By David Mills
25 June 2009
Last Monday was the first day that the documentary team assembled
by TV director Fernando Navarrette had the opportunity to
look at the
U-77.
The German submarine was sunk nine nautical miles off the
Peñon de Ifach during World War II by British aircraft operating
out of Gibraltar.
Expert divers, this time armed only with cameras, will investigate
the wreck with the aid of remote controlled ‘robot’ devices
that can penetrate the hull via the holes created by the bombs.
The wreck, most of which is approximately 95 metres below
the surface, is thought to contain gold bars either belonging
to Field Marshall
Erwin
Rommel or
Adolf
Hitler. Mr Navarete has already interviewed Ernst Peter,
one of the survivors from the submarine, and plans to go to
the UK to interview Edgar P Castell, who was on board the
aircraft that sank the submarine in March of 1943.
As dawn broke on Monday, 29th March 1943, local fishermen
operating out of the port at Calpe were concentrating on sorting
and boxing their meagre catch of the day. Times were hard
for everyone as the war raged around the globe; however the
fishermen did not expect to become involved in any way. With
just 13 kilometres to go before getting to their home port,
the Blai Agulló, skippered by Andrés Perles García and his
crew became involved in a rescue operation. They were the
last hope for the nine survivors of the
U-77
submarine that had been bombed and sunk the previous afternoon
by four depth charges and a bomb from a pair of British Hudson
aircraft patrolling out of Gibraltar. The aircraft had managed
to intercept and destroy the
U-77
and the majority of the 47 man crew.
The following day, just nine of the crew managed to escape
their watery graves and be rescued by the fishermen. They
were gently lifted from their upturned survival raft, exhausted,
covered in fuel oil and desperately clinging to life as they
were assisted aboard the small fishing craft.
The first encounter took place at 11:25 the previous day when
the planes strafed the sub with machine guns, causing it to
submerge and flee. Superficial damage meant that it was forced
to surface for repairs 50 kilometres northwest and near the
Calpe Rock, where apparently it tried to take refuge. Pilot
Castell relocated it and, from just 30 meters, dropped four
depth charges that opened the hull ‘like a knife’ and she
sank beneath the waves. (What happened between that time and
the rescue is shrouded in mystery and it is hoped that this
and the whereabouts of the gold will be revealed after a full
survey and investigation).
Following the first rescue, other fishing boats joined in
the search for survivors. However, it was only the Atea Mauritius
and Mari-Paqui which found five corpses: two more bodies were
later recovered from the coast around the Villajoyosa and
El Campello area. In total 36 men died, two disappeared and
nine survived. Over the years, the official historian for
Calpe, Pedro Shepherd, has collated information on the incident.
In his book ‘Calpe, People and Places’, he describes how the
fishermen started the day in the usual quiet fashion, fixing
their nets and carrying out general maintenance. As word spread
of the incident and the first of the German survivors limped
ashore, more boats joined the search. Shepherd also commented
on how the sailors were, “Still formidable despite the effects
of the cold, wet and being agotados (knackered)." After rescuing
them, the fishermen provided hot coffee, food, dry clothes
and accommodation in their homes and the Querol boarding-house.
A few hours later, they were met by the German Consul Joachim
von Konoblock, and the naval attaché' from the German Embassy
before being taken to Alicante.
The German submarine fleet maintained their supremacy at sea
in the early years of World War II and in doing so, torpedoed
and sunk hundreds of ships containing millions of tons of
fuel, food and weapons. But the tide of war turned in 1943,
when British aircraft began to command air superiority and
gave ‘no quarter’ to the German U-boats, sinking them, like
the
U-77,
one by one.
Unterseeboot
77 (
U-77)
was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Kriegsmarine, built by the
Bremer
Vulkan-Vegesacker Werft, Bremen-Vegesack. The boat was
sunk on
28th
March 1943, at 37º42’N, 00º10’E and 37ºN, 0.167º. Skipper,
Oberleutnant zur See
Otto
Hartmann, 2nd September 1942 –
28th
March 1943, went down with his ship. The sub belonged
to the 29th Flotilla of the Kriegsmarine, which was based
in La Spezia (Italy), from where she operated with great success
until the fateful day.
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