U196 The Mystery Continues Gold Bullion - Uranium - Loot

Posted by George Freund on December 14, 2014 at 7:05 AM

by David Child-Dennis



One could imagine this being the view of 196 approaching the beach

What really happened? Will we ever truly know?

Part II

The ‘Monsun Gruppe’

Before continuing my attempt to reconstruct what I believe to be the fate of the crew of U-196 after they reached New Zealand, it might be useful to give readers an overview of the events surrounding U-196 at that time. Beginning in December 1942, the German navy had been requested to make a series of U-boat sailings to Japan, carrying high-ranking Japanese diplomats and technical information. The Japanese capture of the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian archipelago gave them bases at Jakarta (then called Batavia) and Penang, which greatly increased the operational areas available to their submarines. The 33rd Submarine Flotilla, based at Flensburg, detached a small squadron to these bases, beginning in 1943. They were to combine raiding, with re-supply operations, into the Indian Ocean region under the code name Operation Monsun (Monsoon).

Perhaps longboats were waiting for the crew and cargo of U-196.

While there were eventually two waves of U-boats assigned to the operation, it was the second wave, beginning in 1944, in which U-196 was despatched. To give some idea of the cargo these boats carried we must return to U-234, which had surrendered to the Americans on May 15, 1945. This boat was assigned to Gruppe Monsun and had been in transit to Kobe, Japan, when the war ended. It carried 75 tons of lead, 26 tons of mercury, 12 tons of steel, 7 tons of optical glass, 43 tons of aircraft parts and plans, 560kg of uranium oxide and a disassembled Me262 jet fighter.

How was it possible to house a disassembled Me262 in the restricted space within any submarine? Presumably the boat carried only core engine parts and instruments for the Me262. It also carried two Japanese nuclear scientists, who committed suicide rather than face capture by the Americans.

Wartime Map of Batavia’s Docks where U-196 was ordered to refuel a sister U-boat in the Indian Ocean

On September 23, 1944, another Gruppe Monsun boat, U-859, also a Type IXD2, was sunk in the Malacca Straits by the Allied submarine HMS Trenchant. She was carrying 31 tons of mercury for the Japanese munitions industry and allegedly a quantity of uranium oxide. In 1972, a salvage team recovered 12 tons of mercury for the West German government. However, no mention was made of any uranium oxide recovery from the wreck. It is clear from the above the Japanese were receiving advanced weapons technology from Germany and the Gruppe Monsun U-boats were a key link in that programme. If the Allies had not been able to penetrate the German Enigma codes using ULTRA, these U-boats may well have succeeded in reaching Japan with their uranium oxide cargoes.

Sonar mapping reveals the ghostly image of the sunken U-Boat

U-196 sailed from Jakarta on November 11, 1944 and according to Martin Brice, Axis Blockade Runners of World War II (1981) was allegedly lost on November 30, 1944, while traversing an Allied minefield. That’s 19 days after she sailed, well within the time required to reach North Korea and the Japanese nuclear research facility. Fuel oil became a major difficulty for U-boats after the Brake, a 10,000-ton fleet oiler, was sunk on March 15, 1944, by a Royal Navy destroyer, near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. This meant unrefined oil from Brunei became the only available fuel. Thus, U-196 was likely to have sailed north from Jakarta to refuel before proceeding on the next stage of the journey. Realising the war was coming to an end, and Allied success against the U-boats was dramatically increasing, Gruppe Monsun was ordered back to Germany, carrying vital strategic supplies.

 Laying peacefully in it’s underwater grave

Operation Monsun effectively came to an end in late 1944. However, as U-234 and possibly U-859 were to demonstrate, the technical aid being supplied to Japan did not stop with Monsun. But how would the Japanese deliver a nuclear bomb, and against what target? It’s considered that it would have been by balloon against Iwo Jima or Okinawa. The Japanese had already launched a number of incendiary balloon attacks against the western United States, in an attempt to destroy the northern Californian timber forests. The bomb-carrying balloon, lofted from Manchuria or western Honshu, would have lifted into the very high jet streams travelling east towards the intended target. Once the balloon was in the jet stream it would have been beyond the altitude of Allied aircraft to intercept it. Even a relatively small atomic bomb could have severely damaged most of the US fleet anchored off Okinawa. Such an entirely unexpected blow could have extended the war into 1946, resulting in an armistice or worse, a stalemate, giving the Japanese time to regroup.

It’s believed that the surrender of U-234 was a pre-arranged event, just as it’s suspected that the U-196 arrival off Northland was similarly pre-arranged. With the arrival of U-234, the Allies suddenly realised they were in a deadly race against the Japanese to deploy the ultimate war-winning weapon.

 Rumoured to have Nazi gold taken ashore as part of the Military operation.

The key was to remove the scientific and technical support the Germans were supplying the Japanese. There is one key component to bomb making that proved to be a challenging problem: fusing. When ‘Enola Gay’ dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima, the fuse unit was manually inserted into the bomb case by a technical officer minutes before the bomb was dropped. It required great care in handling to ensure it worked correctly. German research was well advanced in fuse design and as such, a critical part of the Japanese bomb project.

Type IXD type 2 transporter alleged to be the U-Boat found

The End of the War in Europe

Some time on or about May 1, 1945, the German High Command had issued a general warning that hostilities were about to cease. By May 5 hostilities had all but ceased as preparations were completed for the formal surrender on Luneberg Heath on the 8th. Admiral Dönitz, ‘godfather’ of the U-boat arm and newly appointed head of state, authorised to sign the surrender document, was in an excellent position to direct any U-boat to undertake one last mission.

U-196 would have been well informed of any developments. I believe the U-196 was ordered to collect German technical staff from the Japanese nuclear research facility in northern Korea and sail for southern waters before the official announcement of any surrender. Had the U-196 been in a Japanese port at the time of the German surrender, Japan would have seized the boat as a prize of war, as were those boats that remained in Jakarta after May 8, 1945. The movement of scientist

TO BE CONTINUED...

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