Surrender of 4 German U-boats-- Part 5: Poor Treatment at Hands of Americans

The Germans complained about the treatment they received at the hands of the Americans.  A subsequent investigation by the U.S. Navy confirmed  their abuse.  Navy prize crews seized the possessions of the U-boat crews and saved them as souvenirs.

They also distributed them to local boys in small boats who came up to the German subs as they were towed up the Piscataqua River.  Once in prison, the corrections officers looted and sold them.

Among those items taken:  pep pills, revolvers, canned goods, parts of German uniforms and decorations/medals.  Under the Geneva Convention,   the U.S. should have returned the prisoners' property.

After the crewmen of the U-873  were interrogated in Portsmouth,  they were taken to the Charles Street jail in Boston.  There, they awaited transfer to a prisoner-of-war camp in Mississippi.  As military officials marched them in handcuffs through the streets, crowds pelted them with garbage and insults.

--GreGen

Surrender of 4 U-boats-- Part 3: U-873, U-1228 and U-234

A local reporter was able to get an interview with one of the German captains who was described as a "typical dyed-in-the-wool Nazi."  Lt.  Albert Finster blamed England for the war and also said that Allied bombing had  ruined his native town of Hamburg.

Two more German U-boats arrived the next day.  At 2 pm, the U-873 was towed into the harbor, followed by the U-1228.  That night, a wire service report added to the excitement saying that the USS Sutton had captured a German U-boat near Newfoundland with three high-ranking German officials and two dead Japanese scientist aboard.

On Friday, May 18, the public eagerly awaited the arrival of the fourth and biggest prize of all the U-boats.  Rumors circulated about its cargo.  The submarine was headed for Japan which was still at war,  Supposedly, it carried  personnel and materiel to help the Japanese war effort.

The U-234 arrived at Portsmouth at 7:30 am on Saturday, May 19, and was greeted by a swarm of journalists.  The high-ranking officers aboard made it a huge story.

The submarine carried a disassembled Messerschmitt Me 262 let fighter, prototypes, technical descriptions of new weapons and several senior weapons technicians.

--GreGen

Surrender of Four U-boats in May 1945-- Part 2: Arrival of the U-805

"The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril,"  wrote British  Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Eventually the U-boat menace off the coast of the United States subsided as the submarines were called back to patrol the waters off England and the sea routes to the Soviet Union.  Also, greatly improved anti-submarine tactics were developed.

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The 245-foot U-805 was the first to arrive.  She had surrendered in the North Atlantic and was towed to Portsmouth Harbor.  Green dye marked the spot for the rendezvous  with a tugboat carrying Navy officials and  news reporters.

Three "surly, expressionless" German officers appeared on board.  They officially surrendered at 4:25 p.m. at the mouth of the harbor.  One caption to a newspaper article read:  "Its fangs yanked out, this prize U-boat  will prey no more upon Allied  shipping in the Atlantic."

A bus took the Germans to Portsmouth Naval Prison, commonly known as "The Castle," where they were interrogated by Office of Naval intelligence officers.  They wanted technical details about jet aircraft, ballistic missiles, guided bombs and nuclear weapon technology.

Those Germans Had Sime Mighty Advanced Technology.  --GreGen

About Those Four U-boats That Surrendered at Portsmouth Navy Yard

From the New England Historical Society "The sensational surrender of four Nazi U-boats at Portsmouth Navy Yard."

Portsmouth Navy Yard is in Kittery, Maine, close to the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 

On May 15, 1945, onlookers thronged the shoreline trying to get a glimpse of a German U-boat being towed up the Piscataqua River to surrender at the Navy Yard.  Germany had surrendered May 7, 1945,  bringing World War II closer to an end.

Over the next five days, three more U-boats arrived.  Once at the yard, the submarines were studied for their technological advances and their cargos.

U-boats usually traveled in groups called Wolf Packs during the war.  In the early days against England and especially in 1942, when the U.S. entered the war, they had remarkable success.  They sank about 3,000, mostly merchant vessels.  They also killed  more than 5,000  seamen and passengers.  This was the Battle of the Atlantic.

More people died in their attacks than did at Pearl Harbor.

--GreGen

The Surrender of Four U-boats in Maine in 1945

In connection to yesterday's post about the German U-boat sailor along the Maine coast.  He must have been on one of these subnarines.

On May 7, 1945, four German U-boats that had been patrolling in the Gulf of Maine surrendered at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, the largest U.S. base on the Atlantic coast at that time.

One was kept on the Piscataqua River, and it is said that thousands of Mainers traveled many miles to come and see what had long been haunting their dreams.

Germany officially surrendered on May 7, 1945.

--GreGen

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Submarines

From Wikipedia.

In the last two blog entries I have written about Charles Sanna who was very involved with submarine construction and upkeep during World War II.  He also invented Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix.

And, Portsmouth Naval  Shipyard played a huge role in the U.S. submarine service in World War I and after the war right up through nuclear submarines in 1969.  One of the submarines launched there was the Thresher which was lost with all 129 aboard in 1963.

From 1942 until he left in February 1944, probably 35 submarines were built and launched at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Other ships of note launched at Portsmouth:  USS Congress (sunk by the CSS Virginia) and USS Kearsarge (sank the CSS Alabama).

--GreGen

Charles Sanna: Submarines and Swiss Miss

From Find A Grave.

Born:  9 Nov. 1917, Philadelphia, Pa.

Died:  13 March 2019  Fitchburg, Wis.

Buried:  Resurrection Cemetery  Madison, Wis.  (Where comedian Chris Farley is buried.)

In July 1941, with war raging in Europe, he applied for and received a commission in the U.S. Navy and was sent to diesel school at Penn State.  After Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, where he oversaw construction of submarines.  Sitting across from his desk was his boss' secretary Margaret (Peggy) McGee, who became the love of his life.

In February 1944, he was ordered to duty in the Pacific Theater where he spent the remainder of the war at Pearl Harbor as Officer-In-Charge of Submarine Repair and Alterations.  In November 1945, Lieutenant Commander Sanna returned to Portsmouth, Maine, and in January 1946 married Peggy.

For more information on his non-military life, see my Cooter's History Thing blog for this month.

--GreGen

Deaths: Charles Sanna Built Submarines and Invented Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix

CHARLES SANNA  (1917-2019)

Best known for inventing Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix.  You can read about him in several posts I made in my Cooter's History Thing blog which you can get to in the My Blog List section to the right of this.

Graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1939 with a degree in mechanical engineering.  During World War II he joined the Navy and rose to become superintendent of submarine construction at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.

But his thoughts after the war always returned to the submarines he built and the men who served and died on them.

"These men had to be utterly perfect, particularly mentally," he wrote near the end of his life.  "I would ask that anything said on my behalf would include a statement of tribute to the 3,505 valiant, unheralded submariners of the United States Navy who lost their lives in World War II."

--GreGen