U-boat Archive - BDU KTB PG30323

Excerpt of F.d.U./B.d.U.'S War Log

1 - 15 May 1943

PG30323

The German Naval High Command
Second Div. Naval War Staff/B.d.U. Ops.
Ref. 184 A1.
			3.May 1943.

Operational Orders "Marco Polo" for U 511.

I.	Task:
	1)	Voyage to Japan to hand over submarine to the Japanese.
	2)	Behavior on passage as laid down in Operational Order No. 54, Commander's Manual, Standing Orders and Permanent Orders of B.d.U.

II.	Method:
	3)	Boat to be equipped with goods to be transported, printed matter etc. in accordance with orders already issued. Crew's personal equipment to be decided by the Flotilla. It is intended to repatriate the crew speedily by Italian transport submarine or by a blockade runner (in the latter case the men would be transferred to a German submarine in the Atlantic.
	4)	Vice-Admiral Nomura and 6 passengers will be taken on board.
	5)	Departure:
		a)	After boat is operationally ready the goods to be transported and the passengers will be taken on board about 10 May.
		b)	Boat will replenish with about 30 cubic meters of fuel from U 460 in Naval Grid Square DG, she will then proceed south via ES 80 and JJ 40, subsequently on the shortest route to 0⁰ 0' and 89⁰ 0' East, from this point direct course to Rendezvous at 6⁰ 10' North 94⁰ 50' East.
		c)	Boat will be picked up by a Japanese ship (type not yet known) 2 hours after dawn on X-day, this ship will escort her to Penang. 1 hour after dawn on X-day the submarine will be picked up and given anti-submarine escort by 1 carrier-borne plane (monoplane single engine). Plane will fire at least 10 red stars. The recognition signals to be used by the submarine as suggested by German authorities.
		d)	If necessary, boat may run in to Sabang before entering Penang. If it cannot be estimated previously and reported to home port by radio, the boat may send her arrival report when at the rendezvous.
		e)	If any major repairs are required, Singapore (Shonan) is to be used.
		f)	1 Japanese Liaison Officer will be embarked at Penang, he will give navigational advice and bring the necessary charts. Subsequently, the submarine will proceed to Kure. The Naval Attache, Vice Admiral Wennecker will give instructions for the handing over of the submarine in Kure.

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		g)	B.d.U. Ops will control the arrival at harbors.

III.	Behavior en route:
	6)	Attacks permitted within the limits of the general rules laid down in Operational Order No. 54 and Standing Order No. 101 on independents only, not on convoys, or battleships and carriers.
	7)	East of Capetown the same permission to attack stands for an area bounded by the line running from
			45⁰ S to 25⁰ E
			via 28⁰ S to 70⁰ E.
			via 20⁰ S to 70⁰ E.
			via 0⁰ N 65⁰ E to the west as far as the coast.
	8)	It has not yet been decided whether the submarine is to be given freedom to attack east of 70⁰ East.
	9)	Boat must expect Japanese submarines and auxiliary cruisers east of 70⁰ East. They will be forbidden to attack submarines during the period in which U 511 is on passage.
	10)	Until the waters off Sumatra are reached, enemy units of all types must be expected, also planes. To date, one air attack has been made on Sabang. There is danger from mines off Singapore (Schonan). U.S.A. and Dutch submarines operate in the South China Sea and the waters around Japan.

IV.	Communication regulations: Recognition signals.
	11)	See Appendix - Communications Order.

V.	General:
	12)	Only the printed matter required for the voyage, or that which is to be handed over to the Japanese is to be carried. When the boat reaches her port of destination, she is to give all papers to the German Naval Attache other than those servicing instructions which must be on board when the boat is handed over. The Flotilla will make a list of the boat's papers and of the plant and gear on board. This list will show all the printed matter carried by the boat divided into:
		a)	Papers to be handed over to the Naval Attache
		b)	Papers to be left on board.
		One copy of the list will go to the Commanding Officer, one to the Flotilla and one to Second Division Naval War Staff. Second Division Naval War Staff will make any necessary alterations to the list by radio.
	13)	It has still to be decided whether the torpedoes already in Penang are to be handed over to the base.
	14)	Instructions for the stay in Japan and repatriation of the crew will be issued, by the German Naval Attache.


			For B.d.U. Chief of Operational Division
			(Signed): GODT.

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	Appendix for Operational Order
	"Marco Polo".

Communications Order for "Marco Polo".

Radio Programs:

As Second Division Naval War Staff/B.d.U. Ops will control the boat to her port of destination, communications between boat and Operational Control will be effected via German radio stations and services as a general rule.

Until boat reaches the Indian Ocean all communications are to be made via submarine services in accordance with Communications Manual for Submarines (NB - Uboote).

While proceeding through the Indian Ocean a change to radio service "Bruno" will be ordered.

Communications on service "Bruno" will be radiated on the service Group "Bruno I" (beam transmitter) (see Appendix I) and on the service group "Bruno III (see Communication Manual for submarines) for extended short and long distance services from Norddeich (Erweiterter Nah - und Weidienst Norddeich).

Messages to and from submarines on service "Bruno" will be coded up in groups of four using "Aegir" cypher (identification groups!). These groups will be consecutively numbered in the text, so that the boat will know definitely whether she has picked up the entire message.

All communications will be radiated at least 4 times on radio services "Bruno I" and "Bruno III" , i.e. once after reception in radio room, then twice within 24 hours, and a fourth time between 24 and 48 hours after the original transmission.

All groups of the communications being radiated will be made twice if the transmitting time allows.

The boat will transmit her messages to Operational Control on any wave of radio service "Bruno III" that seems favorable.

Short signals, short weather reports etc. will be given a routine acknowledgement by Norddeich interspersing the four figures of the time of receipt in German standard time twice running during its current transmission on all frequencies. Radio messages will be repeated once by Norddeich as rapidly as possible after receipt.

When the message is garbled and requires lengthy decoding, only the preamble of the message will be repeated at first.

The Naval Attache, Tokio, has set a receiving watch on radio service "Bruno" and is equipped with deciphering material "Aegir".

If, contrary to expectations, the boat, when east of 90⁰ East, has absolutely no transmitting communication with home, she may send messages via Choshi Radio to the Naval Attache, Tokio ("Aegir" in groups of five).

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For procedures see radio instructions "Kirsch Bluete" (Appendix 2).

The following call signs were allocated for radio instructions "Kirschbluete".

IDA	4	DORA
ULRICH	1	EMIL
DORA	1	VIKTOR
TONI	3	CAESAR

Naval Attache Tokio will pass on messages to Second Division, Naval War Staff.

Naval Attache Tokio will route messages he may send to U 511 via Berlin to be radiated on service "Bruno".

In urgent cases, however, Naval Attache Tokio can pass his messages straight to the boat via Tokio Radio. Messages will be coded by "Aegir" in groups of five and transmitted by Tokio Radio in accordance with radio instructions "Kirschbluete".

The routine times of the "one-way service" from Tokio Radio must therefore always be covered when the boat is east of 90⁰ East.

5a)

When using "Aegir" cypher for radio messages in groups of five in traffic via Tokio Radio or Choshi Radio use procedure as set out in Signaling Instructions II Para 1354 (Nachrichtenvorschrift) with the following deviation:

Also include final identification groups. Same groups to be used for the final identification groups as for the book identification groups at the beginning, but coded with the coding table (Tausch tafel) for the following day, so that the upper and lower groups look different.

The international traffic with Choshi Radio or from Tokio Radio is to be sent or taken by the "Debeg" operator (T.N. specially trained by the German Radio Telegraphy Company) who has been included in the crew specially for this purpose. In addition, Japanese state traffic with Japanese procedure signals etc. goes out over Choshi Radio and Tokio Radio. This traffic will not be understood by the boat and is of no importance.

If Admiral Nomura wishes to send messages to his own officers using his own cypher the following method can be used.

The coded Japanese message (divided up into groups of 4 or 5) is to be given to the Commander. Message will be sent home (if necessary to Naval Attache Tokio) in the form of a German radio message, i.e. German text to begin with (for example: A Japanese telegram for ......... follows....) then the coded Japanese text as book Groups at the end of the Japanese telegram, a German dummy group to act as a decipher check. Finally recode all with code M.

The message will be passed to the desired address by Second Division, Naval War Staff (B.d.U. Ops.) (or by Naval Attache Tokio).

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B.	Recognition Signal Procedure:
	8)	The following arrangements have been made for recognition signal procedure "Marco Polo" with Japanese naval forces and land bases prior to arrival at port of destination:
		a)	The Japanese will use letter group "Hans Richard" for both callsign and reply. U 511 will call and answer with "Richard Karl". The first to sight the other will transmit call sign.
			The letters will be sent by day or night as morse characters with an appropriate projector lamp.
		b)	The Japanese naval forces that are to escort U 511 will set distant signals as distinguishing mark, i.e. truncated cone, small surface pointing down, with a ball below.

C.	Fitting out with Cypher material:
	9)	Cypher material "Triton" General and Officer's, valid until August 1943 inclusive.
	10)	Cypher material "Aegir" General and Officer's, valid until August 1943 inclusive.
	11)	Flotilla will give instructions on keyword order "Jupiter". Keyword order itself is not to be carried.
	12)	The boat must be fitted out with all cypher material and communications service manuals required for the operation, except:
		a)	Navy Signal Book MDV 150
		b)	Aircraft recognition table MDV 58
		c)	Reconnaissance and fighter table
		d)	Key sheets for Reconnaissance and fighter table
		e)	Appendix 3 to "Special Orders for G.A.F. Radio Procedure"
		f)	Communications regulations of German Naval Group Command North.
		These confidential books are to be handed in before the submarine leaves port.
	13)	When the submarine reaches her port of destination, she is to hand over to the Naval Attache Tokio all confidential books & papers dealing with cypher, radio and recognition signal procedure or with the tactical use of gear and equipment.
		The description and servicing instructions of all the communication and location gear on board are to be left in the submarine when she is handed over.

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D.	Submission of Reports:
	14)	After the boat has entered port of destination she is to submit a report on the events of the voyage so far as the communications and location service is concerned. The report is to go to B.d.U. via the Naval Attache Tokio.
		Points of special interest:
		a)	How the foregoing communications arrangement worked. Defects?
		b)	Up to which area could the submarine program transmitters be heard? Short and very long wave. Best program or wavelength?
		c)	Difficulties in picking up messages on radio service "Bruno".
		d)	Difficulties in transmitting messages from boat to home.
		e)	Events connected with traffic with Choshi Radio or when picking up messages from Tokio Radio.
		f)	Suggestions for submarine communications service in any similar operations
			i) as far as Penang
			ii) as far as port of destination.

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Appendix 1 for Communications

Order "Marco Polo".

Beam Transmitters:

Table of times and frequencies.

	1 October to 31 March				1 April to 30 September
Transmitting times	North Atlantic	South Atlantic	Indian Ocean	South Africa		North Atlantic	South Atlantic	Indian Ocean	South Africa

0110	DFP	DFL	DGM	DGN		DGH	DFL	DGM	DGL
0630	DFP	DFL	DFQ	DGL		DGH	DFL	DFQ	DGL
1310	DFB	DGR	DFG	DGL		DFB	DGR	DFQ	DGZ
2000	DGH	DFL	DGM	DGZ		DFB	DGR	DGM	DGZ

Frequencies.

DFB	17,520	Kc/s	17.12.	meters
DFL	10,850	"	27.65	"
DFP	7,917.5	"	37.89	"
DFQ	18,700	"	16.04	"
DGH	10,440	"	28.74	"
DGL	12,035	"	24.93	"
DGM	9,795	"	3-.63	"
DGN	7,490	"	40.05	"
DGR	17,395	"	17.25	"
DGZ	14,605	"	20.54	"

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