Retyped for clarity on November 6, 1999 by Joseph Betters
Received from John Johnson at the 1999 Vance Reunion.

From an unknown newspaper article.

SUBMERGED U-BOAT SPENT DAY IN U.S. HARBOR, SKIPPER REVEALS

Portsmouth, N.H. - (INS)

An officer of a captured German U-boat revealed today that his underseas raider once spent a full day submerged in Portsmouth harbor to obtain data on Atlantic convoys.

The startling story came from a petty officer aboard the U873 which recently arrived in Portsmouth under naval escort. The year, he said, was 1943.

He revealed the U-boats secret visit when a Coast Guard crew officer broke out a chart of the harbor as the submarine was being escorted into port after surrender..

"I don't need that," the German man smiled. "We were submerged for a whole day in Portsmouth harbor in 1943."

Meanwhile, a plea by Oberleutnant Frederik Wilhelm Marienfeld, skipper of the U-1228, another surrendered sub, that U-boat crew be treated "like brothers" by American naval men fell on deaf ears.

Naval authorities turned Marienfeld over to the Army's military police to be treated as any other prisoner of war of his rank.

The 25-year-old submarine commander said:
"Now that the war is over, crew of surrendered submarines should be treated like brothers instead of as prisoners of war."

Marienfeld talked freely to naval officers, revealing that he believed American authorities would take drastic action against Germany if submarines did not surrender.

"No Nazi submarine commander would dare resist capture," he said, "because for every such act of treachery 100,000 Germans would be killed in retaliation,"

No additional arrival of U-boats were expected at Portsmouth until Saturday, when the 1,600-ton U-234 bearing German aviation plans, three Luftwaffe major generals and the bodies of two Jap suicides is due.

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