Fighting by the brave soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the allied forces western front, and Russian forces on the eastern front, led to the defeat of German Nazi forces. By June 30, over 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed on the Normandy shores. Casualties from these countries during the landing numbered 10,300. Almost 133,000 troops from the United States, the British Commonwealth, and their allies, landed on D-Day. The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries.
SURRENDER NAVAL ACTIO CODE
The beaches were given the code names UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, and SWORD. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. Amazingly U-977 reached Argentina on 17 August 1945 after 66 days.The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. ( Which he did – then attempted the long route around Britain to south of Gibraltar, entirely by snorting. I proposed to land them in Norway, from where they would perhaps be able to make their way home. When the vote was taken, 30 out of the 48 plumped for South America, two wanted to go to Spain, and 16 expressed a wish to return to their families – these last all married men, nearly all of them petty officers, the oldest on board. We have all the stores we need for our voyage to Argentina to spare us the bitter bread of captivity.‘ When I had finished they began hammering it all out and separating into various groups.
I suggest that we continue on our way, but that we do not attack a single ship, for I would not have us revenge ourselves with the blood of innocent men. There can be no question of our accepting the enemy’s orders without knowing more of the circumstances. I do not think that Admiral von Doenitz has ever formally surrendered. We can either hoist the white flag, or sink the boat, or put into harbour in some country that has behaved honourably all through the war, such as Argentina. U-977 interned in Argentina 1945Īt this point I decided to take the crew into my confidence – they had been kept in the dark too long and now I spoke to them openly more or less as follows: Finally there came a third signal from the Allied Disarmament Commission to all U-boats at sea to surface, put their armament out of action and hoist blue or white flags. Next day we picked up another signal, which I again felt must have come from the enemy since it was quite irreconcilable with the outlook and temper of our own leaders and at complete variance with our last orders. We shall never, never surrender’ he had said the last time we saw him. It seemed out of the question that Doenitz as head of state should have ordered unconditional surrender. I discussed its possible meaning with my officers. Surely it was not Doenitz, after all his fine words? No, it was probably an enemy trap – they must have decoded our cypher and picked up our wavelength. Tomorrow we surrender, and from tomorrow you will take your orders from the Allied Command.‘ We did not pick up the speaker’s name because the aerial attached to our Snort broke before we got so far. You have made history yet in spite of all you have endured the worst still lies ahead.
You have done such deeds as were never accomplished before and will never be equalled in the future. You can look back with pride on what you have achieved. For five years you have fought gallantly on all the seven seas. While we were groping through with our Snort my junior watchkeeper brought me a signal from headquarters, which roughly ran like this: Well, we had been at sea for eight altogether so there should be 32 to go. One such account was found in the NHS Library, in a book (entitled U-Boat 977, published 1952) by Heinz Schaeffer, CO of U-977.īRITISH PROPAGANDA had recently estimated a U-boat’s life at forty days and this time it was right and we knew it. One wonders what the German Navy view was at that time. Publication March 2004 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)Ī previous article described how surrendering German U-Boats were boarded and taken as prizes into captivity to remote lochs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Garden Island Northern Hill and Garden Tour.Anniversary Cruise: Sydney under Japanese Attack Royal Australian Naval Transmitting Station ACT.Admiralty House, Garden and Fortifications.Spectacle Island Explosives Complex NSW.HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran Shipwreck Sites.
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