| Courtesy Photos The surrendered German submarine U-505, at left, is en route to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. At right, a German Air Force officer, one of several aboard, leaves the surrendered boat U-234. CREW WAS HELD AT PNSY PRISON (This is one in a series of articles marking the 50th anniversary of V-E Day and the Allied victory in Europe during World War II.) By Lars Trodson, Herald Staff PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARD In mid-May, 1945, German U-boat commanders were stunned to receive orders that announnced the end of the war. They were told – without necessarily believing it – to surrender to the nearest allied port. One of those ports was Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. During five days in May, four German boats were surrendered by their commanding officers. The events attracted world-wide attention. The boats, identified by their hull numbers, were the U-805, U-873, U-1228, U-234. The U-234 contained mysterious and dangerous cargo: a shipment of uranium and flasks of mercury. The Navy yard, which had been sending submarines out to sea at a frantic pace since the war began, suddenly found itself taking submarines in – albeit the very onces the American Navy was trying to destroy. May 15: The first boat, the U-805, gave itself up at 8 a.m. just off Fort McClary in Kittery, Maine. Seven Naval and Coast Guard vessels, including a U.S. submarine, escorted the boat into port. A photograph, taken by a lensman for the International news Photo service, was accompanied by a caption that read the faces of the now-prisoners-of-war German crew. They were "surly, expressionless." A contemporaneous account of the surrender by Charlie Gray, a reporter for WHEB in Portsmouth, told it like this as the German crew was taken off the boat. "An American Naval officer asked the ranking officer if he would care to say anything to the press or radio men and the answer was "Nein." Before the naval officer could ask the next German prisoner, "the word had been passed along to say nothing, and an officer turned his head and spread the word to all the other prisoners." Under provisions of the Geneva Convention, each prisoner must be asked if he wants to say anything for publication. The crew was taken, in a decision apparently made at the last minute, to the naval prison on the shipyard grounds, which in those days was fully operational. A small piece of one of the German U-boats ended up in the hands of a small Portsmouth boy by the name of Dan Britt. Britt is now well known as a landscape artist. Britt's next door neighbor, Jim Watson, was a member of the Coast Guard who helped escort in one of the ships. He brought a Nazi naval flag over to the young Britt as a souvenir. Replete with bold fields of red and black stripes surrounding a swastika, the flag was symbolic of a much hated enemy. An attempt to air it out on the clothesline in the backyard was rejected by Britt's mother. "The situation was too tense," said Britt, who was 7-years old at the time. He was well aware what the flag represented. Britt also made an ill-advised attempt to run it up the flag pole when he was in junior high, a little bit of high-jinx he would have rather avoided. On the hem of the flag is the name of the manufacturer, Plulza & Broh, which was located in the town of Bielitz. The flag is 80 X 135 centimeters in size. For years the flag languished in a box, motheaten, but it has now become part of the permanent exhibit at the shipyard's naval museum and visitor center. The situation did not go unnoticed by naval authorities. "(They) expressed considerable concern over the fact that too many souvenirs were finding their way from the four captive submarines into the city," Gray wrote. "Dextrose pills, revolvers, canned goods, parts of uniforms and many other trinkets made their way into the city." Britt's father was given a pack of cigarettes. May 16: The U-873 proceeded directly toward a buoy in Portsmouth harbor at 2 p.m. Another boat, the U-1228, is scheduled to arrive at 9 p.m. Both boats were headed toward Bermuda but were rerouted at the last minute to Portsmouth. All three subs were 245 feet long weighed in at 740 tons and carry four 21-inch torpedo tubes forward and one aft. The ships are estimated to have a surface speed of about 18 knots and submerged speed of 8 knots. Gray notes that the surrender of the 873 and 1228 went smoothly "Formalities were relaxed some what today," he reported. That would change later in the day, when the news of the biggest surrender yet went over the teletype in the Navy yard newsroom. 7:20 p.m. the wire service reports: "A German submarine which was headed for Japan with three high ranking Luftwaffe generals aboard… has surrendered to the United States Navy off Newfoundland." The story also said the boat, U-234, was carrying the bodies of two dead Japanese soldiers who had committed hari-kari. The boat, a 1600-ton vessel, also was reportedly carrying many important charts and equipment. "Newsmen were agog with excitement over this announcement and Saturday will be a red letter day when the U-234 arrives at 4 p.m.," Gray wrote. The 234 first indicated it wanted to surrender May 9, the day after V-E Day. The boat actually arrived at 7:30 a.m. May 19. Gray tells this story: The sub's commander, Kapitan-leutnant Johann Heinrick Fehler, complained as soon as he stepped off the boat, saying he had been treated like a gangster. The dead Japanese soldiers were never recovered. The captured prisoners, remanded to the jail on the yard., were served the regular prison fair of lamb stew, steamed rice and tomato salad, pickled beets, onions, corn bread and butter, stewed peaches and tea. One German officer refused to eat cafeteria style with his men, but he later persuaded. Later, the commander of the U-873, Kapitanleutnant Steinhoff, committed suicide in Boston. The fate of the uranium, taken off the U-234, is unclear. The mercury, also found stashed away in the hull of the 234, was shipped to Washington. Gray ended his 1945 account with this cautionary note: "Most of the venomous Nazi leaders are dead. But, is Nazidom dead? Only time will tell." |