Genesis for the New Space Age with John Leith - Chpt VIII - Fatherland Evacuated in New Aircraft and Giant U Boats

Again we are putting together fiction from whole cloth.  I have never heard of any such movement described here through France and it is still a year short of D day.  And we should have heard of it.

Those magic giant subs do not exist either and are an unnecessary addition.  The problem is simply hull strength and the technology needed to produce such a craft.  We do not go there today.  It did not happen.

Better yet, movement by sea from neutral Spain by merchant ship to the Argentine is viable and hardware can go as well.  Any such contingent plan would have used that route and naval intervention would have been unlikely in 1943 because all available resources were fighting the convoy battles.  And do you really think that anyone would care too much if Germans and resources were on a trip away from the battle front?

Anyway, at best it would have been plausible to send out 5000 to 15000 people in this manner and certainly not 250,000 even if they had  magic subs.  That also suits the known facilities available to them in South America at the time.  Much more that that and security would surely have broken down.

This route slammed shut in the late summer of 1944 after D day.  Later escapes were few and done by air.
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Chapter VIII

Fatherland Evacuated in New Aircraft and Giant U Boats

In the summer of 1943 the French underground suddenly began advising London of nightly troop  trains  traveling over secondary French railroads toward the Spanish border. The French estimated that each train carried 500 German troops. Allied intelligence was perplexed. There were several reasons.

The enemy had been defeated in Africa and was bogged down on the Russian front. Therefore)  Supreme Allied Command was desperate to know if the Germans were starting a second front or planning to invade North Africa from Spanish bases. And was there some truth to the continuing rumors from allied agents} that the elite of the German army and her top scientists and technicians were preparing to evacuate their European homeland - and, if so, to where? And even more disquieting, the. British and the American OSS had learned that Hitler had put much of Germany's scientific effort into a new type of round wing plane which was perhaps laser equipped to destroy London or New York in an hour. The American OSS knew precisely the horrible possibilities of such a German breakthrough. The question was asked if the Germans were building those planes in some remote area of Spain or South America.

Allied headquarters in London sent 12 top agents into Germany, France and Spain and asked the American OSS to infiltrate these troop trains to ascertain German intentions. Three Americans were chosen, one of German descent and a graduate of Princeton Law School, another an ordained priest who later became Director of the CIA. They all spoke fluent German.

A fourth Spanish speaking agent was sent to neutral Spain, where in Seville he established himself for

three weeks to listen to Spanish railway men and observe Germans in Spanish uniforms, changing trains for a coastal destination. Two of the agents managed to get their messages to London in spite of being caught, and Allen Dulles got behind enemy territory and back without detection. This story of American espionage on German troop trains is said to be legendary in intelligence circles, and for sheer heroism it is one of the bravest and most dangerous wartime episodes ever recorded.

In an Atlanta restaurant, late one evening in April, 1976, the author sat with three survivors of the four original agents who penetrated the German railroad evacuation plot. The former agents, a Catholic priest, a Presbyterian and a Christian scientist, ate slowly. They talked and relived their train ride with the German troops. After the meal the priest, then a Cardinal, placed a bottle of wine on the table. 

Allen Dulles had brought it back from the 1943 episode on the train. Each year they would have a reunion and to the last survivor would go the German Wine. (In September, 1978 the heroic clergyman died in Rome.)

The reports of these agents began seeping back to London, and within 40 days, the allies were piecing  together a mystery.

Germans were cleverly executing a contingency plan for their troops and certain civilians to evacuate Germany for a second stronghold after battle defeats in Europe were no longer reversible.

Although the war tide had turned in favor of the allies, they had also been caught napping about alternate German intentions. But then, perhaps, never before in history had an army suffering defeat made contingent plans to abandon its homeland and revive the military venture elsewhere.

The collective reports from the American, British and French agents confirmed that crack German troops were being withdrawn from all fighting fronts and shipped to Spain. Furthermore, the three agents who had infiltrated the German troop trains reported that personnel on board comprised the essential manpower needed for a colonization attempt. These agents had identified a diversity of professions, business experts and workers disguised as soldiers and had actually spoken with doctors, dentists, teachers, architects, tool makers, machinists, etc., whose new oath on being verified for the train evacuation trips had required "unflinching and everlasting loyalty to the Third Reich and its Feuhrer."

The last stop for the German troop trains had been Hulva, and Aymonte, Spain. It would take another

espionage effort for the OSS to determine just what was happening at these Spanish ports, and on this requirement allied intelligence would focus next.

In the meantime in 1944, the reports of other agents, verified by aerial photography, also indicated unusual activity in German Baltic ports. Huge quantities of industrial equipment for overseas' shipment were beginning to appear at these docks. The allies wondered if the Germans were shipping their new round wing planes abroad for later use to strike from hidden bases.

About this time the Allies learned of a secret meeting held in Stausberg on August 10, 1944, wherein it was decided to remove all the gold and precious metal reserves from Germany for over seas shipment. Overseas, but to where?

Despite tight German security, the American OSS began to discern some obvious intentions. One, that there existed a German master plan to evacuate personnel and wealth from the fatherland to parts unknown during the height of the war, and two, that secret weapons were being shipped out, including an unconventional aircraft which the enemy had not committed to the fighting. Those assessments provided by allied intelligence left a major question unanswered. Why? And what secret weapon, or weapons, were so advanced or devastating that a determined Germany would not commit them when she was losing the war? And were they so advanced that she could safely gamble her future on them?

As the Allied Command also pondered German intentions in Spain, it was aware that although Spain

was neutral, General Franco, because of German threats, was under the German thumb.

London, therefore, concluded that Spain's importance to the enemy lay in the use of her Atlantic ports.

It was in conjunction with these intelligence summations that the first reports arrived regarding a new fleet of giant German submarines approximately 400 feet long and several decks high. Agents reported sightings of these subs in the vicinity of Aymonte and Hulva, Spain, and also at Baltic and Norwegian ports.

In 1944-1945 it was confirmed that the loading of these subs at Baltic potts with unusual machinery and equipment was secretly being carried on. The Norwegian underground picked up the super subs' trail. These reports pieced together told a tale. The giant underwater megaliths had left Germany, thence to Norway and along its coast northward to avoid Allied shipping lanes, and then west from Narvik toward Iceland in the North Atlantic. From a point below Iceland the subs steered an oblique southerly course which eventually took them to the Atlantic ports of Hulva and Aymonte, Spain.

At last the Allied command had solved the 1945 puzzle of the disappearing Germans. The answer was

obvious! The German troop trains puffing through France and Spain at night were eventually disembarking their passengers and other cargo at Spanish Atlantic ports, where from another direction, German ingenuity had brought together underseas transportation. Once the Germans had boarded the subs they were swallowed up quietly by the sea.

By V-E Day, the allies estimated over 250 thousand Germans had evacuated the country by various means, including air, submarines and even by merchant vessels flying American and British flags. But the enigma of where the unapprehended Germans were headed still eluded the Allies.

In April, 1945 the world press was preoccupied with the forthcoming German collapse. In a political agreement made by Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta, Allied armies were forced to mark time on the Western front while Russian troops took Eastern Europe and half of Germany, including Berlin. The German armies on the western front under Von Rundstedt fought delaying actions, their local commanders knowing that the end was near. Rumors were rife among the German High Command that Hitler was about to unleash secret weapons that would annihilate the enemy. And a similar German story circulated, that the Western allies would link up with the Germans at the Elbe and together, join the German army on the Eastern front and race for Moscow to contain communism.

All of these rumors of anticipated happenings circulating among the desperately besieged Germans had a ring of truth. And, in another way, and at another place, one of the supposed fantasies became a frightening reality.

As usual, the Allies were unprepared. When the tragedy occurred (gathered in 1977 from British and German sources) it bridged two eras. From that moment on, World War II became the last great chapter on mankind's history of conventional armaments. As a result of the tragic incident that followed, World War II may well be known as the last of the lengthy super land battles using explosives and gunpowder.

Involved in this terrible drama was one of the giant German submarines. She was one of those built secretly in 1944 and carried a cargo of top secret German plans, documents and proto types of new inventions. The sub was in the North Atlantic at an approximate position of 14° west and 35° north when her oxygen supply gave out due to malfunction of equipment. Unable to stay submerged, the leviathan slowly ascended from a depth of 2000 feet and its 12" thick hull of steel broke surface of the cold Atlantic at midnight on 23rd of April, 1945, within a mile of two British cruisers. Up went flares as the British ships opened fire on the German sub. Eight inch shells straddled the huge craft to get range, as an odd-shaped German gun appeared on the sub's hull. A pencil beam of laser homed in on the cruiser Cambden.

There was no battle thunder or fury from the sub. The ray silently pierced the darkness and flares, and in seconds a 20 foot diameter hole was cut from port to starboard through the first surface ship. Like a toy boat suddenly filled with water, the cruiser sank horizontally with a hissing of steam from the white  hot steel hull. Then the beam moved onto the second cruiser, Hanover, and as another 20 foot hole was opened, she burst into flames, and settled down in less than 30 seconds. 

Most of the ship's complement never reached their battle stations. Those on deck duty jumped overboard. In less than two minutes only some oil slick, air bubbles and flotsam appeared where the cruisers had stood. The German sub moved into range of the cruiser's former positions and machine gunned the survivors. The British flares settled into the sea and blackness again enveloped the area.

The German "V-Boat" Captain left his bridge and went below. Putting his head in his hands he bent over and sobbed. An officer consoled him with the words: "It was the enemy or us! Otherwise, we were to scuttle!

At dawn the next morning in the same area a British fishing trawler spotted three men on a piece of wreckage. The sailors, numb from exposure, were hauled aboard and three days later were landed in the Hebrides Islands. That day at Allied headquarters in London a telegram was received from the Hebrides at British Naval headquarters which shortly thereafter reached OSS General Donovan. As General Donovan read the graphic story of the Germalaser that cut holes like a can opener in the British cruisers, he put down the cryptic message and said, "My God! Oh, My God!" A new war age had just been bom. As a result of the naval engagement, the joint chiefs-of-staff asked the question: "Where are the missing German round wing planes that disappeared out of Germany, and" are they too equipped with lasers?" And from where was the enemy intending to strike with his hidden force of devastating new aircraft?

At combined Naval Operations in London, Allied Intelligence pondered where one of the laser equipped monster subs might strike next. Everything afloat on the sea lanes was now vulnerable.

But the enemy could not wait.

The German plan had already been released - they would use another of their twelve super subs in a

devastating naval engagement that, if it were successful, might bring the U.S.A. to its knees.

But an "accident of fate" would alter the German plan.

Here's how the story unfolds. Unknown to the allies in late 1944, the secretive and orderly German evacuation was preceeding well. Her top personnel which were needed to continue the Third Reich elsewhere were being removed by round wing planes and the super subs, the chief vehicles used among several withdrawal methods. But, Germans like Von Runstedt from whose area round wing planes were evacuating key personnel, refused to give travel priority to those Nazis responsible for Jewish exterminations. The truth is that most of the regular German general staff had disdain for these Nazis who were not wanted in the new Germany destined to rise in another part of the world. Furthermore, German embarkation officers in the Hulva and Aymonte also refused to place key Nazi killers on board the super subs.

Major Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's tough deputy, had gone personally to Von Runstedt in December, 1945 and demanded seats for himself and his top henchmen on the departing round wing planes. Von Runstedt had refused and so had Von Schusnick, the chief pilot. Thus the Nazis had to find their own way out of Europe to escape allied vengeance in the coming Nuremburg War Trials.

Nazi interference was forgotten by the architects of the German evacuation plan until April 18, 1945,

when on that day the Nazis made their moves and an encounter occurred in Alexandria, Egypt between German Nazis and German Naval personnel. A new super sub which had left the Island of Bornholm in the Baltic in early February lay off Alexandria. Egyptian tenders had ferried out regularly chosen escapees under the sympathetic eyes of Egyptian officers named Abel Gamel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, each of whom despised King Farouk and the British protectorate forces stationed in Egypt.

The giant war sub was full and sealed orders were opened for departure to the southern hemisphere when a German Nazi, Major Hauptman Schaemmel, came aboard and put a gun in the ribs of Lt. Commander Hans Meyers. He was ordered to disembark the 500 men. Another Nazi officer warned the naval commander that his wife and daughter were being held hostage in Bavaria to be killed immediately if the sub commander refused to obey. That night 500 German emigrants were replaced by an equal number of Nazi Germans who had made their way from Germany to Egypt via Italy by various escape methods. By morning the giant sub had slipped away and headed out through the Straits of Gibralter to the open Atlantic. But she was not alone. As the sub commander piloted his ship deep under the surface of the Mediterranean he was kept under watch. Above, on the surface, two British destroyers followed the underwater transport by sonar. As the sub neared Gibralter, the British made no attempt to stop it. More ships joined the surveillance and together the giant sub (with the German navy crew under the duress of nearly 500 Nazi masters) and its silent overhead escort, headed out across the Atlantic - revised destination, New York. The sub's new mission, unauthorized by the German Admiralty, was to be the most aggressive act of war the Nazis had devised for their final hours.

On the sub's foredeck was a long artillery piece with a 12" bore that could fire shells at the rate of 30

second intervals. It was claimed that explosives in the war heads (a triumph of German research) would pulverize the city of New York quickly and destroy a large part of its population. From New York rubble the sub's new directions were to take it into Chesapeake Bay where Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington would be levelled, and then to Halifax or Miami to complete the destruction. There was only one problem: the sub commander had not been told of the plans, although British intelligence was privy to the scheme from the moment it began shadowing the sub out of Egypt. The dash under the ocean to the U.S.A. went as planned. When the underwater giant reached American waters over 100 surface ships were waiting. Across New York Harbor stretched a bronze net, and underwater bells with search lights were suspended from barges. The net held. The lights shone down on the sub. Depth charges fell astride her thick hull. Impregnable even from the depth charges and torpedoes fired from allied subs, the 376 foot long monster backed off and headed out for deeper water.

"Where to now?" asked the sub commander, under the gun of Nazi General Osker Dirlewanger.

"To Miami. We'll shell it off the map from far out in deep water." The sub commander replied, "Indeed! 

And how do I surface to man the deck-gun when depth charges are tumbling onto our hull every minute?" Deeply submerged, the sub quarry headed south into the Straits of Florida, but she could not lose her 46 surface hunters, including American, British, Canadian and French vessels out of Martinique.

Fifty hours later, the giant German submarine found herself still being tracked in a channel which narrowed quickly. From fear of being trapped, the commander attempted to turn around. Depth charges had dirtied the water and visual directions were impossible to determine. Reverberations against the hull were continuous. Suddenly, the underwater ship stopped, unable to move. She lay to for several hours. Outside explosions ceased temporarily. An examination by divers showed she was down 200 feet and washed by turbulent currents. The long barreled gun specifically fitted to destroy the coastal cities of America was jammed into a crevice under the roof of a shark infested coral shelf. 

The divers' final words were: "The sub can never be freed." In a few moments word spread through the ship.

The depth charges became intermittent. The enemy above had abandoned the chase. But the sub was immoveable. The 500 Germans began to reflect on death by starvation or lack of oxygen in a craft that had become their tomb.

The commander made five trips out of the sub in the next three days. Each time he took off a Nazi, deposited him on shore and and returned with provisions or medications provided by collaborators. But the entombed men were beginning to succumb. Some of the Nazis screamed obscenities, others had nightmares. Murders were committed to steal rations for survival. On the commander's fifth trip back tothe sub, some of the victims were reduced to crawling. Water and rations were almost exhausted.

After a conference it was decided that in order to save lives the commander and one top Nazi should surrender to the American authorities. As strategy discussions continued, Nazi Major Schaemmel slipped away and relieved the guard in the commander's control room. As the first guard departed, Schaemmel put a gun to the head of Commander Meyers and articulated forcefully: "You are my hostage. Obey every word or I'll kill you! Move in a normal way to the lower escape hatch! You and I

are going to leave - alone!" So Lt. Commander Hans Meyers and Nazi Major Hauptman Schaemmel left the tomb on the small two man escape sub. They were never to return. Within ten hours the two had beached their sub off Elliot Key, surrendered to an American naval unit, been transported to Key

West under guard and had boarded a plane for Washington. But time was running out for the sub commander. One of the five escaped Nazis whom he had taken out a few days earlier had, on separating, threatened: "You deliberately steered us into this trap. When I get to a short wave radio, I'll signal our people overseas to kill your wife and daughter. They are still my hostages."

The first morning after their departure from the German sub, on April 29, 1945, the two Germans were in the White House under guard flanked by Navy Intelligence officers.

In front of them sat the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, in office since April 13, 1945.

The sub commander spoke. His sad blue eyes told of the human cargo left on board that would die if the Americans (whom they had been sent to kill) did not rescue them. During the interrogation, the commander explained his predicament: he had about 500 men with 'supplies exhausted; he had no passenger list. He explained that the first sub load had been bumped in Alexandria. But regardless, the sub commander asked that all lives be saved. As President Truman deliberated, the Nazi, Major Schaemmel, asked to speak without the presence of the sub commander who was then led out of the room.

Standing before the Naval Intelligence officers (whose names are withheld for security reasons) and President Truman, the prisoner began to speak. Suddenly his diction sounded unmistakably American. 

As he continued, Truman's jaw dropped in disbelief. These are the words he heard:

"I am not Major Hauptman Schaemmel, a Gestapo agent. My official rank and name is Col. Walter Schellenberg} and my secret ass number is 78. General William Donovan, head of the OSS will verify this. Please have an officer make contact." Then, as the amazed President and intelligence personnel looked on, the Nazi impersonator saluted the President and withdrew from his sleeve a list of almost 500 true names of the German Nazi personnel from the stricken sub.

"I beg you, Mr. President, these are the real names of those beasts in that God forsaken sub. The sub commander is not aware what terrible substitution of personnel was made in Alexandria. Under  direct orders from Hitler, I was responsible for rounding up these infamous men and placing them on that sub." "When did you infiltrate the Nazis?" the President asked. 

Col. Schellenberg replied, "In 1942 I was dropped in Switzerland."

President Truman strode around the desk before the OSS agent. "Only God could have arranged your

being in front of me today with this information. Welcome home and let me shake hands with a brave

man." Then the President read the partial list of those Nazis on the sub } and handed it to one of the

Intelligence officers. Some of the names and particulars are as follows:

No. 1. FRANZ NOVAK: Adolph Eichmann's Transportation officer. It was his job to arrange

transportation for those undesirable Jews from point of arrest to place of execution and disposal.

No. 2. THEODOR DANNECKER: In charge of deporting Jews of France, Belgium and Italy to then-

places of execution.

No. 3. HEINZ ROETHKE: Eichmann's Deputy in Charge of disposing of undesirable Jews in Paris.

He directed the others who arrested and deported the Paris Jews. He is supposed to have completely

eliminated all known Jews in Paris.

No. 4. DR. ERNST WETZEL: He operated a gas chamber in Poland. The official name was Elimination Camp for Undesirables.

No. 5. WILHELM ZOEPF: In charge of sending Dutch Jews to the gas chamber and was in complete charge of this operation throughout the country. Boasted that he didn't leave a known Dutch Jew alive; he was thorough in his operations. He is known to have had over a half million Jews exterminated from Holland alone.

No.6. HERMAN KRUMEY: In charge of Jewish extermination in Hungary. Known to have sent over four hundred thousand Jews to their deaths. In complete charge of operating gas chambers in Hungary.

No.7. OTTO HUESCHE: Executed 100,000 Jews in gas chambers. Bragged about the number of Jews he executed.

No.8. MAJOR GENERAL OSKER DIRLEWANGER: Before the war, a convicted criminal who committed sex crimes on young boys, spending five years in a Bavarian prison for this. In charge of the toughest S.S. men who in return were in charge of the extermination camps for unwanted Jews.

No.9. LEOPOLD GLEEVI: Chief of Gestapo in Warsaw. After the war he turned up in Egypt, was given an Egyptian name and was in Nasser's service. One of the escapees from the Sub.

No. 10. LOUIS HEIDEN: Translated Hitler's "Mein Kampf ' into other languages and served the Fuehrer in other capacities.

No. 1 1. HANS APPLER: Killed 100,000 Jews in the gas chambers. Escaped from the Sub, was deported by the United States and rather than risk being tried as a war criminal, made his way to Egypt and is how believed to be in the Egyptian diplomatic service.

No. 12. WILLIAM BOECKELER: Killed over 100,000 Jews in the concentration camps.

No. 13. KARL HOLTER: A former Gestapo Officer who was in charge of the arrest and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews.

No. 14. ALBERT THIELMANN: A retired school teacher who joined the party after Hitler came to power and was responsible for the gassing of over 100,000 Jews.

No. 15. BRIG. GENERAL WARNER BLANKENBERG: Responsible for the murder of over 100,000 Jews in the gas chambers.

No. 16. HANS BOTHMANN: Was in charge of the ehmination squad in Poland and all gas chambers

there. Under his jurisdiction over half a million Jews died.

No. 17. LT. GENERAL FREDERICH KATZMANN: Murdered 434,329 Jews in Poland alone.

No. 18. JAN DURCANSKY: In charge of all the Jewish extermination camps in Austria and

Northern Italy.

No. 19. DR. F. W. SIEBERT: Invented and produced the six pointed metal star which Nazis required

Jews to wear. All who wore this were liable at any time to be seized and sent to an extermination

camp.

No. 20. DR. KARL STAENGE: In charge of the death camps in Yugoslavia. Took over an old Brick

Yard in Belegrade and roasted Jews alive in the kilns.

No. 21. FRANZ RADEMACHER: Exterminated 15,000 Yugoslavian Jews. Listed as a dangerous

man.

No. 22. DR. HANS EISELE: Exterminated over half a million Jews in the Ukraine by having them thrown in pits, spraying gasoline over them and setting them on fire. After the fires died out, the half

roasted bodies were used to feed the hogs.

No. 23. LT. GENERAL HEINZ KAMMLER: An expert on gas chamber construction having been a concrete construction engineer before the war. Perfected the gas chambers for a four minute kill. Later in charge of the round wing plane plants.

No. 24. DR. MAX MERTEN: In charge of Jewish extermination in Greece and under his leadership

over 60,000 Greek Jews were killed.

No. 25. MATTIAS RAFFELBERG: Had over a half million Jews murdered in Russia and Poland.

No. 26. MAJ. OTTO SKORZENY: The most wanted man in Europe. Called the toughest man alive.

A Hitler favorite who rescued Mussolini. Escaped from sub.

No. 27. DR. RUDOLPH MJEDNER: The Gestapo Chief in Denmark, in charge of the elimination of

Danish Jews. Had over 100,000 executed.

No. 28. DR. PAUL WALTER: Concentration camp commander in Poland. Was responsible for over

a hundred thousand Jewish deaths by extermination and experimentation. Performed amputations

without anesthetics. His favorite expression on recording a death: "So what! Another Jew out of the

way!" The authors read Walter's final page from his diary of a day's work written in Jewish blood.

No. 29. DR. WJLHELM WJTTELER: In charge of the gas chambers in Latvia, and collected Jews for

deportation.

No. 30. KURT HEINBURG: Was in charge of all Jewish extermination in Serbia.

No. 31. HANS HOEFLE: Responsible for murdering over 100,000 Jews in Poland.

No. 32. WALTER CASPAR TOEBBENS: A Dutch Nazi who made millions of dollars by making Jews work free of charge in his factories. Those who became sick or incapacitated were killed on the spot.

No. 33. ANDRIJA ARTUKOVIC: Under his able administration over 80% of Yugoslavia's Jews were wiped out. The Jewish population of Zagreb was 12,315 before the war and 1,647 after. From Mostar a train took six car loads of Jewish mothers and children to the station at Sumaci. There they were forced to walk up into high mountains where they were thrown off steep cliffs. At Korencia, Jews   were tied in bundles and rolled into pits, covered with gasoline and then burned alive.

No. 34. HEINRICH "Gestapo" MUELLER: A policeman who rose to be Bavarian Chief of Police. Later rose to be a Lt. General in the S.S. (Security Police). Organized the Gestapo on the model of the Russian M.V.D. His organization murdered most of Europe's Jews.

As the President perused the list his face turned pale. He hurled invective across the room: "Die, you evil bastards, and be buried alive in your own tomb of the damned! I hope your crimes haunt you through Hell!" Then he lowered his voice to a clipped tone of command and addressed a navy officer. 

"No attempt will be made to save that infernal submarine. The death of those decent young crew members may be accounted to me in eternity. God forgive me for their sakes!"

The Lt. Commander was brought back into the room and the President thanked him for his honesty.  "We must detain you, Sir," said President Truman, "but is there anything I can do for your comfort?" On that offer of aid, the U-boat commander blurted out the dilemma of his wife and daughter being held in a cave in Bavaria. Col. Schellenberg concurred. Capt. Meyers begged for help. He told of the threat to kill his family made by the departing German escapee.

Truman acted immediately. "Round up those German Nazis who escaped from the sub!" As he spoke,

the phone call of General William Donovan, OSS chief, was put through to the President. He identified the American agent, whereupon the President ordered a parachute rescue team to land in Germany in an attempt to save the commander's wife and young daughter being held as hostages. Two nights later, with the sanction of Prime Minister Churchill, a combined American/British team landed in a mountainous area of Bavaria.

As the German waited under detention at a Washington officers' club, a messenger came to his room and requested to speak to the German in his own tongue. The intelligence officer began, "I have a message for you from the President of the United States: Your wife and daughter were rescued last  night and are safely in Switzerland. There were several German casualties among those guarding your family - but all our men came back safely. We must intern you, but someday we hope you'll bere-united." The U-boat commander broke down and wept.

Meanwhile, the cries of the damned in the beached submarine would rise for a few more days before they would be stifled in their underwater tomb off Florida.

American naval records, captured German records, interviews with the super sub commander and OSS files were used in preparing this episode. After 2-1/2 years-in prison, the commander was acquitted at the Nuremburg War Crime Trials in 1947 of any deliberate wrong doing while on the sub  of the damned. In 1953 he emigrated to America with his family.

Col. Walter Schellenberg was promoted to Brigadier General and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery given by the United States. Great Britain awarded him its highest honour for valor, the Victoria Cross. The French Ambassador to the U.S.A. pinned on him the Legion of Honour. King George VI asked Schellenberg if he would accept a Knighthood, but the American graciously declined. After the war he settled down anonymously in an American city with the abiding wish that he never again go to war.

Many other details on the OSS espionage action and the underwater trip of the "sub of the damned"

have been omitted for the sake of brevity.

By World War It's end, the allies had enough information to comprehend Part I of the German evacuation plan, which, in effect, was the removal of the elite of their armies and technicians, from Europe. As mentioned before, by December 1944, enemy rail movements ending in the Port of Aymonte, Spain, had been observed and verified. And in the north, evidence of the super sub route was being carefully examined. Any allied doubts that the Germans had not returned to the Atlantic in underseas craft were cast aside after the British cruisers were sunk.

Logic evolved from the intelligence disclosures categorically sought the answer to this question: Where are the vanishing Germans disappearing to on their carefully planned exodus route? It was at this juncture in the Allied intelligence dilemma that OSS analysis from New York told of an expanding

presence of Germans in Central and South America. And from Brazil to Argentina unconfirmed reports began trickling out of the southern hemisphere of unidentified flying objects being seen in the air and on the ground.

It was too early in 1944-45 to be certain of German intentions, but General Eisenhower and General Donovan are quoted as wondering if the official surrender of German armies in Europe might be only a gesture - and that the many Germans who got away would fight again on another day  and at another place.

Subsequent to the actual German surrender many questions were still unanswered such as the whereabouts of numerous well known German political, scientific and service personnel. Too many were unaccounted for to be lost in battle, displaced, or incarcerated in prisoner of war camps - unless they had been taken to Russia. Also, while searching for the missing, it was noted that many German dependents and relatives failed to show grief.

"Somewhere," said General Eisenhower, "I feel another Germany is being bom, and I would rather  we were the confidants of these Germans than the Russians."

Another key remark by German Admiral Doenitz in 1943 almost certainly indicated a mass German  emigration. Doenitz declared: "The German underwater fleet is proud to have made an earthly paradise, an impregnable fortress for the Fuehrer somewhere in the world." The phrase "in the world" was later to  prove prophetic.

The authors have interviewed many key witnesses including several former Nazis, the German Embassy in Washington, and high intelligence sources in America, and all agreed that the German Chief of State, Adolph Hitler, left Germany alive. The only difference in telling of the planned escape was the time of  departure, the route, and the method.

On December 15, 1944, General Eisenhower called a most secret meeting of the High Command in London, England. Present were the Allied Chiefs-of-Staff including those from free France, Denmark,   Holland, Belgium, Norway, etc. General Eisenhower's purpose was two-fold as he turned over the briefing to General William Donovan and his assistant, who were asked to record and take notes. The   assistant was the same one sent to Spain for observation of German troop arrivals at Seville. General  Donovan began: "Gentlemen, for several weeks our agents have been watching secret movements of Germans through France to Spain. Our first opinion was that the enemy was planning a surprise attack on the coast of North Africa. We diverted divisions of troops and kept them in readiness for this anticipated attack - but, as you all know, it never came.

"Now we are certain that these untold thousands of German troops have used Spanish ports to disappear in a way still uncertain to us."

The General paused, looked around at the group of Allied Chiefs-of-Staff, and then slowly continued.

"Perhaps one of those Germans who disappeared through Spain was the German leader, Adolph Hitler." The room was hushed and the General's assistant looked up at a sea of astonished faces. Then several individuals rose at once to ask questions. The General stated he would answer only half a dozen, and those who were not satisfied could personally have a brief audience with him after the meeting.

The first questioned asked, "Who's in charge in Germany" Answer: "Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz is said to be the leader, but General Von Runstedt seems to be the one making the real nuts and bolts military decisions."

Another assertion was made that Hitler had been seen lately; therefore, would not the story of his departure likely be a case of German deception?"

Donovan's reply was cryptic. "A double is in Hitler's place. Our Berlin agents say so, and the British

and Russian governments agree, that an imposter, instructed by Goebbels, Bormann and Ley rules in

Hitler's place. The man is not Hitler gone mad. He is a double under the control of others."

Donovan concluded the meeting by saying he believed the disappearance of Adolph Hitler was directly related to the dispersal of entire German armies. He told his cabinet that when the German armies were uncovered the real Hitler would also be found. The OSS Chief said he was convinced of Hitler's personal and family exodus. Our next task he told them will be to pick up the trail of the German leader and his troops in South America.

After the Allied briefing, General Donovan flew back to Washington, On arrival he immediately  called a special meeting of OSS Caribbean Intelligence and his Brazilian Bureau. Donovan's earlier hunches paid off. Into New York, the Wartime nerve center for America's western hemisphere intelligence, the coded reports of German arrivals throughout South America kept cable lines busy.

Today, a confidential report by the CIA concedes: "The body found in the bunker was not that of Hitler, for among other things, neither fingerprints, nor dental work matched Hitler's. Until 1974, the  true Adolph Hitler, nor a corpse proven to be his had ever been located." The words "until 1974" are significant, and will be explained later.

The story of Hitler's heroic last minute May 1945 flight out of besieged Berlin was a cleverly contrived German ruse, in the opinion of Judge Advocate General John P. Davis of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. Although Christina Edderer said it was the real Hitler whom she flew to Norway, records of the Nuremberg trials state that Christina Edderer was a courageous woman, but an unsatisfactory witness, jailed for perjury under oath. When the authors questioned Edderer in 1975 they were not convinced that the story she told was valid regarding her version of the Hitler escape.

In retrospect, the reader should recall that Hitler's master plan was to win World War JJ. When this master plan was thwarted, the alternate plan was to move their national endeavor to another land, free from enemy intervention. Execution of Phase I in the alternate plan was begun seriously in 1943, and when finished in 1954 saw three million Germans and other resources successfully evacuated.

Regardless of the low esteem certain German Generals had for Hitler, he was revered and adored by the German masses. His hero and leader image was never seriously challenged. His ability to arouse all the patriotic emotions of German society was never in doubt. However, Hitler was also an idealistic believer in a new Utopia for Germany, and according to his close associates, that zeal to develop a new Germany was such an inherent part of his makeup that it never waned — even when Germany military defeat was obvious.

Therefore, Hitler was the key to the German evacuation, and this fact will later be proven to be true beyond any doubt. In addition to Hitler's prominent role in the evacuation another more human side of his life is perhaps as important.

Hitler and Eva Braun were legally married on April 29, 1945 but their first bom son Adolph Hitler n, was bom in 1940, five years before their marriage. Hitler was said to be the father.

Back in October, 1944, a select German group, working from a schedule compiled on August 10 in

Saltzberg, decided to implement operation "Get Lost." Hitler was to be the catalyst.

All the art treasures, scientific developments, and treasury bullion which Germany possessed were  first scheduled to be hidden or removed. First to be safely removed, however, would be the Fuehrer. Over Hitler's protests he was asked to pack immediately his personal possessions and leave Germany for the new land. A double stood by to assume the Fuehrer's role and he would continue under the tutelage and surveillance of Bormann, Goebbels and Ley.

The Fuehrer's party left Berlin by motorcade, travelling at night, and safe harboring during the day to avoid Allied aircraft. The party consisted of Hitler and his wife Eva, their four year old son, Adolph n, and a twelve year old adopted orphan boy, David.

Over widetrack French railroads, still travelling at night, Hitler and his party reached Spain. They were transferred to narrow Spanish track railcars, eventually reaching La-Aljaferia Castle in Zaragoza. There Hitler met his Spanish confidant who was to act as advisor and escort. (It is from this highly respected Spaniard, that the authors, while researching in Spain, verified how Hitler left Europe.)

Hitler was outfitted in a Spanish business suit, his moustache removed and his hair style changed. His wife, Eva, was outfitted as a middle-class Spanish woman, and the boy David became a Spanish youth.

Spanish tutoring complete, at 3:00 A.M. on the morning of November 5, 1944, Hitler and party vacated the castle by motor car with his Spanish confidant as chauffeur. Through Valencia and on to Seville they traveled, resting the first night in the Colon Hotel. The next day the trip was resumed to Hulvia and finally Aymonte where rooms were provided in another hotel. The following night, November 7, after taking leave of his Spanish guide and friend, Hitler and his family were taken on board a super sub, along with 500 other Germans. During Hitler's stay in Aymonte and for three days thereafter, Generalissimo Franco had placed the area under martial law. (Allied intelligence never learned the secret of Hitler's departure until long after World War H) As the super sub slipped beneath the water she headed southwest. For the next 18 days, in an 8 x 10 cabin, Hitler and his family shared living and sleeping quarters. Two leather covered chairs, four bunks and a radio for the Fuehrer and his family were the accessories." There were two doctors in attendance on board the submarine for the 500 passengers, submarine crew and Hitler and his family.

The Allies knew Hitler had fled. The Nuremberg War Trials had created an unspoken climate of official concern that he would return incognito to Germany to become a symbol for Germany's renaissance.

In 1945 America decided to go after Hitler. But the secrets they discovered in South America and the Antarctic were so fantastic, so seemingly incredible, that telling the details to the world was as difficult as explaining that men from Mars had already landed on earth.

Back in New York, more OSS reports told of additional German arrivals in South America. The Germans were flooding into Belem and other river ports, as well as air strips in Brazil's Amazon Valley, Leticia in Colombia and Georgetown, British Guiana.

The Germans always appeared to be in transit. At that point General Donovan personally went to Brazil to direct operations. American agents posed as rubber, precious metals and timber buyers along the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. They learned an amazing thing. Germans were appearing from hidden staging camps 3,000 miles up the Amazon beyond Obidas and even Manaus. From here they were traced heading south toward the headwaters of the Amazon where their trail often led up the still navigable Maran River, a tributary of the Amazon, but went cold in the vicinity of

Iquitos, Ecuador. As one OSS Agent's report from Iquitos said, "The Germans arrive here in local dress by the thousands - but they never leave. They are literally being swallowed up by the earth."

Neither local Brazilians, or the Indians - if they knew could explain the "Kraut" vanishing act. While at Manaus and Rio de Janeiro, Germans in civilian dress also were seen departing by air for Buenos Aires and Montevideo, where they again were observed leaving in private and chartered planes for the interior of Argentina. One agent reported in February, 1945, "that these VIPs in their hauteur andarrogance were like a newly formed German General Staff."

But World War U would end, Allied troops would demobilize, and another two years would go by before just what had happened for sure to Adolf Hitler and a core of hundreds of thousands of select Germans who vanished from the Fatherland.

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