Okay, here the Babelfish translation of Jean's work, with some obvious translation mistakes corrected in the subtitles.
Please note that there is still a lot to add (repairs on the German side, way down the Rhne, new attack once the surviving submarines enter the Mediterranean to reach Toulon).
Loc
Appendix 43-3-1
Submarines in the fields
The Sonnenblume (Sunflower) Operation
German plans
May 21, 1942, a conference chaired by the admiral Raeder decided to send in the Mediterranean 27 submarines of a new type, the IIE, derived from coastal submarine IID. The reduced size of this submarine was to allow its easy transfer by the channel of the Rhone the Rhine, only possible solution to avoid the passage by Gibraltar. The admiral Doenitz had defended this project, of which he was mainly the author, as only solution avoiding dismantling the Atlantic still more. As of the following day, it ordered Winkler, to the engineering department lieutenant commander of BdU, to study the details of the operation, by asking a first report/ratio under fortnight.
June 4, 1942, Winkler returned his conclusions, which highlighted the first obstacles at raising.
" the characteristics of the IIE (length 52,56 m, thick hull 38,4 m), and the constraints related to the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine (locks for a gauge of 38,5 m X 5 m, draught 2 m) impose a rather complex construction stages :
1. Manufacture of the thick hull, installation of a part of the equipment only to respect the constraint with draught, obturation of the openings (primarily those of the torpedo tubes and related to the installation of the remaining equipment, in particular engines). The determination of the equipment to be installed at the beginning will be critical, so that the plate is as horizontal as possible, while not complicating the process of final assembly and by maintaining a stability sufficient of the hull under these conditions.
2. Preparation of external sheets of hull, the kiosk and the remaining equipment.
3. Transport by water way and railroad according to components'.
4. Assembly of the equipment, the torpedo tubes, the engines and welding of the external elements of hull.
5. Tests.
The manufacture, under consideration in the beginning on two sites (Kiel and Bremen), will have in makes be organized in the following way :
- manufacture of the thick hull and assembly of all that is possible at Deutsche Werft (Kiel), which has know-how necessary for Type II ;
- subcontracting with AG Weser (Bremen) of external sheets of hull, tanks and ballasts ;
- reassembly in Toulon in the workshops of the Arsenal, by Deutsche Werft, with approximately 1 000 people to be moved from Kiel in Toulon, like all the tools and gauges necessary, in particular, with welding.
Transport by the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, the Saone and the Rhone will not be easy, the thick hulls being deprived of any rudder. A specific float framework will have to be manufactured to return a minimum of stability to the hulls, this framework having to envisage points of towing, a system of rudder, and undoubtedly of other characteristics. It will be necessary to proceed by stages (on barges in Germany, by towing of the hulls in France).
Note - Type IID, smaller, would be less powerful, but compatible with dimensions of the channel while dismounting only simply with the kiosk, before hull (external) and the torpedo tubes. The difficulty of transport would have been less and the times of reassembly much shorter. "
June 6, 1942, Doenitz confirmed the first decisions of Winkler. June 11, at a meeting organized in Berlin with its engineering departments, in the presence of the representatives of the shipyards, it maintained the choice of the IIE, the saving of time obtained in the startup of new IID not compensating for in its eyes the loss of operational effectiveness. At the same time, it asked its chief of staff (Godt) to start to seek a chief of flotilla " dbrouillard with ground and effective at sea ", with which to entrust the transfer operation and the command in Toulon.
June 11, 1942, the manufacturing schedule was developed :
- at the beginning of August 1942 : launching of the manufacture of the thick hulls, section by section welded, for all the series.
- at the end of October 1942 : exit of factory of the first series : 9 units intended for the tests and the drive (U-685 with U-693), assembled in once, plus one left in the form of hull in the state before transport for development of the towing, and another reserved for the validation of the end of the manufacturing process by stages.
- January 43 : sending in Toulon of the infrastructure of end of manufacture.
- at the end of February 43 : exit of factory of the 27 hulls partially equipped intended for the Mediterranean (U-694 with U-699, U-810 with U-820, U-830 with U-839) and sending in Toulon with the equipment.
- Mid-April 43 : beginning of the reassembly in Toulon.
- June 43 : startup.
- August 43 : beginning of the operational patrols
The tests of the first units would take place between November 1942 at January 1943, by hoping that they would not give too many nasty surprises compromising the continuation of the calendar.
The engineering and design department of Deutsche Werft was to be put at hard test during the weeks which followed. As engineer Fleischmann tells it, " it was at the same time necessary to go quickly and not to be mistaken, whereas usually, in a little known field, we take our time to avoid the errors. And, for calculations, there was no computer... We re-used a maximum of parts and equipment of the IID, even if they seemed a little right for the first series of the new version, even if it means to rectify for the second series. As for manufacture in several stages, which seemed feasible on paper was sometimes much less in reality. All that us of course played of the turns... "
Of return in Paris, Doenitz met on June 16 the person in charge for transport of the administration of occupation, to define the methods of use of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine by Kriegsmarine, for an operation definitely more complex and demanding that the passage of some motor torpedo boats. An agreement on a use of the channel in March 1943 was found, insofar as " all the provisions [ would be ] taken by Kriegsmarine not to stop the traffic in the direction of France towards Germany, essential with the provisioning of Reich. "
June 21, 1942, Doenitz took stock with Raeder, and the two admirals agreed on a name for the operation. It would be Sonnenblume (sunflower), Kriegsmarine, the such sunflower, being directed about midday... and the threat.
At the beginning of July, Winckler went to Strasbourg to make sure that the harbour installations would be sufficient for the unloading of the hulls of the submarines since the barges. It foot-note that additional cranes would be necessary. Enqurant means of towing available for the way on the channel, it had the nasty surprise to note that, over the entire length of the channel, the nonmotorized barges were hauled, by small electric engines on rail between Strasbourg and Mulhouse and by tyred tractors then, whereas in Germany the barges, of a definitely higher gauge, were towed. It quickly realized that unless stopping the civil traffic completely or to parcel out the convoy, it would never have sufficient operational equipment of traction for a convoy of 27 hulls of submarines, this material being scattered over the entire length of the channel. Moreover, the cylindrical shape of the hulls, even stabilized by the floats, would return towing since calamitous bank.
At the end of July, a new meeting was organized in Berlin. Deutsche Werft confirmed that manufacture would start well at the date envisaged, but that the organization of construction in two times was not completed yet, in particular with regard to the transfer in Toulon of the installations and the personnel. To solve the problem of the towing, it was decided to seek a model of tug boat used in the river ports, compatible with the constraints of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, to be manufactured in as many specimens as necessary. If this research did not give a result, it would be necessary to be folded back on towing, and to negotiate with the services of occupation in France to have all the material time necessary, which it would be to better avoid, to prevent that the business is not carried in front of Fhrer. Each one knew well indeed that Hitler seldom slicing this kind of argument without heads which fall.
In September, the allied attack against Sicily did nothing but increase the pressure on the actors of the operation. Doenitz had great evil to convince Raeder which it was impossible to go more quickly than the calendar envisaged, and had to swear that it was unimaginable to divert only one additional submarine of the Atlantic towards the Mediterranean. With Admiralty, the business, which started to be known of all, was soon called in the corridors the operation Sonnenbad (sun bath).
A submariner in recognition
August 28, 1942, with the return of its second patrol on the American coasts as commander ofU-333, his submarine passably crippled after a meeting with British corvette, the lieutenant Peter-Erich Cremer, an arm in scarf, had the surprise to be accomodated at the time of its arrival in Lorient by Doenitz itself, which informed it that a mission of the highest importance was entrusted to him. The evening even, he said good-bye to the members of his crew, in their affirming that if he could, he would find them.
In September, the personnel department of of BdU started to seek among all the submariners those having experience of... marines.
At the end of September 1942, Cremer and Winckler concluded that no tug boat in service in the various river ports was usable just as it is. Winckler decided to leave the hull smallest of them, which made 15 meters length nevertheless and to install there a diesel of with more the 100 horses, the being done towing with 6 km/h, maximum speed allowed on the French channels. The authorities of occupation, as well in Strasbourg as in Paris, accepted the towing "in the name of the interest of Reich, in spite of the payments of French navigation prohibiting it. " the shipyard from the Rhine in Mainz (Rheinwerft Mainz-Mombach) was in charge of the construction of these tug boats, two specimens having to arrive to Kiel in November, the others being delivered directly in Strasbourg.
At the beginning of October, Cremer prepared to embark in Strasbourg on the S-152 S-Boot, which was to make the way to Marseilles with two other identical boats. In its memories (U-Memories, 1975), it made of this way a precise and ironic account.
" I was accomodated in Strasbourg at the end of the afternoon by the lieutenant commander Hans Trmmer, pasha of the flotilla of the S-Boots which were going to join the Mediterranean. It immediately invited me to pose my bag in S-152, by excusing exiguity of installations, in spite of the marked taste of the Dutchmen who had designed and built these high-speed motorboats for comfort. I answered him that it was not worse than than I had known on my U-333, and than it was well better than what awaited me on the "super-dugouts" in the course of manufacture. After me to be briefly presented at the captains of the S-Boot, it took me along downtown, where the captain of the port invited us to dine, the departure being envisaged the next morning. The captain of the port, the Alsatian Paul Kuntz, was an interesting character. Oberleutnant zur See in the Imperial Navy, it had taken part in the battle of Skagerrak on Markgraf, and the high account colors of what it had lived occupied a good part of the evening, Tokay contributing largely to environment.
We weighed the anchor early, the brass band of the port greeting our departure. At the end of the morning, the fog, which had not left us since the departure, rose, and the Vosges and the Black Forest appeared. We advanced to 6 km/h and our progression was hardly obstructed by the passage of the locks, rather distant the ones from the others. We passed barges in great majority charged with potash extracted the mines from the surroundings from Mulhouse and drawn from bank by small electric engines. Not having large-thing to make, I returned with Trmmer on our dinner of the day before. It confirmed me that one could count on Kuntz, which had largely facilitated the task to him, even if if certain details disturbed it : "In its office, the table on the wall of the bottom represents Markgraf and that of right-hand side the cruiser Strassburg, him also of the Marine of Kaiser. But if the third, on the left, undoubtedly shows another warship bearing the name of its city, you will agree with me to recognize that this cruiser of modern battle is not a German ship... "
I have confirmation of the state of mind of Alsatian in the afternoon, while chattering in German with an inspector of the navigation which was used to us as pilot, and who named me the villages in which we passed. As I asked to him whether the storks which one saw the nests had already left, it answered me while laughing that they had gone to Gaulle, in Algeria... I do not know if he would have liked to do as much of it, but he had to realize that he had said some perhaps too much, because he became red of confusion. I reassured it by saying to him that Gestapo did not go up on the buildings of Kriegsmarine, and I was made explain different the man?uvres related to the passage from the locks. Fortunately that one had envisaged tug boats, because to draw the submarines with the capstan in the locks would have taken an insane time ! But I was not long in realizing that the towing had also its disadvantages, because, while increasing the number of boats to be made pass by the locks, it was also going to slow down us.
Two days after the incident of the storks, once crossed Mulhouse, one Sunday, under the glance of considerable curious, the landscape changed. With the plain had succeeded of the hills, between which the channel threaded, but that for one moment it would be necessary well to cross. Our guide explained me that, for the 60 km which separated Mulhouse from Montbeliard, it was necessary to count three days, the 40 locks following one another sometimes at a rate of every 300 meters and which, even if one as fast as possible made, my convoy of 27 submarines and about fifteen tug boats were going interminably to stretch. Indeed, for one moment, it was necessary to pass while mounting six consecutive locks, and, once arrived in top, we awaited two hours the last of our eight boats. And still, the barges charged with coal intended for Reich which we cross had been stopped to let to us pass.
In Montbeliard, our guide left us, because we were now in theoretically French territory, even if we occupy it. I had not very understood with the explanations on the complicated statute of Alsace and the Alsatian ones, but I had at least seized that they were supposed to be interested above all in their own fate rather than in their nationality. It was replaced by a silent Frank-comtois, with which I exchanged only few words, in spite of my good knowledge of French. With each stop, since we had left Alsace, Trmmer made from now on assemble the guard by some of its sailors, armed with rifles. Generally, we sailed on Doubs, channeled at the places where the current would have been too extremely. I noted the places where a detailed attention would be necessary, especially at the date envisaged of our passage in March, where, with the snow melt, the river would undoubtedly not be also calms and quiet. Each time it was possible, and with the agreement of our guide, Trmmer made go its boats more quickly, but I knew that I will not have this chance, the profile of a thick hull of Type II rise about floats not allowing it.
We arrived thus at the Trawl-net-on-Saone, where we stopped in a large river port. With proximity an important industrial facility was, to which I threw a blow of?il. Which was not my surprise to discover in fact a shipyard, in which was a French submarine, whose construction had been obviously stopped for more than two years. I say myself that to go up our Type IIE here rather than in Toulon would be perhaps a good idea, if they could finish their voyage then easily.
The way continued on the Saone, initially in a thick fog, where one of the boats of Trmmer found average to leave the channel and to be briefly failed, delaying everyone. It was necessary to accelerate to make up for lost time, and it only with did not fall the night that we arrived in the surroundings of Lyon. To change us ordinary edge, we decided, Trmmer and me, of going to dine in a small restaurant located beside our wharf, the Bocuse inn. The owner, although complaining bitterly about the difficulties of provisioning, was used a crackling to us as fish of the Saone, sprinkled of a white wine of Mcon. The son of the family, Paul, observed us of a black?il, but did not say anything. Thirty years later, I returned in what had become most famous restoring France and I told with the famous cook my first passage : "This day, says me it, I were well far from the kitchen ! I regretted not having grenades to launch on your boats ! "
The following day, we crossed Lyon. By fear of actions of what the Laval government called the Gangsters Mercenaries Judo-Bolsheviks and the other French Resistance, our small convoy was accompanied by trucks rolling on the quays, in which soldiers of Wehrmacht watched for, armed with rifles and even with machine-guns. The access to the whole of the bridges was barred, other soldiers assembling the guard. On its side, Trmmer had made put the machine-guns of its boats out of battery.
At the exit of Lyon, it was the end of the pleasure sailing ! The Rhone awaited us, with his current, its movements, and its waves caused by a wind of violent North. Never my hulls of the Type IIE drawn by their small tug boats would not pass by there without encumbers! And the bridges were likely to be too low if by misfortune the river were into raw at the time of our passage, if the submarines had gone up in Chalon. The only possible solution was a transshipment on Chalon barges, with reassembly in Toulon...
I left Trmmer close to Marseilles, and taken the train to go to discuss all that I had discovered at the time of this voyage with the Admiral Doenitz in Paris, Boulevard Suchet. "
Allied initial reactions
The voyage of the flotilla of the S-Boots was not unperceived past. Moreover, if Cremer had not been particularly indiscreet, its Alsatian interlocutors had both recognized in him, with the wire of the conversations, a captain of submarines. A report/ratio coming from Bern, where this information had arrived by discrete ways, was presented at the beginning of November on the desk of Ordering Ian Fleming, of Naval the Intelligence in London.
After having lengthily drawn on its pipe, Fleming emitted for its secretary, Mrs Henderson, widow of a major of the Army of the Indies, a pensive reflexion : " I doubt that a captain of submarines went on this cruise to go on Riviera at tourist ends, or on behalf of the KdF organization. Doenitz will want to make pass from the submarines by these channels, and this officer will have been sent in recognition. "
- submarines Nazis in the Mediterranean ? the worthy injury answered. What let us can be made ?
- Us, nothing, if is not to supervise of very near, and to inform the French.
- do you really Believe that the frog eaters will be able to do something of effective ?
- Let us see, Mrs Henderson, Britannia rules the waves, not the channels. Which, with the remainder, are precisely full of frogs. Ideal for landlubbers.
The great-grandfather of Mrs Henderson had been killed in Spain with Corogne, and in spite of the Entente Cordiale, the injury respected a family tradition of mistrust towards all that was French. But Fleming knew perfectly that the French would be much more effective in this business than the English.
In Algiers, information of Fleming confirmed those which had arrived by other ways (oddly, nobody wondered how the English also managed them to be informed of what occurred to Alsace). It was obvious that it was necessary to do something to prevent or at least delay this arrival of German submarines in the Mediterranean. A Franco-British meeting decided that the English would undertake to multiply the air photographs of the sector between Kiel and Bremen and along the Rhine to locate any boat or any unusual convoy there, and this as from January 1943, nobody not imagining that the passage could start more early. The French, for their part, were going to seek where to strike with the most possible effectiveness, and how.
Nothing is simple
November 3, 1942, Raeder calls a conference in Berlin for, hoped it, to bring good news to Fhrer, which needed some well after its disappointments in Russia and Italian collapse. This conference gathered, in more of the representatives of the Navy, the members of the staff of Heer (the Army) and delegated administration of occupation in Paris.
Side of the construction of the submarines, all seemed to go for best. The first building was finished, the perfect sealing, all the operational equipment ; the tests with the sea were to begin the 5. The eight following would be ready to take the sea head the end of the month.
Side of the transfer, all the means necessary in Germany (barges and tug boats) were reserved for February. The complexity of the operations, in particular the transshipments in Strasbourg and Chalon, caused many questions. But when Doenitz explained why the current of the Rhine was faster by places than the speed to which the hulls could advance without risk to run, and which the gauge of the French channels was well too small for the German barges, everyone ends up being appropriate that the adopted solutions were the least bad. The administration of occupation in Paris promised that the barges necessary, as well as the means of towing, would be provided for the arrival of the convoy to Chalon. The assumption one moment evoked to divide the transfer into several convoys to two weeks of interval was quickly abandoned in front of the extent of the means to put in?uvre and the difficulties of coordination between services and administrations.
Because of the military setbacks of the last provisional and inevitable months "after an uninterrupted series of victories ", giving " ill-considered hopes to overcome of 1940 ", the possibility of a " terrorist action " against the convoy was considered and Raeder asked for Heer " means of protection ". The principal one representing of Heer, a colonel, answered with the lawful courtesy that what is necessary would be done, then blew with its assistant " the types of Luftwaffe were right not to come, one would have required Luftflotte of them to supervise this transport of cans. "
Cremer, present at this meeting, was in a hurry only one : to embark on U-685 to begin the tests. According to its terms, " the battles of staff were even more difficult to support than a British grenadage. "
November 8, at the end three days of tests to the sea, Cremer brought back U-685 to Kiel. Hardly unloaded, it went with Winkler to the shipyard Deutsche Werft. Engineer Klaus Fleischmann was present during the meeting which immediately took place after their arrival : " As envisaged, even if we had hoped for all that it would not be necessary, there were many points to correct on the IIE. If Cremer adapted to the rigour to a handiness on the surface lower than that of the IID and just equivalent to that of one VIIC, and to rolling on the surface as abominable as that of the IID, it could not accept the defects in diving : under water, U-685 was dangerous below two n?uds, incompetent to hold his plate and its depth, in spite of the dexterity of the mechanical engineer and of his men and the thorough checking of all the pneumatic circuits. This is why neither the tests of fast diving nor those of performance had been carried out at the time of the first exit. " the engineering and design department was put immediately at work, and the workshop manufactured in the tread a rudder and increased diving ruders. It was also necessary to re-examine the dimensioning of the cases of plate and weighing. Cremer took again the sea first once the 18, returned the 20 for the modification of the cases of plate, and declared the building sure on November 30. December 15, the other buildings of the first series were modified in their turn. The commanders who undertook their tests still found them " too likely " in diving, and only the resumption of a part of the circuit of compressed air made it possible to make them usable by a normally tested crew, without same speech of one crew undergoing training. But when these modifications were at the point, all piping was already installed or sent in Toulon for the second series, and it was necessary to manufacture batches of handing-over on level.
The development of the towing did not occur either without evil. The hull with half empties was too unstable in rolling, and the floats last being increased. Moreover, the unit pricked of the nose once towed. The recourse to the good old men bags of sand made it possible to find in experiments a compromise satisfactory, because it was impossible to ask for the factory the assembly or the disassembling of additional equipment under penalty of putting in danger the calendar of production. The float framework was also modified to make it possible the hull of the submarine to be thorough (very slowly) by the prow of the tug boat, which was to make it possible to accelerate the installation in the locks. The system of rudder (two large saffrons with the corners postpones framework) was considered to be correct. The small tug boats did what one awaited from them, the building site of Mainz having thought of equipping them with an easily dismountable propeller, because that necessary to the towing would not have made it possible to join Kiel or Strasbourg at the appropriate time. Cremer required that these tug boats be equipped with radios in phone, which was made.
At the beginning of January, the principal difficulties highlighted at the time of the tests of the submarines were overcome. The ordering of shooting of the torpedes still posed some concern, but they were finally regulated. On the other hand, to save time, the system of snorkel was not assembled on the first series of nine submarines ; it would have in any event be impossible to test it quickly, considering the difficulty of correctly holding a precise depth of these first buildings.
If the battle against the technique were about to be gained, on the other hand that against the other services was well badly engaged, in spite of the promises and engagements of the meeting on November 3. If, with the civil administration in Strasbourg, that occurred still well, in particular thanks to the goodwill of the captain of the Kuntz port and the service of navigation, that was markedly less well with the administration of occupation to Paris, which felt reluctant to distract from the barges and the tug boats of their basic mission, which consisted in supplying Reich with the French productions. But it was with Heer that the things were really badly. It is only mid-February which it was finally agreed that battalions of infantry, at rest or with the drive, would be deployed " along the channel ", between Mulhouse and Chalon, " in their usual zone of exercise ", to ensure " the monitoring " (and not the protection, Heer did not want to endorse any responsibility) of the operation. Cremer however managed to obtain from Strasbourg, for the duration of the operation, the assistance of two sections of the genius having heavy material (pumps, cranes on trucks...), in order to proceed to possible emergency repairs of the channel and locks in the event of incident. A truck radio operator, able to communicate with the tug boats, was also obtained.
During all February, several tens of goods trains left Kiel and Bremen bound for Toulon. They carried all that was to be assembled on the spot in the hulls, the sheets external, the kiosks, the diesel engines and electric, as all the tools which it was not possible to find on the spot. These railway convoys hardly appeared to draw the attention at the time of their passage in France to Toulon.
At the end of February, all was ready for the departure. In Kiel only the first nine submarines, intended for the drive remained, in the course of revision and of handing-over on level. The production line took again its activity a little later, for the construction of the hulls intended for the Black Sea.
Nothing is simple (bis)
On the other side of the Mediterranean, the actions intended to prevent the transfer had also well evil to start. Was one going to make intervene Resistance or assemble a special operation of the Army ? And where ? Finally, a solution ends up emerging : it was not necessary to destroy these submarines, it was enough that they cannot make exits of Toulon before the future unloading in the south of France did not make it possible to take their base. To wedge one month or two some share in the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine should thus be enough ! On these bases, a plan was elaborate starting from documents found with the Faculty of Geography of Algiers (dating for some of Napoleon III) and with the assistance of an engineer of the Channel of the South spent to Algeria in July 1940. This plan envisaged a destruction of the locks in extreme cases of Alsace, at the high point of the channel, the two ends of the summit pond, combined with a destruction of the water supply of this level. Time to repair, the level would have been emptied, and it would take weeks (especially the summer) so that it fills again. Either the Germans would wait, or they would make half-turn and pass by another way (return in Strasbourg, then passage by the channels of the Marne in the Rhine and the Marne in the Saone). In both cases, they would lose at least six weeks. Of course, more the German convoy would be close to the point of cut, better that would be worth.
Remained to determine which would do what. Resistance in Alsace was embryonic, for multiple reasons, the first being the germanisation in fact of the province. Only some information managed to pass, as some rare volunteers who had to traverse a way long and sown obstacles through Switzerland, the south of France and Spain to arrive to North Africa. It was established better in Doubs and the Territory of Belfort, under French administration. It was thus decided that it would bring a logistical support, the sabotage of the installations being carried out by a commando of the special forces, which could take refuge easily in Switzerland in the event of difficulties, the border being with less than 20 km of the place envisaged.
To find the members of the commando was not difficult, the volunteers did not miss. Among them was Joseph Bilger, native of Pfetterhouse, Alsatian commune located at the Swiss border and the limit of the territory of Belfort. He had left his village in June 1940, had passed by Switzerland and had succeeded in joining Marseilles to arrive to Algeria. At the end of January, the commando started to be involved with its mission.
On the way to the South...
Monday 1er March 1943 in the morning, nine river tugs dealt with in Kiel the 27 barges on which the hulls of the submarines had been hoisted. Their departure was done without history, always according to memories' of Klaus Fleischmann : " All ready, was inspected and checked. I looked at leaving the barges without particular emotion, because I had another concern : one week later, I was to leave for Toulon, where awaited me the reassembly and the transformation of the finally satisfactory circuits of compressed air. As these modifications were not envisaged in the beginning, earlier I will prepare them, better that would do. " the voyage to Strasbourg occurred without history, while following the channel of Kiel first of all, then Kstenkanal, the Ems-Dortmund channel and the Rhine.
But this convoy did not escape from the?il from eagle from Mosquito PR from the RAF and from the service from interpretation from the air photographs British. March 6, an image taken two days earlier clearly showed 27 well arranged barges with Bremerhaven. The 10, a new photograph, catch in Dusseldorf the day before, did not leave any more a doubt. After Ian Fleming, the informed first nobody was his secretary, Mrs Henderson.
- You remember the captain of German submarine which made a tourist voyage through the wine areas of the part is France last October ?
- That which accompanied a convoy by motor torpedo boats ? Of course. Boats of open sea on channels, these Huns really do not have the direction of suitabilities.
- It could be well that it set out again for a new ballade towards the Mediterranean, but this time while taking along its U-boots.
- It is a so ridiculous idea, Mr. Fleming ! You are sure ?
- As I do not see the Germans invading Switzerland by underwater way, I do not have an other possible explanation.
- Ah, it is not in India that it would have arrived
- Indeed, Mrs Henderson, over there, they would have perhaps carried their submarines to back of elephants... However, give me all the same the number of the offices of London of the services of information of our Froggies friends.
The 11, Algiers was put at the current. March 12, the decision to start the Nemo operation was made. The commando was ready. One of its members, wounded at the time of the drive, had been replaced by second Alsatian, Franois Sifert. In company of Joseph Bilger, it went back to its mother tongue, because it was not a question especially of being betrayed stupidly on the spot while being expressed in French.
March 13, the German convoy arrived to Strasbourg. The submarines quickly were unloaded and installed on their float frameworks, after thorough checking of their sealing. The 14 at the evening, all were ready for their voyage on the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine.
Peter-Erich Cremer had not been unemployed : " the days preceding the departure by Strasbourg of our flotilla were harassing. In company from my two associated, Kapitnenleutnant Franz Klein andOberleutnant zur See Hans Fromm, we had to regulate a crowd of practical details, whereas the protection which Heer was to ensure our convoy still did not satisfy me, in spite of the many meetings of discussion which had already taken place. Day before of the departure, I joined together my men for an ultimate review of the operations.
- Messrs, before our departure, I have several things to say to you, and I would not like to have to repeat them. You know all the stake of our mission, and that made several weeks, even several months for some, that you work there. Thanks to your competence, all the technical aspects were solved and I am sure that, if incidents of this nature occurred, you could face there. But what will make us succeed above all, the discipline ! And I hold so that you are irreproachable on this point. As the KL Klein will explain it to you, the passage of each lock will be directed by an ensign or a candidate. And I will hold these young Messrs personally responsible for any distorsion with the payment on this occasion : I want to intend to speak about nobody in the "coffees of the Navy" that the French took for practice to put at each lock, in order to appease there their thirst or worse still. And do not believe that I tell you that to waste you the existence, but well for our safety with all: the slackened attitude that some could have taken at the time of the drive to the passage of the locks here in Strasbourg would be fatal in French territory, after Montbeliard, where it will be necessary to be wary of each inhabitant, who can have good reasons of us to want some !
The smiles that some were believed obliged to raise disappeared quickly. But I was unaware of that I sinned rather by optimism. Klein spoke then :
- I will point out the principal stages to you. The first part of the way will carry out us to Mulhouse, in three days. The first day, we will make only approximately 30 km, in order to learn the procedures well from passage of the locks, even if they were repeated with our tug boats and of the barges here in Strasbourg. With our "whales" in trailer, it will not be also easy. Each tug boat will draw two submarines to Mulhouse, and the passage will be done with the tail leu leu. Each owner of tug boat will receive a sheet of instructions detailed on the man?uvres of unhooking, accosting and push to be carried out with each lock. Idem for each officer in load of the locks. In the event of problem on a boat, a truck workshop of the Navy accompanies us and will be able to make all mechanical repairs necessary. As you saw, there are marks on the floats. If water reaches these marks, it is that a water way occurs on a submarine. In this case, made call with the truck workshop which has of pumps and what it is necessary to temporarily seal the escape. If there is a problem related to the operation of a lock, the Genius is there to solve it. You have the radio on board each tug boat, use it !
Klein had carried out a remarkable work, just as Fromm, had charged more particularly of the intendance. It was necessary to nourish a good hundred people, without counting the men of the Genious, and it is not with the store-rooms of the tug boats, just good to heat what held place of coffee, that one would have arrived there. For housing, each tug boat had eight as tight and uncomfortable berths as those of Type II. That also formed part of the drive ! "
Monday March 15 in the morning, the convoy left the wearing of Strasbourg, the brass band being again with go. The passage of the first lock, located downtown full, attracted a crowd of idlers, which benefitted from this unusual spectacle until in middle of the afternoon. This moment, the first boats had already arrived at Erstein, the stage of the day. It is with a certain relief that Peter-Erich Cremer saw arriving the last of his boats at fallen the night :
" Finally, very had happened well this first day. Separately a breakdown of battery on a tug boat and an escape in the hull of U-817 on the level of a passage of piping badly sealed off by the building site of Kiel and temporarily sealed interior while waiting for the possibility of an intervention of outside in Mulhouse, no incident had come to enamel this day. The discipline had been respected, the mines dconfites of certain young people people to the passage of the locks while being the best proof. I benefitted from this short moment of respite to join again knowledge with the inspector of the navigation which had accompanied us a few months earlier, and of which I unfortunately forgot the name. The conversation went rather quickly on the captain of the port, Paul Kuntz, of which I had had only to rent me :
- Without him, would never have arrived there us. It did a remarkable work of organization.
- However, it answered me, it had its batch of troubles.
- I know. I saw a clearer rectangular mark on the wall of left of his office... If I included/understood well, it had visit...
- Yes, confirmed the inspector, somebody announced to Gestapo that it had not very Aryan artistic tastes... But the worst, it is that it is very concerned for the fate of its two sons, of which it is without news since... not badly of time.
- Ah, I made, believing to include/understand. Hard, for a father. They are in the East, I suppose.
- Exactly. In the East.
It is only after the war, by re-examining Paul Kuntz, that I included/understood the remarks of my interlocutor (who had failed well to cut himself). For me, the East meant the Russian Face, but for him, the East wanted to say the Far East. The two wire of Paul Kuntz were useful in the National Navy, one on Strasbourg, the other on Dunkirk, and their father had learned the presence from these ships in the Pacific. The knowledge enabled me to better include/understand the continuation of the events.
But this evening like the precedents, I sent to the Admiral Doenitz a report/ratio saying in substance that all was well. "
The following day March 16, Peter-Erich Cremer entrusted the responsibility for the convoy to his assistant and went to Belfort to explain last once at Heer what it was advisable to do to protect his boats.
" Opel of Wehrmacht took to me at 7 hours of the morning, and we arrived at the citadel of Belfort at 9 a.m., after having rolled on deserted roads, while stopping us only once, in the passing of the old border of before 1914, where again customs officers and a large post office of Feldgendarmerie were. The meeting, organized in a rather sinister room (the Army had not been put in expenses for me), was chaired by a colonel of the place of Belfort. A young captain of the regiment of infantry of Mulhouse, carrying Ritterkreuz, was also present, as well as subalterns of the various units concerned with what Heer was obstinated to name the "monitoring" of my convoy. The colonel spoke :
perhaps - As you know it, even on your boats, Reich currently delivers a decisive fight and without mercy in Russia against the ogre Bolshevik, and all the efforts of Wehrmacht must be devoted to obtaining the victory on this face. Order of Fhrer ! We should nothing waste for secondary tasks.
That started badly. But I had not yet very heard :
- I have on Belfort only strictly essential manpower to assure the guard of the Swiss border and to supervise the principal axes of communication, of which your channel is only one small part. The country is calm, I really do not see why Berlin responsible me for such a drudgery. In any case, my responsibility starts only in extreme cases with Alsace. Other side, it is not my problem ! the colonel launched. It is that of Mulhouse. They have manpower, but as usual, one asked them nothing.
- I fear that you do not have all information, my Colonel, answered courteously the young captain. Our regiment is making its luggage to turn over to Russia, leaving only one company of instruction on the spot. But it is with pleasure that I place it at the disposal of the Navy, on the Alsatian territory.
A company the blue ones making their classes for 40 km ! That made a man every 200 meters, if one wanted to raise them. As much to leave them with the barracks... The colonel began again, on a tone a little less breakable :
- I think that it will be necessary to concentrate our means on the place where you will risk more one attack, i.e. between the limit of Alsace and Montbeliard. It is there that the Swiss border is closest, and like the possible terrorists will seek to flee in this direction, it is in this place that not only we will prevent their action while assembling the guard around your boats, but that in more will capture we them.
I exposed my point of view then :
- My Colonel, we have to deal with two risks : destruction of the boats and that of the channel. If one or two boats is damaged, by mines or an attack with the explosive, we leave them on the spot and we continue with the others. On the other hand, if it is the channel which is damaged, we must make half-turn or to await repairs, which, in both cases, will delay us several weeks and will undoubtedly make us arrive to Toulon too late for the operations considered. As your means are limited, I would prefer that you rather devote them to the guard of the channel than to the monitoring of the boats. This guard of the channel must include the locks as all the bridges which span it, because a bridge broken down in the channel would be a double catastrophe. And this guard must advance with my convoy, anticipating it of approximately 24 hours.
- Kapitnleutnant, you are one of our best submariners, your Ritterkreuz proves it. But on the firm ground, I have much more experience than you. Believe me, if there is an attack, it will take place where I say it. I will thus make keep this zone, but to please to you, I will include in the mission of my men the monitoring of the bridges and the locks. Nobody will be able to approach some, you have my word of it. And, to counter any possibility, the deployment will start today even.
The young captain took again the word then.
- For my part, I can place my men where an incident Alsatian side would be most awkward for you, i.e. in the staircase of locks of Valdieu. Even if they are just good to hold a rifle, their presence should be enough to discourage any approach.
- I thank you. I will thus see you in Mulhouse tomorrow evening. My Colonel, I will wish now whom we examine what you provided between Montbeliard and Besancon.
(...)
I had understood well that I would not obtain anything more. On the 60 km between Mulhouse and Montbeliard, instead of a force advancing with the convoy and protecting only the points criticize time necessary, I had a static guard on two zones alas noncontiguous, and undoubtedly requiring average equivalents so that I wished. It was better than a sentinel every 100 m as that had been considered two weeks earlier, but that was not enough yet to reassure me completely. The future was to give me reason... At the time to set out again, I crossed the young captain who was also going to take again the road. I noticed that it limped slightly and it answered me while smiling : " To remember Smolensk ! The surgeons made miracles, but certain days, I can hardly walk. This is why I do not go back there, finally not immediately, because if the situation worsened, they would return me there even with crutches ! "
I even joined my submarines the evening. They were now to 40 km of Mulhouse, and no incident had occurred in the course of the day. That, combined with the less limited attitude of Heer, finishes by me returning a little optimism. I informed the Admiral Doenitz of this evolution of the position of the Army, to which it was undoubtedly not foreign. "
March 17, in the afternoon, the convoy arrived to Mulhouse, or more exactly at Island-Napoleon, in his immediate suburbs. A surprise awaited Peter-Erich Cremer and his men...
The Alsatian trap : too ambitious amateurs ?
March 16, around 6 p.m., the telephone sounded in the office of Doctor George Hartmann (Georg Hartmann since 1941), radiologist at the hospital of Mulhouse. As usual, it was its chief, Fritz Graunitz, a Prussian of Knigsberg placed there in January 1941 following the expulsion of the French doctors, as inefficient as scorning, which took down :
- It is for you, your colleague of the Civil Hospital of Strasbourg.
- Hello, Anton, that can I for you ?
- I would need baryta, my stock becomes exhausted, and Karlsruhe cannot send some to me before two weeks. Can you repair me ?
- No problem, I send that tomorrow morning to you. There are always volunteers to make this kind of races...
- To the fact, from fish passed yesterday under my windows, and from large the this time. Fish depths.
- You believe that they will go up up to now ?
- Oh yes, you can prepare your fishing rods !
The hardly hung up again telephone, Graunitz left in a diatribe alas usual :
- But when cease you speaking Alsatian, Gott im Himmel ! We are in Germany, here : a country, people, and the same language for all. And the telephone is reserved for the requirements of the service, not to discuss angling. Moreover, why would you go to fishing, you do not eat enough with what one finds on the markets ? "
It was useless to answer. Graunitz was upset because it did not include/understand all that was said, its principal mission not being to look after the patients, but to put at the step those which it called " the heads of mule of the service. "
George Hartmann returned at his place little afterwards. For him, the few sentences exchanged with his/her colleague were particularly clear : the Germans were again making pass from the warships by the channel of the Rhone to the Rhine and this time, it was necessary to prevent some. Was a plan was ready, but going to function ?
The following day March 17, after having badly slept, it turned over to the hospital, borrowing commercial main street of Mulhouse, the street of the Savage, that the Germans during a few times had renamed Adolf-Hitler Strasse, before realizing of their blunder... In spite of the extremely morning hour, Graunitz was already there and awaited it obviously :
- I have a good news for you : tomorrow morning Thursday, you will go to the hospital of Altkirch. The incompetent of Alsatian who makes the radiologist over there still fell sick, and it is tomorrow, market day, which they have the most world. You will return the day after tomorrow. Execution !
Obviously, Graunitz thought, by sending it to Altkirch, to persecute it once more. But it was mistaken. This provisional exile formed part of the plans of George Hartmann... As for the disease of his colleague of Altkirch, it could with what leave it. On the other hand, it bitterly felt sorry for the patients who were going to be treated (or rather maltreated) by Graunitz in his absence. With a little chance, they would be for the majority originating on other side of the Rhine...
It returned early at his place this day, and explained to his wife why it would go in Altkirch the next morning and the evening would undoubtedly not return. It would lay down, says it, in his Alphonse brother, who held an inn in Dannemarie, as each time that it was sent to Altkirch by Graunitz.
March 18, George Hartmann travelled by his bicycle before the paddle to go to Altkirch. In the black night, it heard with far from the sirens of boats. The Germans prepared to cross Mulhouse with their convoy. The evening would thus have to be even acted... While it advanced on the road, it reminded the circumstances which had carried out it there. Native of Dannemarie, it had been named internal at the hospital of Mulhouse in 1933, and had remained there once his studies finished. Sportsman, it passed the majority of his leisures in mountain, either in the Vosges, or in the Swiss Alps, in company of his wife, but also with colleagues of the various Alsatian hospitals, and had established bonds with other members of the medical profession of the area, Suisses, German, and even English residing in Switzerland. With the declaration of the war, reservist, it had been mobilized as doctor lieutenant at the military hospital of Colmar. Captive fact on June 18, 1940 when the Germans entered Colmar, it was quickly released as Alsacien and took again its station in Mulhouse. In March 1941, one of its patients, a native logger of Winkel (near the Swiss border), gave a letter to him :
- It is your doctor who explains me why you made all this way for radio operator elbow ?
- Not Doctor, it is for you personally. And I must transmit a response in two weeks.
- You are inflated, you ! Good, return in ten days, after all, it is the German sickness insurance which pays...
Taken by its work, it forgot this letter in its pocket, where his wife found it the evening. It asked whether it could open it, to him which it authorized it to do same without paying attention to it.
- George, it is of Mr. Andrew Smith, the English dentist of Bern which we met several times in Switzerland when one could still go in the Alps. Be held well, it asks to you whether you cannot provide him information on the life of tous.les.jours in Alsace, how behave the Germans, and especially what make the soldiers. It should yes be answered him immediately, would be this only to avenge you for the troubles that Graunitz with length of day does you.
- less extremely ! If the neighbors heard you !
But the decision was made without same as it had to take it. It thus answered to Mr. Smith, and, gradually, associated a colleague of Strasbourg, then the young radiologist of Altkirch, without forgetting his own brother, landlord in the native borough, so that it did not call network, but which was one. The logger of Winkel, plus smuggler that forester, made pass information to Switzerland, the places where to cross the border with the nose and the not missing beard of the guards. So that its regular visits at the hospital do not end up being suspect, the mail finishes by being conveyed until Winkel in the van bringuebalante of a cousin grocer peddler, known before the war in all the south of Alsace to bring food products as exotic as of bananas in the most moved back corners. Thus made up a resistance network was of a perfect amateurism...
But military information that they could transmit to Mr. Smith was quite thin. Since 1941, the German military presence was limited, annexation in fact obliges, the repressive capacity being ensured by the troop of organizations depending on the party or the civil capacity. With share of the recruits of the country of Bade making their classes and the guards at the Swiss border, there was not large-thing to follow. The only notable points were the transfers of troops to destination or coming from France "of the interior".
The passage of a flotilla of motor torpedo boats in November 1941 was an event. This passage caused long discussions with his/her Alphonse brother, who said that it would have been easy to prevent it while making jump a judiciously selected point of the channel of the Rhone to the Rhine, not far from at his place. Was the idea transmitted to Mr. Smith, who ends up answering " Why not ? " if of adventure the Germans started again, and that it would provide the detonators necessary, explosives themselves having been put very discreetly safe from June 1940 when the French, in full retirement, undermined anything and anyhow. Unfortunately, at the time of the second convoy of motor torpedo boats, in October 1942, the detonators had still not arrived. It is only one month later than George Hartmann saw them for the first time, in his fluoroscope, by inspecting once moreover the leg protected by a plaster of the logger from Winkel. This day, it thanked the sky for not being cardiac, and poured a great part of its repertory of insults, whose Alsatian language is particularly provided, on the unhappy one... Since, these detonators were in the base of the apparatus of radiology of the hospital of Altkirch, well with the shelter behind metal plates raising of the death's-heads and the inscriptions "High voltage - Danger of dead - prohibited Opening". The first stage thus consisted in recovering them. Prevented him also of the arrival of "fish" by the colleague of Strasbourg, the radiologist of Altkirch had left to foot to inform Alphonse Hartmann, the landlord, and its disease was only of tiredness related to night walk.
March 18, therefore, with its arrival at the hospital of Altkirch, George Hartmann saw that the waiting room was already full. It was not going to be unemployed of the day. Indeed, the last patient left only around 8 p.m.. Time to recover the detonators, of enfourcher its bicycle, and to arrive in his/her brother, it was nearly 9 p.m.. It entered by the door of behind, as usual, to fall on a hubbub from voice teutonnes. Overpowered by tiredness and the sudden discouragement, it was dropped on a chair, and waited until his/her brother has one moment for him to speak, which did not delay.
- the Germans is at home, it is foutu...
- But not, they will not be long in leaving.
- It is foutu nevertheless, if they are there, it is to go to keep the channel.
- Yes, but not here. They go in Valdieu.
- But one nevertheless has it in C..., because the German boats had to pass, not ?
- Not, they did not go much furtherIllfurth. The sergeant explained me that they had a big problem in a lock, which put them late. In any event, they were to stop before our "surprise" today. I leave you, I have to occupy me of my customers
- Yes, but do not sell a Swiss tone to them tobacco of smuggling !
- Profit to put back you a little, the night does nothing but start.
Technical hitches and Germanic effectiveness
Wednesday March 17, with the arrival of the first elements of his convoy in Island-Napoleon, Peter-Erich Cremer had had amazement to recognize the silhouette of the Admiral Doenitz in person on the unloading dock, in the medium of a great police deployment. The admiral congratulated it for the absolutely perfect way in which the transfer had proceeded until now, and asked him how it considered the continuation :
- Admiral, I does not hide it to you, the next days will be most difficult. Until now, the locks were sufficiently distant not too to slow down us, but as from tomorrow and especially of the day after tomorrow, we will not count any more in traversed kilometers, but out of crossed locks. The KL Klein organized the passages in an expert way, and I know that it tore off the hair for the two next stages before arriving at a satisfactory solution. But what worries me more, it is not the material nor the capacity of my men, but an attack. We will leave quiet Alsace for occupied France, and Heer could not place at my disposal all that I would have wished, in spite of its efforts of last minute. From their point of view, with the situation in Russia, we do not represent large-thing.
- I share your point of view, but even me I could not detach some marine fusiliers of the bases of Brest or Lorient to accompany you. They are already in too small number 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 finding his Ju-52 on the airfield of Habsheim, near. The pilot had had only to modify a little the way which the Admiral was to carry out to go from Paris in Berlin, where it was waited the following day.
The young captain of Heer arrived then, always boitillant. Cremer proposed to him to share the meal of the sailors, which it accepted readily.
- the other day, in Belfort, I did not even have the occasion to present to me suitably at you, Herr Kapitnleutnant. I am called Dieter Thunau.
- you do not excuse, Dieter, and drop the rank, we are on the same boat !
- same the galre, you want to say !
" After this joke, the conversation began again more seriously. Thunau was going to lay out its thin troops in Valdieu as of the following day, approximately 24 hours before our passage. When I asked to him whether it could also put a little world to keep the intermediate locks, it answered me that that was impossible for him, having in all and for only of one score warrant officers and corporals. All its privates had between two and ten weeks of seniority, and to put them by two delivered to themselves in full shift would be perfectly useless. At best they would not see anything, in the worst case they would fall asleep or take refuge in a nearby coffee. I due to be appropriate about it. " (EP Cremer, C$op cit.)
Thanks to the visit of Doenitz, the moral one was in the beautiful fixed morning of March 18. The convoy set out again and, up to 10 hours of the morning, all occurred well, to the second lock of Brunstatt.
" I was at this time in full center of Mulhouse, there or the channel passes in front of the station, when the radio operator of the tug boat in which I had taken seat put itself at crpiter. The candidate in load of the passage of the second lock of Brunstatt, thrown into a panic, asked for assistance, a submarine has just demolished the door of a lock. I immediately ordered to the owner of the tug boat to approach bank, and I leaped on the tow path, with the risk to break the figure. I hlai a motor bike of Wehrmacht in patrol, jumped in the motorcycle combination and arrived a few minutes later on the place of the incident. What had it occurred ?
Tug boat SR-4 was behind U-834, gently pushing it on around fifty of meters, while the door of the lock started to open, when its engine had suddenly packed, whereas the lever always on the slowed-down position, propelling the submarine more and more quickly. The mechanism of safety prohibiting to engage the reverser when the engine was not with the idle preventing the owner of the tug boat from going into reverse, it was necessary that the mechanic cuts to the saw the feeder pipe out of gas oil to turn off the engine ! The evil was made. Running on its wanders, before submarine violently ran up against the open doors against half of the lock, whose wood did not resist the shock.
Time that the witnesses present explain me all that, the truck workshop of the Navy and those of the Genius had arrived. Each one knew what it had to do. The Lieutenant mechanic went up on board SR-4, where the panels of access to the engine were already open. As for the Genius, it positioned a first crane with the balance of the lock lockgates. I ordered with the SR-11, which was in the same level, to temporarily give up the whales which it towed, to make move back U-834 of around fifty of meters and to release the SR-4. The Genius immediately positioned a second breakdown van in front of the submarine and set up a coffer dam to close the channel, before pumping all the water ranging between the demolished door and the coffer dam. While its men set up all their material, the lieutenant of the Genious affirmed me that one would need 4 or 5 hours, 6 to the great maximum, to give the lock in service. All would depend on the state of the hinges of the door of the lock, and it was necessary to empty water to usually reach those under the level of the channel. At midday, I briefly joined together officers concerned to take stock.
- I dismounted the pump injection and I opened it to include/understand why the engine had left to full mode, said the lieutenant mechanic. The mechanism of regulation interns was broken. I do not know if that came from an error of assembly, of a defect in the metal of a part or a deliberated sabotage. It will be necessary to go to Bosch, in Stuttgart, to inquire. The engine apparently did not suffer, and one of my men is mounting a pump of replacement. It should have finished besides, since I hear an engine starting...
Relieved not to have lost the tug boat, I passed the word to the officer of the Genious :
- We finished dismounting and removing the broken door. As the doors are standardized on all the locks of the channel, we will set up the door of replacement which we have with us just afterwards. The hinges are not damaged, that will go quickly. Then, the time of repomper water in the other direction and to remove the coffer dam, in approximately two hours, you will be able to set out again. In addition, I succeeded in making me yesterday evening lend a half-dozen of power generating units and banks of spotlights. That will enable you to continue your night trip by laying out them with the locks.
- For the passage of the locks the night, it is also necessary to hold account of the tiredness of the men ; the man?uvres are delicate, us still had the proof of it this morning. But two hours more every evening too will not be. And for you, Franz, that will not disturb too the operations ?
- We will also not go far envisaged today, it is obvious. Tomorrow evening, our first boats will not have crossed the staircase of Valdieu yet. At best, they will be committed insides, if we do not have an other incident and if we use the projectors of the Genius. Fortunately that we did not lose a boat, because it would have been necessary to remake all the instructions intended for the tug boats and with the locks, that would have taken hours. And with regard to U-834, it will not hardly need but one paint retouch.
We had had chance in our misfortune, and, thanks to the engagement of all, we had limited the damage. I decided to give the order to the first boats of the convoy to set out again with 14h00, but it was not possible that with 15h00 : the release of the coffer dam took more time than envisaged, and it became deformed at the time of the operation " (EP Cremer, C$op. cit.)
The evening, the head of the convoy had arrived in Hagenbach. On the score of locks to the program of the day, only a fortnight had been crossed. The power generating units of the Genius turned a good part of the night to make it possible the last submarines to approach to the maximum of the first. Two of the trucks of the Genius had set out again for Mulhouse, in the search of a new door of replacement, as well as another coffer dam.
On the Nemo side
March 13, in Ajaccio, which still carried the marks of the recent combat and even those of the bombardments of 1941, the eight members of the Nemo commando embarked in the afternoon on the Henri-Poincar submarine. A DC-3 had brought of Algiers in the morning Lieutenant Michel Fabre and his men : Staff sergeant Louis Martinez, Sergeants Jacques Dumont and Robert Semnoz, Senior corporal Benoit Tracol, Corporals Franois Sifert, Joseph Bilger and Claude Morond.
Little after having sailed round the Sanguinary islands, the submarine plunged to periscopic immersion and put course at North. At the fallen night, it made surface to reload its battery and to progress more quickly. During this time, through German jammings, Radio-London and Radio-Algiers diffused the personal message " Nemo meets Arronax ".
March 14, at 4 hours of the morning, the commando climbed in two dinghys, for Antibes, and unloaded on the beach of Juan-the-Pines little after 5 a.m.. Lieutenant Fabre, set on history, could not prevent himself from declaring with emotion : " We return to France, but we will not set out again about it after hundred days ! " Two local fishermen, who awaited them, made disappear the dinghys, and the whole of the commando took the first train for Marseilles into 32nd class, under the identity of Italian workers coming to take part in the operations of demolition of the district of the Basket. In the train, the controller punched their tickets without suspecting nothing. The forgers of Algiers had done good work... At the exit of theSaint-Charles station, little after 9 hours morning, the commando, divided into three groups, took the direction of the Old man-Port, but obliqued towards a dark street, where the eight "workmen" entered a building which had known better days. Half an hour later, it came out from it eight ensoutans ecclesiastics, who took again the way of the station immediately, where they got (into 22nd class, relative humility ecclesiastical obliges) into the train of Lyon, absolutely crammed. The express train started per hour, took speed, but had soon to slow down. In the coach, the remarks went good train :
- One does not pass by the usual way, I say to you...
- don't H peuchre, you know that there is still a signal box which jumped this night ?
- is Ho, the priests, it because it is Sunday that you are of exit ?
- And why you look at the planes of Istres by the window ? You do not need any to go to the sky, you !
- And then, when do you start to make miracles ? To multiply the breads, it would not be a bad idea, because the belt, it will have soon more holes than of leather !
After Arles, the train was emptied somewhat. As one approached Lyon, the behavior more contained associated to the inhabitants of the capital of Gaules took the top gradually. If their disguise had not protected the commando from the curiosity of the other travellers, implicit association between the religion and the moral order preached by the Laval government had avoided with the commando the inappropriate curiosity of the representatives of the known as government, easily recognizable with their uniforms of definitely Germanic inspiration. In Lyon, the good fathers were awaited by a "envoy of vch", who made them cross without encumbers controls at the exit of the station of Perrache. But, rather than to take the direction of Fourvire as one could have expected it, the group passed behind the station, not far from theSaint-Paul prison, and entered a hotel where the ecclesiastics were not (in theory) at all in their place. The commando remained there until the small hours of the morning, the usual customers of the place not suspecting of his presence.
Monday March 15, in the morning, they were four militiamans, arrogant with possible and framing four menotts prisoners, who got into a coach of 1era classifies train bound for Bourg, Besancon, Montbeliard and Belfort. The Militiamans opened the door of a compartment with great kicks, and their glance is enough to make leave the travellers who were there. Satisfied, they settled with the four corners of the compartment, always framing their prisoners. The group went down to Montbeliard, where it went up to the back of a truck to gas generator marked "logging Sites of Doubs". The rare passers by supposed that they were four young people, escaped of one of these camps of obligatory work which flowered a little everywhere and brought back authority by individuals of which each one knew that it was to better avoid crossing their way. The truck took the road of Delle, to unload its loading with the Farm of the Large Size, close to Joncherey, in full forest, where a man vtu like a peasant of the place (and which, in fact, was one) specified the situation :
- Hello. I am called Pierre Martin (I never had imagination for the pseudonyms). It is me which am charged to lodge you, to assist you in your displacements and to provide you all which you need, to start with a knowledge a little more precise of the local situation than that which you can have to 1 500 km from here. First of all, we will change tous.les.jours place, or rather every night. You managed well up to now, and you did not draw the attention. But if you remain at the same place more than 24 hours, you will be located. You do not have the accent of the corner, you do not know the country, except the two Alsatian ones ; you are there to make your job, not to waste it !
- Entirely of agreement. I am Lieutenant Michel, and here my men : Louis, Jacques, Robert, Benoit, Francois, Joseph and Claude.
- Well, I will start with you to explain the general situation. We are to 6 km of the Swiss border, and about with the same distance from Alsace. The Swiss border is kept by the Germans, rather badly. Moreover, if there is which wants to smoke, that they do not obstruct, I offer the tobacco to them, it precisely comes from Switzerland... But no normal citizen would go to Switzerland, the Swiss ones would immediately bring back it to the border, preferably opposite a German station. For Alsace, it is almost similar. Unless having Ausweiss, you do not pass. And to have one of them, one needs a good reason. The best is the trade. Here how that occurs : in Alsace, the official currency is Reichsmark. The wages and the prices are in Reichsmark, and all is at least 50 % more expensive than here, their wages being aligned on the German wages, about the double as of ours. Combines is then to buy goods here, and to resell them with a good benefit on other side. But for that, it is necessary to be buddies with the members of the Party over there, who eat a good part of the benefit, but thanks to which you have all Ausweiss necessary. Good, that is also profitable only in 1941, because official plundering already very took, but it still goes for wood. Another solution : to pass where there is no road or from way. But attention, if you do not speak Alsatian, except in some French-speaking villages annexed by Bismarck in 1871 and that the man with a moustache included in his zone not to make less than his famous elder, you do not make long fire ! And once in Alsace, you are likely to fall quickly into a trench from the Large War. One remained four years at the time with canarder and to type itself above in the corner. You cannot imagine the number of deaths that there was. Of course, that was not Verdun, but nevertheless.
- If I remember well, the first dead of Fourteen was killed by here ?
- Yes, completely, the Peugeot corporal, with ten kilometers from where we are. The advantage of this situation, they is that the German soldiers do not venture in wood Alsatian side, of fear of jumping on one their own mines of the time. They remain prudently on the ways. Moreover, they are too numerous since the corporal who orders their army decided than it could do better than Napoleon against the Russians. Unfortunately, there are even more collaborationists over there than to help them here to make the police force, and it is them which are more to fear.
Your mission, now. The German convoy left this morning Strasbourg. Do not ask me how I know it, I will not say it to you. According to my advisors, it will leave Alsace only Friday 19, because it cannot advance well quickly. Ca leaves us time to refine the plans. But one will see that tomorrow, I will make you meet somebody who will undoubtedly be useful for you.
(According to Michel Fabre - Liberators of before the D-day - Paris, 1953)
March 16 before the paddle, the commando was awaked. Pierre Martin made them carry out, with foot, the Farm of the Small Size, from distance. Michel Fabre, if it were pleased with the precautions taken by their host, could not nevertheless prevent himself from thinking that it took his commando for amateurs. The opposite would have to be proven to him.
In the morning of the 16 at the farm of the Small Size a man of a good about sixty years arrived, which went of an alert step. Pierre Martin accomodated it with an unquestionable respect and presented it at the members of the commando :
- I introduce Mr Jules to you [ actually, Mr. Jouffroy, Civil engineer to the retirement ]. Mr Jules made the Large War as Captain of the Genious and swore himself to give his Legion of Honor only when the Germans are turned over on their premises, preferably while taking along the henchmen of Laval, because that will save us the cord to hang them. Mr Jules knows well the Channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, since it was charged to finish his enlarging in the years 1920. It is well that, Mr Jules ?
- Enlarging is a quite great word, my friend. It was simply a question of putting the locks at the Freycinet standard. And I occupied myself only of one very small sector.
- You are too modest, Mr Jules !
- Young people, if I included/understood well, you intend to block a German convoy in the Channel. And how do you hope to be caught there ? he with an air of teacher questioning says a fairly gifted pupil.
Fabre then explained the provisions under consideration in Algiers. "Mr Jules" shook the head, by moments assentor, moments dubitative :
- In theory, your plan is good. To make jump the locks at the two ends of the summit pond so that it is emptied and cut off the water supply, it is the guarantee to prevent any traffic during a good month. But you will have large difficulties if you apply it just as it is. I pass on the fact that all your intervention will be done in Alsace, Mr Martin undertaking this detail. The first problem that you will meet, it is that one of the locks of the summit pond is in fact the last of the staircase of Valdieu, that it is with 50 meters of Main road 19 and the bridge of railroad, and that at this place the Germans installed a large post office of Feldgendarmerie. Another problem, the cut of the water supply. You think of cutting the derivation of the Loose one, which one calls here the Drain, with the two ends. The idea is good, but the outlet of the Drain is very close to the lock of Feldgendarmes. It be found another thing should, more especially as, if the next weeks are rainy, Rigole or not Rigole, there will be enough water for the filling.
- And that do you propose ?
- Initially, to empty the summit pond, it is not necessary to open it at the two ends. One is enough... Then, suppose that the Germans lay out what to repair a lock. Effective as they are, in two hours they clogged the escape, and in a few days with very given from balance. But if you make jump four or five successive locks, while starting with furthest away from the summit pond, they will precipitate to close the channel at this place. Whereas they believe being drawn from business, you make jump the lock top as well as the intermediaries, and in more you flood and with a little chance you destroy the filling which they have just made thanks to the flood which flows.
- And if they have what to repair several locks ?
- That would astonish me extremely. Moreover, which will be urgent for them, it will be to seal the channel by coffer dams, not to replace the doors. And of the coffer dams, there is in Strasbourg, another in Montbeliard, and a third in Mulhouse. In building one on the spot would take too much time, especially if there are not precise dimensions.
- And for the water supply ?
- make jump the Drain if you want, but especially made jump the valves of the pond-tanks of Montreux. That should largely be enough.
- Say to me, Mr Jules, one would say that you lengthily thought of the problem ?
- Yes, young man, except whom I imagined that they would be saboteurs boches who would come to make jump my channel, and not of the French soldiers.
- There remains a problem, Mr Jules. We are not enough numerous to do all that you recommend to us.
- Let us go, young man. Mr Martin has rather many friends, who will be able to carry the explosives, and to even wait where it is necessary. Then, you are not obliged to be at side to see the fireworks, you are not any more of the kids. You have detonators which enable you to act up to 24 hours by advance. And in your place, I would prefer being possible further when that jumps.
But the plan of Mr. Jouffroy was not going either to be applicable just as it is. Indeed, into the evening, the bad news fell : the Germans were settling over the entire length of the Channel in French territory, between Brittany and Montbeliard, and the locks of the plan of Mr. Jouffroy, except for the three first, were all in this zone.
A new removal in the night of the 16 to the 17 carried out the commando to the Farm of the Banns, with less than one kilometer of the no-border with Alsace. The place could appear very exposed, but the Germans, if they concentrated on the channel, were not enough any more numerous to supervise the remainder, estimated Pierre Martin. About midday, the final plan was stopped : the night of Thursday 18 at Friday 19 would be devoted to the mining of the Drain of food, on the level of the derivation of Loose like at the other end, more close possible of its outlet on the channel. The whole was to jump during the night of Friday at Saturday, at the same time as the lock of the summit pond and the following one, as well as the valves of the pond-tanks feeding the channel. The afternoon, Michel Fabre and Pierre Martin were occupying itself of the details of the operation, and in particular of the route of unhooking towards Switzerland, when they were stopped by Pierre Bilger :
- My Lieutenant, Franois and me let us have a suggestion to make you. We are with two steps of Alsace, with less than 5 km of Valdieu. It would be damage not to benefit from it to make a recognition of the places.
- I had thought of it, and I was going to ask for volunteers.
- Eh well, you have of them already two ! If we know by where entering to Alsace and coming out from it, there will be no problem on other side. It is on our premises, after all !
At the night, four men left the Farm of the Banns : three "Nemo", Louis Martinez, the specialist in the locks (it was employed with the Channel of the South before the war), Pierre Bilger and Franois Sifert, accompanied by an individual to the paces of poacher which would make them enter to Alsace and them would wait the return, to accompany back them with the Farm of the Small Size, where the group would spend the day of the following day.
To enter to Alsace was not difficult, the few barbed wires which marked the limit in the forest having already obviously been crossed many and many times. The three men circumvented the village of Romagny first of all, under cover of the wood of Raichene first of all, then under that of Buchwald, which they crossed full North until falling on the Drain of the channel. They had then only to follow it until the accesses of the village of Valdieu, locating several places where it would be possible to cut it effectively the following day. The last 500 meters last being traversed with overdraft, through meadows, before finding the shelter of the vegetation which pushed along the channel. All was deserted, the silence of the night being disturbed only by the passage of goods trains on the line connecting Belfort in Mulhouse. The two Alsatian ones benefitted from the passage of a train to advance to the lock of Valdieu, but they could not go further : two Feldgendarmen assembled the guard on Main road 19. With the return, they noted that, on the other hand, the small building sheltering the valves of the Drain was without monitoring. The trio descended the channel then, passed in front of the first lock, then the second, dissimulated well by a curtain of trees. Louis Martinez asked to continue still a little, and soon the third lock was not further. But it remained inaccessible, because, 100 meters downstream, the noise of a troop to quartering was made hear. It was time to turn back, to locate the valves of the pond-tanks and, then, full is through wood, to find the guide which would bring back them to the Farm of the Small Size.
Thursday 18 was marked by several events for the commando. First of all, about midday, Pierre Martin came to teach them that the convoy of Kriegsmarine was stopped little after Mulhouse, following a technical hitch, but that repairs went good train. He thought however that it would never manage to reach Valdieu the evening of 19. There should thus logically be less Germans than envisaged around the objective, which was after all a good news. But, at the end of the afternoon, it returned : " I fear that we were not delighted too early, this midday. German soldiers are settling other side of Valdieu, in the staircase of locks. If they make the junction with their colleagues, it is foutu ! The only good news that I can bring to you, it is that the Germans do not have any more a material of replacement to repair the locks. They needed for it today. They undoubtedly will run all during the night to find some. I wish them good luck ! "
Obviously, Pierre Martin knew some more than what he wanted to say well...
With fallen the night, Lieutenant Fabre gathered his men for a last briefing :
- We will separate in two groups. The first, which will be carried out by the Martinez Chief, with Semnoz, Sifert and Morond, will mine the Drain at the places located at the time of the recognition of yesterday evening. They will be guided until the limit of Alsace by the same man as yesterday. You 20 kg of explosives each one, detonators with a delay of 24 hours, but the distance to be crossed, and the rather easy way, isn't this is not very long will carry, Sifert ?
- Completely, my Lieutenant. Ten kilometers approximately to suit it, on paths and roads forest, muddy, but less than usually at similar season.
- the second group will be occupied of the derivation of the Drain, in Friesen, in the country of Bilger. Even loading. There, it is longer. We will be accompanied until destination by this boy, the son of the guide of the first group.
- Yes, My Lieutenant. My father knows wood still better than me, but it cannot put the feet any more in Alsace currently.
- I do not want to know the reason of it, even if I suspect it a little... Return envisaged between 4 and 6 hours of the morning, with the Farm of the Banns, where we were yesterday. I remind to you that the meetings should be avoided at all costs. If you fall despite everything on somebody, only the Alsatian ones have to engage the dialogue. But that will undoubtedly mean the anticipated end of our mission. And of course, not of brawl with the Germans, even if some want of it !
All was known as. The two groups left in the night at a few minutes interval.
A question of detonators
After his/her brother had set out again to occupy himself of his customers, George Hartmann fell asleep deeply. It is only at two hours of the morning, 19, that it was awaked by Alphonse:
- Awakes, they finally left.
- What, already two hours of the morning? There will be never time...
- No concern, little brother. The explosives are already in place.
- How that, already in place?
- Yes, one did that Tuesday evening, with your colleague of Altkirch.
- You are insane, it was not especially to touch and be limited there to its role of messenger.
- I could not prevent some...
- Prevented? You speak, you rather pushed it, as I know you.
- Good, one goes there, yes or not? You have the detonators? "
They left the inn of the Stag (the sign carried in fact the denomination Zum Hirsch since 1895 and had never been francized, which had made say to the mother-in-law of Alphonse, in 1940 : "of saved As much, as one changes country regularly..."). Their objective, the tubular bridge of Wolfersdorf, was with less than two kilometers. This tubular bridge, in the prolongation of one of the locks of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, spanned the Loose one, that it overhung few meters. Of course, they did not take the road which connected Dannemarie to the village of Wolfersdorf, but circumvented the stage first of all, for then following the bed of Loose, encumbered barbed wires with the accesses of the tubular bridge. These barbed wires seemed insuperable with an observer being at the level of the channel, but they had been cut by Alphonse for a long time already, to leave an about practicable advance with which knew by where to pass. No soldier assembled the guard, neither on the lock, neither on the channel, nor on the close road. To set up the detonators took a little more time than envisaged, George having evil to rectify itself sufficiently to allow Alphonse, climbed on his back, to do it. Two of the arches of the bridge had been undermined, and George had checked well: the detonators carried all figure 2. The explosion was to thus occur two hours later, i.e. in the five hour old neighbourhoods of the morning.
Both turned over then to the Inn of the Stag. Alphonse fell asleep quietly near his wife, who had awaited it with concern. George, could not find the sleep to him, waiting feverishly until the deflagration occurs. The bell-tower of the church of Dannemarie sounded soon four hours, then five, then six... No abnormal noise disturbed the night. A little later Alphonse picked up, and found George turning in round in the kitchen:
- I did not understand anything, one missed our blow. All these efforts for nothing!
- It is not a drama, there will be other occasions...
- I do not know what could well occur, the explosives were too old, or the defective detonators. However, one put two per package of dynamite of them, to be surer.
- technique... Good, I must occupy myself of the inn, I smell that I will have other Feldgrau, today.
- In any case, I ask you not to go to see what could go of through. It would not be necessary that that jumps you to the figure when you test tripoter all that!
- H, I am not insane. One will await one week or two before giving the feet over there. And in your place, I would hurry to return, because if you are late at the hospital, I know of them one which will not be missed!
George thus took again his bicycle and pedalled at any speed to Mulhouse. In way, the road skirted several times the channel, and it guessed the silhouettes of the submarines in the first gleams of the day. After a short stop at his place to reassure his wife, to kiss her young person wire and to make a bit of toilet, it arrived at the hospital, where of course Graunitz awaited it:
- Ah, not too early. I learned that you had one day difficult, yesterday. Much work, hein? Then, you to put back, it today is again me which will make the examinations. You will fill the reports/ratios intended for the Inspection of the Health of Reich, it is less tiring.
It missed nothing any more but that. The administrative paperwork of III2nd Reich still exceeded in volume and complexity that of the French Republic, however precisely famous in this respect. It was going to have to pass long hours to specify the date, the hour, the circumstances, the number of the material employed, the duration of the examination, the age of the patient and ten of other information for all the radios passed in the service since the beginning of the year, the whole on old forms printed in Gothic... A good penpusher would have done that in little time, but the payment specified well "must be filled of the hand of a doctor".
The evening, while returning at his place, George Hartmann did not have really the moral one... While arriving, his wife tended to him without a word, the severe air, an object resembling a pen. George missed weakening, it was one of the detonators. He had taken of them one of too in his stock at the time to leave for Dannemarie. Before making it disappear in a public dustbin in the medium from peelings from potatoes, it took time to examine it .fond. At side of figure 2, quite visible, a figure 4, impossible was to guess without a powerful lighting. A hope was still allowed...
One full night for Nemo
The night of the 18 to 19 was to remain engraved in the memory of the members of the French commando.
"After having let the group of the Martinez chief take a little in advance, we moved in our turn towards the limit of Alsace. The progression in the forest was rather easy, even if our guide rather often made us earlier circumvent holes left by the explosion of German shells large gauge about thirty years, and in which the vegetation included its rights slowly. I could only admire the courage of those which had preceded us there, and which had had to undergo these shootings of 210. The impression to go in the steps of our elder was still reinforced when, with the turning of a clearing, we saw two steles, one with the memory of the victims of a French regiment, the other with those of a German regiment, placed coast at coast. The inscriptions which started to grow blurred were written in the two languages, and the two steles were flowered with modest bouquets of primulas.
At the end of approximately two hours, our young guide, which preceded us by a few tens of meters, returned thrown into a panic, at the point to address itself to us in his mother tongue under the blow of the emotion - but the Bilger Corporal translated immediately. Two Austrian customs officers, in company of the local forester, were a little further, with a crossing of ways. I believed initially in a treason, before reasoning me. If they wanted to tighten us a ambush, they would not be installed there, to evoke their memories of the other war, as our guide explained it. We had to make a broad turning, through a rather muddy zone of ponds which slows down our progression, weighed down that we were by our loading of explosives. The Tracol Corporal fell even into a hole dug by some animal, mackling the uniform of Alpine Hunter which it was so proud to carry again, like us all besides. General de Gaulle had indeed insisted that " the military actions carried out on the own territory by the men of the Special Forces [ make ], except absolute impossibility, under the uniform of our Armies"
Paradoxically, the installation of the explosives was done rather quickly, the derivation of the river by receiving the greatest part, the remainder being distributed in three other points. I looked at my watch then: three hours of the morning, exactly the hour envisaged. The return was easier. It is true that reduced, we advance definitely more quickly. It still a moment ago of concern, when a roe-deer dboula in the path with a few meters in front of us. We joined finally the Farm of the Banns towards 5 a.m. 30. The group of the Martinez Chief had been back for one hour. The Chief explained me quickly that they had not met anybody, and that they had not had any problem of route, left discrete marks day before by the Sifert Corporal, in the purest tradition scoute, having allowed to avoid the long hesitations with the crossroads of ways. They had chosen to await the selected sites the day before to pose their detonators, so that the explosions would take place the following day more close possible three hours of the morning. I congratulated it for this initiative, while reproaching him the risks taken. " (Michel Fabre, C$op cit.)
The night however was not finished yet for Nemo. It was still necessary to turn over to the Farm of the Small Size before the rising of the day, Pierre Martin having left orders in this direction during the night, estimating that the safety would not be ensured the Banns.
March 19 : a good day for Kriegsmarine
German side, the day of 19 was practically held without encumbers. Peter-Erich Cremer devotes only some lines besides to it: "the following day of the incident of the lock, it did not occur anything private individual, or almost. The men all were tired by the difficulties of the day before and, prudently, I ordered not to force rate. The evening, the head of the convoy was committed in the staircase of locks of Valdieu. but a group of four latecomers had remained enough far behind, towards Gommersdorf. Indeed, one of the tug boats had had problems of gas oil filter and escapes in the food while carburizing during a good part of the day, and the mechanics had been obstinated not to too a long time want to change all the circuit. Dieter Thunau proposed to me to establish patrols between Valdieu and the part of the channel kept by the regiment of Belfort, while specifying me the limits of the device, its soldiers being really far too inexperienced. I accepted with recognition. My only concern related to the two trucks of the Genius left to seek what to replace the material used the day before to repair the lock. The evening, they had still not returned. The lieutenant ordering the detachment of the Genius announced to me that they would be back in the morning of the following day, with explanations for their delay. After its remarkable work of the day before, I want not to annoy it. I remained and I deadened there about it on my narrow berth of the SR-1. " (EP Cremer, C$op. cit.)
French side, 19, after a few hours of rest, the Nemo commando began his preparations for the following night. Pierre Martin passed in strong gale in the afternoon, to declare that the German troops which had settled in Valdieu were in small number, and seemed little disciplined (for Germans, of course!). He returned at the beginning of evening to bring the last keys to the route of fold.
Two unlucky recruits
Little before 22h00, the Nemo commando left the Farm of the Small Size and moved towards a point located on the channel, between the first and the second lock after Valdieu, to 5 km of its starting place. Arrived on the spot towards 23h00, the commando was again divided into two groups, charged each one of the destruction of a lock, a valve of a pond-tank and, if there remained time, of a third work. The detonators were to be selected so that the whole of the explosions occurs towards 03h00, March 20. The limiting hour of fold was 01h00, with a return to the Farm of the Small Size for 02h00 and a departure in the tread.
"With my group, I moved immediately towards the downstream, in direction of Montreux. The second lock appeared soon. I sent Tracol to assemble the guard in front of the lock house, with the not very probable case where somebody would warn himself to leave, while with Dumont, we position our explosives at the level of the hinges of the doors.
We had hardly finished that Bilger beckoned to us to be put at the shelter, showing finger two silhouettes helmeted which approached. I made sign with the Dumont Sergeant, who included/understood very quickly what I wanted, even if it did not see yet the utility of it. The two German sentinels passed in front of us. Silencer like cats, applying the lessons of long days of drive, we leaped on them by behind and immobilized them before they do not have time to react. Their eyes showed much more fear than of aggressiveness, and we were struck by their extreme youth. Bilger, being addressed to them in their language, asked for their route of patrol to them ; they answered without difficulty. The rule of the Special Operations had been to eliminate them, but we had not covered for that our uniforms and Dumont, with an actually applied blow, was satisfied to send them to the country dreams, while commenting on : "They will be able to dream of the Valkyrie even longer than during an opera of Wagner" (the Sergeant was a machinist with the Opera of Marseilles in the civil one).
I ordered then in Bilger and Tracol to cap the German helmets, to put their rifles at the strap and to open to us walk in direction of the third lock. This lock worried me since the day when "Mr Jules" had exposed us his plans. It had insisted: "Make jump the first and the second lock after Valdieu, but the third is at least also important for a durable success" When we approached some, Bilger indicated that the noises of troop were much marked than the two days before. I hoped that the routine started to take the step on vigilance German side. I as sent my two Verdigrises of occasion close as possible of the limit of enemy quartering, beyond the lock, asking them to stop openly to lengthily smoke a cigarette once in the vicinity, before returning towards the lock. While they drew the attention thus, I used half of the remaining explosives to sabotage the third lock. My two pseudo sentinels having returned, we set out again to occupy ourselves of the valve of one of the two pond-tanks, before taking the way of the point of appointment for the return to the Farm of the Small Size. In way, I made throw the two helmets and both Mauser in the channel. It was not the day of the trophies...
The group of the Martinez Chief returned twenty minutes later. They had also seen German soldiers patrolling, but other bank. The Chief slipped to me quickly that they had had time to undermine a third site, in the occurrence the small building sheltering the valve of the Drain. Definitely, they wanted some with this unhappy river. A blow of?il to the watch, it was midnight and half. All the commando immediately took the direction of the Farm of the Small Size, while following the same way as to the outward journey. " (Michel Fabre, C$op cit.)
March 20 : Blue night in Alsace
Sleeping deeply in spite of the little of comfort of his berth, Peter-Erich Cremer was brutally awaked not very front 03h00 and precipitated on the bridge of the SR-1.
"the doubt was not allowed, it was well an explosion which had awaked me. Time to reach the bridge of my tug boat, several other explosions occurred, towards the south-south-east. As the channel did not pass by there, I did not worry too much. Was this a bombardment ? I asked to the Master Mller mechanic, of quarter on the bridge, if it had heard a noise of plane little before the explosions. But the only one that it heard was that of a flying equipment slowly towards the west, at one hour of the morning, all lit fires, as besides the previous days - I supposed that it acted of a plane of Luftwaffe to the drive, and asked me with what rimaient these explosions.
I was still plunged in my reflexions when gleams appeared this time in the south-western direction, followed a few seconds later of new detonations. This time, it was well in the direction of the channel! Everyone was awaked now, and theradio one which accompanied us stopped with height of my boat in a great squeaking of brakes. I went up on board with some men and, the howling engine, we precipitated towards the supposed place of the last explosions while following the tow path. In the passing of Main road 19, we embarked Feldwebel of Feldgendarmerie, which also wondered what could occur well. We did not take a long time to include/understand. The doors of the first lock met were dislocated, water running out with large bubbles in the level downstream. We continued to the following lock, which was in the same state.
I asked the radio operator operator to come into contact with the regiment of infantry of Belfort, near. I have first of all to copiously insult the sergeant who answered the radio operator call, by explaining to him that it was necessary for an officer initially to me and that one rglerait the problem of the different hierarchies then. Then, I spoke to a lieutenant : " you do not worry, says me it, those which did that will not go far, the road towards Switzerland is locked. " That did not bring any comfort to me. If I did not manage to quickly stop the water run-off of the channel, I was going to be wedged there and for a long time. I immediately thought of the men of the Genious, who had made wonders two days before, before me of remembering that they had not replaced their material of replacement yet. I was undoubtedly taken with the trap. I ordered with the truck to make half-turn, and to join my boats. Little before Valdieu, a small building jumped in front of us, the explosion digging a large hole in the tow path. It is with foot that it was necessary to return and, if I did not manage to save my mission, it was undoubtedly as with foot as I would finish my military career, as infantryman of second class. Admiralty would certainly not forgive me such a failure "
When the explosions resounded, their authors were not yet well far...
" We spent much less than one hour to reach the Farm of the Small Size, and, after us to be disencumbered of our uniforms and a part of our equipment, we left full south, in direction of the Swiss border, with a dozen kilometers to flight of bird. The optimists thought that we would be safe from the other side around four hours of the morning... The man with the paces of poacher was used to us as guide. We had just crossed secondary road 13, between Suarce and Vellescot, when we heard explosions in the distance. That did nothing but increase our optimism. But we were not going to delay with dchanter. With leaving the Large Wood, we saw the headlights of an intense circulation on the trunk road 463, which had imperatively to be crossed to join Switzerland, and we spent only a few seconds to understand that Wehrmacht occupied the road axis! Our guide then made us make half-turn and set out again towards the North-East, far from our safety. With my questions about this change of direction, it answered only by evasive gestures. At the end of half an hour of uncertainty, with the turning of a wood, we recognized the truck of the Logging Sites of Doubs, which had brought us station of Montbeliard. Pierre Martin was held at side. As usual, it was short: "Boches block the road which goes from Delle to Basle. Impossible to pass. Return to the Farm of the Large Size, and one cushy job. " the Bilger Corporal drew me by the sleeve: "My Lieutenant, we are a few kilometres from my village. Seams towards the east, let us enter to Alsace, then prick towards the South, I ensure you that we will arrive to Switzerland. That would astonish me that the German stopping is prolonged Alsatian side " To remain dissimulated here as of the criminals did not say anything which are worth, and I to me put not a long time to accept the proposal of Bilger. Pierre Martin had only one comment: "I accompany you" Pierre Bilger taking the place gradually by guide as we approach Alsace, our guide with the paces of poacher left us little before the border. We had to avoid only one patrol of some men at the time of the crossing of a North-South road, and arrived at the Swiss border little before the rising of the day. Nobody had dared to complain about tiredness, in spite of the many hours of walk which we had from now on behind us. Triple encloses barbed wires which marked the border did not stop us a long time, the grips forming part of our equipment. We were inserted few hundreds of meters in Swiss territory, before I do not order a pause.
For half an hour of rest, also devoted to restore us somewhat, it was necessary to take again our road. The Corporal Bilger and Pierre Martin had passed not badly from time to discuss the best route to reach the town of Porrentruy, where we were to travel by the train, and they were obviously not agreement. We set out again nevertheless, rate slowing down as we advance, and the pauses were done increasingly many and longer. At one time, the noise of a nourished shooting threw us (almost) all to ground, starting bursts of laughter on behalf of Pierre Martin : "you do not worry ! Each Saturday morning, the Swiss ones are with the shooting range to make the paperboards required within the framework of their twenty years of military obligations. Nothing to fear " We arrived at the neighbourhoods of Porrentruy while having carefully avoided any meeting. Pierre Martin only went to recognize the way and returned at the end of five minutes, a great smile with the lips, accompanied by another man: "Comrades, I congratulate you. You exceeded the objectives of the plan! "
- How, exceeded ?
- the Germans are blocked in the Channel. There is no more water in the levels which follow Valdieu, and they cannot even make half-turn, the tubular bridge beside Dannemarie is with half ploughed up. Do not ask me why, I do not know anything of it. I leave you between the hands of Philippe Pierret, who will accompany you in Porrentruy. You deserved a beer in a Swiss coffee well. Goodbye comrades, the victory is close!
Before taking again the way of Porrentruy, I congratulated myself my men, and more particularly Pierre Bilger, ensuring it that it could count as of our return on its let us galons of sergeant, because, by its initiatives and its knowledge of the ground, it had contributed beyond waitings with the success of our mission "
Katastrophe !
German side, as the morning advanced, the situation was specified.
"Around 11 hours of the morning, we had an about complete vision from what had occurred in the night. The channel was dry on several kilometers, the enemy had made jump three locks, the valves of the basins feeding the water channel, like seven or eight points on the small river which fed also the channel, including to the junction with the channel and the point of derivation of the Loose one. The channel was also cut Alsatian side, towards Dannemarie, where the tubular bridge overhanging the Loose one was seriously damaged, the water of the corresponding level being poured in the Loose one by the breaches, putting at dryness a tug boat and two submarines which were there. The cause of the collapse of the tubular bridge was still unspecified. According to Dieter Thunau, this attack could not be the?uvre terrorists, all was too well coordinated : "Only a unit of well involved soldiers could make a success of this blow, twelve to twenty men, undoubtedly. "
My only consolations was the fact that this attack had not made victims on our side (if one excluded two soldiers of Thunau found in the early morning tied up like sausages and terrified), that none of my boats had been touched, because they were not in the attacked zone, and that the men of the Genious had returned, even if the means of which they laid out were ridiculous in front of the task to achieve so that we can set out again. Not having anything of to better do while waiting for that oils arrive from Strasbourg and moreover further to perhaps shoot me, I let the sergeant of the Genious tell himself what explained their delay : "After having given all our material on the trucks Thursday at the end of the afternoon, we went to Mulhouse, the deposit of the service of Navigation. There was an insane evil to find it, it was necessary to take several times the way, and I believe that the Alsatian young imps who answered us us voluntarily indicated false directions. One nevertheless ended up arriving there, and one gave the good of requisition which one had used in Strasbourg with the chief of the deposit. It answered us that our good was not valid any more, the material which appeared having been delivered us in it in Strasbourg. It would not make any difficulty to give us what was necessary for us, but it needed a valid good, signed by a senior officer of our unit and by the director of the service of Navigation in Strasbourg, the whole contresigned by the services of Gauleiter, always in Strasbourg, the payment. It proposed to us to use his telephone to make prepare the paperwork by our unit, but there was nothing to make to join the barracks. The telephone lady explained us that there were only few lines between the civil network and the military network, and that they were always occupied at the beginning of evening. We were good to go to Strasbourg, 30 km/h, our trucks not going more quickly. The next morning, one quickly made obtain the signature of Major Kalt, but the director of Navigation was untraceable. He was so-called party to inspect a building site on the channel towards Saverne, but it is only at the end of the afternoon that he showed himself, at the wheel of beautiful Hotchkiss of which he had inherited when its French predecessor had been returned to Paris, at the beginning of 1941, and in company of a woman (quite pretty also, the woman, I wonder whether he recovered it at the same time as the car). One returned to Mulhouse to 9 hours of the evening and the night watchman of the deposit said to us that one had awaited us up to 8 a.m., and that it would be necessary to have patience until the following day 7 hours so that there is again enough world to charge our bazaar. For this reason we arrive only now. "
Still an oil of the Party which obtained a sinecure, thought I. In my daily report/ratio with the Admiral Doenitz, who had returned to Paris, I hardly showed myself optimistic on the continuation of the transfer "
On the Swiss side
The members of the commando, by two or three, traversed about midday the streets of Porrentruy, when Pierre Bilger advanced towards the coffee With the Falcon, while exclaiming: "We will celebrate my promotion, it is here that there is best beer of the corner! " the new guide, Philippe Pierret, had only time to retain it in him blowing : "Not, especially not in it! " It is with the Swiss Coffee, with two steps of the precedent, which they settled. Pierret made a discrete sign of head to a character whose civil costume did not manage to mask the military maintenance completely. It acted of the Captain Froidevaux, person in charge for Swiss military SR for the sectors of Porrentruy and Delmont.
Much later, in 1994, secret soldier obliges, at the time of a conference held in Lausanne on the topic "With the service of neutrality - the Information Swiss of 1940 to 1944", Colonel Froidevaux, then old of more than 80 years, evoked its activities of the time thus :
"My missions were multiple: to collect information on what occurred on other side of the border, to identify the dies of information of the Allies, to prevent the German spies from infiltrating, and to discreetly help the very rare French and even rarer Alsaciens which sought to cross Switzerland to join Algeria. For the first part, I will be able to speak to you about it only in fifty years [ laughter in the room ], this aspect being always covered by the secrecy.
With regard to the dies of information of the Allies, I will be able to say some to you more. There were several networks on other side of the border. One of them was primarily made up of active trade unionists in transport, especially the railroad, but also navigation, on a vast sector going from Besancon in Strasbourg. It transmitted its information to the French diplomatic representation in Bern, finally the part on the side of fighting France, not that which paraded on behalf of the Laval government and whose our government had diplomatically accepted the installation. Another network, which was in connection with the English, was active in the Alsatian medical environment. It is insane what the German soldiers could tell with a doctor, even civil.
The German spies and the French who sought to cross the border had a common point: they needed a frontier runner which knew the places well, because if they had crossed the border all alone, our guards would have intercepted them without difficulty and bring back, neutrality obliges, in front of a German station. The frontier runners were not very numerous. I arranged myself (in a way that I will not detail) to gain their confidence and agreed with them of an extremely simple stratagem: if it acted potential spies or doubtful individuals, they would stop in Porrentruy with the Coffee of the Falcon, where one of my men was permanently. If they were French or Alsatian patriots, the stop would be done with the Swiss Coffee. The individuals consuming with the Falcon were discreetly stopped and interned, to be generally returned to Germany following the pressures of Reich, the frontier runner which had brought them remaining our host then, for obvious reasons of safety. I never included/understood besides why the Germans sought to infiltrate spies by this way there, since they made return which they wanted by the terminal of the railway line allemande in Basle. If were to check that we respect our neutrality strictly and that our border was quite tight, they had for their money, very rare being those which managed to pass by the meshs of my net! For the French who sought to continue the combat, our neutrality forced to us to return them on their premises, but did we it much more in the south, on the side of Monthey, before Martigny, from where they turned over to France while passing by the mountain, monitoring of Savoy by the Italians being much easier to mislead than that of the Germans on the remainder of the country. But their number did not exceed a few tens, at least on my sector, in 1941 and 1942, because the way to arrive to Algeria or in Morocco was still long and perilous then, and one was needed crowned courage to undertake it at the beginning of Alsace. It is only after the unloading in Provence and in Languedoc that the number of young people seeking to join the French Army increased appreciably.
This routine was hustled only rare times. It was the case on March 20, 1943. In the morning, one knew that something of unusual had occurred. The most varied rumours circulated, the ones speaking about an air raid to about fifteen kilometers on other side of the border, the others of an attack of parachutists against German boats circulating on the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine. I settled with the Swiss Coffee as of 8 hours of the morning and waited. About midday, a group of eight people, led by a frontier runner whom I knew well, entered the establishment. They did not resemble fugitive usual, and, in spite of their obvious tiredness, they gave the impression of a homogeneous group and even soldier. Without the knowledge, I had in front of the eyes the authors of the destruction of the installations of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, which was going to block for a long time German submarines near our territory. They drank a beer, which did not have the quality of that of pre-war period, because of the restrictions that all the Confederation underwent, then set out again. Their guide left behind him a bit of paper carrying the words "French Commando, regular army". It did not act of my usual game, and I regretted not having under the hand a civil servant of the Foreign Affairs ! I followed them by far to the station, where they jumped at the last second in an express train which left me under the nose. All that I pus to make was to require of the employee who controlled the access to the quay which was the destination registered on their tickets : it was Bern. I telephoned over there by making a statement on the situation. But my colleagues of Bern could only note that the group had evaporated before arriving at destination. I at all the stations of the course, but which would I could obviously have telephoned have sent ? Gendarmerie ? They were not all the same eight men who were going to invade Switzerland... "
In fact, Nemo had changed train with Bienne and had continued their way until Nyon. With fallen the night, a man carrying the uniform of the Federal Railroads made them leave the station of Nyon discreetly and cross the city. A new excursion awaited them, in a ground more broken than the day before. To little close at the same hour, the radio operator transmitter of the network Lion of Iron, dissimulated with the farm of the Large Meadows, near the village of Blmont, came into contact with England, the connection with Algiers not passing. The transmitted message was short: "Nemo Operation succeeded, cut channel, immobilized submarines. Second cut of the channel with Dannemarie, causes unknown, repeats unknown. Intact last commando in Switzerland." Information was quickly retransmitted in Algiers.
On his side, the commando was to return to France. The choice of Nyon as starting point for that was not ideal, the most discrete ways passing by the mountain, with more than 1 000 m of uneven swallowing, which, even for alpine hunters, was not negligible, especially when snow covered the escarps grounds. But there was no guy of the country to propose another route. The group thus left to the attack the Jura by a rather sloping forest track which emerged in Combe of Faoug, where was a farm and a barn, deserted in this season. One or two kilometers further, their guide beckoned to them to oblique on the left, towards Small Sonnailley, where a lamp flickered slightly. From there, the commando still had to advance to the farm of the Plundering one, where it could finally blow.
The following day March 21, whereas the few cows of the farm had already been put at contribution to scramble the traces of the passage of the commando in snow, Michel Fabre wrote his report/ratio, which would be transmitted in Algiers the following night.
In the night of the 21 to the 22, walk began again until Rasses, Moussires. The men of the commando were going to remain a week there, passing a good part of their days to go to cut trees in the forests neighbouring, the noise of their axes and knocked being involved in that with the tools with truths loggers which worked in the vicinity. The Morond Corporal was not more enthusiastic in this labour - the smile of Lucie Grosjean, met with the Farm of the Small Size, came more often than in its turn to distract it in its task.
Sunday March 21 : Wehrmacht takes stock
George Hartmann arrived at his station at the hospital of Mulhouse as of eight hours of the morning the 21, although it was one Sunday. He was indeed of guard to the service of Radiology one Sunday out of two, in alternation with Graunitz which, when it was its turn, quietly ensured its guard its residence, close to its telephone, that it was recommended not not to solicit too much... Hartmann did not doubt that his/her brother would find the occasion to speak to him about the events of the day before, about which it had intended to speak. But Wehrmacht had buckled all the sector between Dannemarie and Valdieu, and his/her brother was blocked at his place. He was not going to miss work, with this surge of soldiers who would not fail to stop in his inn...
But the German Army had concerns much more important than its supply beer. The Tscherning General who ordered from Strasbourg the 405E Division, was awaited on the spot, in company of a colonel of the Genious and those ordering the regiments of infantry of Mulhouse and Belfort. Luftwaffe would be also of the festival. More worrying for the civil population, the assistant of Gauleiter Wagner was also announced, with in his wake the chief of Gestapo in Alsace.
"When I heard the list of those which were going to come to realize of the situation, I believed well that my destiny was definitively sealed. However, I had not made any error. If Heer had done what I asked, never a commando could not have attacked the installations of the Channel. These Messrs arrived in the morning, and decided that a conference would be taken place in the afternoon, at 3 p.m., the town hall of Dannemarie, requisitioned for the occasion, and where I was requested to wait.
A 14. 30, Kbelwagen stopped while skidding in front of the town hall. I have the surprise to see of it killing the Admiral Doenitz, that I hastened to greet. It addressed a great smile to me : "Peter-Erich, I know that you do not have anything to reproach you. You at one afternoon of heavy weather wait, but I am sure until they are the land ones which will set out again with the sea sickness." I spent the few minutes remaining before the beginning of the conference to provide him all the details on what had occurred.
In spite of the arrival of the Admiral, I did not carry out any broad when the Tscherning General opened the conference. Some civil was present, of which my old knowledge the inspector of navigation, undoubtedly intended for very roughing-hew as me.
For once - I think that the presence of the Admiral was not foreign with this situation - one did not start by designating the culprits before judging the defendants. In spite of the insistence of the representatives of Gauleiter and Gestapo, one initially coldly examined the consequences of the situation. The first point approached was that of the repairing of the Channel.
The colonel of the Genious explained that the repair of the locks would take at more the one week, time to manufacture the doors and to repair the concrete of the hoppers. All the material necessary was available, it was not what was going to pose problem. The repair of the valves of the storing reservoirs out of water would earthy a little longer. Dug at various times, these basins did not have standardized valves ; it would take at least two weeks to rebuild them. There too, there was no badly masonry to envisage. Once the valves given in state, the basins could again accumulate water, intended to fill the channel. What worried more the colonel was the drain of supply, cut off in several places. They are not so much work themselves which posed a problem, but the environment in which they were going to be done, truff of not exploded shells of the preceding war, and of German shells in addition. The mine clearance had never been finished, for lack of means. Enormous precautions were thus going to be necessary, and one would need at least five or six weeks before the drain is again in service. The other damage, like the holes in the collapse or tow path partial of the banks at some places of the channel, consecutive with the surge of water, was less awkward.
Questioned on the case of the tubular bridge, the colonel passed the word to civil, in fact the inspector of navigation. This one stated us that one of the arches of the tubular bridge was broken, another severely fissured. The origin of this situation was not obvious. An explosion was not to exclude, although it had no obvious trace of it there. The neighbors had certainly heard a deaf noise, but from there with speaking about explosion... According to him, the most probable cause was an already old permissive waste (ah, this French administration !), worsened by the repeated passage of our tug boats : the movements caused by the propellers had finished weakening the structure. Nobody disputed this judgement.
It is only after the war, when I revive Paul Kuntz, that I known that the inspector had played us a beautiful comedy this day. As soon as it had known that the tubular bridge had been damaged, it had precipitated on the spot, hustling Feldgendarmen which kept trimmings by asserting its quality. A fast examination had revealed three cartridges of dynamite to him and a detonator which exceeded debris, and it had hastened to make them disappear. It was then given the responsability to go "to question" the neighbors, in particular the lockkeeper, whom it knew well, to teach them the lesson that they would have to recite! I will have liked to meet it at this time, but Paul Kuntz explained me that it was prematurely deceased, in 1947 : he had never recovered from the ill treatments which he had undergone with the concentration camp of Struthof, where he had finished the war, victim of a denunciation.
The thesis of the unfortunate accident accepted once, it proved that the provisional repair of the tubular bridge would not be, it as, as a business of a few weeks. We could take again our road in May... in theory. Indeed, the colonel of the Genious explained us that it would not be possible that once the channel entirely given out of water, and that that would depend above all on the sky or, more exactly, of the water which would fall from there. One of representatives of Luftwaffe, lieutenant weather with base of hunters of night of Freiburg in Brisgau, explained us that on average, the quantity of water which fell between March and May on the area would be largely sufficient, more especially as with the outlet of Belfort Gap, the place where we are received at least 50 % of rainwater moreover than the town of Mulhouse, located to 25 km from there.
Luftwaffe having the word, one came from there to examine the risk of an air attack, my boats forming a target which seemed to me perfect. It is another officer of the base of hunters of night, old of the dive bombing, where it had acquired the rank of major, who answered. He explained us why a channel, especially of small gauge like the French channels, was a target extremely difficult to reach for bombers flying to high or average altitude. Only an attack at very low altitude had reasonable chances of success, but for that it was necessary to be able to have fighter-bombers with long operating range, and the distance to be crossed from Corsica or England was well too long for this kind of planes. Nevertheless, to counter any possibility, it advised the installation of batteries of Flak of 20 mm on all the zone where our buildings were. The Tscherning General asked then who was going to provide the guns. In front of the disconcerted air of the majority of its interlocutors, it explained why its division of instruction had only some of them, that its artillery regiment had been affected with another division, and that there was not that two solutions to find the quantity of weapons necessary: either to rake all the means of the zone of defense (Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Metz...), or to dismantle the surrounding aerodromes of Luftwaffe their guns. The officers of Luftwaffe became pale, until the Tscherning General proposed that the decision was made by the OKH.
One came from there then to terrestrial protection from our boats. The Tscherning General proposed that the transfer of the 5E regiment of infantry of Mulhouse towards the Russian face is differed until our own departure - it was at least the request which it would make with the OKH. The OKH ratified this proposal the following day Monday, and in addition ordered the provision of all the average mobiles of Flak light of the zone of defense for our protection, including a part of those depend on Luftwaffe. Obviously, the Admiral Doenitz had prepared the ground in high place.
Finally the hour had just designated the persons in charge for the fiasco. Doenitz spoke in first, pointing out all my requests and my suggestions, and the little of eagerness of Heer to follow them. The colonel of Mulhouse answered that it had placed the Thunau Captain at my disposal in spite of orders asking him to separate from any man within the framework of the transfer of his regiment on the face of the East, since even the recruits of fresh date were to take part in the preparation of the transfer, without however leaving themselves. As for colonel de Belfort, he retorted that the attack had not occurred on the territory which was of its responsibility. After this preamble, the reproaches fused of everywhere. That its regiment did not succeed in intercepting the authors of sabotage was reproached to colonel de Belfort, that the Navy was not able to find fusiliers to ensure his own safety was thrown to us to the figure, and the discussion turned in round until the Tscherning General puts an end to it. He agreed to recognize that Heer had not ensured its mission satisfactorily, but each one was to admit that the origin of this failure came above all from the lack of means available for protection from Reich, all the units fighting beyond the borders.
After their initial intervention, the delegate of Gauleiter and the individual of Gestapo had not opened the nozzle any more, which did not forecast certainly anything good, the more so as the conclusion, which did not dispatch anybody with the firing squad, nor even in first line on the Russian face, had seemed to displease to them supremely.
After having discussed various items of detail, the meeting was completed around 8 p.m.. I cordially thanked the Admiral Doenitz for his intervention and proposed to him to go to drink glass in a close inn, with the sign decorated with a splendid head of stag, but it declined my invitation. It assure me that I remained in load of the operation, before setting out again. Contrary to that of the stag of the inn, my head had thus not been cut! I turned over on the SR-1 to inform my men of the events of the day "
Sunday March 21 at Tuesday March 23 : in track for the second turn...
The news of the success of Nemo arrived to Algiers in the night of Saturday at Sunday. A message was immediately sent in Ajaccio, with the local command of the Air Force. It was laconic : " Launching of Nemo- II as soon as possible, target V".
But what was thus Nemo- II ? Its origin comes from the taste of the staffs for the solutions of replacement. When, in January 1943, the decision had been made proud with the special Forces and Resistance to stop the German submarines, the French staff gave to Nemo only one chance out of three to succeed. In the event of failure, it was necessary to have a solution of help. The idea of an air raid of the channel came rather naturally, more especially as the target was theoretically with the range of planes based in Corsica, or from apparatuses of the Royal Air Force. One did not have a long time to slice this particular point, a not signed note, but to the inimitable style, specifying " It belongs to France and it to only carry the first blow to the enemy in a province which he believed to tear off for the second time at the Fatherland. "
Initially, Nemo- II was regarded only as the repetition of Nemo by other means : even goal (to prevent the submarines from passing) and even place (Valdieu). Its execution was considered only in the event of failure of Nemo.
But this approach did not resist the examination a long time. Indeed, in the event of failure of Nemo, time that information comes to Algiers and that the operation is launched, the submarines would be already quietly 30 or 50 km further. To bombard a place where they would not be any more did not have a direction... A second site thus had to be found where a cut of the channel could be effective, by putting except service several sufficiently brought closer locks. Several places were considered, before to be eliminated the ones after the others. One too was close to Valdieu (Montbeliard), others in a too boxed section and too sinuous of Doubs, another the base of hunters of night of Luftwaffe with Tavaux was neighbourly... There remained finally nothing any more but the outlet of the channel in the Saone with Saint-Jean-of-Losne, where it was possible to destroy three locks like some others in the Saone, with relatively little distance.
When this site was accepted for Nemo- II, a young officer polytechnician struck the face and exclaimed :" We prepare for the failure of Nemo, but if Nemo succeeds ? Why, in this case, we would not bombard the submarines, which will be more or less gathered where they will be blocked ? If we act sufficiently quickly and at low altitude, we will have a good luck of success, Wehrmacht not having certainly the means of bringing DCA in quantity of the day to the following day. " Initially extremely skeptic and still traumatized by the terrible losses undergone from May to July 1940 by Brguet 693 in" shaving bombardment ", the staff ends up accepting the idea, when the Information assure it (relative) light weakness of the means in Flak of Wehrmacht in Alsace and in the south of Germany, excluded aerodromes.
Nemo- II thus became an operation doubles, with two distinct objectives, known choice of the target being able only approximately two days before the D-day. The mission was going to be delicate and could be entrusted only to very tested crews, that the Air Force hesitated more and more to engage in dangerous operations. The choice was made on the 31E Escadre of Bombardment, equipped with B-25 Mitchell and placed under the orders of the Lieutenant-colonel Henri de Rancourt. When the broad outline of the operation was presented to him, mid-January 1943, this one measured immediately which difficulties awaited it :
- Well. How you ask me is daring, which is not to displease to me, but that will not be simple ! First of all, the place of the attack. It is in extreme cases extreme of the range of our bombers. Then, moment of the attack : if it is in full day or the evening, the Germans will see us passing and send all their hunting to our cases, if it is not in addition occupied. If it is at the small day, the navigation of night above the Alps will be very difficult and we will have right to the hunting, duly alerted, on the way of the return - but of course, they will be tedious only for us and not for the success of the operation. Lastly, methods of the attack : the bombs will have to be released at very low altitude, under enemy fire, even if you guarantee the absence of Flak to me. And, I was going almost to forget : the secrecy will have to be maintained ! There are too many ears in Algiers and in Corsica so that I would be sure that none is German or pledged with what remains fascistic Italians. However, there must be solutions with these four problems. I foresee some of them.
- We did not expect any less, was to you the answer. You and your men have two months to be ready !
These two months were very occupied.
Conscious of the limits of its means of remote recognition, the Air Force first of all asked the RAF to ensure for its account a certain number of photographic missions, in particular in the sectors of Valdieu and Midsummer's Day de Losne, while making pass openly its Mosquito PR above the marshalling yard of DijonPerrigny and the Schneider factories of Creusot, objectives much more probable for a bombardment. The passages above Creusot were noticed by the Germans, who wondered whether they only acted to check the damage produced by the bombardment of October 1942 or if the English were going to renew this attack.
The engineering departments of the Air Force, for their part, had to quickly transform about thirty B-25D to increase their operating range of about 15 %. Their ventral turret (moreover not very practical to use) was removed, its opening sealed by sheet aluminium, and the supports of the turret were used to install an additional reserve car-sealing of approximately 160 gallons, to use at the beginning of mission. Lead ingots were installed judiciously so that centering remains within the acceptable limits, with or without bombs. As for the total mass on takeoff, it would exceed slightly what was written in the handbook, but confidence in the products of North- American as large as was justified.
The hour of the attack was fixed at the whole beginning of morning, ideally little after the rising of the sun. The probable date was specified more and more : it would be in the neighbourhoods of March 20. Henri de Rancourt hoped that it would be rather afterwards that front, because if the Moon were full the 21, it lay down before the rising of the Sun before this date, which would be a large handicap for the navigation of night.
The drive with the navigation and the night flight was of course intensive. It often took place of day, by darkening the cockpit of the bombers with blue panels in perspex, a little like those used in the studios of cinema for the night scenes in "American night". These panels, the use was proposed by a mechanic who had worked with the studios of Victorine before war, last being ordered in England. The supplier carried out the order promptly, hardly surprised that it is the second in a few days, the preceding one coming from the Royal Air Force. The person in charge for the manufacture, which had made the other war, thinks only that at its time, the Armies did not seek to compete with Hollywood.
The procedures of navigation were established with the assistance of the Lieutenant commander Paul Comet, of Naval Aeronautics. This former pioneer of Air-mail had ensured navigation at the time the raids on Berlin of June 1940. Very schematically, navigation was based on predetermined courses, corrected with regular intervals by astronomical observations, the location on the ground being very random above the Alps, especially of night and with the top of snow-covered grounds. With the approach of the day, the Mount Blanc, recognizable by far, would be used as additional bench mark. The bomber force would be divided into three groups of nine planes, following slightly different roads, that of the first group being longest, to join the point of regrouping on convergent axes. Each group would fly at a different altitude to reduce the collision risks. It was necessary of course to take again the drive with astronomical navigation, inevitably useless in the missions of day and at relatively short distance carried out previously.
But there was also the drive with the bombardment itself. It would be necessary, so that the mission is regarded as succeeded, to place approximately two thirds of the bombs released in a broad channel of less than 20 meters, over a length of approximately two kilometers. An equivalent surface was delimited on one of the long beaches located at the south of Bastia, on which were materialized of the "railways" barred by "bridges" (with the sites of the locks), the target announced to the crews being " a railway line strategic some share in occupied France ". It was excluded that each plane releases its bombs independently, a good coordination being essential so that the whole of the zone concerned of the channel is reached. The dropping would thus be done with the orders of the first bomber of the file. The cumbersome Norden sight, badly adapted to a bombardment below 300 m, was replaced by do-it-yourself house, which gave any satisfaction during the drive to the altitude finally selected of 200 meter-ground. Particular procedures were envisaged if the zone to be attacked would be shorter, as in St-Jean de Losne, or if, by miracle, the Germans had gathered their submarines. The bombs of 500 kg would be equipped with rockets with 3 minutes delayed-action to prevent that the planes are not destroyed by the explosion of a bomb released in front of them by another. There still, it was necessary to develop special procedures so that the possible latecomers can despite everything take part in the bombardment.
A last point, and not of least, remained to be regulated. It was not very probable that the group is worried by enemy hunting at the time of its way outward journey : the hunting of German night was not regarded as a serious threat, because of the weakness of its manpower in the south of France and the insufficiencies of the network German radar on the Mediterranean coast (more close to the target, the question was different, but one would be in full day - in any event, the route, to go it as to the return, would carefully avoid the zones covered by the unfavourable radars). On the other hand, one did not have to count on the absence of German hunting for the return. Since the resumption of Corsica, Luftwaffe had strongly increased its presence in the South of France, basing Me-109G and FW-190 with Cuers, Mandelieu, Aix-the-Miles and Orange. A general attack of the aerodromes concerned was prepared, at the theoretical hour of the return of the planes of Nemo- II. German hunting should be well opposed to this "Large Circus" and it was hoped that it would be too occupied to obstruct the return of the apparatuses of Nemo- II. Last and delicate attention : the GC II/5, famous Lafayette, would be sent to possible north to more escort B-25 on the way of the return.
As soon as the message starting Nemo- II receipt, the detailed orders were prepared then sent to the units concerned. The attack of the aerodromes took some time for its release, because it implied the engagement of American formations beside the Frenchwomen. For this reason, the hour H was fixed at 06h15 GMT, Tuesday March 23, that is to say 48 hours later.
As of Sunday morning, the aviators of the 27 apparatuses of the 312nd EB taking part in the operation were gathered under a vast tent bordering the track of the aerodrome of Calvi for a first briefing by their commander, Lt- Collar. of Rancourt. Romain Gary, who took part in Nemo- II as a bomber-machine gunner, told in the Promise of the Paddle the operation such as it remembered to have lived it.
" the Colonel explained the broad outline of the raid. He started by revealing the objective, which caused reactions of surprised and disappointment in the assistance. Oh, it was not the target itself which was at the origin of our attitude, but much more the fact that nobody had guessed it in the many bets which had been made since the beginning of our drive ! Everyone suspected well that the objective was not that which one wanted to do to us to believe. Some had even thought of a channel - but nobody imagined that it would be there, in annexed Alsace. The rumours released cunningly by the command made us believe in a target in the North of Germany, in the den even of the ogre, after a removal of the squadron in England : a track of aerodrome, a channel of access to a port, or even precisely a channel, like that connecting Dortmund to Ems. The first moment of surprised last, a certain relief was done day : we escaped from the British kitchen !
The Colonel explained us the reasons of our mission and his importance, before insisting on the risks taken by the Special Resistance and Forces us "to prepare the ground". He then briefly described the schedule and the route of the mission, which would proceed at the first hours of Tuesday 23. Takeoff of night, crossing from the coast in Nice, overflight of the Alps, arrived on the objective half an hour after the rising of the sun, then return about by the same way. The precise route would be communicated to the navigators in the afternoon, at the time of the specific briefings to each speciality (pilots, bombers, navigators). As soon as I heard the word Nice, I thought of my mother - I was persuaded that it would awake with the noise of the planes and would be with her window to shout in the night with her neighbor that it was his/her son who carried out the planes of France to the meeting of the enemy, to demolish it as my distances ancestors had demolishes the Teutoniques Knights in Marienburg. While I thought of it, I did not hear what the Colonel said on the bombardment itself, but that did not have importance, I will know of it well enough the afternoon.
The assistant of the Colonel specified us then the particular dangers of our mission :
- At the beginning, there are few risks. Nice is halfway German radar tracking stations of Saint-Raphal and San Remo. Time that they awake the hunting of night with Istres, you will be far. On the other hand, a little DCA is not to exclude.
Then, above the Alps, the greatest danger, it is the relief. It is up to the navigators to permanently determine their position, work their was facilitated, they will see that this afternoon. Altitudes selected at least leave 500 m of safety margin if you follow your road correctly. If you are lost, take immediately a northern full course by climbing gas .fond to 4 500 m, remade the point and join your route. If the weather is maintained, only low clouds should present in the valleys and be fixed on the slopes on a north-eastern sector. We will tomorrow evening re-examine that with last information.
Except big problem of navigation, you will escape from the German radars located around the valley from the Rhone. Around the objective, it is the station of Saint-Louis which is more to fear. There is no hunting of day in the vicinity, but it is not impossible only Luftwaffe launches to your cases to the return of the hunters of night of Luxeuil or Tavaux.
On the spot, undoubtedly not of Flak (there was a rumour incrdule). We will have the confirmation of it tomorrow afternoon.
The largest risk will be the hunting based in the low valley of the Rhone or on the Riviera on your return. But a good part of the Air Force and USAAF will try to occupy it, and the guy of Lafayette will be there to serve nannies to you !
The afternoon, I have right to my briefing of speciality. Route of approach, detailed chart, reference mark on the ground, procedure of bombardment however lengthily repeated with the drive, man?uvres urgently, armament of the bombs, delayed-action, all passed there. The business had been obviously prepared with a great meticulousness. One was far from the Air Force of May 1940 ! The evening, I asked Daniel Tisseur [ navigator of B-25 of Romain Gary, whose pilot was A. Lauger and the copilot Frederic Richard ] of the details on the route. It answered me that they had been able to approach only the part above the Alps to the outward journey and the return, the remainder being seen only the following day Monday. Moreover, if I did not have anything of to better do (briefing of the bombers being finished), I could accompany it. "
Monday March 22 : initially the carrot
As of the morning, inhabitants of a triangle Altkirch-Valdieu-Seppois discovered posters struck of the eagle and swastika, placarded on the all public spot and carrying this inscription: "Alsatian, of the traitors in Reich, helped by English henchmen of the juivery and Bolchevism, loosely attacked the Channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, resulting in the death of tens of innocent belonging to your people. A reward of 10 000 RM is offered to whoever will make it possible to put the hand on these criminals (...)
Signed: Robert Wagner, Gauleiter "
Hitler, which still sought to spare the Alsatian ones, had convinced his/her companion of the putsch missed of 1923 using initially of carrot. Wagner, persuaded that nothing would leave this attempt, was going to spend the week to prepare the stick, that it was promised painful for its victims.
In the Territory of Belfort, the militia started to excavate all the houses, farms and barns located near the channel. But its members were interested much by the prospect for plunderings and various exactions that by research for the traces for the passage for a commando. The farm of the Small Size was set fire to by a group whose member was recognized by Lucie Grosjean, who had fled with her parents in wood neighbouring. The accounts would be regulated two years later.
Monday March 22 : a demonstration of the "wood wonder"
In 9 hours of the morning, on the basis of Benson, near Oxford, the S/L Frank Fray climbed in the cockpit of Mosquito of Squadron 540. The F/L James "Jack" Miller, native of Adelaide, in Australia, which would be its navigator for this mission, was already in the glazed nose of the apparatus. It was only the third operation on Mosquito for the S/L Fray, much more accustomed in Spitfire for the achievement of the reconnaissance missions entrusted to will squadrons created starting from the famous PRU.
- It is the first time that I make a mission on behalf of Royal Navy on an objective located at 500 miles of the sea nearest! Miller commented on.
- And me thus ! When I knew that one was going to work for Navy, I expected to go fouiner on the side of the Norwegian fjords or the French ports of the Atlantic. But a channel on the side of Alsace !
- I have only one explanation. The Germans found the means of making like salmons : they build small fresh water boats and make them grow then out of salted water. Blow, rather than of having to destroy them one by one in the ocean, one sends to us to seek the nursery so that To bend it Command can demolish it.
- Guard your imagination for the impressionable WAAF ! We of the route occupy rather.
The F/L Miller was however not very far away from the truth.
Whereas they flew over Belgium at an altitude of 25 000 feet, Jack Miller pointed out to Frank Fray which a layer of stratus was returning any observation of the impossible ground : " It will be necessary that one passes below to readjust navigation, unless one does not decide to go to Stuttgart" Mosquito thus went down gradually until towards 10 000 feet through the clouds, to allow Miller to note that they had derived until above Metz, whereas the initial flight plan envisaged the overflight of Luxembourg. After having taken a new course towards Colmar, where the trajectory would be again inflected, Fray went up above the stratus, the silhouette of its plane cutting out on the bottom of the clouds being well too visible for an observer on the ground. Little before emerging from the vapour cloud, the two men saw through the last veils of stratus two hunters single-engined aircrafts which were 3 000 feet above them and steered obviously the same course. Frank Fray replongea somewhat in the thickness of the strati and slipped in Jack Miller, while smiling behind her oxygen mask : "We will see whether publicity did not lie us..." It pushed the throttle levers .fond, and when the airspeed indicator approached the mark of the 370 mph, passed by again frankly above the clouds. The two German hunters, of Bf-109G, were now with more one thousand behind them. They immediately transfer right Mosquito in front of and plunged to catch up with it. Vain hope... In spite of a passage in overpower, leaving a black smoke in their wake of both Messerschmitt, they did not manage to be placed in position of shooting. Worse, the variation increases, the airspeed indicator of the English exceeding the 400 mph briskly when Fray put it in light piqu. The "wonder drink some" (wooden wonder) from Havilland was with the height of its reputation. Both 109G ended up giving up and obliqued towards north before disappearing. Miller jack threw a blow of?il to the gauges with fuel, to check that this sprint had not compromised their return. Reassured, it took again its navigation.
The Rhine was from now on definitely visible under the wings of Mosquito. It was necessary to be now extremely precise, the layer of clouds obliging the crew to take his photographs with less than 10 000 feet, where the cameras covered a field much smaller than with the altitude initially envisaged of 20 000 feet. Mosquito flew over soon Mulhouse, then followed the railway towards Altkirch and Belfort, by maintaining it on its left. Arrived at the height of the viaduct of railroad of Dannemarie, easily recognizable, Frank Fray made a variation on the line before starting a turn on the left which brought it in the axis of the channel of the Rhone to the Rhine. Miller jack started the cameras and, a few minutes later, Mosquito took again altitude to turn over to the fold to 25 000 feet. It was posed in time for a a little late lunch, not at its starting base, but in Ajaccio, where it was awaited impatiently.
The photographs were developed as of the landing of Mosquito. Taken at an altitude relatively relatively low, they showed the sections of the dry channel clearly, as well as the site where each tug boat and each submarine were immobilized. But they also showed the presence of several trucks of Wehrmacht. A pulling of these photographs left the evening even in the DC-3 which ensured the connection between Ajaccio, Algiers then London by Gibraltar.
The overflight of the channel was not unperceived past for Peter Cremer, but as the reinforcements were on the way, it did not worry any in addition to measurement :
" Monday, the Genius began its repairs immediately, with the material which it had under the hand. But for the large one of work, it should call upon civil companies of the corner. In the morning, a reconnaissance aircraft, undoubtedly English, passed at high speed above us. A bombardment in the next days was not thus to exclude, in accordance with my fears. From the very start of the morning, the first elements of the 5E Rgiment of Infantry of Mulhouse arrived and gave an opinion along the channel, installing their tents at some distance of the bank. At the beginning of evening, a truck of Luftwaffe, brought artillerists of Flak light and men of the transmissions of Freiburg. The arrival of the guns was planned for the following day. They worked a good part of the night to establish telephone links with the control of Flak and the radar of Saint-Louis, which covered the south of Alsace. I thought of this moment that we would leave ourselves there quickly and without leaving feathers there, not being convinced yet that the gods of the War had changed camp. "
Monday March 22 : on the eve of battle for the aviators
( the hours are GMT for the French, MEZ (GMT + 2) for the Germans)
Monday with Calvi, preparation of Nemo- II continued actively. The mechanics checked for the third time the planes, while the navigators attended their second briefing, accompanied by certain copilots and bombers, of which Romain Gary :
" It was the commander Paul Ibos, navigator of the squadron, which spoke. It started by taking again the procedures of astral navigation and recalled how to be useful itself of the tables which had been especially prepared, with which, starting from the observations of the hour and of three stars, the position could be given in a few moments, practically without calculations. Then, it came from there to the part of the route which had not been approached yet. After having waited until a soldier distributed the envelopes containing the documents corresponding to each navigator, it took again the word (I unfortunately very did not retain) :
- Yesterday, we remained about it with the height of Bellegarde, in the west of Geneva. For there, it will be necessary to follow the Swiss border to avoid the radars of Lons-the-Salt maker and Besancon. Then, he says by more drawing the curtain which partially masked the chart posted in the table, direction Switzerland, for a regrouping above the Lake Bienne, where the leader will make a loop 10 km in diameter (6 minutes), before spinning full north towards Alsace.
In the room, struck stupor in front of this unexpected hook of many exclamations of surprise fused :
- But what will it occur if the Swiss ones locate us ?
- border with the Lake Bienne, 5 minutes. Lake in Alsace, 5 other minutes, in descent up to 1 500 m. We will fly over Switzerland only one fifteen minutes. As an absolute radio operator silence will have been maintained, there is little chance that they located us, in spite of the quality of their services of listening. I remind to you that they have neither radars nor drives out of night. It is on the other hand possible that they put the base of Payerne in alarm, but as they are almost flown over every night by the Royal Air Force which leaves or returns to bombard the North of Italy, the risk remains limited.
- And why the Lake Bienne ? asked a pilot.
- Because it is easy to recognize, the day being rising. If you miss it and that you arrive on that of Neuchtel or Morat, the error is easy to identify and to go from the one to the other is very simple.
We envisaged a second point of regrouping, for those which would be late, above Alsace, between Altkirch and Mulhouse, to 500 m of altitude. We will undoubtedly be located by the radar of Saint-Louis. New loop 10 km in diameter, exit of the loop to the top of Altkirch to 500 m, i.e. to 200 meter-ground approximately, attention. From there, control with the bomber, as the drive. The photographs to identify Altkirch are in the envelope.
- And the radar of Saint-Louis ?
- They initially will believe that one moves on Mulhouse, to bombard the station or the factory of engines. When they see the loop, they will believe that it is the factory Peugeot de Sochaux which is aimed, or I do not know what of other. Perhaps they will think of the channel, but will be we then with less than 3 minutes.
They was courageous, like approach ! Moreover, all this history was inflated. It was undoubtedly going y to have questions the evening, when the Colonel would make the synthesis last once.
In the afternoon, a plane of connection deposited two paperboards of documents, which were immediately brought to the tent of the staff. Half an hour later, last briefing. The Colonel spoke, by showing a photograph projected on a screen :
- Here last information. The photographs go back to this morning. The portion of the channel of 2 km where the attack is envisaged contained 21 submarines and 11 tug boats. It is always out of water, contrary to those which follow and which precedes. Our target is thus easy to identify, it is presented exactly as envisaged. As you see it, Wehrmacht is bringing troops in reinforcement, but Flak had not arrived yet this morning. You with shootings of light weapons wait nevertheless.
As you suspect it, I will lead the attack personally. Imperative radio operator silence to the Lake Bienne. I will be alone to have the right to break it, and in English. For the bombardment, I will give the signal by radio. Do not forget to release your smoke-producing with your bombs, for the latecomers who would try an isolated bombardment. Absolute prohibition to approach with less than one kilometer the smoke-producing ones as long as they are visible, even if you see bombs exploding. If you try an isolated bombardment, you with the submarines with dryness attack a little upstream, but will be with you to manage the approach. Thus a council, made the impossible one to join !
After the bombardment, avoid at all costs the factory Peugeot de Sochaux and its fixed DCA. If there are breakage, turn on the left immediate and destination Switzerland, with less than three minutes of flight, with with the key a stay in complete pension in the mountain pastures until the end of the war! On the other hand, if all is well, avoid the Confederation, because we will have awaked it half an hour earlier and that its hunters will be surely upset.
The weather is in conformity so that I said to you day before yesterday. On the objective, undoubtedly of the clouds whose base will be with 3 approximately 000 meters. Nothing to obstruct us. Above the Alps, possibility of clouds fixed on the slopes, moderate wind of south-west.
Well, rising with 02h30 for a takeoff with 04h00. No the question ? "
Questions, there was too much well of it so that they are posed, and everyone went to lie down for one night which would be neither of China nor even of Corsica, but well of war. "
Tuesday March 23 : Nemo strikes always twice
( the hours are GMT for the French, MEZ (GMT + 2) for the Germans)
Romain Gary :
" to raise It was difficult, but, little before joining our planes, a good news circulated : Flak had still not arrived. Resistance continued to follow the operation, which was of good forecasts. Our apparatus was number two of the first level and we took off 30 seconds after the Colonel. I calculated the moment when we would cross the coast to be able to greet my mother, but this calculation appeared useless, because the moonlight was largely sufficient to see the littoral. For us, the overflight of the Alps was made without any problem, but that was not the case for everyone, since a plane had to make half-turn because of problems of engine and that another was mislaid. "
The two unlucky persons listed by Romain Gary (another apparatus was mislaid) formed part of the third group. The Depape Candidate was a copilot of the first of them :
" We took off heavily and crossed the Mediterranean without problem. We had crossed the coast at an altitude of approximately 9 000 feet since good fifteen minutes and we were ridden to ten thousand, in accordance with the flight plan, when the operation of the left engine became rough. I passed it on car-rich person, nothing did not change, even thing on full rich person. Moreover, the oil pressure became fluctuating and the sparks left the exhaust. There was not an other choice only to immediately turn off this engine, before the oil pressure does not fall too low to put the propeller in flag. Michel [ the pilot ] passed the right engine to the maximum power continues we weighed together on the swing bar to maintain the airliner, the loss of the left engine being worse than that of the right from this point of view. Having asked the bomber to make sure that the bombs were not armed yet (they were to be to it only one fifteen minutes before the bombardment), Michel ordered to release them, which reduced our rate of fall without us to entirely prevent from going down. The plane was inserted rather appreciably, in spite of the exit partial of the shutters as envisaged by the procedures.
Jacques [ the navigator ] sought a route to leave us from there, the summit of the close mountains approaching more and more. He made us take a north-western course and we passed to a few tens of meters of a flattened top (which we later identified like that of Large Solane), before finding us above the valley of Ubaye, that Jacques made us follow. Thanks to the dropping of a part of the fuel, our altitude had been stabilized, but obviously the right engine did not give all its power. I curse in myself the Curtiss company- Wright, but that did not change large-thing. We led to the valley of the Durance, but it was out of question of following it until the end, bus, its outlet, the German bases of Crau awaited us. I started to have a cramp in the right calf, although the compensator was regulated to the maximum. And not question of using the autopilot in this environment of mountains. And here is that the temperature of the right engine increased ! It had to be reduced a little so that it is stabilized, but of course, our altitude recovered to decrease slowly. There was not an other solution only to reduce still more the plane, by throwing over edge all that could be it. We were with a little more than 1 300 m of altitude.
We still turned on the left, to try to join the Mediterranean towards Saint-Raphal, over there, Luftwaffe had a radar. What were they going to decide ? Does Flak or drive out of night ? The part fell on the side Flak and of the sheaves of tracer rose right in front of us. Impossible to circumvent with our plane become single-engined aircraft, we returned all the head in the shoulders, which apparently was enough us not to be touched, one could not have all the bad lucks. After, the return to Calvi is to pass as in a dream. After the landing, our mechanic was afflicted, because it was the first time in twenty missions which it saw us returning prematurely. The diagnosis was established quickly : a valve had been swallowed and it had ended up damaging a piston and its cylinder. But we had returned healthy and safe, which was not the case of all this day. "
This testimony, as those which follow (apart from the quotations of Peter-Erich Cremer, Romain Gary and Jean-Pierre Leparc), was collected for the French bombardment, 1940-1944, special number of the review Icare (1975). Two of the three bombs of 500 kg released by the plane of Depape were found by a hunter in 1948, but it waited until the date of the opening passed well before going to declare its discovery with the gendarmerie... The third is always buried some share.
The destiny of the stray apparatus was known with precision only after the war, when its navigator, the SLt Roche, returned from captivity :
" We were the last plane of the last group, and all went well on board until the passage of the coast. At this time, our B-25 was violently shaken by a very close explosion, and I was projected against the wall of the fuselage, where I struck myself. When I begun again my spirits, the copilot was leaning on me. I asked him what had occurred. He answered me that a shell large gauge had exploded in the vicinity, but that apparently there was no damage, besides some instruments, of which the gyroscopic compass and the artificial horizon, which did not function any more. I asked him how long I had remained unconscious : "a large score of minutes, but you seemed to awake you meanwhile several times. You are sure that that goes, now ? " I begun again my station and started to take stock. The plane flew on a magnetic course 350, in conformity with the flight plan. I started to make my astronomical observations, but I have evil to concentrate me, my head making me awfully badly. At the end of five minutes, I had come from there to end. Time to defer them on the chart and, horror, we were at least 80 km in the west of the road envisaged. It was not possible, I had had to mislead me some share. I begun again my observations, checked by twice, but the result was still worse : we moved away still more to the west, having practically joined the valley of the Rhone towards Montlimar. I called the pilot bythe intercom to make him share of the situation. It asked me to give him a course to bring back for us on the road envisaged. I answered him "40" and I begun again my calculations. In spite of a violent one headache, I quickly understood that the main magnetic compass deviated of at least 40 degrees towards the west. I think that a large piece of scrap coming from the explosion from the shell from DCA had had to come to place itself very close to him, in the tail of the apparatus. I asked the pilot to take a course posted 70, to give us more to the east, and to control the direction by pointing a flashlight on the small compass placed above the dashboard, unutilised of night nonenlightened bus. The plane had hardly finished changing course when I smelled more than I did not hear an enormous torn metal noise, then found me without knowing how ejected plane. At the end of a few interminable seconds, I drew by reflex on the handle from opening from my parachute, which of deployed without difficulty. Suspended in the air, I looked around me. What was to remain of my plane, on fire, was falling quickly, and I observed, fascinated, the fuselage to be crushed downwards. Provided that my comrades could escape, I thought one moment, before running up against the ground rather brutally, which struck me again. I awoke after the rising of the day, in an orchard of pchers. I heard barkings of tracker dogs at short distance, and, before I can hide, two Feldgendarmes threw me without care in a van and took along me to the aerodrome of Valence, a few kilometres from there. I recognized, on the track, some black twin-engines Me-110 roughcast antenna. I understood that we had been victims of the hunting of German night.
In the evening, the officer ordering the detachment pleasantly came to take my news. The conversation was done in English, whom it controlled better than me :
- I am sorry, none of your comrades did not survive. Their body was found in the wreck of your plane, which was crushed close to Grane. They will be buried tomorrow and the 4/NJG4 will return the military honours to them. Will you be ours ?
- Of course. I smell myself better now. I will give you their names so that they are registered on their tomb.
- Very well. You have an unpleasant wound and the doctor feared a fracture of the skull, but you other French have the hard head. How you say already, the wood head, it is well that ?
- Euh... Yes. It is you who...
- Yes, it is me. Towards the end of the night, before 06h30, I was in alarm and I took off following the detection of your plane by the radar of Aubenas. I initially turned around Montlimar to 2000 Mr. Then, the controller of Avignon directed me towards you. My machine gunner had you in the sight of our Schrge Musik[ 1 ] when you turned first once. Time to find you while following the instructions of control, you had made a second turn. But the third attempt was the maid, afflicted !
- other planes that ours were cut down ?
- For last night, not, you are only in the sector of the valley of the Rhone. The radar of Aubenas detected another plane, but it was in limit of range. In the course of the day, there was not badly brawl of it, but here, in Valence, we were practically not concerned.
Indeed, alarm had often resounded on the aerodrome, while I neat then was questioned in the morning, but, if planes had actually flown over the ground, none had released bombs. The following day, I attended the funeral of my comrades, and was dispatched the evening even for the Stalag Luft I, where I remained until the end of the war in spite of several escape bids. "
For B-25 of Romain Gary, the flight had continued without encumbers :
" approximately One hour after having crossed the coast, Tisseur transmitted a general message : "Mount Blanc to 40 km, full is". Indeed, the mountain was detached with the moonlight on a still black sky, offering a superb spectacle. From there, my attention redoubled. I knew that we were going to pass near Geneva, from which left the letters my mother which took so a long time to come to me. But I in vain open wide the eyes, I did not see any the lights of Switzerland. With the return, once that it was restored, Tisseur recalled me that if I had not dreamed during the briefing, I would have known that Switzerland was obliged by the Germans to respect the blackout since November 1940.
We flew over the Jura, Tisseur assure us that it did not collect any German emission radar. At one moment, whereas the paddle bleached the East, we put course at the east, to find us above the Lake Bienne, the rays of the raising sun reflecting itself on our wings. I have any evil to see the plane of the Colonel, a few kilometers further, starting to make its circle. When it had finished, 17 planes were aligned behind him, we were number two. We took as envisaged the direction of France. At the end of a few minutes, Daniel announced to us that the emissions of a radar started to be perceptible. We went down immediately, but the signal returned a few minutes later. "
In the German station of radar Bastard, in Saint-Louis, in a few kilometers of the Rhine and Swiss border, the night had been particularly calm and monotonous. No English raid in the area, nothing on the chemical factories surroundings Mannheim, calms flat. It is only around 7 hours of the morning that the teleprinter crpita to announce the passage of the Mediterranean coast by " about thirty planes towards an unknown destination, undoubtedly the Lyons area. " the sergeant Franz Studer, who was of service with his colleague Hans Bumler, awaited the end of their vacation, when the events precipitated :
" I had more and more evil to fight against the sleep, the night spent to concentrate on a screen where nothing appeared, with share echoes of the hills and the mountains, having been particularly painful. But suddenly, an indistinct beep appeared above the Swiss territory, just in the south of the border of Reich in Alsace. When the antenna was turned again in this direction, it had disappeared, but to reappear a few minutes later, definitely more Net. That could correspond only to one force of several planes, at least ten ! I asked Hans to call Hauptmann Pilger, which arrived while running, blown as usual. Its plumpness had made it call "Hermann", but contrary to its model, it was respected for its competence. Indeed, it did not hesitate a moment :
- I do not know what it is, but they move right on Mulhouse. Call the center of control of Flak, possible bombardment on Mulhouse, deadline estimated 10 minutes. That should be enough to launch alarm.
- What is there like target, over there ?
- It is seen well that you never left your native Saxony, Studer ! In more of the marshalling yard, there are at least a railway factory of material and another of armament, and...
- Look at, Herr Hauptmann : it would be said that they turn towards the east.
- Yes ! Then their targets could be well the power station of Kembs and the cement factory ofIstein. Bamler, make pass alarm. What ? the telephone does not work !
- If, Herr Hauptmann, they spent only time to take down, with the other end...
- They continue their turn, this time, they turn over towards the south.
- Then, they are the Swiss ones in man?uvre which left on their premises and which return. But they realized there too late. Violation of the border of Reich, even attacks air. Their account is good ! Reichsmarshall will rub the hands, since time that it awaited that to press them more...
- If I then to allow me, Herr Hauptmann, they set out again towards the west and there, they maintain their course.
- They hope to give us the tournis. Haha !
- They continue towards the west...
- Towards the west... Himmel ! the submarines which are wedged in the channel. Call them immediately, you checked the line yesterday evening, at least ?
- Of course , Herr Hauptmann.
- And call the battery of Montbeliard, of the times that the Peugeot factory would be aimed. I undertake to warn the colleagues of Luxeuil, as well as the center of control of hunting.
The day was announced more agitated than the night. "
In Valdieu, alarm arrived at the provisional station of Luftwaffe, and a siren was immediately put to howl. P.E. Cremer felt that the things were going badly to occur :
" It was approximately eight hours and half morning. I was preparing with the Genius the operations of the day, when the din of a siren installed the day before by the men of Luftwaffe stopped us brutally. A corporal started to run in my direction : "Air raid warning, Herr Offizier, they are with less than two minutes !" My men, who knew what they had to make, left all the houses or the boats where they were, and are reflected with the shelter further possible. The infantry had time to put out of battery some machine-guns, hardly dissimulated by the trucks. At this point in time the planes appeared. They took the channel in row, the sun crushes in their back, following to approximately 100 m the ones of the others, and flying low, certainly with less than 200 Mr. C' was American twin-engines B-25, but they carried French rosettes. There was only them to be enough insane to come to attack us in this lost corner ! They released their bombs at the same time practically all, the majority of them falling into the channel. But, oddly, no explosion occurred. Only the smoke-producing ones had functioned. I put only a few seconds to include/understand. The bombs were equipped with rockets with delayed-action. I shouted of all my forces "Drive the camp before that jumps !" and I gave the example, slipping by to all legs without me to turn over. I think that all my world was at good distance when the bombs exploded. " (EP Cremer, op.cit)
In B-25, the tension was with its roof :
" When we had crossed the border and before the Colonel did not begin his second loop, I crawled to the bomb bay to remove the safety measures. The rockets would start at the time of the dropping. We were joined by three additional planes at the beginning of the loop, then by three others in the last seconds. It would not miss any finally that three for the attack, which better than was hoped by the Colonel, who counted as well as possible on a score of planes on the target. That was going to be to me to carry iron in the side of the ogre !
We flew over for the second time the small town of Altkirch, this time while arriving by the east. At the time of the first overflight, I had had time to take my reference marks. I opened the doors of the bomb bay. We were descended to approximately 200 m from the ground... Alternatively, I followed eyes the plane of the Colonel, then I observed the ground through our sight of fortune, while directing the plane with the orders of the autopilot, the Lauger Captain undertaking to keep a constant altitude and to avoid any collision. The Colonel brought us pile in the axis of the Channel, and I have any evil to maintain our apparatus there. At the end of 15 seconds, I heard "Go !" in my ear-phones and I released the bombs by cleaning me "released Bombs !" - I had done my work. The copilot, Richard, announced to have seen the starting flames of some machine-guns, but no ball had struck our plane. Weaver, which was well placed to see what occurred behind us, says to us that one or the other apparatus released a little smoke, but it very quickly had replonger in its charts so that we can replace of the Colonel at any moment in order to guide the group in the event of problem of the leader. Hardest remained to be made, the return to the house. At the end of a few minutes, the radio, that Tisseur had left on the frequency inter-planes, became animated. It was the twenty-fifth apparatus, arrived all alone above the objective, which howled : " Cheer the guy ! Your bombs exploded, it is a carnage ! " It released its bombs a little with the small happiness and ran afterwards us. But soon, the news was done worse : two planes announced that they had been damaged - even of the weapons of small gauge could make damage. " (Romain Gary, the Promise of the Paddle)
If the radar of Saint-Louis lost the echo of the formation quickly whereas it moved away towards the west, it was from now on with range of the radar of Luxeuil. And, if Saint-Louis were distant from any base of hunters, it was not the same of Luxeuil, where a formation of hunters of night stationed. Although the day is raised, its commander did not hesitate to make take off four apparatuses with the cases of the French bombers when it was informed by Bastard, cash over the close radar to as bring them close as possible enemy formation. Afterwards, it would be necessary to be satisfied with the eyes. Slowed down by their antennas radar, its were likely Me-110G4 to have evil to make a success of the interception of the first bombers, reduced after their attack, but it knew by experiment that there were always carriages... The operator radar saw that the formation of bombers set out again towards the south while being stretched. The controller then directed Me-110 towards the last of the file, and soon the echoes were about to merge, with the limit of its screen.
Nicolas Copel controlled one of the apparatuses touched by the German machine-guns :
" At the time of the attack, we were about in the medium of the formation. Little after the "Go !" from the Colonel, we received several balls of machine-gun struck us. One toila nose in perspex of the plane, missing the bomber only by a few centimetres. The plane flew normally and we took again a little altitude, but soon the water pressure fell. Nothing irremediable, until my copilot starts to tap the fuel gauge of the left principal tank : the level was definitely lower than that of right-hand side and dropped at sight of?il. A ball in piping, according to any probability. We looked at ourselves and we said " Switzerland at the same time !" I informed the Colonel, who asked me to slow down to allow another apparatus to join us. Indeed, one of the engines of our companion in misfortune released a thick black smoke. We took both a course south-south-east, to join the Confederation as fast as possible. The bomber, which had gone to occupy the higher turret, launched alarm : several planes followed us, a little higher, but still rather far. With the damaged plane, we tried to prick to take speed, but the ground was not well far and the four planes were always with our cases when the navigator launched : " We are in Switzerland ! " a wave of relief crossed us. But our four prosecutors were always behind us ! They had even approached. It was of Messerschmitt 110 hunters of night. They released several gusts, but we managed to transfer better than them and to escape after a fashion from their attacks, because they wasted an insane time to go back on line. In fact, they went more quickly than us only because owing to the fact that our impromptu winger limped low (it smoked more and more), but one could not give up it. However, this small play could not last a long time without breakage. Moreover, in theory, one could not counteract, we were in neutral territory !
At this point in time we found ourselves above the Lake Bienne, and that our prosecutors were made cap by a struck half-dozen of Morane 406 of the Swiss cross. The sight of these machines replongs us of a blow in a past which seemed to us very remote ! In some shells of reprimand, they made include/understand with everyone that rcr was finished and that it was necessary to be posed in Payerne, on the edges of the Neuchtel Lake. The Germans had to be posed the first, then other B-25, whose single engine, overworked, did not hold any more but by miracle, then us of last, after having had to descend the train with the device from help. The Swiss Troops of Aviation had just grown rich by six new planes, even if two were good for the workshop !
On the ground, environment was tended, and the explanations were hot. The Germans, first of all, required to set out again immediately, or else their ambassador would complain officially, more especially as the Swiss ones had formally been committed never not opening fire on German planes flying over their territory. The Swiss ones spoke about serious violation of their neutrality and of their airspace by belligerents without scruple and all threatened us, German as a French, of the prison...
We were then separate, before learning from the mouth of Swiss pilots rather content with them that what we had taken for of Morane 406 was in fact of D-3801 - planes made in Switzerland, on the basis of MS-406 certainly, but with Hispano a Swiss engine developing more than 300 truths additional horses and an improved aerodynamics ; they could exceed the 540 km/h, what to largely hold head with Me-110 hunting of night. When we asked our hosts, by thanking them for their intervention, by which fortunate coincidence a patrol of their planes was there just at point, they answered us, with their trailing accent : " You laugh ! It is with you that the question would have to be raised ! " Nobody not being easily deceived, the subject went further.
Thereafter, after rough negotiations to know if we must be regarded as "internees" or "escaped prisoners", we were led in a hotel of German-speaking Switzerland, close to Adelboden, where other allied aviators were already. We are "escaped prisoners" a few months later without problem, when it is enough for us to pass by again the border to find us in released France, our hosts not being undoubtedly dissatisfied to see us leaving after having visited their country in all the directions !
We knew that the Germans were turned over on their premises, with their planes, except for the one of them, which would have taken fire "for an unknown reason", undoubtedly at the time of its very attentive examination by the Swiss ones. Switzerland swore us that the casings of the shells that they had drawn had been found (the Swiss ones are ordered) and had been sent by the post office to ReichsLuftfahrtMinisterium in Berlin, with an invoice for "expenses of cleaning of federal property" (the Swiss ones like cleanliness). I am unaware of if it were regulated by the recipient. "
Except these two apparatuses, no other was touched with the top of the objective. They were thus 23 B-25 which took the road of the return, on a route very close to that taken at the outward journey, but this time without voluntary incursion in Swiss territory. The Lieutenant-colonel of Rancourt started to slacken, more especially as an escort of Mustang II was to deal with them " between Grenoble and Digne " and that German hunting had, at this hour, extremely to make in addition, because of the massive attack whose its bases were the object. While waiting, no signal radar was detected, the stations of Gray and Besancon being now far behind.
It was true that the center of control of Luftwaffe for the south of France, installed with the castle of Nerthe, in full vineyard of Chateauneuf-of-Pope, did not know any more where to give head this morning. It was necessary to call reinforcements of Italy. Paradoxically, that failed to play a very nasty trick in B-25 de Nemo- II. Two formations of 12 FW-190 took off at a few minutes of interval of TurinCaselle. Their Turin route - Viso Mount - Gap - Sisteron - Manosque skirted the valley of the Durance while B-25 also approached them Gap after having flown over Grenoble. Extremely fortunately, the 24 Mustang II of the GC Lafayette came to the meeting from the planes from the 312nd EB by going up the Durance. The orders of Lafayette were clear.
" We were not very glad to have to play the mothers hens for our bombers whereas the other groups of hunting were going to be able to draw on all that moved, but the most tested among us knew well that the quiet missions did not exist . We flew in two separate elements of approximately 15 km, the first at an altitude of 5 000 m, in the North-West of the second, of which I formed part, 2 000 m higher. We had exceeded Sisteron when the radio became animated : " At least ten gangsters with 10 a.m., 6 000 meters, south-eastern course ! " the first group had located FW-190, apparently without being seen, and we were ideally placed to intercept them... Hugues of Mouzy did not hesitate : these Germans being able to represent a threat for the bombers, which were undoubtedly not far. He made us dgringoler on them, the sun in the back, for an attack "hit and run", like we had learned how to say it in our Franco-American slang. Our action took them by surprised and disorganized their device completely. I live corner of the?il one of them to leave in gimlet, while I tried to place my balls in another, which was dmenait like a beautiful devil. At the end of less than one minute, the commander ordered to us to take down towards north, gas .fond. Other Germans could be in trimmings and one did not have to be delayed. The FW-190, of share two of them whose remains smoked in the valley, had not required their remainder and slipped by towards the south. But this small brawl had brought us a little too to north, and we were going to have to rather join Gap by south-west that by the south. The first group, for its part, passed as envisaged to the west of Gap to continue towards the north if the bombers would arrive while descending the valley from Buech rather than by going up that of Drac. We thus have dark towards Gap. " (Jean-Pierre Leparc, the Guy of Lafayette)
Side of the bombers, the tension went up again, the escort being long in appearing :
" We were at our stations of defense, armed machine-guns, helmets and threaded jackets of protection. Of my place in the nose of the plane, I had the best point of view to see the hunters which were to accompany back us and appear soon higher in the sky. But I did not see anything coming, at the point to make me treat of "S?ur Anne" by Daniel... It is him finally which launched in the intercom : "That is there, I have them in phone, they are not far, but they brawl with Germans !" When we emerged above the basin of Gap, we saw a dozen FW-190 arriving to us above, by the left, a little higher, but not least Mustang ! They last being as surprised as us because they did not react immediately, which enabled us to tighten the formation to the maximum to cover us mutually. But that did not prevent them from falling us above with greed. If the cavalry did not arrive very quickly, we had badly left. " (Romain Gary)
The cavalry, arrived at any speed, the calls the Help | of the formation of bombers saturating the radio. The two groups of Lafayette arrived almost simultaneously on Gap, one by south-west, the other by the North-West... J.P. Leparc :
" It was more than time ! In front of us, German hunters were caught some in unhappy B-25, of which several were already in sorry state. Our arrival put an end to the rejoicings. The FW-190 were taken in sandwich and, once more, the Large Circus deserved its name. The fray was confused and the Germans were not long in escaping towards south-west, not without to have lost some as of theirs. But us also planes left of the feathers in the business, a roof for Sioux ! Thus Lopold Wade had been touched during engagement. Hoquetant engine, it had to jump after me to have bidden its farewell : "Jean-Pierre, I had one of it, but I also collected... My oil pressure is to zero, I jump. One will be re-examined in the Victoire." And we did not have any more a news lasting of long months.
But we were wrong to worry us. Lopold had been recovered with the flight, or almost, by Resistance. Those which hid it however gave up trying to make him leave France, estimating rightly that a Senegalese of one meter ninety would have evil not to draw the attention. A peasant of the neighbourhoods of Barcelonnette, named Manual, occupied himself of him, and Lopold spent all the summer in the mountain pastures, where it learned how to take care of the sheep and the ewes ! Like any foreigner, and especially not a German or a militiaman, did not venture in these deserted places, it was worried by nobody. And time passed, until the day when the Release brought Lafayette to Living room-of-Provence. With our amazement, we were accomodated on the ground by Lopold strapped in a well passed by again uniform and raising its most severe mine :"Not but the guy ! You realize since when I await you ! What you have rotten ! "Speech which all the more put to us in joy that our Lo, with the wire of the months, had caught a Provence accent worthy of joined together Raimu and Fernandel ! "
B-25 and Mustang took the direction of Corsica. Three bombers had been cut down, like two hunters, against a total of eight Focke-Wulf.
" I thought that the Germans would leave us quiet, but I was mistaken. They were to be carried out by a particularly energetic chief, even if the majority of them, when we had faced them, did not seem to be tested. They returned to the load above Worthy, but, undoubtedly with court of ammunition or oil, they ended up moving away towards the west, this time for good. Of Mouzy prohibits to us to continue them, the catastrophe having been avoided only of accuracy a few minutes earlier. The fact of having tackled the German formation between Sisteron and Gap of course was reproached to him besides, but it did not have too much evil to be justified, in particular by showing that it had, by its action, drawn aside a threat, and that it had largely caught up with the time wasted at the time of the attack by sinking then full throttle on Gap. " (J.P. Leparc, the Guy of Lafayette, C$op cit.)
Several bombers had been touched, of which that of Romain Gary :
" We defended ourselves like lions. Weaver shouted in the intercom "I had one of it !", but, a little later its howl of pain bored us the tympanums, while our B-25 trembled under the impacts. One of the last attacks of the FW-190 had been for us ! I precipitated with the higher turret, to see unhappy ploughed up Tisseur there. Blood streamed in abundance of its left arm. A moment ago to lose ! I got rid of my jacket anti-glares, opened my flight suit, tore off rather than I did not take off my shirt, before tearing it and making a plug of compression and, using a convenient metal stem which trailed in the remains, a swivel of fortune. The haemorrhage stopped, and Daniel looked at me fixedly. I encouraged it : " That will go, my old man, one already retained the nurse with the arrival ! " Of a hardly audible voice, it groans : " Not possible, the radio one morfl. there "I installed it most comfortably possible and parties in the cockpit to seek the case of first aid, hoping to find what to relieve it. As I passed close to him, the captain howled me in the ear : "Romain, repairs himself, you will freeze !" I become aware of the din which the air made which passed by the open holes open in the fuselage by the German balls.
Besides these holes, the radio andthe intercom, both except service, the damage seemed relatively light, but Frederic, the copilot, shouted me : "the right engine does not react any more to the orders !" Joining to it epic to the word, it man?uvrait the throttle lever of the right engine, but nothing occurred : this last always turned to the same mode and pressure gauge of admission switches corresponding did not move. We were isolated from different and we were going to have evil to maintain the formation, without speaking about the landing... But of others were even more badly parcelled out than us, some did not fly any more that on an engine or had large holes in the wings or the fuselage
I injected a morphine amount with Daniel and like I installed me pus beside him. The Mediterranean was guessed at the horizon, we were not more very far from the hello. For want of anything better, I tripotai adjustments of the radio sets, hoping in spite of very that one of them would still function, but I sometimes happened to draw only one Lili Marlene from it remote. I do not even live the few burstings of DCA which greeted us when we crossed the coast. The Captain asked me to draw a red flare, so that we have priority for the landing. But we were not only, two other planes made in the same way. The infirmary would be full this evening...
Most difficult remained to be made : to land without encumbers. The Lauger Captain made his choice : to be posed on only one engine. To turn off the engine of right-hand side was not a problem, while cutting off the supply while carburizing or lighting, but the propeller be put would in flag ? Ouf, the corresponding order had not been divided. The continuation did not pose any problem, and the ambulance took along Daniel later a few minutes. "(Romain Gary)
Nemo + Nemo- II : first assessment
While B-25 returned in Calvi, Wehrmacht tried to control the situation with Valdieu and to make an inventory of the damage. Peter-Erich Cremer was done many concerns for his submarines, rightly besides.
" When the explosions ceased, I be in a hurry only one : to know how much of my buildings had been touched. I thus set out again in direction of the channel. I had not taken three steps which the lieutenant of the Genious caught up with me and retained me :
- Peter, you are insane ! All the bombs undoubtedly did not explode. There are always failures, as for your torpedes.
Like giving him reason, a strong detonation occurred to a few hundred meters.
- I had said it well to you ! It is necessary to start by establishing a perimeter of safety, evacuating everyone, including civil corner, then to utilize the bomb disposal experts.
- What ! And how I let to know in which state are my submarines ?
- You prefer the knowledge immediately and to jump with a bomb ?
It was not wrong. Most urgent was well to prevent that there are useless victims. The Army immediately blocked the road at the exit of Valdieu and the entry of Retzwiller, as well as the secondary ways, and obliged the railwaymen to make pass to the red fires of the railway. But I did not dmordais any, I wanted to know :
- Good blood, Franz, those of opposite will know before me how much I have cast boats. If they did not make photographs before leaving, they will send a reconnaissance aircraft before midday, and me I should wait tomorrow morning to go to see !
- Peter, precisely, it is perhaps the solution.
- What, which I order to them a pulling ?
- But not. There is Luftwaffe with us, now... They could send a plane to us to see the situation of in top !
One hour and half later, Fieseler Storch was posed in a nearby field. It had not dared to land on the main road, space between the plane trees seeming to him really too right. I went up on board and asked the pilot to fly over the zone bombarded rather high so that its plane is not reached by the breath of a bomb who would explode. Initially with the naked?il, then with binoculars, I examined the damage. They were considerable : if there no had been direct blow, the shock waves of the explosion of the bombs in the water of the channel had had effects as terrible as those of the explosion of grenades ASM at sea. On 21 submarines (two were with dryness, a little upstream, and the four latecomers, lucky, had set out again behind), seven were broken into two, and a half-dozen of others inspired more the sharp to me concerns. And the majority of my tug boats were cast. I also clearly live two bombs not exploded with a few meters of the bank. On the other hand, the only visible victims were some cows, which confirmed the information transmitted by Dieter Thunau.
As I had envisaged, a little later an English reconnaissance aircraft passed at any speed far above us. It was not yet two hours... I asked to the chief of the detachment of Luftwaffe why we had not been warned of its passage, now that we were in connection with the radar tracking station of Saint-Louis. It answered me that these English planes were out of wood, and that an insulated apparatus gave only one very weak echo on the screen of the radar.
It was necessary for me still to account for the attack and the its probable results to the Admiral Doenitz, to find where to temporarily put all the guns of Flak which arrived finally and to reorganize the housing of my men, our quarterings being inaccessible. The evening, I was exhausted, and I deadened without same thinking of the continuation. "
In Calvi, twenty B-25 (out of 27) had returned : all those which had been able to pass Gap, except one (even if three others were in very bad condition). One quickly had reassuring news of the lack ; the crew arrived at the bar at the beginning of evening, where it was requested to pay the round (and even rounds) and to tell its adventure.
- Oh, it is not complicated. A shell of 20 mm in the right engine and the principal tank on the same side bored by balls. Moreover, it would not be one of you others which would have confused us with Focke-Wulf ?
- You laugh ? One had to make well too much !
- Mouais... Always it is that the engine released quickly, and here us are on a leg, with two others crippled, chouchouts by four Mustang. But Pietri [ the pilot ] was anxious : with the holes in the tank, one had lost too much gasoline, more especially as it is on this side that there remained about it there more when one was made draw above, one of the pumps of the more not functioning circuit.
- You thought of putting a little shutters, to use all the fuel ?[ 2 ]
- Of course ! And one emptied all that one could to reduce the plane : the bands of the machine-guns, the casings which trailed by ground, all radios except one, the shielding which one could dismount, the helmets, machine-guns... But that was not enough. The gauge had marked zero for five minutes, when the left engine stopped.
- You were where ?
- A thirty kilometers of Calvi. And with the same distance from Nonza, the native village of Pietri. It took that for a sign of the destiny...
- It posed to us on water like a seaplane, one evacuated, and one found all the four on the raft, while waiting for that one comes to seek us. A dredger of the National Navy came to recover us, but Pietri hoped that it would be a fishing vessel of at his place.
- Bah, it was fatal, when one leaves to attack submarines, one should not be surprised if one returns in boat.
- Then, your next plane, you will call it "the Jellyfish" ?
- That would astonish me. Pietri wants to give him the name of its village, per hour that it is, it must be there, to thank the Madonna for the corner !
Side of the staff, the moral one was almost also good, the assessment which can be regarded as satisfactory. Mosquito of the S/L Fray and the F/L Miller had made an Ajaccio-alsace return ticket in middle of day, and its photographs confirmed the cries of joy of the crew which had conducted his attack in the last (moreover without anything to touch). Seven submarines were broken, and at least as much would undoubtedly not set out again, which was in conformity with the hopes. As for the channel, it was not going to be repaired of as soon as. Seven planes had been lost, of which two had taken refuge in Switzerland and one (that which had been posed at sea) whose crew had been recovered. Five planes were damaged, including three reparable without too much evil, and the casualties would be free for a few weeks of hospital. As a whole, the losses were lower than what had been fears. The escort of hunting for the return had proven its utility, even if it had been necessary little of them so that the bombers do not undergo heavy losses under the blows of Luftwaffe, which had arrived from where nobody expected it.
For these purely factual data, it was necessary to add the moral effect. France had carried in Reich a blow doubly symbolic system : because the target was in Alsace and because it was the underwater weapon, praised so much by the propaganda of Dr. Goebbels, who had been struck.
[ 1 ] Nickname given to a system of fixed weapons drawing with the top from the apparatus.
[ 2 ] A traditional "trick" on B-25.
Please note that there is still a lot to add (repairs on the German side, way down the Rhne, new attack once the surviving submarines enter the Mediterranean to reach Toulon).
Loc
Appendix 43-3-1
Submarines in the fields
The Sonnenblume (Sunflower) Operation
German plans
May 21, 1942, a conference chaired by the admiral Raeder decided to send in the Mediterranean 27 submarines of a new type, the IIE, derived from coastal submarine IID. The reduced size of this submarine was to allow its easy transfer by the channel of the Rhone the Rhine, only possible solution to avoid the passage by Gibraltar. The admiral Doenitz had defended this project, of which he was mainly the author, as only solution avoiding dismantling the Atlantic still more. As of the following day, it ordered Winkler, to the engineering department lieutenant commander of BdU, to study the details of the operation, by asking a first report/ratio under fortnight.
June 4, 1942, Winkler returned his conclusions, which highlighted the first obstacles at raising.
" the characteristics of the IIE (length 52,56 m, thick hull 38,4 m), and the constraints related to the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine (locks for a gauge of 38,5 m X 5 m, draught 2 m) impose a rather complex construction stages :
1. Manufacture of the thick hull, installation of a part of the equipment only to respect the constraint with draught, obturation of the openings (primarily those of the torpedo tubes and related to the installation of the remaining equipment, in particular engines). The determination of the equipment to be installed at the beginning will be critical, so that the plate is as horizontal as possible, while not complicating the process of final assembly and by maintaining a stability sufficient of the hull under these conditions.
2. Preparation of external sheets of hull, the kiosk and the remaining equipment.
3. Transport by water way and railroad according to components'.
4. Assembly of the equipment, the torpedo tubes, the engines and welding of the external elements of hull.
5. Tests.
The manufacture, under consideration in the beginning on two sites (Kiel and Bremen), will have in makes be organized in the following way :
- manufacture of the thick hull and assembly of all that is possible at Deutsche Werft (Kiel), which has know-how necessary for Type II ;
- subcontracting with AG Weser (Bremen) of external sheets of hull, tanks and ballasts ;
- reassembly in Toulon in the workshops of the Arsenal, by Deutsche Werft, with approximately 1 000 people to be moved from Kiel in Toulon, like all the tools and gauges necessary, in particular, with welding.
Transport by the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, the Saone and the Rhone will not be easy, the thick hulls being deprived of any rudder. A specific float framework will have to be manufactured to return a minimum of stability to the hulls, this framework having to envisage points of towing, a system of rudder, and undoubtedly of other characteristics. It will be necessary to proceed by stages (on barges in Germany, by towing of the hulls in France).
Note - Type IID, smaller, would be less powerful, but compatible with dimensions of the channel while dismounting only simply with the kiosk, before hull (external) and the torpedo tubes. The difficulty of transport would have been less and the times of reassembly much shorter. "
June 6, 1942, Doenitz confirmed the first decisions of Winkler. June 11, at a meeting organized in Berlin with its engineering departments, in the presence of the representatives of the shipyards, it maintained the choice of the IIE, the saving of time obtained in the startup of new IID not compensating for in its eyes the loss of operational effectiveness. At the same time, it asked its chief of staff (Godt) to start to seek a chief of flotilla " dbrouillard with ground and effective at sea ", with which to entrust the transfer operation and the command in Toulon.
June 11, 1942, the manufacturing schedule was developed :
- at the beginning of August 1942 : launching of the manufacture of the thick hulls, section by section welded, for all the series.
- at the end of October 1942 : exit of factory of the first series : 9 units intended for the tests and the drive (U-685 with U-693), assembled in once, plus one left in the form of hull in the state before transport for development of the towing, and another reserved for the validation of the end of the manufacturing process by stages.
- January 43 : sending in Toulon of the infrastructure of end of manufacture.
- at the end of February 43 : exit of factory of the 27 hulls partially equipped intended for the Mediterranean (U-694 with U-699, U-810 with U-820, U-830 with U-839) and sending in Toulon with the equipment.
- Mid-April 43 : beginning of the reassembly in Toulon.
- June 43 : startup.
- August 43 : beginning of the operational patrols
The tests of the first units would take place between November 1942 at January 1943, by hoping that they would not give too many nasty surprises compromising the continuation of the calendar.
The engineering and design department of Deutsche Werft was to be put at hard test during the weeks which followed. As engineer Fleischmann tells it, " it was at the same time necessary to go quickly and not to be mistaken, whereas usually, in a little known field, we take our time to avoid the errors. And, for calculations, there was no computer... We re-used a maximum of parts and equipment of the IID, even if they seemed a little right for the first series of the new version, even if it means to rectify for the second series. As for manufacture in several stages, which seemed feasible on paper was sometimes much less in reality. All that us of course played of the turns... "
Of return in Paris, Doenitz met on June 16 the person in charge for transport of the administration of occupation, to define the methods of use of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine by Kriegsmarine, for an operation definitely more complex and demanding that the passage of some motor torpedo boats. An agreement on a use of the channel in March 1943 was found, insofar as " all the provisions [ would be ] taken by Kriegsmarine not to stop the traffic in the direction of France towards Germany, essential with the provisioning of Reich. "
June 21, 1942, Doenitz took stock with Raeder, and the two admirals agreed on a name for the operation. It would be Sonnenblume (sunflower), Kriegsmarine, the such sunflower, being directed about midday... and the threat.
At the beginning of July, Winckler went to Strasbourg to make sure that the harbour installations would be sufficient for the unloading of the hulls of the submarines since the barges. It foot-note that additional cranes would be necessary. Enqurant means of towing available for the way on the channel, it had the nasty surprise to note that, over the entire length of the channel, the nonmotorized barges were hauled, by small electric engines on rail between Strasbourg and Mulhouse and by tyred tractors then, whereas in Germany the barges, of a definitely higher gauge, were towed. It quickly realized that unless stopping the civil traffic completely or to parcel out the convoy, it would never have sufficient operational equipment of traction for a convoy of 27 hulls of submarines, this material being scattered over the entire length of the channel. Moreover, the cylindrical shape of the hulls, even stabilized by the floats, would return towing since calamitous bank.
At the end of July, a new meeting was organized in Berlin. Deutsche Werft confirmed that manufacture would start well at the date envisaged, but that the organization of construction in two times was not completed yet, in particular with regard to the transfer in Toulon of the installations and the personnel. To solve the problem of the towing, it was decided to seek a model of tug boat used in the river ports, compatible with the constraints of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, to be manufactured in as many specimens as necessary. If this research did not give a result, it would be necessary to be folded back on towing, and to negotiate with the services of occupation in France to have all the material time necessary, which it would be to better avoid, to prevent that the business is not carried in front of Fhrer. Each one knew well indeed that Hitler seldom slicing this kind of argument without heads which fall.
In September, the allied attack against Sicily did nothing but increase the pressure on the actors of the operation. Doenitz had great evil to convince Raeder which it was impossible to go more quickly than the calendar envisaged, and had to swear that it was unimaginable to divert only one additional submarine of the Atlantic towards the Mediterranean. With Admiralty, the business, which started to be known of all, was soon called in the corridors the operation Sonnenbad (sun bath).
A submariner in recognition
August 28, 1942, with the return of its second patrol on the American coasts as commander ofU-333, his submarine passably crippled after a meeting with British corvette, the lieutenant Peter-Erich Cremer, an arm in scarf, had the surprise to be accomodated at the time of its arrival in Lorient by Doenitz itself, which informed it that a mission of the highest importance was entrusted to him. The evening even, he said good-bye to the members of his crew, in their affirming that if he could, he would find them.
In September, the personnel department of of BdU started to seek among all the submariners those having experience of... marines.
At the end of September 1942, Cremer and Winckler concluded that no tug boat in service in the various river ports was usable just as it is. Winckler decided to leave the hull smallest of them, which made 15 meters length nevertheless and to install there a diesel of with more the 100 horses, the being done towing with 6 km/h, maximum speed allowed on the French channels. The authorities of occupation, as well in Strasbourg as in Paris, accepted the towing "in the name of the interest of Reich, in spite of the payments of French navigation prohibiting it. " the shipyard from the Rhine in Mainz (Rheinwerft Mainz-Mombach) was in charge of the construction of these tug boats, two specimens having to arrive to Kiel in November, the others being delivered directly in Strasbourg.
At the beginning of October, Cremer prepared to embark in Strasbourg on the S-152 S-Boot, which was to make the way to Marseilles with two other identical boats. In its memories (U-Memories, 1975), it made of this way a precise and ironic account.
" I was accomodated in Strasbourg at the end of the afternoon by the lieutenant commander Hans Trmmer, pasha of the flotilla of the S-Boots which were going to join the Mediterranean. It immediately invited me to pose my bag in S-152, by excusing exiguity of installations, in spite of the marked taste of the Dutchmen who had designed and built these high-speed motorboats for comfort. I answered him that it was not worse than than I had known on my U-333, and than it was well better than what awaited me on the "super-dugouts" in the course of manufacture. After me to be briefly presented at the captains of the S-Boot, it took me along downtown, where the captain of the port invited us to dine, the departure being envisaged the next morning. The captain of the port, the Alsatian Paul Kuntz, was an interesting character. Oberleutnant zur See in the Imperial Navy, it had taken part in the battle of Skagerrak on Markgraf, and the high account colors of what it had lived occupied a good part of the evening, Tokay contributing largely to environment.
We weighed the anchor early, the brass band of the port greeting our departure. At the end of the morning, the fog, which had not left us since the departure, rose, and the Vosges and the Black Forest appeared. We advanced to 6 km/h and our progression was hardly obstructed by the passage of the locks, rather distant the ones from the others. We passed barges in great majority charged with potash extracted the mines from the surroundings from Mulhouse and drawn from bank by small electric engines. Not having large-thing to make, I returned with Trmmer on our dinner of the day before. It confirmed me that one could count on Kuntz, which had largely facilitated the task to him, even if if certain details disturbed it : "In its office, the table on the wall of the bottom represents Markgraf and that of right-hand side the cruiser Strassburg, him also of the Marine of Kaiser. But if the third, on the left, undoubtedly shows another warship bearing the name of its city, you will agree with me to recognize that this cruiser of modern battle is not a German ship... "
I have confirmation of the state of mind of Alsatian in the afternoon, while chattering in German with an inspector of the navigation which was used to us as pilot, and who named me the villages in which we passed. As I asked to him whether the storks which one saw the nests had already left, it answered me while laughing that they had gone to Gaulle, in Algeria... I do not know if he would have liked to do as much of it, but he had to realize that he had said some perhaps too much, because he became red of confusion. I reassured it by saying to him that Gestapo did not go up on the buildings of Kriegsmarine, and I was made explain different the man?uvres related to the passage from the locks. Fortunately that one had envisaged tug boats, because to draw the submarines with the capstan in the locks would have taken an insane time ! But I was not long in realizing that the towing had also its disadvantages, because, while increasing the number of boats to be made pass by the locks, it was also going to slow down us.
Two days after the incident of the storks, once crossed Mulhouse, one Sunday, under the glance of considerable curious, the landscape changed. With the plain had succeeded of the hills, between which the channel threaded, but that for one moment it would be necessary well to cross. Our guide explained me that, for the 60 km which separated Mulhouse from Montbeliard, it was necessary to count three days, the 40 locks following one another sometimes at a rate of every 300 meters and which, even if one as fast as possible made, my convoy of 27 submarines and about fifteen tug boats were going interminably to stretch. Indeed, for one moment, it was necessary to pass while mounting six consecutive locks, and, once arrived in top, we awaited two hours the last of our eight boats. And still, the barges charged with coal intended for Reich which we cross had been stopped to let to us pass.
In Montbeliard, our guide left us, because we were now in theoretically French territory, even if we occupy it. I had not very understood with the explanations on the complicated statute of Alsace and the Alsatian ones, but I had at least seized that they were supposed to be interested above all in their own fate rather than in their nationality. It was replaced by a silent Frank-comtois, with which I exchanged only few words, in spite of my good knowledge of French. With each stop, since we had left Alsace, Trmmer made from now on assemble the guard by some of its sailors, armed with rifles. Generally, we sailed on Doubs, channeled at the places where the current would have been too extremely. I noted the places where a detailed attention would be necessary, especially at the date envisaged of our passage in March, where, with the snow melt, the river would undoubtedly not be also calms and quiet. Each time it was possible, and with the agreement of our guide, Trmmer made go its boats more quickly, but I knew that I will not have this chance, the profile of a thick hull of Type II rise about floats not allowing it.
We arrived thus at the Trawl-net-on-Saone, where we stopped in a large river port. With proximity an important industrial facility was, to which I threw a blow of?il. Which was not my surprise to discover in fact a shipyard, in which was a French submarine, whose construction had been obviously stopped for more than two years. I say myself that to go up our Type IIE here rather than in Toulon would be perhaps a good idea, if they could finish their voyage then easily.
The way continued on the Saone, initially in a thick fog, where one of the boats of Trmmer found average to leave the channel and to be briefly failed, delaying everyone. It was necessary to accelerate to make up for lost time, and it only with did not fall the night that we arrived in the surroundings of Lyon. To change us ordinary edge, we decided, Trmmer and me, of going to dine in a small restaurant located beside our wharf, the Bocuse inn. The owner, although complaining bitterly about the difficulties of provisioning, was used a crackling to us as fish of the Saone, sprinkled of a white wine of Mcon. The son of the family, Paul, observed us of a black?il, but did not say anything. Thirty years later, I returned in what had become most famous restoring France and I told with the famous cook my first passage : "This day, says me it, I were well far from the kitchen ! I regretted not having grenades to launch on your boats ! "
The following day, we crossed Lyon. By fear of actions of what the Laval government called the Gangsters Mercenaries Judo-Bolsheviks and the other French Resistance, our small convoy was accompanied by trucks rolling on the quays, in which soldiers of Wehrmacht watched for, armed with rifles and even with machine-guns. The access to the whole of the bridges was barred, other soldiers assembling the guard. On its side, Trmmer had made put the machine-guns of its boats out of battery.
At the exit of Lyon, it was the end of the pleasure sailing ! The Rhone awaited us, with his current, its movements, and its waves caused by a wind of violent North. Never my hulls of the Type IIE drawn by their small tug boats would not pass by there without encumbers! And the bridges were likely to be too low if by misfortune the river were into raw at the time of our passage, if the submarines had gone up in Chalon. The only possible solution was a transshipment on Chalon barges, with reassembly in Toulon...
I left Trmmer close to Marseilles, and taken the train to go to discuss all that I had discovered at the time of this voyage with the Admiral Doenitz in Paris, Boulevard Suchet. "
Allied initial reactions
The voyage of the flotilla of the S-Boots was not unperceived past. Moreover, if Cremer had not been particularly indiscreet, its Alsatian interlocutors had both recognized in him, with the wire of the conversations, a captain of submarines. A report/ratio coming from Bern, where this information had arrived by discrete ways, was presented at the beginning of November on the desk of Ordering Ian Fleming, of Naval the Intelligence in London.
After having lengthily drawn on its pipe, Fleming emitted for its secretary, Mrs Henderson, widow of a major of the Army of the Indies, a pensive reflexion : " I doubt that a captain of submarines went on this cruise to go on Riviera at tourist ends, or on behalf of the KdF organization. Doenitz will want to make pass from the submarines by these channels, and this officer will have been sent in recognition. "
- submarines Nazis in the Mediterranean ? the worthy injury answered. What let us can be made ?
- Us, nothing, if is not to supervise of very near, and to inform the French.
- do you really Believe that the frog eaters will be able to do something of effective ?
- Let us see, Mrs Henderson, Britannia rules the waves, not the channels. Which, with the remainder, are precisely full of frogs. Ideal for landlubbers.
The great-grandfather of Mrs Henderson had been killed in Spain with Corogne, and in spite of the Entente Cordiale, the injury respected a family tradition of mistrust towards all that was French. But Fleming knew perfectly that the French would be much more effective in this business than the English.
In Algiers, information of Fleming confirmed those which had arrived by other ways (oddly, nobody wondered how the English also managed them to be informed of what occurred to Alsace). It was obvious that it was necessary to do something to prevent or at least delay this arrival of German submarines in the Mediterranean. A Franco-British meeting decided that the English would undertake to multiply the air photographs of the sector between Kiel and Bremen and along the Rhine to locate any boat or any unusual convoy there, and this as from January 1943, nobody not imagining that the passage could start more early. The French, for their part, were going to seek where to strike with the most possible effectiveness, and how.
Nothing is simple
November 3, 1942, Raeder calls a conference in Berlin for, hoped it, to bring good news to Fhrer, which needed some well after its disappointments in Russia and Italian collapse. This conference gathered, in more of the representatives of the Navy, the members of the staff of Heer (the Army) and delegated administration of occupation in Paris.
Side of the construction of the submarines, all seemed to go for best. The first building was finished, the perfect sealing, all the operational equipment ; the tests with the sea were to begin the 5. The eight following would be ready to take the sea head the end of the month.
Side of the transfer, all the means necessary in Germany (barges and tug boats) were reserved for February. The complexity of the operations, in particular the transshipments in Strasbourg and Chalon, caused many questions. But when Doenitz explained why the current of the Rhine was faster by places than the speed to which the hulls could advance without risk to run, and which the gauge of the French channels was well too small for the German barges, everyone ends up being appropriate that the adopted solutions were the least bad. The administration of occupation in Paris promised that the barges necessary, as well as the means of towing, would be provided for the arrival of the convoy to Chalon. The assumption one moment evoked to divide the transfer into several convoys to two weeks of interval was quickly abandoned in front of the extent of the means to put in?uvre and the difficulties of coordination between services and administrations.
Because of the military setbacks of the last provisional and inevitable months "after an uninterrupted series of victories ", giving " ill-considered hopes to overcome of 1940 ", the possibility of a " terrorist action " against the convoy was considered and Raeder asked for Heer " means of protection ". The principal one representing of Heer, a colonel, answered with the lawful courtesy that what is necessary would be done, then blew with its assistant " the types of Luftwaffe were right not to come, one would have required Luftflotte of them to supervise this transport of cans. "
Cremer, present at this meeting, was in a hurry only one : to embark on U-685 to begin the tests. According to its terms, " the battles of staff were even more difficult to support than a British grenadage. "
November 8, at the end three days of tests to the sea, Cremer brought back U-685 to Kiel. Hardly unloaded, it went with Winkler to the shipyard Deutsche Werft. Engineer Klaus Fleischmann was present during the meeting which immediately took place after their arrival : " As envisaged, even if we had hoped for all that it would not be necessary, there were many points to correct on the IIE. If Cremer adapted to the rigour to a handiness on the surface lower than that of the IID and just equivalent to that of one VIIC, and to rolling on the surface as abominable as that of the IID, it could not accept the defects in diving : under water, U-685 was dangerous below two n?uds, incompetent to hold his plate and its depth, in spite of the dexterity of the mechanical engineer and of his men and the thorough checking of all the pneumatic circuits. This is why neither the tests of fast diving nor those of performance had been carried out at the time of the first exit. " the engineering and design department was put immediately at work, and the workshop manufactured in the tread a rudder and increased diving ruders. It was also necessary to re-examine the dimensioning of the cases of plate and weighing. Cremer took again the sea first once the 18, returned the 20 for the modification of the cases of plate, and declared the building sure on November 30. December 15, the other buildings of the first series were modified in their turn. The commanders who undertook their tests still found them " too likely " in diving, and only the resumption of a part of the circuit of compressed air made it possible to make them usable by a normally tested crew, without same speech of one crew undergoing training. But when these modifications were at the point, all piping was already installed or sent in Toulon for the second series, and it was necessary to manufacture batches of handing-over on level.
The development of the towing did not occur either without evil. The hull with half empties was too unstable in rolling, and the floats last being increased. Moreover, the unit pricked of the nose once towed. The recourse to the good old men bags of sand made it possible to find in experiments a compromise satisfactory, because it was impossible to ask for the factory the assembly or the disassembling of additional equipment under penalty of putting in danger the calendar of production. The float framework was also modified to make it possible the hull of the submarine to be thorough (very slowly) by the prow of the tug boat, which was to make it possible to accelerate the installation in the locks. The system of rudder (two large saffrons with the corners postpones framework) was considered to be correct. The small tug boats did what one awaited from them, the building site of Mainz having thought of equipping them with an easily dismountable propeller, because that necessary to the towing would not have made it possible to join Kiel or Strasbourg at the appropriate time. Cremer required that these tug boats be equipped with radios in phone, which was made.
At the beginning of January, the principal difficulties highlighted at the time of the tests of the submarines were overcome. The ordering of shooting of the torpedes still posed some concern, but they were finally regulated. On the other hand, to save time, the system of snorkel was not assembled on the first series of nine submarines ; it would have in any event be impossible to test it quickly, considering the difficulty of correctly holding a precise depth of these first buildings.
If the battle against the technique were about to be gained, on the other hand that against the other services was well badly engaged, in spite of the promises and engagements of the meeting on November 3. If, with the civil administration in Strasbourg, that occurred still well, in particular thanks to the goodwill of the captain of the Kuntz port and the service of navigation, that was markedly less well with the administration of occupation to Paris, which felt reluctant to distract from the barges and the tug boats of their basic mission, which consisted in supplying Reich with the French productions. But it was with Heer that the things were really badly. It is only mid-February which it was finally agreed that battalions of infantry, at rest or with the drive, would be deployed " along the channel ", between Mulhouse and Chalon, " in their usual zone of exercise ", to ensure " the monitoring " (and not the protection, Heer did not want to endorse any responsibility) of the operation. Cremer however managed to obtain from Strasbourg, for the duration of the operation, the assistance of two sections of the genius having heavy material (pumps, cranes on trucks...), in order to proceed to possible emergency repairs of the channel and locks in the event of incident. A truck radio operator, able to communicate with the tug boats, was also obtained.
During all February, several tens of goods trains left Kiel and Bremen bound for Toulon. They carried all that was to be assembled on the spot in the hulls, the sheets external, the kiosks, the diesel engines and electric, as all the tools which it was not possible to find on the spot. These railway convoys hardly appeared to draw the attention at the time of their passage in France to Toulon.
At the end of February, all was ready for the departure. In Kiel only the first nine submarines, intended for the drive remained, in the course of revision and of handing-over on level. The production line took again its activity a little later, for the construction of the hulls intended for the Black Sea.
Nothing is simple (bis)
On the other side of the Mediterranean, the actions intended to prevent the transfer had also well evil to start. Was one going to make intervene Resistance or assemble a special operation of the Army ? And where ? Finally, a solution ends up emerging : it was not necessary to destroy these submarines, it was enough that they cannot make exits of Toulon before the future unloading in the south of France did not make it possible to take their base. To wedge one month or two some share in the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine should thus be enough ! On these bases, a plan was elaborate starting from documents found with the Faculty of Geography of Algiers (dating for some of Napoleon III) and with the assistance of an engineer of the Channel of the South spent to Algeria in July 1940. This plan envisaged a destruction of the locks in extreme cases of Alsace, at the high point of the channel, the two ends of the summit pond, combined with a destruction of the water supply of this level. Time to repair, the level would have been emptied, and it would take weeks (especially the summer) so that it fills again. Either the Germans would wait, or they would make half-turn and pass by another way (return in Strasbourg, then passage by the channels of the Marne in the Rhine and the Marne in the Saone). In both cases, they would lose at least six weeks. Of course, more the German convoy would be close to the point of cut, better that would be worth.
Remained to determine which would do what. Resistance in Alsace was embryonic, for multiple reasons, the first being the germanisation in fact of the province. Only some information managed to pass, as some rare volunteers who had to traverse a way long and sown obstacles through Switzerland, the south of France and Spain to arrive to North Africa. It was established better in Doubs and the Territory of Belfort, under French administration. It was thus decided that it would bring a logistical support, the sabotage of the installations being carried out by a commando of the special forces, which could take refuge easily in Switzerland in the event of difficulties, the border being with less than 20 km of the place envisaged.
To find the members of the commando was not difficult, the volunteers did not miss. Among them was Joseph Bilger, native of Pfetterhouse, Alsatian commune located at the Swiss border and the limit of the territory of Belfort. He had left his village in June 1940, had passed by Switzerland and had succeeded in joining Marseilles to arrive to Algeria. At the end of January, the commando started to be involved with its mission.
On the way to the South...
Monday 1er March 1943 in the morning, nine river tugs dealt with in Kiel the 27 barges on which the hulls of the submarines had been hoisted. Their departure was done without history, always according to memories' of Klaus Fleischmann : " All ready, was inspected and checked. I looked at leaving the barges without particular emotion, because I had another concern : one week later, I was to leave for Toulon, where awaited me the reassembly and the transformation of the finally satisfactory circuits of compressed air. As these modifications were not envisaged in the beginning, earlier I will prepare them, better that would do. " the voyage to Strasbourg occurred without history, while following the channel of Kiel first of all, then Kstenkanal, the Ems-Dortmund channel and the Rhine.
But this convoy did not escape from the?il from eagle from Mosquito PR from the RAF and from the service from interpretation from the air photographs British. March 6, an image taken two days earlier clearly showed 27 well arranged barges with Bremerhaven. The 10, a new photograph, catch in Dusseldorf the day before, did not leave any more a doubt. After Ian Fleming, the informed first nobody was his secretary, Mrs Henderson.
- You remember the captain of German submarine which made a tourist voyage through the wine areas of the part is France last October ?
- That which accompanied a convoy by motor torpedo boats ? Of course. Boats of open sea on channels, these Huns really do not have the direction of suitabilities.
- It could be well that it set out again for a new ballade towards the Mediterranean, but this time while taking along its U-boots.
- It is a so ridiculous idea, Mr. Fleming ! You are sure ?
- As I do not see the Germans invading Switzerland by underwater way, I do not have an other possible explanation.
- Ah, it is not in India that it would have arrived
- Indeed, Mrs Henderson, over there, they would have perhaps carried their submarines to back of elephants... However, give me all the same the number of the offices of London of the services of information of our Froggies friends.
The 11, Algiers was put at the current. March 12, the decision to start the Nemo operation was made. The commando was ready. One of its members, wounded at the time of the drive, had been replaced by second Alsatian, Franois Sifert. In company of Joseph Bilger, it went back to its mother tongue, because it was not a question especially of being betrayed stupidly on the spot while being expressed in French.
March 13, the German convoy arrived to Strasbourg. The submarines quickly were unloaded and installed on their float frameworks, after thorough checking of their sealing. The 14 at the evening, all were ready for their voyage on the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine.
Peter-Erich Cremer had not been unemployed : " the days preceding the departure by Strasbourg of our flotilla were harassing. In company from my two associated, Kapitnenleutnant Franz Klein andOberleutnant zur See Hans Fromm, we had to regulate a crowd of practical details, whereas the protection which Heer was to ensure our convoy still did not satisfy me, in spite of the many meetings of discussion which had already taken place. Day before of the departure, I joined together my men for an ultimate review of the operations.
- Messrs, before our departure, I have several things to say to you, and I would not like to have to repeat them. You know all the stake of our mission, and that made several weeks, even several months for some, that you work there. Thanks to your competence, all the technical aspects were solved and I am sure that, if incidents of this nature occurred, you could face there. But what will make us succeed above all, the discipline ! And I hold so that you are irreproachable on this point. As the KL Klein will explain it to you, the passage of each lock will be directed by an ensign or a candidate. And I will hold these young Messrs personally responsible for any distorsion with the payment on this occasion : I want to intend to speak about nobody in the "coffees of the Navy" that the French took for practice to put at each lock, in order to appease there their thirst or worse still. And do not believe that I tell you that to waste you the existence, but well for our safety with all: the slackened attitude that some could have taken at the time of the drive to the passage of the locks here in Strasbourg would be fatal in French territory, after Montbeliard, where it will be necessary to be wary of each inhabitant, who can have good reasons of us to want some !
The smiles that some were believed obliged to raise disappeared quickly. But I was unaware of that I sinned rather by optimism. Klein spoke then :
- I will point out the principal stages to you. The first part of the way will carry out us to Mulhouse, in three days. The first day, we will make only approximately 30 km, in order to learn the procedures well from passage of the locks, even if they were repeated with our tug boats and of the barges here in Strasbourg. With our "whales" in trailer, it will not be also easy. Each tug boat will draw two submarines to Mulhouse, and the passage will be done with the tail leu leu. Each owner of tug boat will receive a sheet of instructions detailed on the man?uvres of unhooking, accosting and push to be carried out with each lock. Idem for each officer in load of the locks. In the event of problem on a boat, a truck workshop of the Navy accompanies us and will be able to make all mechanical repairs necessary. As you saw, there are marks on the floats. If water reaches these marks, it is that a water way occurs on a submarine. In this case, made call with the truck workshop which has of pumps and what it is necessary to temporarily seal the escape. If there is a problem related to the operation of a lock, the Genius is there to solve it. You have the radio on board each tug boat, use it !
Klein had carried out a remarkable work, just as Fromm, had charged more particularly of the intendance. It was necessary to nourish a good hundred people, without counting the men of the Genious, and it is not with the store-rooms of the tug boats, just good to heat what held place of coffee, that one would have arrived there. For housing, each tug boat had eight as tight and uncomfortable berths as those of Type II. That also formed part of the drive ! "
Monday March 15 in the morning, the convoy left the wearing of Strasbourg, the brass band being again with go. The passage of the first lock, located downtown full, attracted a crowd of idlers, which benefitted from this unusual spectacle until in middle of the afternoon. This moment, the first boats had already arrived at Erstein, the stage of the day. It is with a certain relief that Peter-Erich Cremer saw arriving the last of his boats at fallen the night :
" Finally, very had happened well this first day. Separately a breakdown of battery on a tug boat and an escape in the hull of U-817 on the level of a passage of piping badly sealed off by the building site of Kiel and temporarily sealed interior while waiting for the possibility of an intervention of outside in Mulhouse, no incident had come to enamel this day. The discipline had been respected, the mines dconfites of certain young people people to the passage of the locks while being the best proof. I benefitted from this short moment of respite to join again knowledge with the inspector of the navigation which had accompanied us a few months earlier, and of which I unfortunately forgot the name. The conversation went rather quickly on the captain of the port, Paul Kuntz, of which I had had only to rent me :
- Without him, would never have arrived there us. It did a remarkable work of organization.
- However, it answered me, it had its batch of troubles.
- I know. I saw a clearer rectangular mark on the wall of left of his office... If I included/understood well, it had visit...
- Yes, confirmed the inspector, somebody announced to Gestapo that it had not very Aryan artistic tastes... But the worst, it is that it is very concerned for the fate of its two sons, of which it is without news since... not badly of time.
- Ah, I made, believing to include/understand. Hard, for a father. They are in the East, I suppose.
- Exactly. In the East.
It is only after the war, by re-examining Paul Kuntz, that I included/understood the remarks of my interlocutor (who had failed well to cut himself). For me, the East meant the Russian Face, but for him, the East wanted to say the Far East. The two wire of Paul Kuntz were useful in the National Navy, one on Strasbourg, the other on Dunkirk, and their father had learned the presence from these ships in the Pacific. The knowledge enabled me to better include/understand the continuation of the events.
But this evening like the precedents, I sent to the Admiral Doenitz a report/ratio saying in substance that all was well. "
The following day March 16, Peter-Erich Cremer entrusted the responsibility for the convoy to his assistant and went to Belfort to explain last once at Heer what it was advisable to do to protect his boats.
" Opel of Wehrmacht took to me at 7 hours of the morning, and we arrived at the citadel of Belfort at 9 a.m., after having rolled on deserted roads, while stopping us only once, in the passing of the old border of before 1914, where again customs officers and a large post office of Feldgendarmerie were. The meeting, organized in a rather sinister room (the Army had not been put in expenses for me), was chaired by a colonel of the place of Belfort. A young captain of the regiment of infantry of Mulhouse, carrying Ritterkreuz, was also present, as well as subalterns of the various units concerned with what Heer was obstinated to name the "monitoring" of my convoy. The colonel spoke :
perhaps - As you know it, even on your boats, Reich currently delivers a decisive fight and without mercy in Russia against the ogre Bolshevik, and all the efforts of Wehrmacht must be devoted to obtaining the victory on this face. Order of Fhrer ! We should nothing waste for secondary tasks.
That started badly. But I had not yet very heard :
- I have on Belfort only strictly essential manpower to assure the guard of the Swiss border and to supervise the principal axes of communication, of which your channel is only one small part. The country is calm, I really do not see why Berlin responsible me for such a drudgery. In any case, my responsibility starts only in extreme cases with Alsace. Other side, it is not my problem ! the colonel launched. It is that of Mulhouse. They have manpower, but as usual, one asked them nothing.
- I fear that you do not have all information, my Colonel, answered courteously the young captain. Our regiment is making its luggage to turn over to Russia, leaving only one company of instruction on the spot. But it is with pleasure that I place it at the disposal of the Navy, on the Alsatian territory.
A company the blue ones making their classes for 40 km ! That made a man every 200 meters, if one wanted to raise them. As much to leave them with the barracks... The colonel began again, on a tone a little less breakable :
- I think that it will be necessary to concentrate our means on the place where you will risk more one attack, i.e. between the limit of Alsace and Montbeliard. It is there that the Swiss border is closest, and like the possible terrorists will seek to flee in this direction, it is in this place that not only we will prevent their action while assembling the guard around your boats, but that in more will capture we them.
I exposed my point of view then :
- My Colonel, we have to deal with two risks : destruction of the boats and that of the channel. If one or two boats is damaged, by mines or an attack with the explosive, we leave them on the spot and we continue with the others. On the other hand, if it is the channel which is damaged, we must make half-turn or to await repairs, which, in both cases, will delay us several weeks and will undoubtedly make us arrive to Toulon too late for the operations considered. As your means are limited, I would prefer that you rather devote them to the guard of the channel than to the monitoring of the boats. This guard of the channel must include the locks as all the bridges which span it, because a bridge broken down in the channel would be a double catastrophe. And this guard must advance with my convoy, anticipating it of approximately 24 hours.
- Kapitnleutnant, you are one of our best submariners, your Ritterkreuz proves it. But on the firm ground, I have much more experience than you. Believe me, if there is an attack, it will take place where I say it. I will thus make keep this zone, but to please to you, I will include in the mission of my men the monitoring of the bridges and the locks. Nobody will be able to approach some, you have my word of it. And, to counter any possibility, the deployment will start today even.
The young captain took again the word then.
- For my part, I can place my men where an incident Alsatian side would be most awkward for you, i.e. in the staircase of locks of Valdieu. Even if they are just good to hold a rifle, their presence should be enough to discourage any approach.
- I thank you. I will thus see you in Mulhouse tomorrow evening. My Colonel, I will wish now whom we examine what you provided between Montbeliard and Besancon.
(...)
I had understood well that I would not obtain anything more. On the 60 km between Mulhouse and Montbeliard, instead of a force advancing with the convoy and protecting only the points criticize time necessary, I had a static guard on two zones alas noncontiguous, and undoubtedly requiring average equivalents so that I wished. It was better than a sentinel every 100 m as that had been considered two weeks earlier, but that was not enough yet to reassure me completely. The future was to give me reason... At the time to set out again, I crossed the young captain who was also going to take again the road. I noticed that it limped slightly and it answered me while smiling : " To remember Smolensk ! The surgeons made miracles, but certain days, I can hardly walk. This is why I do not go back there, finally not immediately, because if the situation worsened, they would return me there even with crutches ! "
I even joined my submarines the evening. They were now to 40 km of Mulhouse, and no incident had occurred in the course of the day. That, combined with the less limited attitude of Heer, finishes by me returning a little optimism. I informed the Admiral Doenitz of this evolution of the position of the Army, to which it was undoubtedly not foreign. "
March 17, in the afternoon, the convoy arrived to Mulhouse, or more exactly at Island-Napoleon, in his immediate suburbs. A surprise awaited Peter-Erich Cremer and his men...
The Alsatian trap : too ambitious amateurs ?
March 16, around 6 p.m., the telephone sounded in the office of Doctor George Hartmann (Georg Hartmann since 1941), radiologist at the hospital of Mulhouse. As usual, it was its chief, Fritz Graunitz, a Prussian of Knigsberg placed there in January 1941 following the expulsion of the French doctors, as inefficient as scorning, which took down :
- It is for you, your colleague of the Civil Hospital of Strasbourg.
- Hello, Anton, that can I for you ?
- I would need baryta, my stock becomes exhausted, and Karlsruhe cannot send some to me before two weeks. Can you repair me ?
- No problem, I send that tomorrow morning to you. There are always volunteers to make this kind of races...
- To the fact, from fish passed yesterday under my windows, and from large the this time. Fish depths.
- You believe that they will go up up to now ?
- Oh yes, you can prepare your fishing rods !
The hardly hung up again telephone, Graunitz left in a diatribe alas usual :
- But when cease you speaking Alsatian, Gott im Himmel ! We are in Germany, here : a country, people, and the same language for all. And the telephone is reserved for the requirements of the service, not to discuss angling. Moreover, why would you go to fishing, you do not eat enough with what one finds on the markets ? "
It was useless to answer. Graunitz was upset because it did not include/understand all that was said, its principal mission not being to look after the patients, but to put at the step those which it called " the heads of mule of the service. "
George Hartmann returned at his place little afterwards. For him, the few sentences exchanged with his/her colleague were particularly clear : the Germans were again making pass from the warships by the channel of the Rhone to the Rhine and this time, it was necessary to prevent some. Was a plan was ready, but going to function ?
The following day March 17, after having badly slept, it turned over to the hospital, borrowing commercial main street of Mulhouse, the street of the Savage, that the Germans during a few times had renamed Adolf-Hitler Strasse, before realizing of their blunder... In spite of the extremely morning hour, Graunitz was already there and awaited it obviously :
- I have a good news for you : tomorrow morning Thursday, you will go to the hospital of Altkirch. The incompetent of Alsatian who makes the radiologist over there still fell sick, and it is tomorrow, market day, which they have the most world. You will return the day after tomorrow. Execution !
Obviously, Graunitz thought, by sending it to Altkirch, to persecute it once more. But it was mistaken. This provisional exile formed part of the plans of George Hartmann... As for the disease of his colleague of Altkirch, it could with what leave it. On the other hand, it bitterly felt sorry for the patients who were going to be treated (or rather maltreated) by Graunitz in his absence. With a little chance, they would be for the majority originating on other side of the Rhine...
It returned early at his place this day, and explained to his wife why it would go in Altkirch the next morning and the evening would undoubtedly not return. It would lay down, says it, in his Alphonse brother, who held an inn in Dannemarie, as each time that it was sent to Altkirch by Graunitz.
March 18, George Hartmann travelled by his bicycle before the paddle to go to Altkirch. In the black night, it heard with far from the sirens of boats. The Germans prepared to cross Mulhouse with their convoy. The evening would thus have to be even acted... While it advanced on the road, it reminded the circumstances which had carried out it there. Native of Dannemarie, it had been named internal at the hospital of Mulhouse in 1933, and had remained there once his studies finished. Sportsman, it passed the majority of his leisures in mountain, either in the Vosges, or in the Swiss Alps, in company of his wife, but also with colleagues of the various Alsatian hospitals, and had established bonds with other members of the medical profession of the area, Suisses, German, and even English residing in Switzerland. With the declaration of the war, reservist, it had been mobilized as doctor lieutenant at the military hospital of Colmar. Captive fact on June 18, 1940 when the Germans entered Colmar, it was quickly released as Alsacien and took again its station in Mulhouse. In March 1941, one of its patients, a native logger of Winkel (near the Swiss border), gave a letter to him :
- It is your doctor who explains me why you made all this way for radio operator elbow ?
- Not Doctor, it is for you personally. And I must transmit a response in two weeks.
- You are inflated, you ! Good, return in ten days, after all, it is the German sickness insurance which pays...
Taken by its work, it forgot this letter in its pocket, where his wife found it the evening. It asked whether it could open it, to him which it authorized it to do same without paying attention to it.
- George, it is of Mr. Andrew Smith, the English dentist of Bern which we met several times in Switzerland when one could still go in the Alps. Be held well, it asks to you whether you cannot provide him information on the life of tous.les.jours in Alsace, how behave the Germans, and especially what make the soldiers. It should yes be answered him immediately, would be this only to avenge you for the troubles that Graunitz with length of day does you.
- less extremely ! If the neighbors heard you !
But the decision was made without same as it had to take it. It thus answered to Mr. Smith, and, gradually, associated a colleague of Strasbourg, then the young radiologist of Altkirch, without forgetting his own brother, landlord in the native borough, so that it did not call network, but which was one. The logger of Winkel, plus smuggler that forester, made pass information to Switzerland, the places where to cross the border with the nose and the not missing beard of the guards. So that its regular visits at the hospital do not end up being suspect, the mail finishes by being conveyed until Winkel in the van bringuebalante of a cousin grocer peddler, known before the war in all the south of Alsace to bring food products as exotic as of bananas in the most moved back corners. Thus made up a resistance network was of a perfect amateurism...
But military information that they could transmit to Mr. Smith was quite thin. Since 1941, the German military presence was limited, annexation in fact obliges, the repressive capacity being ensured by the troop of organizations depending on the party or the civil capacity. With share of the recruits of the country of Bade making their classes and the guards at the Swiss border, there was not large-thing to follow. The only notable points were the transfers of troops to destination or coming from France "of the interior".
The passage of a flotilla of motor torpedo boats in November 1941 was an event. This passage caused long discussions with his/her Alphonse brother, who said that it would have been easy to prevent it while making jump a judiciously selected point of the channel of the Rhone to the Rhine, not far from at his place. Was the idea transmitted to Mr. Smith, who ends up answering " Why not ? " if of adventure the Germans started again, and that it would provide the detonators necessary, explosives themselves having been put very discreetly safe from June 1940 when the French, in full retirement, undermined anything and anyhow. Unfortunately, at the time of the second convoy of motor torpedo boats, in October 1942, the detonators had still not arrived. It is only one month later than George Hartmann saw them for the first time, in his fluoroscope, by inspecting once moreover the leg protected by a plaster of the logger from Winkel. This day, it thanked the sky for not being cardiac, and poured a great part of its repertory of insults, whose Alsatian language is particularly provided, on the unhappy one... Since, these detonators were in the base of the apparatus of radiology of the hospital of Altkirch, well with the shelter behind metal plates raising of the death's-heads and the inscriptions "High voltage - Danger of dead - prohibited Opening". The first stage thus consisted in recovering them. Prevented him also of the arrival of "fish" by the colleague of Strasbourg, the radiologist of Altkirch had left to foot to inform Alphonse Hartmann, the landlord, and its disease was only of tiredness related to night walk.
March 18, therefore, with its arrival at the hospital of Altkirch, George Hartmann saw that the waiting room was already full. It was not going to be unemployed of the day. Indeed, the last patient left only around 8 p.m.. Time to recover the detonators, of enfourcher its bicycle, and to arrive in his/her brother, it was nearly 9 p.m.. It entered by the door of behind, as usual, to fall on a hubbub from voice teutonnes. Overpowered by tiredness and the sudden discouragement, it was dropped on a chair, and waited until his/her brother has one moment for him to speak, which did not delay.
- the Germans is at home, it is foutu...
- But not, they will not be long in leaving.
- It is foutu nevertheless, if they are there, it is to go to keep the channel.
- Yes, but not here. They go in Valdieu.
- But one nevertheless has it in C..., because the German boats had to pass, not ?
- Not, they did not go much furtherIllfurth. The sergeant explained me that they had a big problem in a lock, which put them late. In any event, they were to stop before our "surprise" today. I leave you, I have to occupy me of my customers
- Yes, but do not sell a Swiss tone to them tobacco of smuggling !
- Profit to put back you a little, the night does nothing but start.
Technical hitches and Germanic effectiveness
Wednesday March 17, with the arrival of the first elements of his convoy in Island-Napoleon, Peter-Erich Cremer had had amazement to recognize the silhouette of the Admiral Doenitz in person on the unloading dock, in the medium of a great police deployment. The admiral congratulated it for the absolutely perfect way in which the transfer had proceeded until now, and asked him how it considered the continuation :
- Admiral, I does not hide it to you, the next days will be most difficult. Until now, the locks were sufficiently distant not too to slow down us, but as from tomorrow and especially of the day after tomorrow, we will not count any more in traversed kilometers, but out of crossed locks. The KL Klein organized the passages in an expert way, and I know that it tore off the hair for the two next stages before arriving at a satisfactory solution. But what worries me more, it is not the material nor the capacity of my men, but an attack. We will leave quiet Alsace for occupied France, and Heer could not place at my disposal all that I would have wished, in spite of its efforts of last minute. From their point of view, with the situation in Russia, we do not represent large-thing.
- I share your point of view, but even me I could not detach some marine fusiliers of the bases of Brest or Lorient to accompany you. They are already in too small number 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 finding his Ju-52 on the airfield of Habsheim, near. The pilot had had only to modify a little the way which the Admiral was to carry out to go from Paris in Berlin, where it was waited the following day.
The young captain of Heer arrived then, always boitillant. Cremer proposed to him to share the meal of the sailors, which it accepted readily.
- the other day, in Belfort, I did not even have the occasion to present to me suitably at you, Herr Kapitnleutnant. I am called Dieter Thunau.
- you do not excuse, Dieter, and drop the rank, we are on the same boat !
- same the galre, you want to say !
" After this joke, the conversation began again more seriously. Thunau was going to lay out its thin troops in Valdieu as of the following day, approximately 24 hours before our passage. When I asked to him whether it could also put a little world to keep the intermediate locks, it answered me that that was impossible for him, having in all and for only of one score warrant officers and corporals. All its privates had between two and ten weeks of seniority, and to put them by two delivered to themselves in full shift would be perfectly useless. At best they would not see anything, in the worst case they would fall asleep or take refuge in a nearby coffee. I due to be appropriate about it. " (EP Cremer, C$op cit.)
Thanks to the visit of Doenitz, the moral one was in the beautiful fixed morning of March 18. The convoy set out again and, up to 10 hours of the morning, all occurred well, to the second lock of Brunstatt.
" I was at this time in full center of Mulhouse, there or the channel passes in front of the station, when the radio operator of the tug boat in which I had taken seat put itself at crpiter. The candidate in load of the passage of the second lock of Brunstatt, thrown into a panic, asked for assistance, a submarine has just demolished the door of a lock. I immediately ordered to the owner of the tug boat to approach bank, and I leaped on the tow path, with the risk to break the figure. I hlai a motor bike of Wehrmacht in patrol, jumped in the motorcycle combination and arrived a few minutes later on the place of the incident. What had it occurred ?
Tug boat SR-4 was behind U-834, gently pushing it on around fifty of meters, while the door of the lock started to open, when its engine had suddenly packed, whereas the lever always on the slowed-down position, propelling the submarine more and more quickly. The mechanism of safety prohibiting to engage the reverser when the engine was not with the idle preventing the owner of the tug boat from going into reverse, it was necessary that the mechanic cuts to the saw the feeder pipe out of gas oil to turn off the engine ! The evil was made. Running on its wanders, before submarine violently ran up against the open doors against half of the lock, whose wood did not resist the shock.
Time that the witnesses present explain me all that, the truck workshop of the Navy and those of the Genius had arrived. Each one knew what it had to do. The Lieutenant mechanic went up on board SR-4, where the panels of access to the engine were already open. As for the Genius, it positioned a first crane with the balance of the lock lockgates. I ordered with the SR-11, which was in the same level, to temporarily give up the whales which it towed, to make move back U-834 of around fifty of meters and to release the SR-4. The Genius immediately positioned a second breakdown van in front of the submarine and set up a coffer dam to close the channel, before pumping all the water ranging between the demolished door and the coffer dam. While its men set up all their material, the lieutenant of the Genious affirmed me that one would need 4 or 5 hours, 6 to the great maximum, to give the lock in service. All would depend on the state of the hinges of the door of the lock, and it was necessary to empty water to usually reach those under the level of the channel. At midday, I briefly joined together officers concerned to take stock.
- I dismounted the pump injection and I opened it to include/understand why the engine had left to full mode, said the lieutenant mechanic. The mechanism of regulation interns was broken. I do not know if that came from an error of assembly, of a defect in the metal of a part or a deliberated sabotage. It will be necessary to go to Bosch, in Stuttgart, to inquire. The engine apparently did not suffer, and one of my men is mounting a pump of replacement. It should have finished besides, since I hear an engine starting...
Relieved not to have lost the tug boat, I passed the word to the officer of the Genious :
- We finished dismounting and removing the broken door. As the doors are standardized on all the locks of the channel, we will set up the door of replacement which we have with us just afterwards. The hinges are not damaged, that will go quickly. Then, the time of repomper water in the other direction and to remove the coffer dam, in approximately two hours, you will be able to set out again. In addition, I succeeded in making me yesterday evening lend a half-dozen of power generating units and banks of spotlights. That will enable you to continue your night trip by laying out them with the locks.
- For the passage of the locks the night, it is also necessary to hold account of the tiredness of the men ; the man?uvres are delicate, us still had the proof of it this morning. But two hours more every evening too will not be. And for you, Franz, that will not disturb too the operations ?
- We will also not go far envisaged today, it is obvious. Tomorrow evening, our first boats will not have crossed the staircase of Valdieu yet. At best, they will be committed insides, if we do not have an other incident and if we use the projectors of the Genius. Fortunately that we did not lose a boat, because it would have been necessary to remake all the instructions intended for the tug boats and with the locks, that would have taken hours. And with regard to U-834, it will not hardly need but one paint retouch.
We had had chance in our misfortune, and, thanks to the engagement of all, we had limited the damage. I decided to give the order to the first boats of the convoy to set out again with 14h00, but it was not possible that with 15h00 : the release of the coffer dam took more time than envisaged, and it became deformed at the time of the operation " (EP Cremer, C$op. cit.)
The evening, the head of the convoy had arrived in Hagenbach. On the score of locks to the program of the day, only a fortnight had been crossed. The power generating units of the Genius turned a good part of the night to make it possible the last submarines to approach to the maximum of the first. Two of the trucks of the Genius had set out again for Mulhouse, in the search of a new door of replacement, as well as another coffer dam.
On the Nemo side
March 13, in Ajaccio, which still carried the marks of the recent combat and even those of the bombardments of 1941, the eight members of the Nemo commando embarked in the afternoon on the Henri-Poincar submarine. A DC-3 had brought of Algiers in the morning Lieutenant Michel Fabre and his men : Staff sergeant Louis Martinez, Sergeants Jacques Dumont and Robert Semnoz, Senior corporal Benoit Tracol, Corporals Franois Sifert, Joseph Bilger and Claude Morond.
Little after having sailed round the Sanguinary islands, the submarine plunged to periscopic immersion and put course at North. At the fallen night, it made surface to reload its battery and to progress more quickly. During this time, through German jammings, Radio-London and Radio-Algiers diffused the personal message " Nemo meets Arronax ".
March 14, at 4 hours of the morning, the commando climbed in two dinghys, for Antibes, and unloaded on the beach of Juan-the-Pines little after 5 a.m.. Lieutenant Fabre, set on history, could not prevent himself from declaring with emotion : " We return to France, but we will not set out again about it after hundred days ! " Two local fishermen, who awaited them, made disappear the dinghys, and the whole of the commando took the first train for Marseilles into 32nd class, under the identity of Italian workers coming to take part in the operations of demolition of the district of the Basket. In the train, the controller punched their tickets without suspecting nothing. The forgers of Algiers had done good work... At the exit of theSaint-Charles station, little after 9 hours morning, the commando, divided into three groups, took the direction of the Old man-Port, but obliqued towards a dark street, where the eight "workmen" entered a building which had known better days. Half an hour later, it came out from it eight ensoutans ecclesiastics, who took again the way of the station immediately, where they got (into 22nd class, relative humility ecclesiastical obliges) into the train of Lyon, absolutely crammed. The express train started per hour, took speed, but had soon to slow down. In the coach, the remarks went good train :
- One does not pass by the usual way, I say to you...
- don't H peuchre, you know that there is still a signal box which jumped this night ?
- is Ho, the priests, it because it is Sunday that you are of exit ?
- And why you look at the planes of Istres by the window ? You do not need any to go to the sky, you !
- And then, when do you start to make miracles ? To multiply the breads, it would not be a bad idea, because the belt, it will have soon more holes than of leather !
After Arles, the train was emptied somewhat. As one approached Lyon, the behavior more contained associated to the inhabitants of the capital of Gaules took the top gradually. If their disguise had not protected the commando from the curiosity of the other travellers, implicit association between the religion and the moral order preached by the Laval government had avoided with the commando the inappropriate curiosity of the representatives of the known as government, easily recognizable with their uniforms of definitely Germanic inspiration. In Lyon, the good fathers were awaited by a "envoy of vch", who made them cross without encumbers controls at the exit of the station of Perrache. But, rather than to take the direction of Fourvire as one could have expected it, the group passed behind the station, not far from theSaint-Paul prison, and entered a hotel where the ecclesiastics were not (in theory) at all in their place. The commando remained there until the small hours of the morning, the usual customers of the place not suspecting of his presence.
Monday March 15, in the morning, they were four militiamans, arrogant with possible and framing four menotts prisoners, who got into a coach of 1era classifies train bound for Bourg, Besancon, Montbeliard and Belfort. The Militiamans opened the door of a compartment with great kicks, and their glance is enough to make leave the travellers who were there. Satisfied, they settled with the four corners of the compartment, always framing their prisoners. The group went down to Montbeliard, where it went up to the back of a truck to gas generator marked "logging Sites of Doubs". The rare passers by supposed that they were four young people, escaped of one of these camps of obligatory work which flowered a little everywhere and brought back authority by individuals of which each one knew that it was to better avoid crossing their way. The truck took the road of Delle, to unload its loading with the Farm of the Large Size, close to Joncherey, in full forest, where a man vtu like a peasant of the place (and which, in fact, was one) specified the situation :
- Hello. I am called Pierre Martin (I never had imagination for the pseudonyms). It is me which am charged to lodge you, to assist you in your displacements and to provide you all which you need, to start with a knowledge a little more precise of the local situation than that which you can have to 1 500 km from here. First of all, we will change tous.les.jours place, or rather every night. You managed well up to now, and you did not draw the attention. But if you remain at the same place more than 24 hours, you will be located. You do not have the accent of the corner, you do not know the country, except the two Alsatian ones ; you are there to make your job, not to waste it !
- Entirely of agreement. I am Lieutenant Michel, and here my men : Louis, Jacques, Robert, Benoit, Francois, Joseph and Claude.
- Well, I will start with you to explain the general situation. We are to 6 km of the Swiss border, and about with the same distance from Alsace. The Swiss border is kept by the Germans, rather badly. Moreover, if there is which wants to smoke, that they do not obstruct, I offer the tobacco to them, it precisely comes from Switzerland... But no normal citizen would go to Switzerland, the Swiss ones would immediately bring back it to the border, preferably opposite a German station. For Alsace, it is almost similar. Unless having Ausweiss, you do not pass. And to have one of them, one needs a good reason. The best is the trade. Here how that occurs : in Alsace, the official currency is Reichsmark. The wages and the prices are in Reichsmark, and all is at least 50 % more expensive than here, their wages being aligned on the German wages, about the double as of ours. Combines is then to buy goods here, and to resell them with a good benefit on other side. But for that, it is necessary to be buddies with the members of the Party over there, who eat a good part of the benefit, but thanks to which you have all Ausweiss necessary. Good, that is also profitable only in 1941, because official plundering already very took, but it still goes for wood. Another solution : to pass where there is no road or from way. But attention, if you do not speak Alsatian, except in some French-speaking villages annexed by Bismarck in 1871 and that the man with a moustache included in his zone not to make less than his famous elder, you do not make long fire ! And once in Alsace, you are likely to fall quickly into a trench from the Large War. One remained four years at the time with canarder and to type itself above in the corner. You cannot imagine the number of deaths that there was. Of course, that was not Verdun, but nevertheless.
- If I remember well, the first dead of Fourteen was killed by here ?
- Yes, completely, the Peugeot corporal, with ten kilometers from where we are. The advantage of this situation, they is that the German soldiers do not venture in wood Alsatian side, of fear of jumping on one their own mines of the time. They remain prudently on the ways. Moreover, they are too numerous since the corporal who orders their army decided than it could do better than Napoleon against the Russians. Unfortunately, there are even more collaborationists over there than to help them here to make the police force, and it is them which are more to fear.
Your mission, now. The German convoy left this morning Strasbourg. Do not ask me how I know it, I will not say it to you. According to my advisors, it will leave Alsace only Friday 19, because it cannot advance well quickly. Ca leaves us time to refine the plans. But one will see that tomorrow, I will make you meet somebody who will undoubtedly be useful for you.
(According to Michel Fabre - Liberators of before the D-day - Paris, 1953)
March 16 before the paddle, the commando was awaked. Pierre Martin made them carry out, with foot, the Farm of the Small Size, from distance. Michel Fabre, if it were pleased with the precautions taken by their host, could not nevertheless prevent himself from thinking that it took his commando for amateurs. The opposite would have to be proven to him.
In the morning of the 16 at the farm of the Small Size a man of a good about sixty years arrived, which went of an alert step. Pierre Martin accomodated it with an unquestionable respect and presented it at the members of the commando :
- I introduce Mr Jules to you [ actually, Mr. Jouffroy, Civil engineer to the retirement ]. Mr Jules made the Large War as Captain of the Genious and swore himself to give his Legion of Honor only when the Germans are turned over on their premises, preferably while taking along the henchmen of Laval, because that will save us the cord to hang them. Mr Jules knows well the Channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, since it was charged to finish his enlarging in the years 1920. It is well that, Mr Jules ?
- Enlarging is a quite great word, my friend. It was simply a question of putting the locks at the Freycinet standard. And I occupied myself only of one very small sector.
- You are too modest, Mr Jules !
- Young people, if I included/understood well, you intend to block a German convoy in the Channel. And how do you hope to be caught there ? he with an air of teacher questioning says a fairly gifted pupil.
Fabre then explained the provisions under consideration in Algiers. "Mr Jules" shook the head, by moments assentor, moments dubitative :
- In theory, your plan is good. To make jump the locks at the two ends of the summit pond so that it is emptied and cut off the water supply, it is the guarantee to prevent any traffic during a good month. But you will have large difficulties if you apply it just as it is. I pass on the fact that all your intervention will be done in Alsace, Mr Martin undertaking this detail. The first problem that you will meet, it is that one of the locks of the summit pond is in fact the last of the staircase of Valdieu, that it is with 50 meters of Main road 19 and the bridge of railroad, and that at this place the Germans installed a large post office of Feldgendarmerie. Another problem, the cut of the water supply. You think of cutting the derivation of the Loose one, which one calls here the Drain, with the two ends. The idea is good, but the outlet of the Drain is very close to the lock of Feldgendarmes. It be found another thing should, more especially as, if the next weeks are rainy, Rigole or not Rigole, there will be enough water for the filling.
- And that do you propose ?
- Initially, to empty the summit pond, it is not necessary to open it at the two ends. One is enough... Then, suppose that the Germans lay out what to repair a lock. Effective as they are, in two hours they clogged the escape, and in a few days with very given from balance. But if you make jump four or five successive locks, while starting with furthest away from the summit pond, they will precipitate to close the channel at this place. Whereas they believe being drawn from business, you make jump the lock top as well as the intermediaries, and in more you flood and with a little chance you destroy the filling which they have just made thanks to the flood which flows.
- And if they have what to repair several locks ?
- That would astonish me extremely. Moreover, which will be urgent for them, it will be to seal the channel by coffer dams, not to replace the doors. And of the coffer dams, there is in Strasbourg, another in Montbeliard, and a third in Mulhouse. In building one on the spot would take too much time, especially if there are not precise dimensions.
- And for the water supply ?
- make jump the Drain if you want, but especially made jump the valves of the pond-tanks of Montreux. That should largely be enough.
- Say to me, Mr Jules, one would say that you lengthily thought of the problem ?
- Yes, young man, except whom I imagined that they would be saboteurs boches who would come to make jump my channel, and not of the French soldiers.
- There remains a problem, Mr Jules. We are not enough numerous to do all that you recommend to us.
- Let us go, young man. Mr Martin has rather many friends, who will be able to carry the explosives, and to even wait where it is necessary. Then, you are not obliged to be at side to see the fireworks, you are not any more of the kids. You have detonators which enable you to act up to 24 hours by advance. And in your place, I would prefer being possible further when that jumps.
But the plan of Mr. Jouffroy was not going either to be applicable just as it is. Indeed, into the evening, the bad news fell : the Germans were settling over the entire length of the Channel in French territory, between Brittany and Montbeliard, and the locks of the plan of Mr. Jouffroy, except for the three first, were all in this zone.
A new removal in the night of the 16 to the 17 carried out the commando to the Farm of the Banns, with less than one kilometer of the no-border with Alsace. The place could appear very exposed, but the Germans, if they concentrated on the channel, were not enough any more numerous to supervise the remainder, estimated Pierre Martin. About midday, the final plan was stopped : the night of Thursday 18 at Friday 19 would be devoted to the mining of the Drain of food, on the level of the derivation of Loose like at the other end, more close possible of its outlet on the channel. The whole was to jump during the night of Friday at Saturday, at the same time as the lock of the summit pond and the following one, as well as the valves of the pond-tanks feeding the channel. The afternoon, Michel Fabre and Pierre Martin were occupying itself of the details of the operation, and in particular of the route of unhooking towards Switzerland, when they were stopped by Pierre Bilger :
- My Lieutenant, Franois and me let us have a suggestion to make you. We are with two steps of Alsace, with less than 5 km of Valdieu. It would be damage not to benefit from it to make a recognition of the places.
- I had thought of it, and I was going to ask for volunteers.
- Eh well, you have of them already two ! If we know by where entering to Alsace and coming out from it, there will be no problem on other side. It is on our premises, after all !
At the night, four men left the Farm of the Banns : three "Nemo", Louis Martinez, the specialist in the locks (it was employed with the Channel of the South before the war), Pierre Bilger and Franois Sifert, accompanied by an individual to the paces of poacher which would make them enter to Alsace and them would wait the return, to accompany back them with the Farm of the Small Size, where the group would spend the day of the following day.
To enter to Alsace was not difficult, the few barbed wires which marked the limit in the forest having already obviously been crossed many and many times. The three men circumvented the village of Romagny first of all, under cover of the wood of Raichene first of all, then under that of Buchwald, which they crossed full North until falling on the Drain of the channel. They had then only to follow it until the accesses of the village of Valdieu, locating several places where it would be possible to cut it effectively the following day. The last 500 meters last being traversed with overdraft, through meadows, before finding the shelter of the vegetation which pushed along the channel. All was deserted, the silence of the night being disturbed only by the passage of goods trains on the line connecting Belfort in Mulhouse. The two Alsatian ones benefitted from the passage of a train to advance to the lock of Valdieu, but they could not go further : two Feldgendarmen assembled the guard on Main road 19. With the return, they noted that, on the other hand, the small building sheltering the valves of the Drain was without monitoring. The trio descended the channel then, passed in front of the first lock, then the second, dissimulated well by a curtain of trees. Louis Martinez asked to continue still a little, and soon the third lock was not further. But it remained inaccessible, because, 100 meters downstream, the noise of a troop to quartering was made hear. It was time to turn back, to locate the valves of the pond-tanks and, then, full is through wood, to find the guide which would bring back them to the Farm of the Small Size.
Thursday 18 was marked by several events for the commando. First of all, about midday, Pierre Martin came to teach them that the convoy of Kriegsmarine was stopped little after Mulhouse, following a technical hitch, but that repairs went good train. He thought however that it would never manage to reach Valdieu the evening of 19. There should thus logically be less Germans than envisaged around the objective, which was after all a good news. But, at the end of the afternoon, it returned : " I fear that we were not delighted too early, this midday. German soldiers are settling other side of Valdieu, in the staircase of locks. If they make the junction with their colleagues, it is foutu ! The only good news that I can bring to you, it is that the Germans do not have any more a material of replacement to repair the locks. They needed for it today. They undoubtedly will run all during the night to find some. I wish them good luck ! "
Obviously, Pierre Martin knew some more than what he wanted to say well...
With fallen the night, Lieutenant Fabre gathered his men for a last briefing :
- We will separate in two groups. The first, which will be carried out by the Martinez Chief, with Semnoz, Sifert and Morond, will mine the Drain at the places located at the time of the recognition of yesterday evening. They will be guided until the limit of Alsace by the same man as yesterday. You 20 kg of explosives each one, detonators with a delay of 24 hours, but the distance to be crossed, and the rather easy way, isn't this is not very long will carry, Sifert ?
- Completely, my Lieutenant. Ten kilometers approximately to suit it, on paths and roads forest, muddy, but less than usually at similar season.
- the second group will be occupied of the derivation of the Drain, in Friesen, in the country of Bilger. Even loading. There, it is longer. We will be accompanied until destination by this boy, the son of the guide of the first group.
- Yes, My Lieutenant. My father knows wood still better than me, but it cannot put the feet any more in Alsace currently.
- I do not want to know the reason of it, even if I suspect it a little... Return envisaged between 4 and 6 hours of the morning, with the Farm of the Banns, where we were yesterday. I remind to you that the meetings should be avoided at all costs. If you fall despite everything on somebody, only the Alsatian ones have to engage the dialogue. But that will undoubtedly mean the anticipated end of our mission. And of course, not of brawl with the Germans, even if some want of it !
All was known as. The two groups left in the night at a few minutes interval.
A question of detonators
After his/her brother had set out again to occupy himself of his customers, George Hartmann fell asleep deeply. It is only at two hours of the morning, 19, that it was awaked by Alphonse:
- Awakes, they finally left.
- What, already two hours of the morning? There will be never time...
- No concern, little brother. The explosives are already in place.
- How that, already in place?
- Yes, one did that Tuesday evening, with your colleague of Altkirch.
- You are insane, it was not especially to touch and be limited there to its role of messenger.
- I could not prevent some...
- Prevented? You speak, you rather pushed it, as I know you.
- Good, one goes there, yes or not? You have the detonators? "
They left the inn of the Stag (the sign carried in fact the denomination Zum Hirsch since 1895 and had never been francized, which had made say to the mother-in-law of Alphonse, in 1940 : "of saved As much, as one changes country regularly..."). Their objective, the tubular bridge of Wolfersdorf, was with less than two kilometers. This tubular bridge, in the prolongation of one of the locks of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, spanned the Loose one, that it overhung few meters. Of course, they did not take the road which connected Dannemarie to the village of Wolfersdorf, but circumvented the stage first of all, for then following the bed of Loose, encumbered barbed wires with the accesses of the tubular bridge. These barbed wires seemed insuperable with an observer being at the level of the channel, but they had been cut by Alphonse for a long time already, to leave an about practicable advance with which knew by where to pass. No soldier assembled the guard, neither on the lock, neither on the channel, nor on the close road. To set up the detonators took a little more time than envisaged, George having evil to rectify itself sufficiently to allow Alphonse, climbed on his back, to do it. Two of the arches of the bridge had been undermined, and George had checked well: the detonators carried all figure 2. The explosion was to thus occur two hours later, i.e. in the five hour old neighbourhoods of the morning.
Both turned over then to the Inn of the Stag. Alphonse fell asleep quietly near his wife, who had awaited it with concern. George, could not find the sleep to him, waiting feverishly until the deflagration occurs. The bell-tower of the church of Dannemarie sounded soon four hours, then five, then six... No abnormal noise disturbed the night. A little later Alphonse picked up, and found George turning in round in the kitchen:
- I did not understand anything, one missed our blow. All these efforts for nothing!
- It is not a drama, there will be other occasions...
- I do not know what could well occur, the explosives were too old, or the defective detonators. However, one put two per package of dynamite of them, to be surer.
- technique... Good, I must occupy myself of the inn, I smell that I will have other Feldgrau, today.
- In any case, I ask you not to go to see what could go of through. It would not be necessary that that jumps you to the figure when you test tripoter all that!
- H, I am not insane. One will await one week or two before giving the feet over there. And in your place, I would hurry to return, because if you are late at the hospital, I know of them one which will not be missed!
George thus took again his bicycle and pedalled at any speed to Mulhouse. In way, the road skirted several times the channel, and it guessed the silhouettes of the submarines in the first gleams of the day. After a short stop at his place to reassure his wife, to kiss her young person wire and to make a bit of toilet, it arrived at the hospital, where of course Graunitz awaited it:
- Ah, not too early. I learned that you had one day difficult, yesterday. Much work, hein? Then, you to put back, it today is again me which will make the examinations. You will fill the reports/ratios intended for the Inspection of the Health of Reich, it is less tiring.
It missed nothing any more but that. The administrative paperwork of III2nd Reich still exceeded in volume and complexity that of the French Republic, however precisely famous in this respect. It was going to have to pass long hours to specify the date, the hour, the circumstances, the number of the material employed, the duration of the examination, the age of the patient and ten of other information for all the radios passed in the service since the beginning of the year, the whole on old forms printed in Gothic... A good penpusher would have done that in little time, but the payment specified well "must be filled of the hand of a doctor".
The evening, while returning at his place, George Hartmann did not have really the moral one... While arriving, his wife tended to him without a word, the severe air, an object resembling a pen. George missed weakening, it was one of the detonators. He had taken of them one of too in his stock at the time to leave for Dannemarie. Before making it disappear in a public dustbin in the medium from peelings from potatoes, it took time to examine it .fond. At side of figure 2, quite visible, a figure 4, impossible was to guess without a powerful lighting. A hope was still allowed...
One full night for Nemo
The night of the 18 to 19 was to remain engraved in the memory of the members of the French commando.
"After having let the group of the Martinez chief take a little in advance, we moved in our turn towards the limit of Alsace. The progression in the forest was rather easy, even if our guide rather often made us earlier circumvent holes left by the explosion of German shells large gauge about thirty years, and in which the vegetation included its rights slowly. I could only admire the courage of those which had preceded us there, and which had had to undergo these shootings of 210. The impression to go in the steps of our elder was still reinforced when, with the turning of a clearing, we saw two steles, one with the memory of the victims of a French regiment, the other with those of a German regiment, placed coast at coast. The inscriptions which started to grow blurred were written in the two languages, and the two steles were flowered with modest bouquets of primulas.
At the end of approximately two hours, our young guide, which preceded us by a few tens of meters, returned thrown into a panic, at the point to address itself to us in his mother tongue under the blow of the emotion - but the Bilger Corporal translated immediately. Two Austrian customs officers, in company of the local forester, were a little further, with a crossing of ways. I believed initially in a treason, before reasoning me. If they wanted to tighten us a ambush, they would not be installed there, to evoke their memories of the other war, as our guide explained it. We had to make a broad turning, through a rather muddy zone of ponds which slows down our progression, weighed down that we were by our loading of explosives. The Tracol Corporal fell even into a hole dug by some animal, mackling the uniform of Alpine Hunter which it was so proud to carry again, like us all besides. General de Gaulle had indeed insisted that " the military actions carried out on the own territory by the men of the Special Forces [ make ], except absolute impossibility, under the uniform of our Armies"
Paradoxically, the installation of the explosives was done rather quickly, the derivation of the river by receiving the greatest part, the remainder being distributed in three other points. I looked at my watch then: three hours of the morning, exactly the hour envisaged. The return was easier. It is true that reduced, we advance definitely more quickly. It still a moment ago of concern, when a roe-deer dboula in the path with a few meters in front of us. We joined finally the Farm of the Banns towards 5 a.m. 30. The group of the Martinez Chief had been back for one hour. The Chief explained me quickly that they had not met anybody, and that they had not had any problem of route, left discrete marks day before by the Sifert Corporal, in the purest tradition scoute, having allowed to avoid the long hesitations with the crossroads of ways. They had chosen to await the selected sites the day before to pose their detonators, so that the explosions would take place the following day more close possible three hours of the morning. I congratulated it for this initiative, while reproaching him the risks taken. " (Michel Fabre, C$op cit.)
The night however was not finished yet for Nemo. It was still necessary to turn over to the Farm of the Small Size before the rising of the day, Pierre Martin having left orders in this direction during the night, estimating that the safety would not be ensured the Banns.
March 19 : a good day for Kriegsmarine
German side, the day of 19 was practically held without encumbers. Peter-Erich Cremer devotes only some lines besides to it: "the following day of the incident of the lock, it did not occur anything private individual, or almost. The men all were tired by the difficulties of the day before and, prudently, I ordered not to force rate. The evening, the head of the convoy was committed in the staircase of locks of Valdieu. but a group of four latecomers had remained enough far behind, towards Gommersdorf. Indeed, one of the tug boats had had problems of gas oil filter and escapes in the food while carburizing during a good part of the day, and the mechanics had been obstinated not to too a long time want to change all the circuit. Dieter Thunau proposed to me to establish patrols between Valdieu and the part of the channel kept by the regiment of Belfort, while specifying me the limits of the device, its soldiers being really far too inexperienced. I accepted with recognition. My only concern related to the two trucks of the Genius left to seek what to replace the material used the day before to repair the lock. The evening, they had still not returned. The lieutenant ordering the detachment of the Genius announced to me that they would be back in the morning of the following day, with explanations for their delay. After its remarkable work of the day before, I want not to annoy it. I remained and I deadened there about it on my narrow berth of the SR-1. " (EP Cremer, C$op. cit.)
French side, 19, after a few hours of rest, the Nemo commando began his preparations for the following night. Pierre Martin passed in strong gale in the afternoon, to declare that the German troops which had settled in Valdieu were in small number, and seemed little disciplined (for Germans, of course!). He returned at the beginning of evening to bring the last keys to the route of fold.
Two unlucky recruits
Little before 22h00, the Nemo commando left the Farm of the Small Size and moved towards a point located on the channel, between the first and the second lock after Valdieu, to 5 km of its starting place. Arrived on the spot towards 23h00, the commando was again divided into two groups, charged each one of the destruction of a lock, a valve of a pond-tank and, if there remained time, of a third work. The detonators were to be selected so that the whole of the explosions occurs towards 03h00, March 20. The limiting hour of fold was 01h00, with a return to the Farm of the Small Size for 02h00 and a departure in the tread.
"With my group, I moved immediately towards the downstream, in direction of Montreux. The second lock appeared soon. I sent Tracol to assemble the guard in front of the lock house, with the not very probable case where somebody would warn himself to leave, while with Dumont, we position our explosives at the level of the hinges of the doors.
We had hardly finished that Bilger beckoned to us to be put at the shelter, showing finger two silhouettes helmeted which approached. I made sign with the Dumont Sergeant, who included/understood very quickly what I wanted, even if it did not see yet the utility of it. The two German sentinels passed in front of us. Silencer like cats, applying the lessons of long days of drive, we leaped on them by behind and immobilized them before they do not have time to react. Their eyes showed much more fear than of aggressiveness, and we were struck by their extreme youth. Bilger, being addressed to them in their language, asked for their route of patrol to them ; they answered without difficulty. The rule of the Special Operations had been to eliminate them, but we had not covered for that our uniforms and Dumont, with an actually applied blow, was satisfied to send them to the country dreams, while commenting on : "They will be able to dream of the Valkyrie even longer than during an opera of Wagner" (the Sergeant was a machinist with the Opera of Marseilles in the civil one).
I ordered then in Bilger and Tracol to cap the German helmets, to put their rifles at the strap and to open to us walk in direction of the third lock. This lock worried me since the day when "Mr Jules" had exposed us his plans. It had insisted: "Make jump the first and the second lock after Valdieu, but the third is at least also important for a durable success" When we approached some, Bilger indicated that the noises of troop were much marked than the two days before. I hoped that the routine started to take the step on vigilance German side. I as sent my two Verdigrises of occasion close as possible of the limit of enemy quartering, beyond the lock, asking them to stop openly to lengthily smoke a cigarette once in the vicinity, before returning towards the lock. While they drew the attention thus, I used half of the remaining explosives to sabotage the third lock. My two pseudo sentinels having returned, we set out again to occupy ourselves of the valve of one of the two pond-tanks, before taking the way of the point of appointment for the return to the Farm of the Small Size. In way, I made throw the two helmets and both Mauser in the channel. It was not the day of the trophies...
The group of the Martinez Chief returned twenty minutes later. They had also seen German soldiers patrolling, but other bank. The Chief slipped to me quickly that they had had time to undermine a third site, in the occurrence the small building sheltering the valve of the Drain. Definitely, they wanted some with this unhappy river. A blow of?il to the watch, it was midnight and half. All the commando immediately took the direction of the Farm of the Small Size, while following the same way as to the outward journey. " (Michel Fabre, C$op cit.)
March 20 : Blue night in Alsace
Sleeping deeply in spite of the little of comfort of his berth, Peter-Erich Cremer was brutally awaked not very front 03h00 and precipitated on the bridge of the SR-1.
"the doubt was not allowed, it was well an explosion which had awaked me. Time to reach the bridge of my tug boat, several other explosions occurred, towards the south-south-east. As the channel did not pass by there, I did not worry too much. Was this a bombardment ? I asked to the Master Mller mechanic, of quarter on the bridge, if it had heard a noise of plane little before the explosions. But the only one that it heard was that of a flying equipment slowly towards the west, at one hour of the morning, all lit fires, as besides the previous days - I supposed that it acted of a plane of Luftwaffe to the drive, and asked me with what rimaient these explosions.
I was still plunged in my reflexions when gleams appeared this time in the south-western direction, followed a few seconds later of new detonations. This time, it was well in the direction of the channel! Everyone was awaked now, and theradio one which accompanied us stopped with height of my boat in a great squeaking of brakes. I went up on board with some men and, the howling engine, we precipitated towards the supposed place of the last explosions while following the tow path. In the passing of Main road 19, we embarked Feldwebel of Feldgendarmerie, which also wondered what could occur well. We did not take a long time to include/understand. The doors of the first lock met were dislocated, water running out with large bubbles in the level downstream. We continued to the following lock, which was in the same state.
I asked the radio operator operator to come into contact with the regiment of infantry of Belfort, near. I have first of all to copiously insult the sergeant who answered the radio operator call, by explaining to him that it was necessary for an officer initially to me and that one rglerait the problem of the different hierarchies then. Then, I spoke to a lieutenant : " you do not worry, says me it, those which did that will not go far, the road towards Switzerland is locked. " That did not bring any comfort to me. If I did not manage to quickly stop the water run-off of the channel, I was going to be wedged there and for a long time. I immediately thought of the men of the Genious, who had made wonders two days before, before me of remembering that they had not replaced their material of replacement yet. I was undoubtedly taken with the trap. I ordered with the truck to make half-turn, and to join my boats. Little before Valdieu, a small building jumped in front of us, the explosion digging a large hole in the tow path. It is with foot that it was necessary to return and, if I did not manage to save my mission, it was undoubtedly as with foot as I would finish my military career, as infantryman of second class. Admiralty would certainly not forgive me such a failure "
When the explosions resounded, their authors were not yet well far...
" We spent much less than one hour to reach the Farm of the Small Size, and, after us to be disencumbered of our uniforms and a part of our equipment, we left full south, in direction of the Swiss border, with a dozen kilometers to flight of bird. The optimists thought that we would be safe from the other side around four hours of the morning... The man with the paces of poacher was used to us as guide. We had just crossed secondary road 13, between Suarce and Vellescot, when we heard explosions in the distance. That did nothing but increase our optimism. But we were not going to delay with dchanter. With leaving the Large Wood, we saw the headlights of an intense circulation on the trunk road 463, which had imperatively to be crossed to join Switzerland, and we spent only a few seconds to understand that Wehrmacht occupied the road axis! Our guide then made us make half-turn and set out again towards the North-East, far from our safety. With my questions about this change of direction, it answered only by evasive gestures. At the end of half an hour of uncertainty, with the turning of a wood, we recognized the truck of the Logging Sites of Doubs, which had brought us station of Montbeliard. Pierre Martin was held at side. As usual, it was short: "Boches block the road which goes from Delle to Basle. Impossible to pass. Return to the Farm of the Large Size, and one cushy job. " the Bilger Corporal drew me by the sleeve: "My Lieutenant, we are a few kilometres from my village. Seams towards the east, let us enter to Alsace, then prick towards the South, I ensure you that we will arrive to Switzerland. That would astonish me that the German stopping is prolonged Alsatian side " To remain dissimulated here as of the criminals did not say anything which are worth, and I to me put not a long time to accept the proposal of Bilger. Pierre Martin had only one comment: "I accompany you" Pierre Bilger taking the place gradually by guide as we approach Alsace, our guide with the paces of poacher left us little before the border. We had to avoid only one patrol of some men at the time of the crossing of a North-South road, and arrived at the Swiss border little before the rising of the day. Nobody had dared to complain about tiredness, in spite of the many hours of walk which we had from now on behind us. Triple encloses barbed wires which marked the border did not stop us a long time, the grips forming part of our equipment. We were inserted few hundreds of meters in Swiss territory, before I do not order a pause.
For half an hour of rest, also devoted to restore us somewhat, it was necessary to take again our road. The Corporal Bilger and Pierre Martin had passed not badly from time to discuss the best route to reach the town of Porrentruy, where we were to travel by the train, and they were obviously not agreement. We set out again nevertheless, rate slowing down as we advance, and the pauses were done increasingly many and longer. At one time, the noise of a nourished shooting threw us (almost) all to ground, starting bursts of laughter on behalf of Pierre Martin : "you do not worry ! Each Saturday morning, the Swiss ones are with the shooting range to make the paperboards required within the framework of their twenty years of military obligations. Nothing to fear " We arrived at the neighbourhoods of Porrentruy while having carefully avoided any meeting. Pierre Martin only went to recognize the way and returned at the end of five minutes, a great smile with the lips, accompanied by another man: "Comrades, I congratulate you. You exceeded the objectives of the plan! "
- How, exceeded ?
- the Germans are blocked in the Channel. There is no more water in the levels which follow Valdieu, and they cannot even make half-turn, the tubular bridge beside Dannemarie is with half ploughed up. Do not ask me why, I do not know anything of it. I leave you between the hands of Philippe Pierret, who will accompany you in Porrentruy. You deserved a beer in a Swiss coffee well. Goodbye comrades, the victory is close!
Before taking again the way of Porrentruy, I congratulated myself my men, and more particularly Pierre Bilger, ensuring it that it could count as of our return on its let us galons of sergeant, because, by its initiatives and its knowledge of the ground, it had contributed beyond waitings with the success of our mission "
Katastrophe !
German side, as the morning advanced, the situation was specified.
"Around 11 hours of the morning, we had an about complete vision from what had occurred in the night. The channel was dry on several kilometers, the enemy had made jump three locks, the valves of the basins feeding the water channel, like seven or eight points on the small river which fed also the channel, including to the junction with the channel and the point of derivation of the Loose one. The channel was also cut Alsatian side, towards Dannemarie, where the tubular bridge overhanging the Loose one was seriously damaged, the water of the corresponding level being poured in the Loose one by the breaches, putting at dryness a tug boat and two submarines which were there. The cause of the collapse of the tubular bridge was still unspecified. According to Dieter Thunau, this attack could not be the?uvre terrorists, all was too well coordinated : "Only a unit of well involved soldiers could make a success of this blow, twelve to twenty men, undoubtedly. "
My only consolations was the fact that this attack had not made victims on our side (if one excluded two soldiers of Thunau found in the early morning tied up like sausages and terrified), that none of my boats had been touched, because they were not in the attacked zone, and that the men of the Genious had returned, even if the means of which they laid out were ridiculous in front of the task to achieve so that we can set out again. Not having anything of to better do while waiting for that oils arrive from Strasbourg and moreover further to perhaps shoot me, I let the sergeant of the Genious tell himself what explained their delay : "After having given all our material on the trucks Thursday at the end of the afternoon, we went to Mulhouse, the deposit of the service of Navigation. There was an insane evil to find it, it was necessary to take several times the way, and I believe that the Alsatian young imps who answered us us voluntarily indicated false directions. One nevertheless ended up arriving there, and one gave the good of requisition which one had used in Strasbourg with the chief of the deposit. It answered us that our good was not valid any more, the material which appeared having been delivered us in it in Strasbourg. It would not make any difficulty to give us what was necessary for us, but it needed a valid good, signed by a senior officer of our unit and by the director of the service of Navigation in Strasbourg, the whole contresigned by the services of Gauleiter, always in Strasbourg, the payment. It proposed to us to use his telephone to make prepare the paperwork by our unit, but there was nothing to make to join the barracks. The telephone lady explained us that there were only few lines between the civil network and the military network, and that they were always occupied at the beginning of evening. We were good to go to Strasbourg, 30 km/h, our trucks not going more quickly. The next morning, one quickly made obtain the signature of Major Kalt, but the director of Navigation was untraceable. He was so-called party to inspect a building site on the channel towards Saverne, but it is only at the end of the afternoon that he showed himself, at the wheel of beautiful Hotchkiss of which he had inherited when its French predecessor had been returned to Paris, at the beginning of 1941, and in company of a woman (quite pretty also, the woman, I wonder whether he recovered it at the same time as the car). One returned to Mulhouse to 9 hours of the evening and the night watchman of the deposit said to us that one had awaited us up to 8 a.m., and that it would be necessary to have patience until the following day 7 hours so that there is again enough world to charge our bazaar. For this reason we arrive only now. "
Still an oil of the Party which obtained a sinecure, thought I. In my daily report/ratio with the Admiral Doenitz, who had returned to Paris, I hardly showed myself optimistic on the continuation of the transfer "
On the Swiss side
The members of the commando, by two or three, traversed about midday the streets of Porrentruy, when Pierre Bilger advanced towards the coffee With the Falcon, while exclaiming: "We will celebrate my promotion, it is here that there is best beer of the corner! " the new guide, Philippe Pierret, had only time to retain it in him blowing : "Not, especially not in it! " It is with the Swiss Coffee, with two steps of the precedent, which they settled. Pierret made a discrete sign of head to a character whose civil costume did not manage to mask the military maintenance completely. It acted of the Captain Froidevaux, person in charge for Swiss military SR for the sectors of Porrentruy and Delmont.
Much later, in 1994, secret soldier obliges, at the time of a conference held in Lausanne on the topic "With the service of neutrality - the Information Swiss of 1940 to 1944", Colonel Froidevaux, then old of more than 80 years, evoked its activities of the time thus :
"My missions were multiple: to collect information on what occurred on other side of the border, to identify the dies of information of the Allies, to prevent the German spies from infiltrating, and to discreetly help the very rare French and even rarer Alsaciens which sought to cross Switzerland to join Algeria. For the first part, I will be able to speak to you about it only in fifty years [ laughter in the room ], this aspect being always covered by the secrecy.
With regard to the dies of information of the Allies, I will be able to say some to you more. There were several networks on other side of the border. One of them was primarily made up of active trade unionists in transport, especially the railroad, but also navigation, on a vast sector going from Besancon in Strasbourg. It transmitted its information to the French diplomatic representation in Bern, finally the part on the side of fighting France, not that which paraded on behalf of the Laval government and whose our government had diplomatically accepted the installation. Another network, which was in connection with the English, was active in the Alsatian medical environment. It is insane what the German soldiers could tell with a doctor, even civil.
The German spies and the French who sought to cross the border had a common point: they needed a frontier runner which knew the places well, because if they had crossed the border all alone, our guards would have intercepted them without difficulty and bring back, neutrality obliges, in front of a German station. The frontier runners were not very numerous. I arranged myself (in a way that I will not detail) to gain their confidence and agreed with them of an extremely simple stratagem: if it acted potential spies or doubtful individuals, they would stop in Porrentruy with the Coffee of the Falcon, where one of my men was permanently. If they were French or Alsatian patriots, the stop would be done with the Swiss Coffee. The individuals consuming with the Falcon were discreetly stopped and interned, to be generally returned to Germany following the pressures of Reich, the frontier runner which had brought them remaining our host then, for obvious reasons of safety. I never included/understood besides why the Germans sought to infiltrate spies by this way there, since they made return which they wanted by the terminal of the railway line allemande in Basle. If were to check that we respect our neutrality strictly and that our border was quite tight, they had for their money, very rare being those which managed to pass by the meshs of my net! For the French who sought to continue the combat, our neutrality forced to us to return them on their premises, but did we it much more in the south, on the side of Monthey, before Martigny, from where they turned over to France while passing by the mountain, monitoring of Savoy by the Italians being much easier to mislead than that of the Germans on the remainder of the country. But their number did not exceed a few tens, at least on my sector, in 1941 and 1942, because the way to arrive to Algeria or in Morocco was still long and perilous then, and one was needed crowned courage to undertake it at the beginning of Alsace. It is only after the unloading in Provence and in Languedoc that the number of young people seeking to join the French Army increased appreciably.
This routine was hustled only rare times. It was the case on March 20, 1943. In the morning, one knew that something of unusual had occurred. The most varied rumours circulated, the ones speaking about an air raid to about fifteen kilometers on other side of the border, the others of an attack of parachutists against German boats circulating on the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine. I settled with the Swiss Coffee as of 8 hours of the morning and waited. About midday, a group of eight people, led by a frontier runner whom I knew well, entered the establishment. They did not resemble fugitive usual, and, in spite of their obvious tiredness, they gave the impression of a homogeneous group and even soldier. Without the knowledge, I had in front of the eyes the authors of the destruction of the installations of the channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, which was going to block for a long time German submarines near our territory. They drank a beer, which did not have the quality of that of pre-war period, because of the restrictions that all the Confederation underwent, then set out again. Their guide left behind him a bit of paper carrying the words "French Commando, regular army". It did not act of my usual game, and I regretted not having under the hand a civil servant of the Foreign Affairs ! I followed them by far to the station, where they jumped at the last second in an express train which left me under the nose. All that I pus to make was to require of the employee who controlled the access to the quay which was the destination registered on their tickets : it was Bern. I telephoned over there by making a statement on the situation. But my colleagues of Bern could only note that the group had evaporated before arriving at destination. I at all the stations of the course, but which would I could obviously have telephoned have sent ? Gendarmerie ? They were not all the same eight men who were going to invade Switzerland... "
In fact, Nemo had changed train with Bienne and had continued their way until Nyon. With fallen the night, a man carrying the uniform of the Federal Railroads made them leave the station of Nyon discreetly and cross the city. A new excursion awaited them, in a ground more broken than the day before. To little close at the same hour, the radio operator transmitter of the network Lion of Iron, dissimulated with the farm of the Large Meadows, near the village of Blmont, came into contact with England, the connection with Algiers not passing. The transmitted message was short: "Nemo Operation succeeded, cut channel, immobilized submarines. Second cut of the channel with Dannemarie, causes unknown, repeats unknown. Intact last commando in Switzerland." Information was quickly retransmitted in Algiers.
On his side, the commando was to return to France. The choice of Nyon as starting point for that was not ideal, the most discrete ways passing by the mountain, with more than 1 000 m of uneven swallowing, which, even for alpine hunters, was not negligible, especially when snow covered the escarps grounds. But there was no guy of the country to propose another route. The group thus left to the attack the Jura by a rather sloping forest track which emerged in Combe of Faoug, where was a farm and a barn, deserted in this season. One or two kilometers further, their guide beckoned to them to oblique on the left, towards Small Sonnailley, where a lamp flickered slightly. From there, the commando still had to advance to the farm of the Plundering one, where it could finally blow.
The following day March 21, whereas the few cows of the farm had already been put at contribution to scramble the traces of the passage of the commando in snow, Michel Fabre wrote his report/ratio, which would be transmitted in Algiers the following night.
In the night of the 21 to the 22, walk began again until Rasses, Moussires. The men of the commando were going to remain a week there, passing a good part of their days to go to cut trees in the forests neighbouring, the noise of their axes and knocked being involved in that with the tools with truths loggers which worked in the vicinity. The Morond Corporal was not more enthusiastic in this labour - the smile of Lucie Grosjean, met with the Farm of the Small Size, came more often than in its turn to distract it in its task.
Sunday March 21 : Wehrmacht takes stock
George Hartmann arrived at his station at the hospital of Mulhouse as of eight hours of the morning the 21, although it was one Sunday. He was indeed of guard to the service of Radiology one Sunday out of two, in alternation with Graunitz which, when it was its turn, quietly ensured its guard its residence, close to its telephone, that it was recommended not not to solicit too much... Hartmann did not doubt that his/her brother would find the occasion to speak to him about the events of the day before, about which it had intended to speak. But Wehrmacht had buckled all the sector between Dannemarie and Valdieu, and his/her brother was blocked at his place. He was not going to miss work, with this surge of soldiers who would not fail to stop in his inn...
But the German Army had concerns much more important than its supply beer. The Tscherning General who ordered from Strasbourg the 405E Division, was awaited on the spot, in company of a colonel of the Genious and those ordering the regiments of infantry of Mulhouse and Belfort. Luftwaffe would be also of the festival. More worrying for the civil population, the assistant of Gauleiter Wagner was also announced, with in his wake the chief of Gestapo in Alsace.
"When I heard the list of those which were going to come to realize of the situation, I believed well that my destiny was definitively sealed. However, I had not made any error. If Heer had done what I asked, never a commando could not have attacked the installations of the Channel. These Messrs arrived in the morning, and decided that a conference would be taken place in the afternoon, at 3 p.m., the town hall of Dannemarie, requisitioned for the occasion, and where I was requested to wait.
A 14. 30, Kbelwagen stopped while skidding in front of the town hall. I have the surprise to see of it killing the Admiral Doenitz, that I hastened to greet. It addressed a great smile to me : "Peter-Erich, I know that you do not have anything to reproach you. You at one afternoon of heavy weather wait, but I am sure until they are the land ones which will set out again with the sea sickness." I spent the few minutes remaining before the beginning of the conference to provide him all the details on what had occurred.
In spite of the arrival of the Admiral, I did not carry out any broad when the Tscherning General opened the conference. Some civil was present, of which my old knowledge the inspector of navigation, undoubtedly intended for very roughing-hew as me.
For once - I think that the presence of the Admiral was not foreign with this situation - one did not start by designating the culprits before judging the defendants. In spite of the insistence of the representatives of Gauleiter and Gestapo, one initially coldly examined the consequences of the situation. The first point approached was that of the repairing of the Channel.
The colonel of the Genious explained that the repair of the locks would take at more the one week, time to manufacture the doors and to repair the concrete of the hoppers. All the material necessary was available, it was not what was going to pose problem. The repair of the valves of the storing reservoirs out of water would earthy a little longer. Dug at various times, these basins did not have standardized valves ; it would take at least two weeks to rebuild them. There too, there was no badly masonry to envisage. Once the valves given in state, the basins could again accumulate water, intended to fill the channel. What worried more the colonel was the drain of supply, cut off in several places. They are not so much work themselves which posed a problem, but the environment in which they were going to be done, truff of not exploded shells of the preceding war, and of German shells in addition. The mine clearance had never been finished, for lack of means. Enormous precautions were thus going to be necessary, and one would need at least five or six weeks before the drain is again in service. The other damage, like the holes in the collapse or tow path partial of the banks at some places of the channel, consecutive with the surge of water, was less awkward.
Questioned on the case of the tubular bridge, the colonel passed the word to civil, in fact the inspector of navigation. This one stated us that one of the arches of the tubular bridge was broken, another severely fissured. The origin of this situation was not obvious. An explosion was not to exclude, although it had no obvious trace of it there. The neighbors had certainly heard a deaf noise, but from there with speaking about explosion... According to him, the most probable cause was an already old permissive waste (ah, this French administration !), worsened by the repeated passage of our tug boats : the movements caused by the propellers had finished weakening the structure. Nobody disputed this judgement.
It is only after the war, when I revive Paul Kuntz, that I known that the inspector had played us a beautiful comedy this day. As soon as it had known that the tubular bridge had been damaged, it had precipitated on the spot, hustling Feldgendarmen which kept trimmings by asserting its quality. A fast examination had revealed three cartridges of dynamite to him and a detonator which exceeded debris, and it had hastened to make them disappear. It was then given the responsability to go "to question" the neighbors, in particular the lockkeeper, whom it knew well, to teach them the lesson that they would have to recite! I will have liked to meet it at this time, but Paul Kuntz explained me that it was prematurely deceased, in 1947 : he had never recovered from the ill treatments which he had undergone with the concentration camp of Struthof, where he had finished the war, victim of a denunciation.
The thesis of the unfortunate accident accepted once, it proved that the provisional repair of the tubular bridge would not be, it as, as a business of a few weeks. We could take again our road in May... in theory. Indeed, the colonel of the Genious explained us that it would not be possible that once the channel entirely given out of water, and that that would depend above all on the sky or, more exactly, of the water which would fall from there. One of representatives of Luftwaffe, lieutenant weather with base of hunters of night of Freiburg in Brisgau, explained us that on average, the quantity of water which fell between March and May on the area would be largely sufficient, more especially as with the outlet of Belfort Gap, the place where we are received at least 50 % of rainwater moreover than the town of Mulhouse, located to 25 km from there.
Luftwaffe having the word, one came from there to examine the risk of an air attack, my boats forming a target which seemed to me perfect. It is another officer of the base of hunters of night, old of the dive bombing, where it had acquired the rank of major, who answered. He explained us why a channel, especially of small gauge like the French channels, was a target extremely difficult to reach for bombers flying to high or average altitude. Only an attack at very low altitude had reasonable chances of success, but for that it was necessary to be able to have fighter-bombers with long operating range, and the distance to be crossed from Corsica or England was well too long for this kind of planes. Nevertheless, to counter any possibility, it advised the installation of batteries of Flak of 20 mm on all the zone where our buildings were. The Tscherning General asked then who was going to provide the guns. In front of the disconcerted air of the majority of its interlocutors, it explained why its division of instruction had only some of them, that its artillery regiment had been affected with another division, and that there was not that two solutions to find the quantity of weapons necessary: either to rake all the means of the zone of defense (Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Metz...), or to dismantle the surrounding aerodromes of Luftwaffe their guns. The officers of Luftwaffe became pale, until the Tscherning General proposed that the decision was made by the OKH.
One came from there then to terrestrial protection from our boats. The Tscherning General proposed that the transfer of the 5E regiment of infantry of Mulhouse towards the Russian face is differed until our own departure - it was at least the request which it would make with the OKH. The OKH ratified this proposal the following day Monday, and in addition ordered the provision of all the average mobiles of Flak light of the zone of defense for our protection, including a part of those depend on Luftwaffe. Obviously, the Admiral Doenitz had prepared the ground in high place.
Finally the hour had just designated the persons in charge for the fiasco. Doenitz spoke in first, pointing out all my requests and my suggestions, and the little of eagerness of Heer to follow them. The colonel of Mulhouse answered that it had placed the Thunau Captain at my disposal in spite of orders asking him to separate from any man within the framework of the transfer of his regiment on the face of the East, since even the recruits of fresh date were to take part in the preparation of the transfer, without however leaving themselves. As for colonel de Belfort, he retorted that the attack had not occurred on the territory which was of its responsibility. After this preamble, the reproaches fused of everywhere. That its regiment did not succeed in intercepting the authors of sabotage was reproached to colonel de Belfort, that the Navy was not able to find fusiliers to ensure his own safety was thrown to us to the figure, and the discussion turned in round until the Tscherning General puts an end to it. He agreed to recognize that Heer had not ensured its mission satisfactorily, but each one was to admit that the origin of this failure came above all from the lack of means available for protection from Reich, all the units fighting beyond the borders.
After their initial intervention, the delegate of Gauleiter and the individual of Gestapo had not opened the nozzle any more, which did not forecast certainly anything good, the more so as the conclusion, which did not dispatch anybody with the firing squad, nor even in first line on the Russian face, had seemed to displease to them supremely.
After having discussed various items of detail, the meeting was completed around 8 p.m.. I cordially thanked the Admiral Doenitz for his intervention and proposed to him to go to drink glass in a close inn, with the sign decorated with a splendid head of stag, but it declined my invitation. It assure me that I remained in load of the operation, before setting out again. Contrary to that of the stag of the inn, my head had thus not been cut! I turned over on the SR-1 to inform my men of the events of the day "
Sunday March 21 at Tuesday March 23 : in track for the second turn...
The news of the success of Nemo arrived to Algiers in the night of Saturday at Sunday. A message was immediately sent in Ajaccio, with the local command of the Air Force. It was laconic : " Launching of Nemo- II as soon as possible, target V".
But what was thus Nemo- II ? Its origin comes from the taste of the staffs for the solutions of replacement. When, in January 1943, the decision had been made proud with the special Forces and Resistance to stop the German submarines, the French staff gave to Nemo only one chance out of three to succeed. In the event of failure, it was necessary to have a solution of help. The idea of an air raid of the channel came rather naturally, more especially as the target was theoretically with the range of planes based in Corsica, or from apparatuses of the Royal Air Force. One did not have a long time to slice this particular point, a not signed note, but to the inimitable style, specifying " It belongs to France and it to only carry the first blow to the enemy in a province which he believed to tear off for the second time at the Fatherland. "
Initially, Nemo- II was regarded only as the repetition of Nemo by other means : even goal (to prevent the submarines from passing) and even place (Valdieu). Its execution was considered only in the event of failure of Nemo.
But this approach did not resist the examination a long time. Indeed, in the event of failure of Nemo, time that information comes to Algiers and that the operation is launched, the submarines would be already quietly 30 or 50 km further. To bombard a place where they would not be any more did not have a direction... A second site thus had to be found where a cut of the channel could be effective, by putting except service several sufficiently brought closer locks. Several places were considered, before to be eliminated the ones after the others. One too was close to Valdieu (Montbeliard), others in a too boxed section and too sinuous of Doubs, another the base of hunters of night of Luftwaffe with Tavaux was neighbourly... There remained finally nothing any more but the outlet of the channel in the Saone with Saint-Jean-of-Losne, where it was possible to destroy three locks like some others in the Saone, with relatively little distance.
When this site was accepted for Nemo- II, a young officer polytechnician struck the face and exclaimed :" We prepare for the failure of Nemo, but if Nemo succeeds ? Why, in this case, we would not bombard the submarines, which will be more or less gathered where they will be blocked ? If we act sufficiently quickly and at low altitude, we will have a good luck of success, Wehrmacht not having certainly the means of bringing DCA in quantity of the day to the following day. " Initially extremely skeptic and still traumatized by the terrible losses undergone from May to July 1940 by Brguet 693 in" shaving bombardment ", the staff ends up accepting the idea, when the Information assure it (relative) light weakness of the means in Flak of Wehrmacht in Alsace and in the south of Germany, excluded aerodromes.
Nemo- II thus became an operation doubles, with two distinct objectives, known choice of the target being able only approximately two days before the D-day. The mission was going to be delicate and could be entrusted only to very tested crews, that the Air Force hesitated more and more to engage in dangerous operations. The choice was made on the 31E Escadre of Bombardment, equipped with B-25 Mitchell and placed under the orders of the Lieutenant-colonel Henri de Rancourt. When the broad outline of the operation was presented to him, mid-January 1943, this one measured immediately which difficulties awaited it :
- Well. How you ask me is daring, which is not to displease to me, but that will not be simple ! First of all, the place of the attack. It is in extreme cases extreme of the range of our bombers. Then, moment of the attack : if it is in full day or the evening, the Germans will see us passing and send all their hunting to our cases, if it is not in addition occupied. If it is at the small day, the navigation of night above the Alps will be very difficult and we will have right to the hunting, duly alerted, on the way of the return - but of course, they will be tedious only for us and not for the success of the operation. Lastly, methods of the attack : the bombs will have to be released at very low altitude, under enemy fire, even if you guarantee the absence of Flak to me. And, I was going almost to forget : the secrecy will have to be maintained ! There are too many ears in Algiers and in Corsica so that I would be sure that none is German or pledged with what remains fascistic Italians. However, there must be solutions with these four problems. I foresee some of them.
- We did not expect any less, was to you the answer. You and your men have two months to be ready !
These two months were very occupied.
Conscious of the limits of its means of remote recognition, the Air Force first of all asked the RAF to ensure for its account a certain number of photographic missions, in particular in the sectors of Valdieu and Midsummer's Day de Losne, while making pass openly its Mosquito PR above the marshalling yard of DijonPerrigny and the Schneider factories of Creusot, objectives much more probable for a bombardment. The passages above Creusot were noticed by the Germans, who wondered whether they only acted to check the damage produced by the bombardment of October 1942 or if the English were going to renew this attack.
The engineering departments of the Air Force, for their part, had to quickly transform about thirty B-25D to increase their operating range of about 15 %. Their ventral turret (moreover not very practical to use) was removed, its opening sealed by sheet aluminium, and the supports of the turret were used to install an additional reserve car-sealing of approximately 160 gallons, to use at the beginning of mission. Lead ingots were installed judiciously so that centering remains within the acceptable limits, with or without bombs. As for the total mass on takeoff, it would exceed slightly what was written in the handbook, but confidence in the products of North- American as large as was justified.
The hour of the attack was fixed at the whole beginning of morning, ideally little after the rising of the sun. The probable date was specified more and more : it would be in the neighbourhoods of March 20. Henri de Rancourt hoped that it would be rather afterwards that front, because if the Moon were full the 21, it lay down before the rising of the Sun before this date, which would be a large handicap for the navigation of night.
The drive with the navigation and the night flight was of course intensive. It often took place of day, by darkening the cockpit of the bombers with blue panels in perspex, a little like those used in the studios of cinema for the night scenes in "American night". These panels, the use was proposed by a mechanic who had worked with the studios of Victorine before war, last being ordered in England. The supplier carried out the order promptly, hardly surprised that it is the second in a few days, the preceding one coming from the Royal Air Force. The person in charge for the manufacture, which had made the other war, thinks only that at its time, the Armies did not seek to compete with Hollywood.
The procedures of navigation were established with the assistance of the Lieutenant commander Paul Comet, of Naval Aeronautics. This former pioneer of Air-mail had ensured navigation at the time the raids on Berlin of June 1940. Very schematically, navigation was based on predetermined courses, corrected with regular intervals by astronomical observations, the location on the ground being very random above the Alps, especially of night and with the top of snow-covered grounds. With the approach of the day, the Mount Blanc, recognizable by far, would be used as additional bench mark. The bomber force would be divided into three groups of nine planes, following slightly different roads, that of the first group being longest, to join the point of regrouping on convergent axes. Each group would fly at a different altitude to reduce the collision risks. It was necessary of course to take again the drive with astronomical navigation, inevitably useless in the missions of day and at relatively short distance carried out previously.
But there was also the drive with the bombardment itself. It would be necessary, so that the mission is regarded as succeeded, to place approximately two thirds of the bombs released in a broad channel of less than 20 meters, over a length of approximately two kilometers. An equivalent surface was delimited on one of the long beaches located at the south of Bastia, on which were materialized of the "railways" barred by "bridges" (with the sites of the locks), the target announced to the crews being " a railway line strategic some share in occupied France ". It was excluded that each plane releases its bombs independently, a good coordination being essential so that the whole of the zone concerned of the channel is reached. The dropping would thus be done with the orders of the first bomber of the file. The cumbersome Norden sight, badly adapted to a bombardment below 300 m, was replaced by do-it-yourself house, which gave any satisfaction during the drive to the altitude finally selected of 200 meter-ground. Particular procedures were envisaged if the zone to be attacked would be shorter, as in St-Jean de Losne, or if, by miracle, the Germans had gathered their submarines. The bombs of 500 kg would be equipped with rockets with 3 minutes delayed-action to prevent that the planes are not destroyed by the explosion of a bomb released in front of them by another. There still, it was necessary to develop special procedures so that the possible latecomers can despite everything take part in the bombardment.
A last point, and not of least, remained to be regulated. It was not very probable that the group is worried by enemy hunting at the time of its way outward journey : the hunting of German night was not regarded as a serious threat, because of the weakness of its manpower in the south of France and the insufficiencies of the network German radar on the Mediterranean coast (more close to the target, the question was different, but one would be in full day - in any event, the route, to go it as to the return, would carefully avoid the zones covered by the unfavourable radars). On the other hand, one did not have to count on the absence of German hunting for the return. Since the resumption of Corsica, Luftwaffe had strongly increased its presence in the South of France, basing Me-109G and FW-190 with Cuers, Mandelieu, Aix-the-Miles and Orange. A general attack of the aerodromes concerned was prepared, at the theoretical hour of the return of the planes of Nemo- II. German hunting should be well opposed to this "Large Circus" and it was hoped that it would be too occupied to obstruct the return of the apparatuses of Nemo- II. Last and delicate attention : the GC II/5, famous Lafayette, would be sent to possible north to more escort B-25 on the way of the return.
As soon as the message starting Nemo- II receipt, the detailed orders were prepared then sent to the units concerned. The attack of the aerodromes took some time for its release, because it implied the engagement of American formations beside the Frenchwomen. For this reason, the hour H was fixed at 06h15 GMT, Tuesday March 23, that is to say 48 hours later.
As of Sunday morning, the aviators of the 27 apparatuses of the 312nd EB taking part in the operation were gathered under a vast tent bordering the track of the aerodrome of Calvi for a first briefing by their commander, Lt- Collar. of Rancourt. Romain Gary, who took part in Nemo- II as a bomber-machine gunner, told in the Promise of the Paddle the operation such as it remembered to have lived it.
" the Colonel explained the broad outline of the raid. He started by revealing the objective, which caused reactions of surprised and disappointment in the assistance. Oh, it was not the target itself which was at the origin of our attitude, but much more the fact that nobody had guessed it in the many bets which had been made since the beginning of our drive ! Everyone suspected well that the objective was not that which one wanted to do to us to believe. Some had even thought of a channel - but nobody imagined that it would be there, in annexed Alsace. The rumours released cunningly by the command made us believe in a target in the North of Germany, in the den even of the ogre, after a removal of the squadron in England : a track of aerodrome, a channel of access to a port, or even precisely a channel, like that connecting Dortmund to Ems. The first moment of surprised last, a certain relief was done day : we escaped from the British kitchen !
The Colonel explained us the reasons of our mission and his importance, before insisting on the risks taken by the Special Resistance and Forces us "to prepare the ground". He then briefly described the schedule and the route of the mission, which would proceed at the first hours of Tuesday 23. Takeoff of night, crossing from the coast in Nice, overflight of the Alps, arrived on the objective half an hour after the rising of the sun, then return about by the same way. The precise route would be communicated to the navigators in the afternoon, at the time of the specific briefings to each speciality (pilots, bombers, navigators). As soon as I heard the word Nice, I thought of my mother - I was persuaded that it would awake with the noise of the planes and would be with her window to shout in the night with her neighbor that it was his/her son who carried out the planes of France to the meeting of the enemy, to demolish it as my distances ancestors had demolishes the Teutoniques Knights in Marienburg. While I thought of it, I did not hear what the Colonel said on the bombardment itself, but that did not have importance, I will know of it well enough the afternoon.
The assistant of the Colonel specified us then the particular dangers of our mission :
- At the beginning, there are few risks. Nice is halfway German radar tracking stations of Saint-Raphal and San Remo. Time that they awake the hunting of night with Istres, you will be far. On the other hand, a little DCA is not to exclude.
Then, above the Alps, the greatest danger, it is the relief. It is up to the navigators to permanently determine their position, work their was facilitated, they will see that this afternoon. Altitudes selected at least leave 500 m of safety margin if you follow your road correctly. If you are lost, take immediately a northern full course by climbing gas .fond to 4 500 m, remade the point and join your route. If the weather is maintained, only low clouds should present in the valleys and be fixed on the slopes on a north-eastern sector. We will tomorrow evening re-examine that with last information.
Except big problem of navigation, you will escape from the German radars located around the valley from the Rhone. Around the objective, it is the station of Saint-Louis which is more to fear. There is no hunting of day in the vicinity, but it is not impossible only Luftwaffe launches to your cases to the return of the hunters of night of Luxeuil or Tavaux.
On the spot, undoubtedly not of Flak (there was a rumour incrdule). We will have the confirmation of it tomorrow afternoon.
The largest risk will be the hunting based in the low valley of the Rhone or on the Riviera on your return. But a good part of the Air Force and USAAF will try to occupy it, and the guy of Lafayette will be there to serve nannies to you !
The afternoon, I have right to my briefing of speciality. Route of approach, detailed chart, reference mark on the ground, procedure of bombardment however lengthily repeated with the drive, man?uvres urgently, armament of the bombs, delayed-action, all passed there. The business had been obviously prepared with a great meticulousness. One was far from the Air Force of May 1940 ! The evening, I asked Daniel Tisseur [ navigator of B-25 of Romain Gary, whose pilot was A. Lauger and the copilot Frederic Richard ] of the details on the route. It answered me that they had been able to approach only the part above the Alps to the outward journey and the return, the remainder being seen only the following day Monday. Moreover, if I did not have anything of to better do (briefing of the bombers being finished), I could accompany it. "
Monday March 22 : initially the carrot
As of the morning, inhabitants of a triangle Altkirch-Valdieu-Seppois discovered posters struck of the eagle and swastika, placarded on the all public spot and carrying this inscription: "Alsatian, of the traitors in Reich, helped by English henchmen of the juivery and Bolchevism, loosely attacked the Channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, resulting in the death of tens of innocent belonging to your people. A reward of 10 000 RM is offered to whoever will make it possible to put the hand on these criminals (...)
Signed: Robert Wagner, Gauleiter "
Hitler, which still sought to spare the Alsatian ones, had convinced his/her companion of the putsch missed of 1923 using initially of carrot. Wagner, persuaded that nothing would leave this attempt, was going to spend the week to prepare the stick, that it was promised painful for its victims.
In the Territory of Belfort, the militia started to excavate all the houses, farms and barns located near the channel. But its members were interested much by the prospect for plunderings and various exactions that by research for the traces for the passage for a commando. The farm of the Small Size was set fire to by a group whose member was recognized by Lucie Grosjean, who had fled with her parents in wood neighbouring. The accounts would be regulated two years later.
Monday March 22 : a demonstration of the "wood wonder"
In 9 hours of the morning, on the basis of Benson, near Oxford, the S/L Frank Fray climbed in the cockpit of Mosquito of Squadron 540. The F/L James "Jack" Miller, native of Adelaide, in Australia, which would be its navigator for this mission, was already in the glazed nose of the apparatus. It was only the third operation on Mosquito for the S/L Fray, much more accustomed in Spitfire for the achievement of the reconnaissance missions entrusted to will squadrons created starting from the famous PRU.
- It is the first time that I make a mission on behalf of Royal Navy on an objective located at 500 miles of the sea nearest! Miller commented on.
- And me thus ! When I knew that one was going to work for Navy, I expected to go fouiner on the side of the Norwegian fjords or the French ports of the Atlantic. But a channel on the side of Alsace !
- I have only one explanation. The Germans found the means of making like salmons : they build small fresh water boats and make them grow then out of salted water. Blow, rather than of having to destroy them one by one in the ocean, one sends to us to seek the nursery so that To bend it Command can demolish it.
- Guard your imagination for the impressionable WAAF ! We of the route occupy rather.
The F/L Miller was however not very far away from the truth.
Whereas they flew over Belgium at an altitude of 25 000 feet, Jack Miller pointed out to Frank Fray which a layer of stratus was returning any observation of the impossible ground : " It will be necessary that one passes below to readjust navigation, unless one does not decide to go to Stuttgart" Mosquito thus went down gradually until towards 10 000 feet through the clouds, to allow Miller to note that they had derived until above Metz, whereas the initial flight plan envisaged the overflight of Luxembourg. After having taken a new course towards Colmar, where the trajectory would be again inflected, Fray went up above the stratus, the silhouette of its plane cutting out on the bottom of the clouds being well too visible for an observer on the ground. Little before emerging from the vapour cloud, the two men saw through the last veils of stratus two hunters single-engined aircrafts which were 3 000 feet above them and steered obviously the same course. Frank Fray replongea somewhat in the thickness of the strati and slipped in Jack Miller, while smiling behind her oxygen mask : "We will see whether publicity did not lie us..." It pushed the throttle levers .fond, and when the airspeed indicator approached the mark of the 370 mph, passed by again frankly above the clouds. The two German hunters, of Bf-109G, were now with more one thousand behind them. They immediately transfer right Mosquito in front of and plunged to catch up with it. Vain hope... In spite of a passage in overpower, leaving a black smoke in their wake of both Messerschmitt, they did not manage to be placed in position of shooting. Worse, the variation increases, the airspeed indicator of the English exceeding the 400 mph briskly when Fray put it in light piqu. The "wonder drink some" (wooden wonder) from Havilland was with the height of its reputation. Both 109G ended up giving up and obliqued towards north before disappearing. Miller jack threw a blow of?il to the gauges with fuel, to check that this sprint had not compromised their return. Reassured, it took again its navigation.
The Rhine was from now on definitely visible under the wings of Mosquito. It was necessary to be now extremely precise, the layer of clouds obliging the crew to take his photographs with less than 10 000 feet, where the cameras covered a field much smaller than with the altitude initially envisaged of 20 000 feet. Mosquito flew over soon Mulhouse, then followed the railway towards Altkirch and Belfort, by maintaining it on its left. Arrived at the height of the viaduct of railroad of Dannemarie, easily recognizable, Frank Fray made a variation on the line before starting a turn on the left which brought it in the axis of the channel of the Rhone to the Rhine. Miller jack started the cameras and, a few minutes later, Mosquito took again altitude to turn over to the fold to 25 000 feet. It was posed in time for a a little late lunch, not at its starting base, but in Ajaccio, where it was awaited impatiently.
The photographs were developed as of the landing of Mosquito. Taken at an altitude relatively relatively low, they showed the sections of the dry channel clearly, as well as the site where each tug boat and each submarine were immobilized. But they also showed the presence of several trucks of Wehrmacht. A pulling of these photographs left the evening even in the DC-3 which ensured the connection between Ajaccio, Algiers then London by Gibraltar.
The overflight of the channel was not unperceived past for Peter Cremer, but as the reinforcements were on the way, it did not worry any in addition to measurement :
" Monday, the Genius began its repairs immediately, with the material which it had under the hand. But for the large one of work, it should call upon civil companies of the corner. In the morning, a reconnaissance aircraft, undoubtedly English, passed at high speed above us. A bombardment in the next days was not thus to exclude, in accordance with my fears. From the very start of the morning, the first elements of the 5E Rgiment of Infantry of Mulhouse arrived and gave an opinion along the channel, installing their tents at some distance of the bank. At the beginning of evening, a truck of Luftwaffe, brought artillerists of Flak light and men of the transmissions of Freiburg. The arrival of the guns was planned for the following day. They worked a good part of the night to establish telephone links with the control of Flak and the radar of Saint-Louis, which covered the south of Alsace. I thought of this moment that we would leave ourselves there quickly and without leaving feathers there, not being convinced yet that the gods of the War had changed camp. "
Monday March 22 : on the eve of battle for the aviators
( the hours are GMT for the French, MEZ (GMT + 2) for the Germans)
Monday with Calvi, preparation of Nemo- II continued actively. The mechanics checked for the third time the planes, while the navigators attended their second briefing, accompanied by certain copilots and bombers, of which Romain Gary :
" It was the commander Paul Ibos, navigator of the squadron, which spoke. It started by taking again the procedures of astral navigation and recalled how to be useful itself of the tables which had been especially prepared, with which, starting from the observations of the hour and of three stars, the position could be given in a few moments, practically without calculations. Then, it came from there to the part of the route which had not been approached yet. After having waited until a soldier distributed the envelopes containing the documents corresponding to each navigator, it took again the word (I unfortunately very did not retain) :
- Yesterday, we remained about it with the height of Bellegarde, in the west of Geneva. For there, it will be necessary to follow the Swiss border to avoid the radars of Lons-the-Salt maker and Besancon. Then, he says by more drawing the curtain which partially masked the chart posted in the table, direction Switzerland, for a regrouping above the Lake Bienne, where the leader will make a loop 10 km in diameter (6 minutes), before spinning full north towards Alsace.
In the room, struck stupor in front of this unexpected hook of many exclamations of surprise fused :
- But what will it occur if the Swiss ones locate us ?
- border with the Lake Bienne, 5 minutes. Lake in Alsace, 5 other minutes, in descent up to 1 500 m. We will fly over Switzerland only one fifteen minutes. As an absolute radio operator silence will have been maintained, there is little chance that they located us, in spite of the quality of their services of listening. I remind to you that they have neither radars nor drives out of night. It is on the other hand possible that they put the base of Payerne in alarm, but as they are almost flown over every night by the Royal Air Force which leaves or returns to bombard the North of Italy, the risk remains limited.
- And why the Lake Bienne ? asked a pilot.
- Because it is easy to recognize, the day being rising. If you miss it and that you arrive on that of Neuchtel or Morat, the error is easy to identify and to go from the one to the other is very simple.
We envisaged a second point of regrouping, for those which would be late, above Alsace, between Altkirch and Mulhouse, to 500 m of altitude. We will undoubtedly be located by the radar of Saint-Louis. New loop 10 km in diameter, exit of the loop to the top of Altkirch to 500 m, i.e. to 200 meter-ground approximately, attention. From there, control with the bomber, as the drive. The photographs to identify Altkirch are in the envelope.
- And the radar of Saint-Louis ?
- They initially will believe that one moves on Mulhouse, to bombard the station or the factory of engines. When they see the loop, they will believe that it is the factory Peugeot de Sochaux which is aimed, or I do not know what of other. Perhaps they will think of the channel, but will be we then with less than 3 minutes.
They was courageous, like approach ! Moreover, all this history was inflated. It was undoubtedly going y to have questions the evening, when the Colonel would make the synthesis last once.
In the afternoon, a plane of connection deposited two paperboards of documents, which were immediately brought to the tent of the staff. Half an hour later, last briefing. The Colonel spoke, by showing a photograph projected on a screen :
- Here last information. The photographs go back to this morning. The portion of the channel of 2 km where the attack is envisaged contained 21 submarines and 11 tug boats. It is always out of water, contrary to those which follow and which precedes. Our target is thus easy to identify, it is presented exactly as envisaged. As you see it, Wehrmacht is bringing troops in reinforcement, but Flak had not arrived yet this morning. You with shootings of light weapons wait nevertheless.
As you suspect it, I will lead the attack personally. Imperative radio operator silence to the Lake Bienne. I will be alone to have the right to break it, and in English. For the bombardment, I will give the signal by radio. Do not forget to release your smoke-producing with your bombs, for the latecomers who would try an isolated bombardment. Absolute prohibition to approach with less than one kilometer the smoke-producing ones as long as they are visible, even if you see bombs exploding. If you try an isolated bombardment, you with the submarines with dryness attack a little upstream, but will be with you to manage the approach. Thus a council, made the impossible one to join !
After the bombardment, avoid at all costs the factory Peugeot de Sochaux and its fixed DCA. If there are breakage, turn on the left immediate and destination Switzerland, with less than three minutes of flight, with with the key a stay in complete pension in the mountain pastures until the end of the war! On the other hand, if all is well, avoid the Confederation, because we will have awaked it half an hour earlier and that its hunters will be surely upset.
The weather is in conformity so that I said to you day before yesterday. On the objective, undoubtedly of the clouds whose base will be with 3 approximately 000 meters. Nothing to obstruct us. Above the Alps, possibility of clouds fixed on the slopes, moderate wind of south-west.
Well, rising with 02h30 for a takeoff with 04h00. No the question ? "
Questions, there was too much well of it so that they are posed, and everyone went to lie down for one night which would be neither of China nor even of Corsica, but well of war. "
Tuesday March 23 : Nemo strikes always twice
( the hours are GMT for the French, MEZ (GMT + 2) for the Germans)
Romain Gary :
" to raise It was difficult, but, little before joining our planes, a good news circulated : Flak had still not arrived. Resistance continued to follow the operation, which was of good forecasts. Our apparatus was number two of the first level and we took off 30 seconds after the Colonel. I calculated the moment when we would cross the coast to be able to greet my mother, but this calculation appeared useless, because the moonlight was largely sufficient to see the littoral. For us, the overflight of the Alps was made without any problem, but that was not the case for everyone, since a plane had to make half-turn because of problems of engine and that another was mislaid. "
The two unlucky persons listed by Romain Gary (another apparatus was mislaid) formed part of the third group. The Depape Candidate was a copilot of the first of them :
" We took off heavily and crossed the Mediterranean without problem. We had crossed the coast at an altitude of approximately 9 000 feet since good fifteen minutes and we were ridden to ten thousand, in accordance with the flight plan, when the operation of the left engine became rough. I passed it on car-rich person, nothing did not change, even thing on full rich person. Moreover, the oil pressure became fluctuating and the sparks left the exhaust. There was not an other choice only to immediately turn off this engine, before the oil pressure does not fall too low to put the propeller in flag. Michel [ the pilot ] passed the right engine to the maximum power continues we weighed together on the swing bar to maintain the airliner, the loss of the left engine being worse than that of the right from this point of view. Having asked the bomber to make sure that the bombs were not armed yet (they were to be to it only one fifteen minutes before the bombardment), Michel ordered to release them, which reduced our rate of fall without us to entirely prevent from going down. The plane was inserted rather appreciably, in spite of the exit partial of the shutters as envisaged by the procedures.
Jacques [ the navigator ] sought a route to leave us from there, the summit of the close mountains approaching more and more. He made us take a north-western course and we passed to a few tens of meters of a flattened top (which we later identified like that of Large Solane), before finding us above the valley of Ubaye, that Jacques made us follow. Thanks to the dropping of a part of the fuel, our altitude had been stabilized, but obviously the right engine did not give all its power. I curse in myself the Curtiss company- Wright, but that did not change large-thing. We led to the valley of the Durance, but it was out of question of following it until the end, bus, its outlet, the German bases of Crau awaited us. I started to have a cramp in the right calf, although the compensator was regulated to the maximum. And not question of using the autopilot in this environment of mountains. And here is that the temperature of the right engine increased ! It had to be reduced a little so that it is stabilized, but of course, our altitude recovered to decrease slowly. There was not an other solution only to reduce still more the plane, by throwing over edge all that could be it. We were with a little more than 1 300 m of altitude.
We still turned on the left, to try to join the Mediterranean towards Saint-Raphal, over there, Luftwaffe had a radar. What were they going to decide ? Does Flak or drive out of night ? The part fell on the side Flak and of the sheaves of tracer rose right in front of us. Impossible to circumvent with our plane become single-engined aircraft, we returned all the head in the shoulders, which apparently was enough us not to be touched, one could not have all the bad lucks. After, the return to Calvi is to pass as in a dream. After the landing, our mechanic was afflicted, because it was the first time in twenty missions which it saw us returning prematurely. The diagnosis was established quickly : a valve had been swallowed and it had ended up damaging a piston and its cylinder. But we had returned healthy and safe, which was not the case of all this day. "
This testimony, as those which follow (apart from the quotations of Peter-Erich Cremer, Romain Gary and Jean-Pierre Leparc), was collected for the French bombardment, 1940-1944, special number of the review Icare (1975). Two of the three bombs of 500 kg released by the plane of Depape were found by a hunter in 1948, but it waited until the date of the opening passed well before going to declare its discovery with the gendarmerie... The third is always buried some share.
The destiny of the stray apparatus was known with precision only after the war, when its navigator, the SLt Roche, returned from captivity :
" We were the last plane of the last group, and all went well on board until the passage of the coast. At this time, our B-25 was violently shaken by a very close explosion, and I was projected against the wall of the fuselage, where I struck myself. When I begun again my spirits, the copilot was leaning on me. I asked him what had occurred. He answered me that a shell large gauge had exploded in the vicinity, but that apparently there was no damage, besides some instruments, of which the gyroscopic compass and the artificial horizon, which did not function any more. I asked him how long I had remained unconscious : "a large score of minutes, but you seemed to awake you meanwhile several times. You are sure that that goes, now ? " I begun again my station and started to take stock. The plane flew on a magnetic course 350, in conformity with the flight plan. I started to make my astronomical observations, but I have evil to concentrate me, my head making me awfully badly. At the end of five minutes, I had come from there to end. Time to defer them on the chart and, horror, we were at least 80 km in the west of the road envisaged. It was not possible, I had had to mislead me some share. I begun again my observations, checked by twice, but the result was still worse : we moved away still more to the west, having practically joined the valley of the Rhone towards Montlimar. I called the pilot bythe intercom to make him share of the situation. It asked me to give him a course to bring back for us on the road envisaged. I answered him "40" and I begun again my calculations. In spite of a violent one headache, I quickly understood that the main magnetic compass deviated of at least 40 degrees towards the west. I think that a large piece of scrap coming from the explosion from the shell from DCA had had to come to place itself very close to him, in the tail of the apparatus. I asked the pilot to take a course posted 70, to give us more to the east, and to control the direction by pointing a flashlight on the small compass placed above the dashboard, unutilised of night nonenlightened bus. The plane had hardly finished changing course when I smelled more than I did not hear an enormous torn metal noise, then found me without knowing how ejected plane. At the end of a few interminable seconds, I drew by reflex on the handle from opening from my parachute, which of deployed without difficulty. Suspended in the air, I looked around me. What was to remain of my plane, on fire, was falling quickly, and I observed, fascinated, the fuselage to be crushed downwards. Provided that my comrades could escape, I thought one moment, before running up against the ground rather brutally, which struck me again. I awoke after the rising of the day, in an orchard of pchers. I heard barkings of tracker dogs at short distance, and, before I can hide, two Feldgendarmes threw me without care in a van and took along me to the aerodrome of Valence, a few kilometres from there. I recognized, on the track, some black twin-engines Me-110 roughcast antenna. I understood that we had been victims of the hunting of German night.
In the evening, the officer ordering the detachment pleasantly came to take my news. The conversation was done in English, whom it controlled better than me :
- I am sorry, none of your comrades did not survive. Their body was found in the wreck of your plane, which was crushed close to Grane. They will be buried tomorrow and the 4/NJG4 will return the military honours to them. Will you be ours ?
- Of course. I smell myself better now. I will give you their names so that they are registered on their tomb.
- Very well. You have an unpleasant wound and the doctor feared a fracture of the skull, but you other French have the hard head. How you say already, the wood head, it is well that ?
- Euh... Yes. It is you who...
- Yes, it is me. Towards the end of the night, before 06h30, I was in alarm and I took off following the detection of your plane by the radar of Aubenas. I initially turned around Montlimar to 2000 Mr. Then, the controller of Avignon directed me towards you. My machine gunner had you in the sight of our Schrge Musik[ 1 ] when you turned first once. Time to find you while following the instructions of control, you had made a second turn. But the third attempt was the maid, afflicted !
- other planes that ours were cut down ?
- For last night, not, you are only in the sector of the valley of the Rhone. The radar of Aubenas detected another plane, but it was in limit of range. In the course of the day, there was not badly brawl of it, but here, in Valence, we were practically not concerned.
Indeed, alarm had often resounded on the aerodrome, while I neat then was questioned in the morning, but, if planes had actually flown over the ground, none had released bombs. The following day, I attended the funeral of my comrades, and was dispatched the evening even for the Stalag Luft I, where I remained until the end of the war in spite of several escape bids. "
For B-25 of Romain Gary, the flight had continued without encumbers :
" approximately One hour after having crossed the coast, Tisseur transmitted a general message : "Mount Blanc to 40 km, full is". Indeed, the mountain was detached with the moonlight on a still black sky, offering a superb spectacle. From there, my attention redoubled. I knew that we were going to pass near Geneva, from which left the letters my mother which took so a long time to come to me. But I in vain open wide the eyes, I did not see any the lights of Switzerland. With the return, once that it was restored, Tisseur recalled me that if I had not dreamed during the briefing, I would have known that Switzerland was obliged by the Germans to respect the blackout since November 1940.
We flew over the Jura, Tisseur assure us that it did not collect any German emission radar. At one moment, whereas the paddle bleached the East, we put course at the east, to find us above the Lake Bienne, the rays of the raising sun reflecting itself on our wings. I have any evil to see the plane of the Colonel, a few kilometers further, starting to make its circle. When it had finished, 17 planes were aligned behind him, we were number two. We took as envisaged the direction of France. At the end of a few minutes, Daniel announced to us that the emissions of a radar started to be perceptible. We went down immediately, but the signal returned a few minutes later. "
In the German station of radar Bastard, in Saint-Louis, in a few kilometers of the Rhine and Swiss border, the night had been particularly calm and monotonous. No English raid in the area, nothing on the chemical factories surroundings Mannheim, calms flat. It is only around 7 hours of the morning that the teleprinter crpita to announce the passage of the Mediterranean coast by " about thirty planes towards an unknown destination, undoubtedly the Lyons area. " the sergeant Franz Studer, who was of service with his colleague Hans Bumler, awaited the end of their vacation, when the events precipitated :
" I had more and more evil to fight against the sleep, the night spent to concentrate on a screen where nothing appeared, with share echoes of the hills and the mountains, having been particularly painful. But suddenly, an indistinct beep appeared above the Swiss territory, just in the south of the border of Reich in Alsace. When the antenna was turned again in this direction, it had disappeared, but to reappear a few minutes later, definitely more Net. That could correspond only to one force of several planes, at least ten ! I asked Hans to call Hauptmann Pilger, which arrived while running, blown as usual. Its plumpness had made it call "Hermann", but contrary to its model, it was respected for its competence. Indeed, it did not hesitate a moment :
- I do not know what it is, but they move right on Mulhouse. Call the center of control of Flak, possible bombardment on Mulhouse, deadline estimated 10 minutes. That should be enough to launch alarm.
- What is there like target, over there ?
- It is seen well that you never left your native Saxony, Studer ! In more of the marshalling yard, there are at least a railway factory of material and another of armament, and...
- Look at, Herr Hauptmann : it would be said that they turn towards the east.
- Yes ! Then their targets could be well the power station of Kembs and the cement factory ofIstein. Bamler, make pass alarm. What ? the telephone does not work !
- If, Herr Hauptmann, they spent only time to take down, with the other end...
- They continue their turn, this time, they turn over towards the south.
- Then, they are the Swiss ones in man?uvre which left on their premises and which return. But they realized there too late. Violation of the border of Reich, even attacks air. Their account is good ! Reichsmarshall will rub the hands, since time that it awaited that to press them more...
- If I then to allow me, Herr Hauptmann, they set out again towards the west and there, they maintain their course.
- They hope to give us the tournis. Haha !
- They continue towards the west...
- Towards the west... Himmel ! the submarines which are wedged in the channel. Call them immediately, you checked the line yesterday evening, at least ?
- Of course , Herr Hauptmann.
- And call the battery of Montbeliard, of the times that the Peugeot factory would be aimed. I undertake to warn the colleagues of Luxeuil, as well as the center of control of hunting.
The day was announced more agitated than the night. "
In Valdieu, alarm arrived at the provisional station of Luftwaffe, and a siren was immediately put to howl. P.E. Cremer felt that the things were going badly to occur :
" It was approximately eight hours and half morning. I was preparing with the Genius the operations of the day, when the din of a siren installed the day before by the men of Luftwaffe stopped us brutally. A corporal started to run in my direction : "Air raid warning, Herr Offizier, they are with less than two minutes !" My men, who knew what they had to make, left all the houses or the boats where they were, and are reflected with the shelter further possible. The infantry had time to put out of battery some machine-guns, hardly dissimulated by the trucks. At this point in time the planes appeared. They took the channel in row, the sun crushes in their back, following to approximately 100 m the ones of the others, and flying low, certainly with less than 200 Mr. C' was American twin-engines B-25, but they carried French rosettes. There was only them to be enough insane to come to attack us in this lost corner ! They released their bombs at the same time practically all, the majority of them falling into the channel. But, oddly, no explosion occurred. Only the smoke-producing ones had functioned. I put only a few seconds to include/understand. The bombs were equipped with rockets with delayed-action. I shouted of all my forces "Drive the camp before that jumps !" and I gave the example, slipping by to all legs without me to turn over. I think that all my world was at good distance when the bombs exploded. " (EP Cremer, op.cit)
In B-25, the tension was with its roof :
" When we had crossed the border and before the Colonel did not begin his second loop, I crawled to the bomb bay to remove the safety measures. The rockets would start at the time of the dropping. We were joined by three additional planes at the beginning of the loop, then by three others in the last seconds. It would not miss any finally that three for the attack, which better than was hoped by the Colonel, who counted as well as possible on a score of planes on the target. That was going to be to me to carry iron in the side of the ogre !
We flew over for the second time the small town of Altkirch, this time while arriving by the east. At the time of the first overflight, I had had time to take my reference marks. I opened the doors of the bomb bay. We were descended to approximately 200 m from the ground... Alternatively, I followed eyes the plane of the Colonel, then I observed the ground through our sight of fortune, while directing the plane with the orders of the autopilot, the Lauger Captain undertaking to keep a constant altitude and to avoid any collision. The Colonel brought us pile in the axis of the Channel, and I have any evil to maintain our apparatus there. At the end of 15 seconds, I heard "Go !" in my ear-phones and I released the bombs by cleaning me "released Bombs !" - I had done my work. The copilot, Richard, announced to have seen the starting flames of some machine-guns, but no ball had struck our plane. Weaver, which was well placed to see what occurred behind us, says to us that one or the other apparatus released a little smoke, but it very quickly had replonger in its charts so that we can replace of the Colonel at any moment in order to guide the group in the event of problem of the leader. Hardest remained to be made, the return to the house. At the end of a few minutes, the radio, that Tisseur had left on the frequency inter-planes, became animated. It was the twenty-fifth apparatus, arrived all alone above the objective, which howled : " Cheer the guy ! Your bombs exploded, it is a carnage ! " It released its bombs a little with the small happiness and ran afterwards us. But soon, the news was done worse : two planes announced that they had been damaged - even of the weapons of small gauge could make damage. " (Romain Gary, the Promise of the Paddle)
If the radar of Saint-Louis lost the echo of the formation quickly whereas it moved away towards the west, it was from now on with range of the radar of Luxeuil. And, if Saint-Louis were distant from any base of hunters, it was not the same of Luxeuil, where a formation of hunters of night stationed. Although the day is raised, its commander did not hesitate to make take off four apparatuses with the cases of the French bombers when it was informed by Bastard, cash over the close radar to as bring them close as possible enemy formation. Afterwards, it would be necessary to be satisfied with the eyes. Slowed down by their antennas radar, its were likely Me-110G4 to have evil to make a success of the interception of the first bombers, reduced after their attack, but it knew by experiment that there were always carriages... The operator radar saw that the formation of bombers set out again towards the south while being stretched. The controller then directed Me-110 towards the last of the file, and soon the echoes were about to merge, with the limit of its screen.
Nicolas Copel controlled one of the apparatuses touched by the German machine-guns :
" At the time of the attack, we were about in the medium of the formation. Little after the "Go !" from the Colonel, we received several balls of machine-gun struck us. One toila nose in perspex of the plane, missing the bomber only by a few centimetres. The plane flew normally and we took again a little altitude, but soon the water pressure fell. Nothing irremediable, until my copilot starts to tap the fuel gauge of the left principal tank : the level was definitely lower than that of right-hand side and dropped at sight of?il. A ball in piping, according to any probability. We looked at ourselves and we said " Switzerland at the same time !" I informed the Colonel, who asked me to slow down to allow another apparatus to join us. Indeed, one of the engines of our companion in misfortune released a thick black smoke. We took both a course south-south-east, to join the Confederation as fast as possible. The bomber, which had gone to occupy the higher turret, launched alarm : several planes followed us, a little higher, but still rather far. With the damaged plane, we tried to prick to take speed, but the ground was not well far and the four planes were always with our cases when the navigator launched : " We are in Switzerland ! " a wave of relief crossed us. But our four prosecutors were always behind us ! They had even approached. It was of Messerschmitt 110 hunters of night. They released several gusts, but we managed to transfer better than them and to escape after a fashion from their attacks, because they wasted an insane time to go back on line. In fact, they went more quickly than us only because owing to the fact that our impromptu winger limped low (it smoked more and more), but one could not give up it. However, this small play could not last a long time without breakage. Moreover, in theory, one could not counteract, we were in neutral territory !
At this point in time we found ourselves above the Lake Bienne, and that our prosecutors were made cap by a struck half-dozen of Morane 406 of the Swiss cross. The sight of these machines replongs us of a blow in a past which seemed to us very remote ! In some shells of reprimand, they made include/understand with everyone that rcr was finished and that it was necessary to be posed in Payerne, on the edges of the Neuchtel Lake. The Germans had to be posed the first, then other B-25, whose single engine, overworked, did not hold any more but by miracle, then us of last, after having had to descend the train with the device from help. The Swiss Troops of Aviation had just grown rich by six new planes, even if two were good for the workshop !
On the ground, environment was tended, and the explanations were hot. The Germans, first of all, required to set out again immediately, or else their ambassador would complain officially, more especially as the Swiss ones had formally been committed never not opening fire on German planes flying over their territory. The Swiss ones spoke about serious violation of their neutrality and of their airspace by belligerents without scruple and all threatened us, German as a French, of the prison...
We were then separate, before learning from the mouth of Swiss pilots rather content with them that what we had taken for of Morane 406 was in fact of D-3801 - planes made in Switzerland, on the basis of MS-406 certainly, but with Hispano a Swiss engine developing more than 300 truths additional horses and an improved aerodynamics ; they could exceed the 540 km/h, what to largely hold head with Me-110 hunting of night. When we asked our hosts, by thanking them for their intervention, by which fortunate coincidence a patrol of their planes was there just at point, they answered us, with their trailing accent : " You laugh ! It is with you that the question would have to be raised ! " Nobody not being easily deceived, the subject went further.
Thereafter, after rough negotiations to know if we must be regarded as "internees" or "escaped prisoners", we were led in a hotel of German-speaking Switzerland, close to Adelboden, where other allied aviators were already. We are "escaped prisoners" a few months later without problem, when it is enough for us to pass by again the border to find us in released France, our hosts not being undoubtedly dissatisfied to see us leaving after having visited their country in all the directions !
We knew that the Germans were turned over on their premises, with their planes, except for the one of them, which would have taken fire "for an unknown reason", undoubtedly at the time of its very attentive examination by the Swiss ones. Switzerland swore us that the casings of the shells that they had drawn had been found (the Swiss ones are ordered) and had been sent by the post office to ReichsLuftfahrtMinisterium in Berlin, with an invoice for "expenses of cleaning of federal property" (the Swiss ones like cleanliness). I am unaware of if it were regulated by the recipient. "
Except these two apparatuses, no other was touched with the top of the objective. They were thus 23 B-25 which took the road of the return, on a route very close to that taken at the outward journey, but this time without voluntary incursion in Swiss territory. The Lieutenant-colonel of Rancourt started to slacken, more especially as an escort of Mustang II was to deal with them " between Grenoble and Digne " and that German hunting had, at this hour, extremely to make in addition, because of the massive attack whose its bases were the object. While waiting, no signal radar was detected, the stations of Gray and Besancon being now far behind.
It was true that the center of control of Luftwaffe for the south of France, installed with the castle of Nerthe, in full vineyard of Chateauneuf-of-Pope, did not know any more where to give head this morning. It was necessary to call reinforcements of Italy. Paradoxically, that failed to play a very nasty trick in B-25 de Nemo- II. Two formations of 12 FW-190 took off at a few minutes of interval of TurinCaselle. Their Turin route - Viso Mount - Gap - Sisteron - Manosque skirted the valley of the Durance while B-25 also approached them Gap after having flown over Grenoble. Extremely fortunately, the 24 Mustang II of the GC Lafayette came to the meeting from the planes from the 312nd EB by going up the Durance. The orders of Lafayette were clear.
" We were not very glad to have to play the mothers hens for our bombers whereas the other groups of hunting were going to be able to draw on all that moved, but the most tested among us knew well that the quiet missions did not exist . We flew in two separate elements of approximately 15 km, the first at an altitude of 5 000 m, in the North-West of the second, of which I formed part, 2 000 m higher. We had exceeded Sisteron when the radio became animated : " At least ten gangsters with 10 a.m., 6 000 meters, south-eastern course ! " the first group had located FW-190, apparently without being seen, and we were ideally placed to intercept them... Hugues of Mouzy did not hesitate : these Germans being able to represent a threat for the bombers, which were undoubtedly not far. He made us dgringoler on them, the sun in the back, for an attack "hit and run", like we had learned how to say it in our Franco-American slang. Our action took them by surprised and disorganized their device completely. I live corner of the?il one of them to leave in gimlet, while I tried to place my balls in another, which was dmenait like a beautiful devil. At the end of less than one minute, the commander ordered to us to take down towards north, gas .fond. Other Germans could be in trimmings and one did not have to be delayed. The FW-190, of share two of them whose remains smoked in the valley, had not required their remainder and slipped by towards the south. But this small brawl had brought us a little too to north, and we were going to have to rather join Gap by south-west that by the south. The first group, for its part, passed as envisaged to the west of Gap to continue towards the north if the bombers would arrive while descending the valley from Buech rather than by going up that of Drac. We thus have dark towards Gap. " (Jean-Pierre Leparc, the Guy of Lafayette)
Side of the bombers, the tension went up again, the escort being long in appearing :
" We were at our stations of defense, armed machine-guns, helmets and threaded jackets of protection. Of my place in the nose of the plane, I had the best point of view to see the hunters which were to accompany back us and appear soon higher in the sky. But I did not see anything coming, at the point to make me treat of "S?ur Anne" by Daniel... It is him finally which launched in the intercom : "That is there, I have them in phone, they are not far, but they brawl with Germans !" When we emerged above the basin of Gap, we saw a dozen FW-190 arriving to us above, by the left, a little higher, but not least Mustang ! They last being as surprised as us because they did not react immediately, which enabled us to tighten the formation to the maximum to cover us mutually. But that did not prevent them from falling us above with greed. If the cavalry did not arrive very quickly, we had badly left. " (Romain Gary)
The cavalry, arrived at any speed, the calls the Help | of the formation of bombers saturating the radio. The two groups of Lafayette arrived almost simultaneously on Gap, one by south-west, the other by the North-West... J.P. Leparc :
" It was more than time ! In front of us, German hunters were caught some in unhappy B-25, of which several were already in sorry state. Our arrival put an end to the rejoicings. The FW-190 were taken in sandwich and, once more, the Large Circus deserved its name. The fray was confused and the Germans were not long in escaping towards south-west, not without to have lost some as of theirs. But us also planes left of the feathers in the business, a roof for Sioux ! Thus Lopold Wade had been touched during engagement. Hoquetant engine, it had to jump after me to have bidden its farewell : "Jean-Pierre, I had one of it, but I also collected... My oil pressure is to zero, I jump. One will be re-examined in the Victoire." And we did not have any more a news lasting of long months.
But we were wrong to worry us. Lopold had been recovered with the flight, or almost, by Resistance. Those which hid it however gave up trying to make him leave France, estimating rightly that a Senegalese of one meter ninety would have evil not to draw the attention. A peasant of the neighbourhoods of Barcelonnette, named Manual, occupied himself of him, and Lopold spent all the summer in the mountain pastures, where it learned how to take care of the sheep and the ewes ! Like any foreigner, and especially not a German or a militiaman, did not venture in these deserted places, it was worried by nobody. And time passed, until the day when the Release brought Lafayette to Living room-of-Provence. With our amazement, we were accomodated on the ground by Lopold strapped in a well passed by again uniform and raising its most severe mine :"Not but the guy ! You realize since when I await you ! What you have rotten ! "Speech which all the more put to us in joy that our Lo, with the wire of the months, had caught a Provence accent worthy of joined together Raimu and Fernandel ! "
B-25 and Mustang took the direction of Corsica. Three bombers had been cut down, like two hunters, against a total of eight Focke-Wulf.
" I thought that the Germans would leave us quiet, but I was mistaken. They were to be carried out by a particularly energetic chief, even if the majority of them, when we had faced them, did not seem to be tested. They returned to the load above Worthy, but, undoubtedly with court of ammunition or oil, they ended up moving away towards the west, this time for good. Of Mouzy prohibits to us to continue them, the catastrophe having been avoided only of accuracy a few minutes earlier. The fact of having tackled the German formation between Sisteron and Gap of course was reproached to him besides, but it did not have too much evil to be justified, in particular by showing that it had, by its action, drawn aside a threat, and that it had largely caught up with the time wasted at the time of the attack by sinking then full throttle on Gap. " (J.P. Leparc, the Guy of Lafayette, C$op cit.)
Several bombers had been touched, of which that of Romain Gary :
" We defended ourselves like lions. Weaver shouted in the intercom "I had one of it !", but, a little later its howl of pain bored us the tympanums, while our B-25 trembled under the impacts. One of the last attacks of the FW-190 had been for us ! I precipitated with the higher turret, to see unhappy ploughed up Tisseur there. Blood streamed in abundance of its left arm. A moment ago to lose ! I got rid of my jacket anti-glares, opened my flight suit, tore off rather than I did not take off my shirt, before tearing it and making a plug of compression and, using a convenient metal stem which trailed in the remains, a swivel of fortune. The haemorrhage stopped, and Daniel looked at me fixedly. I encouraged it : " That will go, my old man, one already retained the nurse with the arrival ! " Of a hardly audible voice, it groans : " Not possible, the radio one morfl. there "I installed it most comfortably possible and parties in the cockpit to seek the case of first aid, hoping to find what to relieve it. As I passed close to him, the captain howled me in the ear : "Romain, repairs himself, you will freeze !" I become aware of the din which the air made which passed by the open holes open in the fuselage by the German balls.
Besides these holes, the radio andthe intercom, both except service, the damage seemed relatively light, but Frederic, the copilot, shouted me : "the right engine does not react any more to the orders !" Joining to it epic to the word, it man?uvrait the throttle lever of the right engine, but nothing occurred : this last always turned to the same mode and pressure gauge of admission switches corresponding did not move. We were isolated from different and we were going to have evil to maintain the formation, without speaking about the landing... But of others were even more badly parcelled out than us, some did not fly any more that on an engine or had large holes in the wings or the fuselage
I injected a morphine amount with Daniel and like I installed me pus beside him. The Mediterranean was guessed at the horizon, we were not more very far from the hello. For want of anything better, I tripotai adjustments of the radio sets, hoping in spite of very that one of them would still function, but I sometimes happened to draw only one Lili Marlene from it remote. I do not even live the few burstings of DCA which greeted us when we crossed the coast. The Captain asked me to draw a red flare, so that we have priority for the landing. But we were not only, two other planes made in the same way. The infirmary would be full this evening...
Most difficult remained to be made : to land without encumbers. The Lauger Captain made his choice : to be posed on only one engine. To turn off the engine of right-hand side was not a problem, while cutting off the supply while carburizing or lighting, but the propeller be put would in flag ? Ouf, the corresponding order had not been divided. The continuation did not pose any problem, and the ambulance took along Daniel later a few minutes. "(Romain Gary)
Nemo + Nemo- II : first assessment
While B-25 returned in Calvi, Wehrmacht tried to control the situation with Valdieu and to make an inventory of the damage. Peter-Erich Cremer was done many concerns for his submarines, rightly besides.
" When the explosions ceased, I be in a hurry only one : to know how much of my buildings had been touched. I thus set out again in direction of the channel. I had not taken three steps which the lieutenant of the Genious caught up with me and retained me :
- Peter, you are insane ! All the bombs undoubtedly did not explode. There are always failures, as for your torpedes.
Like giving him reason, a strong detonation occurred to a few hundred meters.
- I had said it well to you ! It is necessary to start by establishing a perimeter of safety, evacuating everyone, including civil corner, then to utilize the bomb disposal experts.
- What ! And how I let to know in which state are my submarines ?
- You prefer the knowledge immediately and to jump with a bomb ?
It was not wrong. Most urgent was well to prevent that there are useless victims. The Army immediately blocked the road at the exit of Valdieu and the entry of Retzwiller, as well as the secondary ways, and obliged the railwaymen to make pass to the red fires of the railway. But I did not dmordais any, I wanted to know :
- Good blood, Franz, those of opposite will know before me how much I have cast boats. If they did not make photographs before leaving, they will send a reconnaissance aircraft before midday, and me I should wait tomorrow morning to go to see !
- Peter, precisely, it is perhaps the solution.
- What, which I order to them a pulling ?
- But not. There is Luftwaffe with us, now... They could send a plane to us to see the situation of in top !
One hour and half later, Fieseler Storch was posed in a nearby field. It had not dared to land on the main road, space between the plane trees seeming to him really too right. I went up on board and asked the pilot to fly over the zone bombarded rather high so that its plane is not reached by the breath of a bomb who would explode. Initially with the naked?il, then with binoculars, I examined the damage. They were considerable : if there no had been direct blow, the shock waves of the explosion of the bombs in the water of the channel had had effects as terrible as those of the explosion of grenades ASM at sea. On 21 submarines (two were with dryness, a little upstream, and the four latecomers, lucky, had set out again behind), seven were broken into two, and a half-dozen of others inspired more the sharp to me concerns. And the majority of my tug boats were cast. I also clearly live two bombs not exploded with a few meters of the bank. On the other hand, the only visible victims were some cows, which confirmed the information transmitted by Dieter Thunau.
As I had envisaged, a little later an English reconnaissance aircraft passed at any speed far above us. It was not yet two hours... I asked to the chief of the detachment of Luftwaffe why we had not been warned of its passage, now that we were in connection with the radar tracking station of Saint-Louis. It answered me that these English planes were out of wood, and that an insulated apparatus gave only one very weak echo on the screen of the radar.
It was necessary for me still to account for the attack and the its probable results to the Admiral Doenitz, to find where to temporarily put all the guns of Flak which arrived finally and to reorganize the housing of my men, our quarterings being inaccessible. The evening, I was exhausted, and I deadened without same thinking of the continuation. "
In Calvi, twenty B-25 (out of 27) had returned : all those which had been able to pass Gap, except one (even if three others were in very bad condition). One quickly had reassuring news of the lack ; the crew arrived at the bar at the beginning of evening, where it was requested to pay the round (and even rounds) and to tell its adventure.
- Oh, it is not complicated. A shell of 20 mm in the right engine and the principal tank on the same side bored by balls. Moreover, it would not be one of you others which would have confused us with Focke-Wulf ?
- You laugh ? One had to make well too much !
- Mouais... Always it is that the engine released quickly, and here us are on a leg, with two others crippled, chouchouts by four Mustang. But Pietri [ the pilot ] was anxious : with the holes in the tank, one had lost too much gasoline, more especially as it is on this side that there remained about it there more when one was made draw above, one of the pumps of the more not functioning circuit.
- You thought of putting a little shutters, to use all the fuel ?[ 2 ]
- Of course ! And one emptied all that one could to reduce the plane : the bands of the machine-guns, the casings which trailed by ground, all radios except one, the shielding which one could dismount, the helmets, machine-guns... But that was not enough. The gauge had marked zero for five minutes, when the left engine stopped.
- You were where ?
- A thirty kilometers of Calvi. And with the same distance from Nonza, the native village of Pietri. It took that for a sign of the destiny...
- It posed to us on water like a seaplane, one evacuated, and one found all the four on the raft, while waiting for that one comes to seek us. A dredger of the National Navy came to recover us, but Pietri hoped that it would be a fishing vessel of at his place.
- Bah, it was fatal, when one leaves to attack submarines, one should not be surprised if one returns in boat.
- Then, your next plane, you will call it "the Jellyfish" ?
- That would astonish me. Pietri wants to give him the name of its village, per hour that it is, it must be there, to thank the Madonna for the corner !
Side of the staff, the moral one was almost also good, the assessment which can be regarded as satisfactory. Mosquito of the S/L Fray and the F/L Miller had made an Ajaccio-alsace return ticket in middle of day, and its photographs confirmed the cries of joy of the crew which had conducted his attack in the last (moreover without anything to touch). Seven submarines were broken, and at least as much would undoubtedly not set out again, which was in conformity with the hopes. As for the channel, it was not going to be repaired of as soon as. Seven planes had been lost, of which two had taken refuge in Switzerland and one (that which had been posed at sea) whose crew had been recovered. Five planes were damaged, including three reparable without too much evil, and the casualties would be free for a few weeks of hospital. As a whole, the losses were lower than what had been fears. The escort of hunting for the return had proven its utility, even if it had been necessary little of them so that the bombers do not undergo heavy losses under the blows of Luftwaffe, which had arrived from where nobody expected it.
For these purely factual data, it was necessary to add the moral effect. France had carried in Reich a blow doubly symbolic system : because the target was in Alsace and because it was the underwater weapon, praised so much by the propaganda of Dr. Goebbels, who had been struck.
[ 1 ] Nickname given to a system of fixed weapons drawing with the top from the apparatus.
[ 2 ] A traditional "trick" on B-25.
