Boat who had injured his foot. He believed that "U 95" remained one month in St. Nazaire, where small repairs were effected. A second Petty Officer, who joined the U-Boat at this time, stated that this was not the case and that "U 95" sailed on her fourth war cruise on 26th March, 1941. If this is so, it would appear that she only stayed long enough in St. Nazaire to complete with oil and to embark further torpedoes and fresh provisions. | ||
(ii) Fourth War Cruise of "U 95" | ||
According to a prisoner, "U 95" left St. Nazaire on 27th March, 1941, on her fourth war cruise. She again made for the North Atlantic and it was alleged that, after proceeding to an area between the Shetlands and the Faroes, she passed south of Iceland and sailed to within 400 miles of the Canadian coast. "U 95" then received orders from the Vice Admiral, U-Boats to proceed at full speed to intercept a convoy off Greenland, but this convoy appears to have passed to the southward of her and was missed. | ||
Her single success on this cruise was to sink a steamer of between 5,000 and 6,000 tons, expending two bow torpedoes. | ||
No further attack was made on this cruise and "U 95" returned to St. Nazaire still carrying 12 torpedoes after having been at sea between four and five weeks. "U 95" appears to have spent a further four weeks in St. Nazaire before leaving on her next war cruise. | ||
(iii) Fifth War Cruise of "U 95" | ||
According to prisoners, "U 95" sailed on her fifth war cruise at the beginning of June, 1941. The Petty Officer who had been drafted to "U 90" had now returned to "U 95" and took part in this cruise. |
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It was stated that "U 95" again operated in the North Atlantic and had only one encounter with an Allied ship. A large number of torpedoes were said to have been fired at this ship, all of which missed. A prisoner remarked that Schreiber was infuriated by the result of this attack, said that they had already risked enough, and ordered "U 95" to surface and close in order to spray the gun positions of the merchantman with machine-gun fire, while concentrating the fire of her 8.8-cm. gun on the bridge, at a range of about 1,000 yards. After this order had been carried out "U 95" ceased fire and waited until the officers and crew were in their boats and clear of the ship. The merchant vessel was then sunk with "U 95's" last torpedo from the stern tube. Even the release of this torpedo caused considerable anxiety as, during the previous firing, and air torpedo had been mistaken for an electric one. Prisoners stated that the officers on the bridge were anxiously gazing at their stop watches and wondering why no detonation had occurred at the | ||
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expected time. A few seconds later, however, the electric torpedo hit and sank the ship. Prisoners said that the discipline shown by the British crew was outstanding, as they refused all offers of assistance and pulled away from the U-Boat when their officers ordered them to do so. | ||
(N.I.D. Note. It has not been possible to name the ship to which this claim refers. The story appears to be exaggerated.) | ||
A Petty Officer survivor stated that the Torpedo Officer responsible for this expensive attack excessively drilled and trained the crew when he came on board, and that during exercises his results were exceptionally good. In action, however, he was a nervous man and was found to be useless. He later left the ship and underwent further training in torpedo firing, and attained the remarkably high average of 72 per cent of hits. He is now said to be an instructor in Norway, probably at the school for prospective U-Boat Commanders at Trondheim. It was stated that this officer was Oberleutnant (Lieutenant) Siegfried Hesemann, who was at this time notorious for purloining stores from French bases. | ||
As "U 95" had wasted all her torpedoes on this attack, she returned to St. Nazaire, where she arrived at the beginning of July, 1941, having been at sea one month to the day, as one prisoner claimed. | ||
(iv) Sixth War Cruise of "U 95" | ||
According to prisoners, "U 95" sailed on her sixth war cruise at the beginning of August, 1941, having been in dock for four weeks. She again proceeded to the North Atlantic. The only sinking on this cruise was a small vessel, described by one prisoner as a motor ship of about 500 tons, having no funnel, and sailing alone. This attack was made about 500 miles west of Ireland and was carried out at night. It was alleged by another prisoner that this ship was the "Trinidad." The Captain was stated to be Portuguese and he was ordered to board "U 95" to show his papers, which proved to be of Panamanian origin. Among the papers was found a delivery bill signed by a Dublin ship's chandler and, although intelligible conversation was difficult, it was suspected that the Captain's home was also in Ireland. On account of these facts it was decided to take no chances and the ship was sunk by 30 rounds from the 8.8-cm. gun after the crew of 16 had taken to two lifeboats. The crew of "U 95" claimed that they had later read in the newspapers that the survivors of this ship had been picked up and landed in Ireland. This sinking was stated to have taken place about ten days after the start of "U 95's" cruise. | ||
It would appear, from prisoners' statements, that "U 95" was attacked by a Sunderland aircraft on this cruise, about eight to ten days before she returned to port. It was alleged that three or four bombs were dropped shortly after the U-Boat had submerged. Only such minor damage as the blowing of a few fuzes was caused. | ||
(N.I.D. Note. "Trinidad" was sunk on 5th September in about 48-1/2° N. and 15° W. Sunderland attacks were made (a) on 8th September in about 47° 04' N. and 11° 37' W., (b) on 10th September in 46° 23' N. and 11° 22' W. Neither of these positions appear very likely for a U-Boat still ten days from the end of its patrol; but "Trinidad's" position agrees to some extent.) | ||
After being at sea approximately six weeks for her one success, "U 95" returned to Lorient, arriving on, or about, 18th December, 1941. Here "U 95" put into dry dock, where she lay for three weeks while Diesel and other repairs were carried out. Her total stay in Lorient amounted to about seven weeks, and during this time the crew were granted periods of leave up to 18 days each. | ||
On one occasion during this stay there was an air attack and "U 95" was moved to a U-Boat shelter which she occupied alone. Prisoners said that no special precautions were taken to camouflage her while she was lying outside the shelter. | ||
While "U 95" was in Lorient Oberleutnant zur See Hesemann was appointed away and it seems probable that Oberleutnant zur See Rudolph now relieved him as First Lieutenant. Here Sub-Lieutenant (M.A.) Kraupa-Tuskany joined the ship and other changes took place among the ratings. | ||
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V. SEVENTH AND LAST CRUISE OF "U 95" |
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According to prisoners, "U 95" sailed from Lorient on 16th November, 1941, at 1600 hours, upon her seventh and last cruise. It was stated that one other 500-ton U-Boat accompanied "U 95" as she left harbour, but this U-Boat was not bound for the Mediterranean and parted company almost immediately. An escort of three patrol vessels was provided for the first few hours of the voyage. | ||
It is not known whether "U 95" sailed under sealed orders, as in the case of "U 433," but prisoners were fully aware that they were bound for an Italian base when sunk. | ||
The voyage to Gibraltar passed off without incident and at approximately 0130 on the night of 24th November, 1941, "U 95" slipped through the Straits on the surface. Prisoners stated that they passed through the middle of the Straits and saw searchlights from the Rock which did not, however, sweep their U-Boat. | ||
"U 95" remained lurking in the Eastern Approaches to Gibraltar for the next four days, making no attack during this time. | ||
VI. SINKING OF "U 95" |
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A terse signal from the Netherlands submarine "O 21" stated that, while returning to Gibraltar at 0030 on 28th November, 1941, when in position 36° 21' N. and 03° 27' W., a German U-Boat was sighted astern. The U-Boat followed the Netherlands submarine and challenged her. "O 21" fired two stern torpedoes, one of which sank the U-Boat. Four officers, including the Captain, and eight ratings were rescued out of a total complement of 45. | ||
According to prisoners' statements, "U 95" had sighted "O 21" at 2300 hours on 27th November, 1941. Neither lookouts nor officers could make up their minds about the identity of the strange submarine , her angle of inclination as seen from the conning tower of "U 95" making this exceptionally difficult. Schreiber proceeded to stalk his quarry, not caring to risk an attack until he could be convinced that he was not attempting to sink a sister U-Boat. Shortly before 0020 three ratings were ordered to man the 2-cm. gun, and a signalman was instructed to flash a challenge with a pocket torch. Scarcely had this been done when the tracks of two torpedoes were seen on the starboard bow and rudder was put hard a-starboard. The first torpedo did not explode, but possibly grazed the boat; the second struck "U 95" on the stern. There was a blinding explosion which blew most of the men on the conning tower into the water. It was stated that "U 95" sank within six or seven seconds, it being presumed that her stern had been blown off. Not a man from below decks survived, with the exception of the Boatswain's Mate, who was proceeding on deck, and was blown through the conning tower hatch. | ||
(N.I.D. Note. In fact, "O 21" fired two torpedoes independently. The first was aimed directly at the U-Boat and apparently missed to starboard. The U-Boat's alteration of course was observed and the second torpedo was fired, aimed 2° before the U-Boat's bow. The range was 2,000 yards.) | ||
A graphic account of the sinking of "U 95" was given by the Boatswain's Mate during interrogation, when he made the following statement: "The Old Man said I might go on the best watch from 1800 to 2000 hours. He was a queer customer, but he knew quite a lot about his job, and he and I got along very well together; I used to give him some assistance when he was taking bearings of the stars and so on; I used to write down the figures and help a little with the calculations, and get out the charts, and help him to plot the course, and so on. 'Well,' he said to me, 'that's the end of our keeping watch together. The new Lieutenant is to take the watch,' When we had been at sea ten or 12 days he said: 'The First Lieutenant will go ashore in Italy and then I'll see to it that we get our watch together again.' Then he said: 'The First Lieutenant is going on watch tomorrow morning at 0400, instead of the Chief Quartermaster,' When I came off watch I happened to meet him. I said: 'Shall we have a little celebration this evening?' He replied: 'I'll be along later,' He brought a glass of brandy and we sat down; there were four of us , and we played 'Skat'. When I go on watch at 0400, I usually turn in at ten or half-past - by that time, after the news, I am tired enough to fall asleep at 2300, and wake up at 0400. At 2300 we were just | ||
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going to stop, after one more hand, when suddenly the order came through the speaking tube, spoken in a rather quiet voice: 'Lower deck action stations' We thought it was a joke. Then we heard that someone on deck had seen a shadow, and a rating in the conning tower, returning from his smoke, came in and said: 'There's something happening.' Then they all came along and nobody said a word, the control room was quite quiet. All of a sudden the loud-speaker said: 'Lower deck, action stations' No. 1 Boatswain's Mate was asleep at that moment; No. 3 was due to go out on watch. He came out of his bunk and said: 'What's up?' I put on my leather jacket and quickly put my cigarette case in my pocket, folded back the seat, and went up into the conning tower. Then No. 1 said: 'Take your life jacket, were in for something.' At that moment I had no idea where mine was; under my pillow, perhaps. Anyway, I said: 'Time to fetch that later,' and as I went into the conning tower the order came from the control room: 'Port!' My God, I thought, what's happening now? The men forward opened the torpedo tube caps; you can imagine how they ran forward to open them. Then the show started. What sort of boat was she? Italian? German? There had been three other boats with us. In the meantime we got the order: 'Close the caps,' then again: 'Open the caps,' and then another order to close them. The men forward were starting to curse. Then, for the third time, they wanted to fire. The order was given again: 'Open the caps.' As we were about to make our fourth approach they spotted us before we came too close. It was a beautiful moonlight night, just three days before full moon. You could see your way about better than by day, when it is often a bit misty down there at that time of year. You could see the coast and the dark mountains better than by day. When we were seen we were in an unfavorable position with the moon behind us. They could see us in the moonlight better than we could see them. When we still held our fire, they drew away and showed their stern; so we challenged them two or three times in Morse. The Captain ordered: 'Guns' crew, clear away'! As a matter of fact we always had the guns ready, and the ammunition lay ready below in the control room; it always lies there. So the first thing was to get the gun loaded and sights on the target. For the time being I was to stay in the conning tower in case we began to fire. I had my recorder with me in the conning tower as messenger. He was there to take notes, because I have to write down the data when we fire. He said we must hoist a few rounds to the upper deck, when the order came to fire. | ||
While they were getting the gun ready, we went ahead at slow speed. Then the Captain said: 'Now try some gunfire,' and we went full speed ahead. At that moment the Dutch fired their torpedoes and we couldn't see them easily on account of the moonlight. Luckily the Junior Officer saw it; he has good eyes trained in flying. He shouted: 'Torpedo track to port!' The Quartermaster, who was standing forward at the port lookout, pushed him out of the way, leapt to the bridge rail, had a look over the side and put the helm hard over to starboard. Suddenly I heard a hissing noise - if that one had hit us amidships or forward I shouldn't have been able to get out; it was a very nasty feeling! I heard a bang aft and we supposed that the first torpedo had just grazed along our side. The second one came a bit further over to port, so we turned to starboard and turned, so to speak, right into the course of the torpedo. The torpedo must have exploded right on the screw. There was a loud report and I thought my head would split. I looked down and saw a red flame and a fearful cloud of smoke. I pulled myself up and at that moment water began to come in. I was outside. I looked round and there were a few men aft and a few to our right. The Captain shouted: 'Keep together!' Then he began to count us all and call our names to see who was there. He asked me: 'Has anybody else come out?' And I said: 'No, I'm the last.' Then we began swimming. I had completely lost all sense of the enemy's position. I could only see the moon and the water and, faintly, in the distance, the coast. All at once I saw the black bow of a ship in front of me. My greatest fear as I swam towards the ship, was that they might open fire with machine-guns. Then the first of us got on board and I heard them speaking German. Three men pulled me up on the deck. | ||
All survivors spoke gratefully of the treatment they received on board the Netherlands submarine which brought them to Gibraltar. | ||
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APPENDIX |
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List of Crew of "U 95 " |
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(i) Survivors: |
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(ii) Casualties: |
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(iii) Total Crew: |
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(C 43833) 325 2/42 |
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