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How Britain Gained the "Knowledge" My U-boat men, six years of U-boat warfare lie behind us. You have fought like lions. A crushing superiority has com - pressed us into a narrow area. The continuation of the strug - gle is impossible from the bases that remain. U-boat men, unbroken in your war-like courage, you are laying down your arms after a heroic fight which knows no equal. In reverent memory we think of our comrades who have sealed their loy - alty to the Fiihrer and Fatherland with their death. Comrades, maintain in the future your U-boat spirit with which you have fought at sea, bravely and unflinchingly, dur - ing the long welfare of our Fatherland. Long live Germany! Your Grand Admiral. How Britain Gained the "Knowledge" most ideally placed of all the Allies to deal with a Nazi haven. It My U-boat men, six years of U-boat warfare lie behind us. would have been the best informed about the missing U-boats due You have fought like lions. A crushing superiority has com - to its southern hemisphere territories and an empire that, though pressed us into a narrow area. The continuation of the strug - crumbling, was still the largest the world had ever seen. gle is impossible from the bases that remain. U-boat men, Intelligence soon substantiated the suspicions with the unbroken in your war-like courage, you are laying down your interrogations of the captains of both the U-977 and U-530. arms after a heroic fight which knows no equal. In reverent Captain Wilhelm Bernhard, commanding the U-530, claimed memory we think of our comrades who have sealed their loy - that under Operation Valkyrie-2 his U-boat set off to the Antarctic alty to the Fiihrer and Fatherland with their death. on 13 April 1945. Under interrogation he divulged just what the Comrades, maintain in the future your U-boat spirit with mission had involved. Supposedly, 16 crew members had landed which you have fought at sea, bravely and unflinchingly, dur - on the Antarctic shore and deposited numerous boxes that were ing the long welfare of our Fatherland. Long live Germany! apparently documents and relics from the Third Reich. Heinz Your Grand Admiral. Scheffer, captain of the U-977, also claimed that his U-boat had — Grand Admiral Donitz, 4 May 1945, spirited relics away from the Reich. However, less plausible is ordering his U-boats to start their return journey. the theory that the U-boat delivered the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun to the South Pole, and other theories that the Holy Grail With 16 German U-boats sunk in the South Atlantic area and the Spear of Destiny were also taken to the Antarctic only between October 1942 and September 1944, and with most of cloud the truth. those sunk engaged in covert activities, Britain had long since What does help substantiate their story is the little-known fact been aware of Neuschwabenland being a possible base, but it was (which Pravda reported on 16 January 2003) that, in 1983, not until after the war in Europe had Special Services seized a confidential ended that the world awoke to the letter that Captain Scheffer wrote to possibility. Captain Bernhard, and in the letter On 18 July 1945, newspapers Another mystery that has never Sche fer pleads to Bernhard not to around the world focused their head- been solved is that of the cargo ublish his memoirs in too profound lines on Antarctica. The New York a detail and, in fact, states his intent nes ae (Ataretle Haven of mercury contained inside oe word not to know the uth eported", whilst others claimed that . . "We all made an oath to keep the "Hitler had been at the South Pole".* U-859 which was sunk In 1944 secret; we did nothing wrong: we These headlines which shook the by the British Royal Navy just obeyed orders and fought for our world were based, in part, on fact. oved Germany and its survival. The news reports and events happen- submarine HMS Trenchant in the Please think again; isn't it better to ing in South America made the world Java Sea, so far from home with icture everything as a fable? What sit up and take notice, not least the results do you plan to achieve with military forces of the United States such an anomalous cargo... your revelations? Think about it, and Great Britain. please."’ On 10 June 1945, an unmarked Another mystery that has never German U-boat surrendered to the been solved is that of the cargo of Argentine Navy; no further details were released. The where- mercury contained inside U-859 which was sunk on 23 September abouts of at least a hundred other U-boats were still a mystery, as 1944 by the British Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant in the renowned historian Basil Liddell Hart noted: "During the early Strait of Malacca in the Java Sea, so far from home with such an months of 1945 the size of the U-boat fleet was still increasing... anomalous cargo—a cargo that could be utilised as a fuel source. In March, the U-boat fleet reached its peak strength of 463 The survivors divulged to their British captors what they had been [emphasis added]."* carrying, and that information would have definitely raised eye- The mystery deepened when, on 10 July 1945, the German brows when their find was relayed to British Intelligence. U-530 surrendered at Mar del Plata, Argentina, and it only took The case of U-859 was not an isolated one. Many German U- eight days for the world to know. However, the U-boat mystery boats were active throughout the world; many supplied the did not end with U-530; just over a month later, on 17 August Japanese throughout the war and, strangely, even after the 1945, U-977 also surrendered at Mar del Plata. Even more curi- German capitulation. In July 1945, an unmarked German U-boat, ous was the fact that the same month, U-465 was scuttled off supposedly part of a secret convoy, delivered a new invention to Patagonia. Japanese research and development units. The Japanese con- Only three months after the Kreigsmarine's U-boat's strength structed and activated the device. The device soared into the sky had peaked, the first of the unaccounted-for U-boats appeared. where, however inauspiciously, it burst into flames. It was never Unfavourably though, historians tend to gloss over the enigma of _dared to be built again. the missing U-boats and Hart also offers no explanation other than The British Navy, having already retrieved many of the U-boats to explain the 362 known U-boats' fate: "After Germany surren- that had surrendered in Norway, was well aware that many more dered in May, 159 U-boats surrendered but a further 203 were had fled, especially if the tale reported in the Latin American scuttled by their crews. That was characteristic of the U-boat press about a German U-boat convoy totally annihilating the crews' stubborn pride and unshakeable morale." British destroyers that engaged the convoy is to be believed. On 2 With so many U-boats missing—a minimum of 40 were May 1945, El Mercurio and Der Weg claimed that the final naval estimated missing at the end of the War—and with Britain still battle of World War II between the Kreigsmarine and the Royal possessing one of the world's largest navies and strategically based territories in the Falklands and Antarctica, Britain was the Continued on page 77 — Grand Admiral Dénitz, 4 May 1945, ordering his U-boats to start their return journey. Another mystery that has never been solved is that of the cargo of mercury contained inside U-859 which was sunk in 1944 44 = NEXUS Java Sea, so far from home with such an anomalous cargo... Continued on page 77 www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2005