To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

Nineteen. Bypassing the Official Channels

swings around and races at full speed into the rows of our own mines, which are anchored here at a depth of only 2 meters. Before I can fully grasp the horror of the situation, U-14 has already gone through them in a wide arc, and the mines are left behind. This time all the guardian angels must have helped together! So, now the rudder is broken, too. At 10 degrees to port in the narrow mine passage it gets stuck and lets the boat travel full speed through her own mines. “By the way, the reconstruction!” I say as we disembark. “Vio, you are the best technician of all of us; you can work out the request for the proposed repairs!” Nineteen.Bypassing the Official Channels The requested rebuilding has been granted. U-14 has hardly arrived in Pola when I am ordered to the fleet command so I can personally explain my requests. An entire board of inquiry convenes to judge my petitions. None of those present has actually been on a U-boat, except possibly on a short peacetime trip. But I find complete sympathy for my suggestions. Everything is agreed to, except for the cannon I requested. I insist on an 8.8-centimeter cannon. It shoots much farther than the 65-mm Skoda normally allocated and is the strongest caliber that the boat can endure. Naturally its effect is something completely different. The ordnance officer hesitates: “An unusual caliber! Where are you going to get the ammunition for it? This has never happened yet! To make an exception for a U-boat! How can a new cannon be inventoried?” I see no difficulties. I have already spoken with the German U-boat station. I can get as much ammunition as I want; also, we are at war, and the cannons are there to shoot and not for inventory. 84 BYPASSINGTHE OFFICIAL CHANNELS “Well, we’ll see.” U-14 lies at Olive Island in Pola. The shipyard workers pour into the boat and rip everything out. The only thing left is the empty hull. The engines go to Graz where new diesels are manufactured at the railroad car factory. In Graz, machinist mate Mayerhofer has to demonstrate the engine once more. He who had cursed the old thing so often because it caused him so much work, irritation , anxiety, sleepless nights, and ruined Sundays. He is as happy as a child. So he lets the dismantled engine be moved into the factory and assembles it there. “Just you wait, you . . .” he murmurs and is full of vengeful thoughts. The mere idea that he should demonstrate it again for a trial angers him. So there are still men who think in all seriousness that there could be something left to repair or to patch on this engine . . . ? But he knows that this will be its swan song. BYPASSINGTHE OFFICIAL CHANNELS 85 Fig. 16. Setting torpedoes in the harbor As soon as he is finished, the committee appears. Mayerhofer turns on the engine only to half speed. Why, the engine “runs like clockwork!” He lets it run faster, and soon he hears the wellknown rumble, the irregular surges that he knows only too well. This noise had often woken him out of many a deep sleep. And he almost thinks he hears the voice of his commander: “Mayherhofer , your equipment is breaking down again!” He lets the engine run faster and faster, respectfully asks the committee to move back a few steps as a precaution, and finally switches it to full speed. On board he never would have dared do that, but he has been looking forward to this moment for hours. A rumble goes through the engine, a coughing . . . a crash . . . and pieces fall off. “I am completely amazed at how long you have been able to make this thing run!” says the committee’s director, full of sincere appreciation for him. Fig. 17. A Russian provision ship captured during the war 86 BYPASSINGTHE OFFICIAL CHANNELS Mayerhofer has survived his test. The engine was really ready for scrap iron. A conning tower is cast at the Skoda works, new steel plates come from Witkowitz, and parts that the sea arsenal cannot manufacture by itself arrive from all regions of the monarchy. It is now time to think of the cannon’s pedestal. In the arsenal they talk of a 65-mm Skoda...