Technical hitches and Germanic efficiency


Wednesday March 17, when the first elements of his convoy came at lIle-Napolon, Peter-Erich Cremer was amazed by recognizing the silhouette of Admiral Doenitz in person on the dockside, in the middle of a great police deployment. The admiral congratulated him for the absolutely perfect way in which the transit had proceeded until now, and asked him how the continuation could be envisaged :


-        Admiral, to be honest, the next days will be the most difficult. Until now, the locks were sufficiently distant and could not slow us down. But tomorrow and even more the following day, we will no more count in kilometres travelled, but in locks crossed. KL Klein organized all the locks crossing expertly, and I know he got a lot of headaches until he found a satisfactory solution for those days. But what worries me the most are not the material difficulties or the capacities of my men, its the possibility of an attack. We will soon leave quiet Alsace for occupied France, and the Heer could not give me all what I wished, in spite of his last-minute efforts. From their point of view, with the situation in Russia, we represent nothing.

- I concur with you, and if I had could detach some marine fusiliers from the bases of Brest or Lorient to accompany you, I had done it. They are already too few over there. But I trust you : until now, each time you took risks, they were paying.

Doenitz took time to exchange some words with the sailors who arrived, before returning to his Ju-52 on the nearby airfield of Habsheim. The pilot had had only to modify a little the flying plan intended to bring the Admiral from Paris to Berlin, where he was awaited the following day.

The young captain of Heer came then, always limping slightly. Cremer proposed him to have dinner with the sailors, and he accepted immediately.

- The other day, in Belfort, I did not even have the opportunity to correctly introduce myself, Herr Kapitnleutnant. My name is Dieter Thunau.

- Dont be worry, Dieter, and drop the rank, we are in the same boat !
-        Yes, to pull the paddles together...

-        " After that, the conversation was more serious. Thunau was going to deploy his meagre troops in Valdieu the following day, approximately 24 hours before our transit. When I asked him if he could also put some men to keep the intermediate locks, it answered me that that was impossible for him, having in all only about twenty NCOs and corporals. All the privates had only between two and ten weeks of seniority, and put them by pairs leaved to themselves in the country would be perfectly useless. At best they would not see anything, and in the worst case they would fall asleep or take refuge in a nearby caf. I could only agree. " (PE Cremer)

Thanks to the visit from Doenitz, the morale was high on March 18th morning. The convoy set out again and, up to 10 hours AM, all occurred very well, until the second lock of Brunstatt.

" I was at this time in downtown Mulhouse, precisely where the canal passes in front of the railway station, when an high-pitched voice erupted from the radio of the tug boat in which I had taken seat. The midshipman in charge of the transit at the second lock of Brunstatt, thrown into panic, cried for assistance, a submarine having just demolished a door of the lock. I ordered immediately the tugmaster to approach the bank, and I jumped on the tow path, risking breaking my neck. I hailed a motor bike of the police on patrol, jumped in the motorcycle sidecar and came a few minutes later at the location of the incident. What had happened ?

The tug boat SR-4 was behind the U-834, gently pushing it since about fifty meters, and with about the same distance to go, and, at the same time, the door of the lock started to open, when the engine of the tug suddenly surged, although the lever was always on the idle position, propelling the submarine more and more quickly. The safety mechanism prohibiting engaging the reverse when the engine was not idling prevented the master of the tug boat to put into reverse, and the mechanic had to cut the feeder pipe with a saw in order to turn the engine off! The evil was made. Running on its inertia, the submarine violently ran up against the half open doors of the lock, whose wood could not resist.

During the time where the present witnesses explained me all that, the workshop truck of the Navy and those of the Engineering came on site. Each man knew what it had to do. The Lieutenant mechanic went up on board of SR-4, where the engine access panels were already open. And for the Engineering, he positioned a first crane just above the demolished lock gate. I ordered the SR-11, which was awaiting with his two submarines in tow, to temporarily unhook his whales, and to move back the U-834 for about twenty meters and also to clear the SR-4. The Genius immediately positioned a second crane truck in front of the submarine and sat up a coffer dam to close the canal, before pumping all the water between the demolished door and the coffer dam. While his men set up all their material, the lieutenant of the Engineering affirmed me that about 4 or 5 hours will be needed, 6 at the great maximum, to bring the lock again in service. All would depend on the damage sustained by the hinges, and it was necessary to empty all the water to reach those normally submerged. At midday, it was time to assess the situation with the involved officers :.

- I dismounted the fuel injection pump and I opened it to understand why the engine went on full throttle, said the lieutenant mechanic. The internal regulation mechanism was broken. I do not know if it was the result of a deficient mounting, or from a bad component, or deliberately sabotage. It will be necessary to inquire by Bosch, in Stuttgart. The engine apparently did not suffer, and one of my men is mounting a replacement pump. It should have finished now, since I hear an engine starting...

Relieved to not have lost the tug boat, I could now hear the officer from Engineering :

- We finished dismounting and removing the broken door. As the doors are standardized on all the locks of the canal, we will set up the replacement door which we have with us just afterwards. The hinges are not damaged, that will go quickly. Then, we will pump the water in the other direction and remove the coffer dam. In approximately two hours, you will be able to resume your transit. In addition, I scould yesterday evening lend a half-dozen of power generating units and banks of spotlights. That will enable you to continue by night by illuminating the locks.

- For transiting the locks by night, it is also necessary to hold account of the tiredness of the men ; the manoeuvres are delicate, we had the proof of that this morning. But two more hours every evening will be useful. And for you, Franz, will that not disturb too much the operations ?

- We will of course not go as far as envisaged today. Tomorrow evening, our first boats will not have crossed the staircase of Valdieu yet. At best, they will be committed inside, if we do not have another incident and if we use the projectors from Engineering. Fortunately we did not lose a tugboat, it would have been necessary to remake all the instructions sheets for the tug boats and for the operations at the locks, that would have taken many hours. And for U-834, outside a little painting job, nothing would be needed.

We had had chance in our misfortune, and, thanks to the engagement of all, we had limited the damage. I decided to give the first boats of the convoy the order to restart at 14h00, but it was not possible to do it effectively before 15h00 : the removal of the coffer dam took more time than envisaged, and it became deformed during the operation " (PE Cremer)


The evening, the head of the convoy could join Hagenbach. On the about twenty locks on the program of the day, only a dozen had been crossed. The power generating units from Engineering ran until late in the night, in order to regroup the last submarines with the first ones. Two of the trucks of the Engineering departed out again for Mulhouse, to find another replacement door, as well as another coffer dam.