Date of testimony of Georg Högel (U 30, U 110)

[little grey rabbit]

I have been researching the disputed sinking of the SS Athenia - a case where no American passengers reported seeing a submarine but lots of British and Canadians did.

It seems that the strongest testimony comes from Georg Högel - who gives a very detailed account of the captain Lemp looking through the Lloyds catalogue and realizing his mistake, observing the ship on the conning tower and personally typing up the fake log entry latter - in short he is a key witness.

Georg Högel is a much quoted witness in the literature, but all I find is references that point to other secondary works. Does anyone know where and when Högel gave his first testimony - from the content it might have been a TV interview or there is a book from 1999 called U-Boat Adventures that might be the first source.

Anyway, you guys are the experts.

[little grey rabbit]

Just in case anyone gets sniffy about my characterisation of American passengers:

temp.jpg (81.17 KiB) Viewed 2232 times

From 4 January 1940.
I don't know if the State Department ever finalized their investigation. In which case they may have dredged up some testimonies by then.

[Mannheim]

Interesting. I didn't know anything of that. Please keep us posted.

[Thomas Craig]

I am also interested in Lemp and the Athenia....but can't help you any further. Please keep us posted.

[little grey rabbit]

Perhaps I overstated when I said I was "researching" it. Perhaps more accurate to say I am looking into what resources are at hand. My view is that it was sunk by the British to try and hustle the US into war, but this will never be able to be proved (unless one of the German submariners told their families and they at some point decide to speak up).

So far the people from the German side that confirm the official story are:
Julius Lemp - but only 2nd hand through Dönitz and Raeder and one other admiral (whose name escapes me)
Georg Hoegel - who I think appeared on the BBC on its Code Breakers and Battle of the Atlantic series.
Adolf Schmidt - who gave an affidavit in 1945 in a POW camp. He was transferred to Reykjavik injured in September 1939.
Hans-Peter Hinsch - may have given an interview in 1955 in the book Tomorrow Never Came. He is listed, but it doesn't quote him directly.
http://www.archive.org/stream/tomorrown ... p_djvu.txt
Hans-Peter Hinsch had a career in the post-war Navy and died in Washington DC at the age of 57. In what capacity I don't know - is some kind of naval attache possible?

I find all the different accounts completely muddled and inconsistent - of course that is not that unusual for eyewitness accounts. Anyway I post the various bits of "information" I dredge and hopefully people will correct any mistakes I make.

The first thing that strikes me is the Germans often say the Athenia was mistaken for a troop ship because it was darkened and going in a zig-zag pattern. Some accounts also say the passengers could not see them because of the glare of the moonlight.

My understanding is she was torpedoed at 19:40 and had been followed for several hours before that. At that lat-long, the times for sunset and moonrise I find are as follows:

Sun and Moon Data for One Day

The following information is provided for %28no Name Given) (longitude W14.1, latitude N56.7):

Sunday
3 September 1939 Universal Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 05:21
Sunrise 06:01
Sun transit 12:56
Sunset 19:49
End civil twilight 20:29

MOON
Moonrise 20:37 on preceding day
Moon transit 03:48
Moonset 11:14
Moonrise 21:00
Moonset 12:23 on following day


Phase of the Moon on 3 September: waning gibbous with 82% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

I am not sure how the Athenia could have been "darkened" or "blacked out" during day light. And none of the passengers seem to mention anything like that or anything about strange zig zag paths.

If the Nuremburg testimony is to believed then both the Propaganda and the Foreign Office (AA) were kept in ignorance of the true situation and reading two Goebbels biographies they seem to agree - his diaries appear to be in good faith accepting of the British sinking the Athenia.
A 40 page booklet "Der Fall Athenia" was produced - but I haven't found a copy within my reach. I am guessing that the pamphlet "How They Lie" may have reproduced some of this material
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ ... ugen29.htm

When he decided to wage war against Germany, he selected four English passenger ships that were sailing to America. Then he sent the above telegram, dated 28 August 1939, to Cunard White Star Lines, compelling them to turn German passengers away from these ships, as they would be uncomfortable eyewitnesses. See the accompanying letter from the shipping company, dated 29 August 1939. Churchill then sent suitable “rescue ships” to be “coincidentally” on the course of these ships, which were now loaded with Americans. The Athenia was torpedoed and sunk. If the affair with the “Athenia” not worked, then one of the other three ships would have been sunk, so that Mr. Churchill would have more stories for the English Ministry of Lies.

The website doesn't reproduce the pamphlet clearly enough to read the letters, but I assume they say what is alleged.

Goebbels was a bit all over the place with his accusations on the Athenia - but that is consistent with him being cut out of all the loops. One of the things he did pick up on is a statement made by one of the passengers Gustav Anderson who had been given hearsay evidence that because the Athenia refused to sink after 10 hours, she was sunk by gun-fire from two destroyers sent to the scene. He claimed to have been told this by crew members when on-board a rescue ship, the City of Flint. This would be consistent of a situation where the British government felt the Athenia might not withstand careful inspection.

The British government ended up paying compensation to the passengers of the Athenia. From September 1940 until the 1950s Britain made what were called "ex gratia" payments of around $850,000

[little grey rabbit]

Oh, the other claim Goebbels made was that if it had been stuck by a torpedo it wouldn't have taken 18 hours to sink.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little complement...............

The sinking of SS. Athenia.

Certainly the ship was out of the normal routes to America (see below)...............

Source: http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/RhondaTho ... accou.html

Cheers. Raúl M .

[mark harrison]

Mr Hogel appeared on the National Geographic series Convoy War For The Atlantic, in 2009 in the episode Wolfpack Rising. He gives his version of the sinking on that programme.
regards MH.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; another little complement...............

The sinking of the SS. Athenia.

Source: with the pictures.

Cheers. Raúl M .

[tigre]

Hello to all ; another little complement...............

The sinking of the SS. Athenia.

Already on August 19, 1939 had sailed the first Germans submersibles in order to occupy their standby positions (5 type VIIB; 5 type IXA and 4 type VIIA), but only on August 22, 1939 at 03:00 hours will come the turn of the U 30. This submersible type VIIA and belonging to the 2nd U-Flotilla was to patrol in the north Irish Sea access according to Atlantic Operations Order No. 2. The officers were the commander Oblt.z.S. Fritz-Julius Lemp, IWO Oblt.z.S. Hans-Peter Hinsch, IIWO Lt.z.S. Friedrich Bothe and LI Oblt. z.S. (Eng.) Eichelborn. According to Lemp pocket diary, the U 30 was in the North Sea, on August 25, 1939, in a waiting position on Monday August 28 and reached the Atlantic on August 29. And so she reached its waiting area, located one degree north of its area of ​​operations which consisted of a box 200 miles long and 180 miles wide between the 54º and 57º North and 19º to 12º West. Eastward was to operate the U 27 and to the west U 53 west and about 3º farther south the U 29.

On August 31, 1939 the Supreme Command of the Navy (OKM) informed all the submersibles operating in the Atlantic about the outbreak of hostilities with Poland by radio message TOO 1308.

On September 1, 1939, a few minutes after noon and assisted by two tugs the S.S. Athenia left the dock and headed downstream of the Clyde; On board were 735 people, of which 315 crew. The ship was heading for Belfast as the first port, then Liverpool and then Montreal and Quebec. At 04:45 hours this morning German troops had invaded Poland. In the evening the ship anchored off the port of Belfast and other 136 passengers boarded the ship at 22:00 hours sailed for Liverpool.

On September 2, 1939 at 07:00 hours the Athenia dropped anchor in the port of Liverpool and by 11:00 Captain Cook landed to join the Naval Control. It was 13:30 hours when 546 people who boarded in Liverpool were on the ship. Shortly before 16:00 hours, Captain Cook returned with a long list of amendments to its Admiralty books and specific instructions regarding the route to follow. From August 26 all British maritime traffic had been sailing away from their normal routes. Now the Athenia had to follow a course of about 30 miles further north. Finally the ship sailed at 16:30 hours, carrying a total of 1,102 passengers (469 Canadians, 311 Americans, 150 European refugees and the others were British).

On September 3, 1939 (Sunday) dawned cloudy and cold in the western Atlantic. Few minutes after 11:00 hours the ship received via radio the news of the declaration of war. By 13:00 hours the 26 lifeboats were ready to be launched. It was not until 15:00 hours that Oblt.z.S. Lemp received signal confirming the British declaration of war and then issued his orders, the bow of the U 30 turned 180 degrees and at 10 knots sailed to his patrol area. Sometime in the afternoon he met the Norwegian merchant Knute Nelson, which was heading in ballast to the Costa Rican port of Puntarenas.

Shortly after 19:00 hours, when a haze had settled over the ocean and the wind, which reached Force 4, had begun to whip the waves, Oblt.z.S. Lemp called the IWO to the bridge. The sun had set a few minutes before 19:00 hours. The evening itself was not so far, but still the twilight would last fifty minutes. There to starboard (the bow of the U 30 was now pointing north), about 10 degrees, was visible the silhouette of one approaching ship. A large one. The ship was indeed the S.S. Athenia.

The two officers looked through the haze, the approaching ship seemed one of those armed merchants. Lemp ordered battle stations and U 30 dived to periscope depth. Once in range and with the firing data the U 30 launched a volley of four torpedoes at 1600 yards. Two completely missed their target, the third reached its target at height of Hold No.5 and the four got stuck in the tube.

The U 30 surfaced half an hour later, the moonlight washed over the Atlantic, now turbulent by the wind. The radio room of the submarine was picking distress signals from the listing ship. Lemp received a transcript: "Athenia torpedoed 56.42 north, 14.05 west."

Source: http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-110A/U-110INT.htm
http://www.uboatarchive.net/BDUKTB.htm
Tomorrow never came. Max Caulfield.

Cheers. Raúl M .