View of U-877 Officer Peter Heisig
"The crew of the German submarine had left Norway eight weeks
before it was attacked by the St. Thomas,
at dawn on 27 December 1944. Peter Heisig indicates that the valve
in the submarine's snorkel system was not working properly. When
the submarine was submerged, it was receiving green seas in the
exhaust, which interfered with the working of the diesel engine.
Because of these problems, they had to surface several times, and
that held them back on their itinerary; they were heading for the
American coast. The meeting with the St.
Thomas shouldn't have happened, because the two
vessels were on completely different courses. " [interviewer's
synopsis]
"It was the Sea Cliff that sent a radio
message to the St. Thomas to say it had detected
something. As the St. Thomas was just nearby, it
immediately detected U-877, at a depth of 80
meters. It made its first attack on the submarine, and after five
minutes, as it was right over U-877, it dropped
depth charges.
"It is difficult to say how things went for each of the
members of the submarine's crew. The conception of the attack and
the way of experiencing it vary with each member, depending on his
task and his position in the submarine."
The First Depth Charge - Everything was in Total
Darkness
"When the submarine was struck by the first depth charge, on
the port side, all the equipment, like the instrument panel, began
to burn, and a leak developed in the torpedo room."
"Everything was in total darkness; everyone was using his
flashlight to see what was going on. The man who looked after the
depth gauge was trying to see whether there were any leaks or
special breakage. The transmission shaft was jammed on the port
side and the diving rudders weren't working. The submarine started
to list 45 degrees and sink by the stern. The man went to close the
compartment doors. He had to climb over the diesel engines to get
to the centre, the angle was so steep. They couldn't pump out the
water because the pressure was too great and was destroying all the
watertight joints. Thanks to the engineer, they were saved, because
he managed to stabilize the submarine's position at a depth of 230
metres. They had enough compressed air to drive the water out of
the ballast tanks and get back up to the surface. However, they all
had their eyes riveted to the depth gauge to see whether the
submarine was going down or up. If it went down any farther, they
would have trouble surfacing again, because the submarines were
designed to go down only to a certain depth.
Four Crew Members Blown Out of Hatch
At one point, the captain felt the submarine was too badly
damaged to hold on, so they decided to bring it to the surface. To
do so, they used the only electric engine that was functioning.
When they opened the hatch, four crew members were blown out of the
submarine by the change in pressure. They threw themselves into the
water with their life belts and inflatable boat. The injured were
placed in the dinghies. They stayed together so they could be
found, because it was dark. [interviewer's synopsis]
Nazi Spy
"There was a Nazi officer in each German submarine. Such
officers were spies charged with observing the activities of the
officers, ensuring that the officers complied with the orders given
by headquarters, keeping up motivation and maintaining a fighting
spirit. Aboard U-877, Peter Heisig was a spy of
this kind, but he had been chosen by the commanding officer because
he knew Heisig wasn't a true spy. He even came close to getting
arrested by the Gestapo, because he had written a letter saying
that the German situation was truly desperate. This was an
unforgivable mistake, a dramatic situation; because one was
supposed to never say things like that. One wasn't supposed to
weaken the fighting spirit, and fanaticism was not to be
contradicted by anyone. One had to show that it was worthwhile to
fight, that the Germans were going to win." [interviewer's
synposis]
Excerpts from an interview
with Peter Heisig in Québec, 3 January 1996. Initiative of
the Québec Naval Museum. Interviewer: Linda Croteau.
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