During World War I, Germany created havoc in the seas by unconventional means.
The German U-boats, or submarines, sent tons of Allied war material to the bottom of the
ocean in such a practical approach that the US and its allies could not keep up with the
production line of new supplies other nations desperately needed.
Eventually, the US, Great Britain, and other countries realized that the submarine, although
slow and clunky at times, was a useful war asset.
During World War 2, the Kriegsmarine continued to make fair use of the U-boat fleet, conducting
a naval blockade all over Europe that forced the Allies to be cautious at sea.
Nonetheless, since the original submarines were put afloat for the first time, there
have only been two registered encounters of two of them clashing in a combat zone.
The first one occurred in World War I, when U-27 sank the British E3.
The submarine was destroyed, but the crew was saved.
The second one had a more sinister ending in February 1945 when a U-boat carrying a
secret cargo on its way to Japan was intercepted by British submarines dispatched to eliminate
it.
When both submarines were in range of each other, a short battle followed underwater,
with the vehicles fully submerged.
The skirmish jeopardized a secret mission whose objective was to help the Japanese Army
with the latest German technologies to fight the Americans in the Pacific.
Aboard U-864, the Germans carried prototype weapon designs along with German and Japanese
scientists and a significant quantity of liquid mercury for transport to Japan.
It was Operation Caesar, and it was the Reich's last attempt at trying to win the war against
the Allied forces.
The War in 1944
Created to be the ocean's stealthy hunters, the submarines were meant to operate behind
enemy lines, taking down objectives that had no possibilities of escaping from torpedoes.
During the two World Wars, the Germans and their U-Boats left a trail of chaos and sunken
ships in the Atlantic and the Northern Sea.
Although the Kriegsmarine U-boat fleet was small, it caused enough trouble to the US
and British navies to the point that even war vessels traveled in convoys just to remain
safe from sinking from one of the many U-boats that patrolled the coasts of Europe.
When WW2 broke out, Hitler followed the same strategy employed by Kaiser Wilhelm during
the Great War.
He ordered the Kriegsmarine to use any U-boat available to block any commercial routes employed
by any nation to prevent Great Britain, France, and Russia from receiving supplies sent by
the US and other countries.
As the Kriegsmarine warships were fewer in number when compared to those of England,
the U-boats were there to shift the balance to some extent.
Although extremely useful at first, once the US landed on Normandy and Southern France
during June and August 1944, little the U-boats could do to stop the Allies from gaining power
at land and sea.
It was the beginning of the end of the war, and Hitler knew it.
The Americans and the British were slowly gaining ground in France and Italy.
Simultaneously, the Russians made the Germans pay for every inch they took from them when
they invaded the Motherland territories.
The Eastern Front was a bloodbath, and there was no escape.
The same was happening in the Pacific.
The once-powerful Japanese Empire was now crumbling under the mighty American military.
Island after island, the US Marines made their way through vicious Japanese infantry banzai
attacks on the ground and kamikaze attacks at sea.
The Americans got closer to mainland Japan with every island conquered, and the Emperor
wondered if there was a way out.
By December 1944, the Island of Peleliu was conquered by the US after a costly bloody
battle, and preparations for the invasions of Iwo Jima commenced.
In Europe, Hitler launched the Ardennes Offensive as a last effort to keep the US at bay.
But others in the Reich knew that the end of the Axis was coming.
With that in mind, as an extra effort to help the Japanese win the war and keep the US Marines
from putting a foot in Germany, the Third Reich prepared a secret operation to send
German scientists and engineers, as well as weapon prototypes and vehicle designs, to
help its Japanese allies.
Operation Caesar
The secret German mission's objective was to send advanced technology to Japan to help
it win the war against the Americans in the Pacific.
Germany loaded U-boat 864 with the latest technological innovations of the Reich.
This included components and schematics for the V-2 rocket, the Jumo 004 turbojets, and
other weaponry that would give the waning Japanese Empire an edge over the Americans.
U-864 also carried more than 70 tons of liquid mercury distributed in 1,857 steel flasks
for explosive primers.
Onboard were two German engineers from the aviation company Messerschmitt, Rolf von Chlingensperg,
Riclef Schomerus, and Japanese torpedo expert Tadao Yamoto and Toshio Nakai.
Commanded throughout its entire career by Korvettenkapitän Ralf-Reimar Wolfram, U-boat
864 served with the 4th U-boat Flotilla, undergoing crew training until October 31, 1944.
U-864 was a Type IXD2 cruiser submarine.
It stood 95 yards long, and it was larger than the common Type VII U-Boat.
It was designed for long-range transoceanic patrols.
The D2 variant, in particular, was even more significant to accommodate enlarged cargo
compartments.
Before departure, U-864 was modified with brand new submarine technology that very few
U-boats had.
A snorkeling mast was incorporated into the vehicle to sip air from the surface while
remaining shallowly submerged.
The mission was to sail the U-boat north around Norway, then across the Arctic through Soviet
territory to deliver the secret cargo.
Wolfram's initial plan seemed solid.
By 1944, the Allies controlled much of the continental waters he would have to transit,
and the beginning of the journey was the most dangerous.
U-864 had to pass undetected through the North Sea, under the British Royal Navy's control
as part of their blockade in the zone.
Many British vessels ran patrols in search of U-boats.
Wolfram decided to stay close to the coast and allow German shore installations and pens
to protect him if an attack came close.
U-864 set off from Kiel on December 5, 1944, but it ran aground when passing through the
Kiel canal.
The captain decided to have the ship repaired in Bergen, Norway, before moving on.
While stationed at Bergen, the pen in which U-864 was being repaired was hit on January
12, 1945, by 12,000-pound Tall Boy bombs dropped by 32 British Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers.
On February 5, 1945, U-864 slipped from its quay in Bergen and began the long journey
to Japan through the North Sea.
The U-boat captain did not know that weeks before, the British, who had cracked the Enigma
code, decoded messages related to U-864's mission, and decided to set a trap to capture
it or destroy it.
The British HMS Venturer was dispatched to Fedje, Norway, to hunt down U-boat 864.
The HMS Venturer
The HMS Venturer was the first of the new V-class British submarines,
Compared to U-864, which carried 22 torpedoes, the Venturer was a much smaller, shorter-range
submarine that carried eight torpedoes.
Only four could be fired at once, but it was 50 percent faster underwater, at roughly ten
miles per hour.
Under the command of 25 years-old Lt. James S. Launders, credited with sinking 12 German
surface ships, the HMS Venturer moved into position on February 6, 1945.
The Venturer only had two methods of finding an enemy sub, either by hydrophones or active
sonar.
The Hydrophones were useful, but the range was minimal.
The sonar has extended range, but it gave the sub's position away.
Another problem was that the boat's torpedoes were designed to attack ships on the surface,
not underwater.
Launders decided to rely on shorter-range hydrophones, and he went on the hunt for U-boat
864.
The Thrill of the Hunt
On February 6, U-864 passed Fedje undetected, but one of the engines began to misfire, and
Wolfram ordered to return to Bergen.
It was that or continue on with the mission, but the journey was long, and he wanted to
be cautious.
A signal received specified that an escort would be waiting for him at Hellisøy on February
10.
On February 9, the Venturer heard U-864's diesel engine noise in the open ocean and
spotted the U-boat's snorkel with its periscope.
Launders slid the Venturer behind the U-boat submarine and began tailing it.
The hunt had begun.
The HMS Venturer followed the U-864 for the next few hours.
U-864 then began taking evasive maneuvers, dodging side to side, which meant that it
had likely detected the British presence behind.
Launders decided to be patient and wait for U-864 to reach the surface before launching
the torpedoes.
Still, he did not know that the German U-boat could operate underwater for extended periods
thanks to its snorkel.
After more than three hours of pursuit, the Venturer's battery begins to run short.
Sooner or later, it would have to surface.
If that happened, Launders would miss the chance to take down U-864.
He had to attack U-864 while it remained submerged.
There was no other option.
He calculated a three-dimensional intercept for the torpedoes and determined U-864's depth
by the snorkel mast's height above the water.
At 12:12 of February 9, the Venturer fired four of its eight torpedoes in a spread, 17.5
seconds between each launch.
Launders timed the torpedoes, knowing that Capt. Wolfram would evade them.
Once the first load was fired, the HMS Venturer reloaded its last 4 torpedoes and commenced
evasive maneuvers.
U-boat 864 evaded the first three shots with astonishing agility, but after Launders launched
the second pair of torpedoes, the fourth one made its way to its target and struck the
middle of the submarine, breaking it in two.
The U-Boat fell more than 150 meters to the ocean's depths.
Operation Caesar ended in a failure.
The Aftermath
Almost a century later, the wreck of U-864 was found in 2003 by the Norwegian Navy, two
miles off Fedje.
Scientists discovered that liquid mercury cargo had been slowly leaking from the flasks
into the open ocean.
Norwegian authorities decided to bury the wreck under tons of sand to prevent further
damages to the surrounding ecosystem.