Operation Kiebitz was a failed German operation during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
to organize the escape of four skilled
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
commanders from a Canadian
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
camp in
Bowmanville
Bowmanville is a town of approximately 40,000 people located in the Municipality of Clarington, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately east of Toronto, and east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a to ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. The subsequent counter operation by the
Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submar ...
, Operation ''Pointe Maisonnette'', became a key engagement in the
Battle of the St. Lawrence
The Battle of the St. Lawrence involved marine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Strait of Belle Isle, Anticosti Island and Cabot Strait from May–October 1942, September ...
and was also successful in thwarting the Germans' plan.
Prisoner escape plan
The plan was developed by the ''
Kriegsmarine'' in 1942 and was to be executed in September 1943. Horst Elfe;
captain of , Hans Ey; captain of ,
Otto Kretschmer
Otto Kretschmer (1 May 1912 – 5 August 1998) was a German naval officer and submariner in World War II and the Cold War.
From September 1939 until his capture in March 1941 he sank 44 ships, including one warship, a total of 274,333 tons. For ...
; captain of , and Hans Joachim Knebel-Döberitz;
executive officer of ''U-99'', would escape from
Camp 30 in Bowmanville and make their way through eastern Canada to northern
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
, where they would rendezvous with a U-boat off
Pointe de Maisonnette on
Chaleur Bay. Knebel-Döberitz was the former
adjutant of Admiral
Karl Dönitz and along with Kretschmer were thought to be the primary reason behind this risky operation. Had it been successful, it would have been sensational
propaganda material for the German war machine.
Coded messages were sent by mail through the
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
to the German prisoners at Camp 30 in Bowmanville, east of
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. These messages were intercepted by Canadian military intelligence and Canadian police who were screening all prisoner communications. The Canadian authorities did not tip off the prisoners that their plans were detected as the Royal Canadian Navy was hoping to get a rare chance to seize a German U-boat in Canadian waters; a feat that would have been an intelligence coup for the
Allied navies.
Tunnelling
The military,
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
("Mounties") and camp guards monitored the German prisoners as they began to secretly dig several tunnels, at least one of which would eventually lead outside the camp boundaries. The tunnellers also created a crude railway that could haul the soil out of the tunnel, allowing the work to proceed more quickly and efficiently. At one point the excavated dirt from one of the tunnels collapsed part of the ceiling in a camp building where it was being hidden. The camp guards, aware of the ruse, did not stop the project.
As the date of the escape attempt drew closer, the Mounties and military guards moved in and seized the prisoners as they sought to implement their plan and collapsed the tunnel. In desperation, one of the ''Kriegsmarine'' officers,
Wolfgang Heyda, captain of
''U-434'', managed to escape over the camp walls using a crude zip-wire on electrical cables. Heyda eluded search parties and the massive police response and somehow made his way on
Canadian National Railways passenger trains from southern Ontario to Pointe de Maisonnette. Heyda arrived at the location at the appointed time only to be arrested by Mounties and naval personnel, who were waiting to co-ordinate a surface task force that would attempt to attack and or seize the U-boat.
Operation ''Pointe Maisonnette''
In order to capture the U-boat, the Royal Canadian Navy and the
Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...
established a portable surface
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
array on shore at the
Pointe de Maisonnette (New Brunswick) lighthouse, which would be used to locate the submarine by a task force of several warships centred on . ''Rimouski'' was outfitted with an experimental diffuse lighting system that was considered revolutionary at the time. She and the rest of the task group, under the command of
Desmond Piers were hidden nearby to wait for the German submarine.
, which had been tasked with picking up the escaping naval officers, arrived off Pointe de Maisonnette at the appointed time on the night of September 26, 1943. The Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army personnel on shore signaled with a light that the escapees were to have used. However the U-boat commander was suspicious, particularly after his hydrophones picked up the sound of the Canadian task group nearby. He opted to remain submerged and began to evade the Canadian warships, which searched throughout the night and attempted unsuccessfully to attack ''U-536'' with
depth charges.
Despite evading the Canadians' trap in Chaleur Bay that September, ''U-536'' was sunk the following month northeast of the
Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
, map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
by one British and two Canadian warships, claiming 38 lives.
In fiction
The events of Operation Kiebitz inspired the
Sidney Shelley POW novel ''The Bowmanville Break'' in 1968. A 1970 film adaptation of the book, titled
The McKenzie Break
''The McKenzie Break'' is a 1970 British war drama film starring Brian Keith as Jack Connor, an intelligence officer investigating recent disturbances at a prisoner of war (POW) camp in Scotland. The Nazi German POWs are led by the charismatic ...
moves the string from Canada to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. The film features the escape of approximately thirty U-boat men (who murder several of their fellow prisoners to facilitate the escape), and all but the leader and a few others successfully make it to the waiting submarine before it is forced to flee due to the presence of Allied planes. In the book, Operation Kiebitz (which is referred to by name) is meant to liberate thirty German submariners rather than four, but their tunnel prematurely collapses, so only three men make it to the rendezvous point. The escape of the empty-handed ''U-536'' is included, but a second submarine is also present in the book, and battles with the Allied ships and planes while the ''U-536'' escapes. The antagonist of the story and leader of the escape is based on Kretschmer, which is especially notable in the book. In both versions, the escape is being done less for propaganda reasons and more to give the Nazis experienced submarine crewmen for the losing war effort. In the book, it is hoped that their contributions might help Germany sue for peace on better terms, while in the film, the plan's leader seems to arrogantly believe that they can change the scope of the war.
See also
*
Great Papago Escape
The Great Papago Escape was the largest Axis prisoner-of-war escape to occur from an American facility during World War II. On the night of December 23, 1944, twenty-five Germans tunneled out of Camp Papago Park, near Phoenix, Arizona, and fled ...
Citations
References
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External links
OPERATION KIEBITZ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiebitz, Operation
History of the Royal Canadian Navy
1943 in Canada
Military history of Canada during World War II
POW escapes and rescues during World War II
Naval battles of World War II involving Canada
1943 in Ontario