Convoy PQ-17

If you’ve watched World War II movies about German U-boats, you’ve seen them torpedo merchant ships which explode in a huge fireball. How could anyone survive such a catastrophe?

Supply convoys consisted of slow, lightly defended ships venturing into the war zone where they were easy pickings for U-boats or German surface vessels and bombers. Guns were installed on merchant ships and manned by a naval Armed Guard, but they provided scant protection. (The Navy Armed Guard’s motto was “We aim to deliver.” Unofficially, it was “Sighted sub, glub, glub.”) The real protection came from the escort force of warships.

In June, 1942, convoy PQ-17 sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland, for Archangel in North Russia, a distance of 2,150 miles, a ten-day voyage. At this time, the German battleship Tirpitz terrified the Allies. Its mere presence in Trondheim, Norway, caused the British to tie up a fleet of their warships on standby to make sure it didn’t break free and wreak havoc.

First Sea Lord Dudley Pound, Admiral of the Fleet and operational head of the Royal Navy, considered the convoys a most unsound operation. They benefited the Russians and diverted American aid from the British. They’d already lost two cruisers on convoy duty, and the threat of Tirpitz endangered more of their dwindling fleet.

On July 3, a British fighter overflying Trondheim noted the Tirpitz was missing from its anchorage. A decoded German message announced the arrival of their heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in Altenfjord in northern Norway. Pound feared the Tirpitz was about to pounce on convoy PQ-17 and its escorts. The next day, he issued the order to scatter the convoy.

The first message sent to the convoy read, “Cruiser force to withdraw to westward at high speed.” The escorts assumed this meant the Tirpitz was fast approaching and they were to intercept it. A clarifying message read, “Convoy is to scatter.” Each ship was to head off on its own and hope to reach Russia.

The merchant mariners were stunned to watch the warships speed away. Convoy PQ-17’s escort consisted of a core escort of six destroyers and fifteen smaller ships: four corvettes, two antiaircraft ships, two submarines, three rescue vessels, and four armed trawlers. These ships would take the convoy all the way to Archangel.

A second part of the escort force had four heavy cruisers and a group of destroyers that would follow the convoy until they came within range of German bombers in Norway. Then they would turn back.

A third layer of “protection” included a British aircraft carrier accompanied by two battleships and a dozen destroyers that trailed hundreds of miles behind. If the Tirpitz attacked and came far enough west that German bombers could not protect it, the British aircraft would attack it.

That morning, the convoy had already come under attack by German bombers. Three merchant ships sank. The U.S. destroyer Wainwright had put up a 4^th of July fireworks display that caused half the attackers to drop their torpedoes early and flee. Now the merchant ships were alone with only a German long-range reconnaissance plane circling, reporting their whereabouts.

SOS calls filled the airways as the Germans picked off the ships: TWO SUBS ATTACKING. BEING DIVE-BOMBED. HAVE JUST BEEN TORPEDOED. ATTACK BY SEVEN PLANES. UNDER HEAVY ATTACK.

Officers on the warships that had abandoned the merchants listened in agony. They had now learned that the Admiralty had scattered the convoy on flimsy intelligence, assuming the Tirpitz was near, and felt betrayed. Officers on one British destroyer, the Offa, had considered reporting a mechanic problem and sneaking back to protect the merchants. One recalled, “There must always be a sense of shame that we did not do so.”

The corvettes from the core escort group resented being ordered to stay with an antiaircraft ship instead of the defenseless merchants. They had reached the Russian island of Novaya Zemlya. One corvette, the Lotus, turned back to the sinking ships and rescued 81 men.

Only eleven of the thirty-five merchant ships reached Archangel. (Two had turned back to Iceland shortly after setting out.) The human casualties were surprisingly low. One hundred and fifty-three men died out of over 2,500 in the convoy. More than 120,000 tons of war supplies were lost.

For a complete account of convoy PQ-17, I recommend The Ghost Ships of Archangel: the Artic Voyage that Defied the Nazis by William Geroux. The focus is on the three “ghost ships,” the American merchants Troubadour, Ironclad, and Silver Sword, along with the British trawler Ayrshire, that sailed into the polar ice to escape the Germans.

Germans and Americans Fought a Last Battle Together

Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. World War II was winding down, and many Germans looked forward to its end. Not the fanatical SS men though. They prowled around, executing deserters and those who hung out white sheets in anticipating of Allied troops.

High in the Austrian Alps, Wehrmacht Major Josef (Sepp) Gangl got in touch with an Austrian resistance cell, determined to help prevent fighting against the advancing American army and the destruction of bridges and roads.

SS Captain Kurt-Siegfried Schrader also turned from the Nazi mindset. Assigned as a supply officer in the Tyrol, his only goal was to protect his family whom he’d moved to Wörgl.

Both Gangl and Schrader learned of VIP prisoners in danger nearby. Important people who were famous or powerful or valuable and who might have value in negotiations with the Allies were held in relative comfort in hotels and castles throughout the Reich. The thirteenth-century Schloss Itter held several French citizens, along with Eastern Europeans brought from the Dachau concentration camp as servants. After the commandant committed suicide and the guards fled, the prisoners remained sequestered at the castle because of marauding Waffen-SS troops.

The French were a querulous lot. Among them were bitter rivals, former prime ministers Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud. General Maurice Gamelin had been sacked by Reynaud after Germany invaded France. Reynaud recalled retired General Maxime Weygand who, hoping to save France from destruction, sought an immediate armistice. Reynaud and Gamelin were horrified to see Weygand and his wife arrive at Itter. Others included labor leaders, Vichy government workers too vocal in their disdain for the Nazis, and relatives of prominent people, like Charles de Gaulle’s sister and brother-in-law.

Instead of supportive camaraderie, they existed in fractious segregation. Several spent their days writing their memoirs that vilified their fellow prisoners.

For a brief time, they united to plan their survival. Messages went sent with the Croatian handyman, Zvonko Čučkovič, and the Czech cook, Andreas Krobot, to find the American army they knew was nearby from broadcasts on a hidden radio. They also summoned Schrader and formally asked him to ensure their safety.

Čučkovič found the lead elements of the U.S. Army in Innsbruck. Waiting for the commanders to arrive that night and for a rescue to be organized would take time.

Cycling to Wörgl, Krobot was taken to Sepp Gangl. Gangl knew he and his dozen men couldn’t prevail over a well-armed Waffen-SS attack. He hurried to Kufstein, seven miles away, with a white flag. There he found Captain Jack Lee and his tanks, spearhead of the 12^th Armored Division, awaiting word of a cease-fire.

The red dot marks the location of Itter.

Lee accompanied Gangl back to the castle to reconnoiter, by now late in the day. After meeting Schrader and the French VIPs, he returned to organize his rescue effort.

Seven tanks set out for Itter, but three turned back after a small, old bridge started to collapse after the fourth tank crossed. Two more had to stay at Wörgl to bolster the town’s defense against roving die-hard soldiers. Gangl summoned more of his men to reinforce Lee’s group. They continued on—two tanks, fourteen American soldiers riding on the tanks, a German kübelwagen (a jeep-like vehicle) and truck with ten German soldiers. The second tank was left to guard a bridge that was the only route back to American lines.

Lee’s group broke up a Waffen-SS roadblock and he realized the situation was deteriorating. He immediately deployed the men around the castle and distributed their weapons. They had little, and were likely to be badly outnumbered in an attack. Schrader informed Lee that they’d seen two antitank guns pulled into position.

The attack came just after 4 the next morning. Four hours later, the defenders spotted a 20mm anti-aircraft cannon and an 88mm gun brought into place, both fearsome weapons. Also, 100-150 men of the 17^th SS Panzer-Grenadier Division were deployed around the castle. They had spent the previous four hours probing the castle’s defenses. Now they were ready for business.

The Waffen-SS also posed a threat to the advancing U.S. forces. Lee wanted to notify them, but his tank’s radio was inoperative. Schrader offered a novel idea: use the telephone. Gangl placed a call to the resistance leaders in Wörgl to spread the word.

Lee’s tank was soon destroyed and rounds from the 88 began slamming into the castle. Five of the Frenchmen retrieved guns and began firing away with the soldiers, exhibiting more enthusiasm than skill. Skirmishes with the SS had slowed the arrival of the relief troops. Ammunition was running low, and Gangl was killed by a sniper.

Wehrmacht Major Josef (Sepp) Gangl and SS Captain Kurt-Siegfried Schrader

Then the telephone rang. Lee was able to tell Major Kramers, leading the Americans, how dire their situation was becoming before the line went dead.

Just as a squad of Waffen-SS men positioned their panzerfaust at the front gate, the sound of tank guns and automatic weapon fire heralded the arrival of the American relief force. The SS disappeared into the woods.

The attack had lasted twelve hours on May 5. The Americans would not have been able to safeguard the French VIPs without Gangl, his men, and Schrader fighting alongside them. The French returned to their squabbling.

For further reading: The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe by Stephen Harding. 2013

What Happened to the Factories?

In the early days of World War II, real fear existed that the Japanese would bomb the West Coast. Several war industries were located there, and they needed to be hidden. Enter Hollywood.

Canvases were stretched over the rooftops of aircraft factories and painted with streets and lawns. Movie set designers created fake houses out of canvas and plywood. Trees were made of wire with glued-on chicken feathers painted in shades of green and brown. Air ducts were disguised as fire hydrants. Steep, sloped roofs became hills.

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack.

The goal was to look like a peaceful suburb from the air. Employees took scheduled walks in the fake town, hanging out laundry and moving rubber cars.

Employees stroll through a fake neighborhood.

Long runways beside the aircraft plants would seem to be a giveaway, but when a visiting general was flown over a disguised factory, he couldn’t find it. Japanese aircrews surely wouldn’t.

Dummy runways were created by burning grass to look like tarmac. Far from the real planes and hangars covered to look like farmland, dummy aircraft of wood and metal dotted the bogus fields.

Underneath the camouflage, business as usual.

Thirty-four airfields and factories were hidden. Enemy submarines would have been a likelier threat than airplanes. Ships were sunk within sight of West Coast ports. A Japanese submarine shelled an oil field near Santa Barbara in February of 1942, doing little damage.

In June of 1942, the US Navy sank four enemy aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway. The chance of Japan bombing the West Coast greatly diminished. The Hollywood-designed sets never had a chance to prove their worth.

The factories remained under cover for the rest of the war.