ISSUE 107 : Jul/Aug - 1994 - Australian Defence Force Journal

An Australian Paukenschlag?By Lieutenant Commander DM. Stevens, RAN."If we could only have had more boats it wouldhave led to a Paukenschlag like that off the coast ofAmerica."— Korvettenkapitiin Heinrich Timmin the War Diary of U 862December 1944.IntroductionThe Paukenschlag or "Operation Drumbeat", alludedto above by the commander of U-boat 862,was the code name for the German U-boat offensiveagainst the American Atlantic coast that began inJanuary 1942. In the first two weeks of the campaign,a mere five U-boats sank 25 allied ships totalling200,000 tons. In the four months it took for theAmericans to introduce effective anti-submarinemeasures, 137 ships of almost one million tons wouldbe lost. For the Allies it was a major disaster, forthe U-boat commanders it would become regardedas "The Second Happy Time" of the Battle of theAtlantic. :In December 1944. however, U 862 was not in theAtlantic, and though planned to be part of a largeroffensive, the U-boat was in reality quite alone.Korvettenkapitan' Timm was actually making hisobservation while operating off the Australian eastcoast where he believed he had at last found anothersafe hunting ground for the U-boat arm. Elsewhere.Allied anti-submarine measures had largely driven theonce feared "grey wolves" from the shipping routes,but Timm had just detected a large concentration ofshipping at the eastern entrance to Bass Strait and noescorts were apparent.Due to wartime secrecy and because it was sothoroughly overwhelmed, the German U-boat offensiveagainst Australia in late 1944 has for 50 yearsremained virtually unknown and unexamined. Thisarticle aims to be an initial attempt to correct this deficiency.It will try to explain why Australia evenfigured in German planning at such a late stage inthe war and why the last major U-boat offensive inthe Far East ultimately proved to be such a futileendeavour.U-boat Operations in the Far EastThough Germany began developing plans forU-boat operations in the Indian Ocean early in theSecond World War, no practical action was takenuntil late 1942. While distant operations by theHilfskreuzers, or surface raiders, were still reapingsuccess, there was no urgent need to augment themand in any case the BdU 1 (Commander-in-ChiefSubmarines), Admiral Karl Donitz. was unwilling totransfer the scarce, long-range. Type IX U-boatsaway from the critical Atlantic battles. Japan too, wasat first less than supportive of a free-ranging Germanpresence, regarding the Indian Ocean as primarilyImperial waters. In the first agreement to delineate theOcean in August 1942. the German zone of operationswas limited to the waters south and west of 20°Sand 85°E.The first steps by U-boats into the Indian Oceantherefore remained tentative and were confined to thearea around the Cape of Good Hope. As the war drewon into 1943, and both Axis partners found themselveson the defensive, the situation changed. Japanesesubmarines now made few operational patrols andwere primarily engaged in transport duties in thePacific. They could not readily be spared for remoteoperations in the Indian Ocean. Recognising theirinability to continue to harass Allied shipping alone,the Japanese proposed greater German efforts in thenorthern part of the Indian Ocean, using U-boatsbased in Penang.This change in Japanese attitude coincided with adifficult time for U-boats in the Atlantic and a desireby Donitz to seek areas where Allied defences wereweaker. Available intelligence suggested that theIndian Ocean might indeed offer new opportunities,so in June 1943 the first 1 1 U-boats of "GroupMonsun " left their bases in Europe and headed east.The danger then existing in the Atlantic was evidentwhen only five of these boats survived to reach theIndian Ocean. After operations in the Arabian Sea.where another boat was lost, the remaining U-boatseventually reached Penang in November 1943. Withonly 8 merchant ships sunk in return, the results weredisappointing, but Group Monsun did at least confirmthat, in comparison with the Atlantic, anti-submarine