[ijnfleetadmiral]

The following is part of an interview with retired Kriegsmarine Generaladmiral Kurt Hossel, telling the other side of the sinking of HMT Titanic.

When this happened, we had been on patrol since 12 December 1944. None of us were very happy at once again being 'lucky' enough to be spending Christmas far out in the Atlantic instead of home in the bomb shelters with our families, but we made the best of it that we could.

We'd celebrated New Year's the night before with a simple toast of cognac by all crewmembers. Normally I wouldn't have allowed this, but I made an exception for the holiday. We were SSE of Bermuda when my Sonar Operator picked up a merchant at medium speed. Naturally we made to intercept, for we hadn't sighted a damn thing our entire patrol...not even a hunter-killer group.

At 1038, I rose the periscope and was stunned to see an enormous four-funnel liner steaming practically right towards us. As best I could guess it, she was moving at around 10 knots or so. I knew it could only be Titanic, but we knew she was supposed to be far North of here, transporting the British Blowhard back to England after a conference with the ailing Roosevelt. I always had a bit of sympathy for that man, and for his eventual successor Truman, for having to deal with the British Blowhard cannot have been easy.

I informed my crew of what was heading towards us, and excitement was prevalent throughout the boat. Indeed, it seemed that the boat herself was trembling with anticipation. At 1042, the range was down to around 2,100 yards. I fired Tubes 1, 2, and 3 and waited. Two minutes later, a torpedo hit the hull abreast the third funnel and exploded, sending a huge column of water into the air. This hit did not finish her, but appeared to merely slow her down, for her speed dropped to around 6 knots after this hit.

Even so, I knew we had her. At 1045, I fired Tubes 4, 5, and 6 and all three hit not a minute later, so close were we to the target by now; I estimated the range to be less than 600 yards. There appeared to be fires breaking out on board, for when I looked through the periscope I saw black smoke coming from the base of the first and second funnels, especially around the latter.

I didn't see her final plunge, but at 1054, my Sonar Operator reported breaking up noises and sounds of her heading to the bottom. We surfaced and reversed course, heading back to the area of the sinking in the hopes of finding the British Blowhard alive. When we reached the survivors, we stopped our engines and I ordered three parties into rafts over the side to search the survivors both in the lifeboats and in the water.

I wished we could've done more for the survivors, but we had to move on all too soon. We gave those in the boats every ounce of alcoholic beverages on board, telling them to ration it out and that it would help keep them warm. Churchill was in the third lifeboat we searched, and we captured him without much fuss. Once we captured him, the rafts were ordered back to the ship. We then gave the survivors a bearing on Bermuda and submerged again.

Once submerged, we set course back to Lorient. We strapped Churchill to an empty bunk and our Medic drugged him heavily with morphine to keep him quiet. He spent the entire trip back to Lorient in a morphine-induced sleep, for I have no doubt that if we had not kept him in this state, he would've used everything in his power to get us detected and probably sunk.

We returned to Lorient on 11 January 1945. As soon as we docked, I turned Churchill over to an SS detachment which met our boat, and that was the last I ever saw of him. I learned later he was transported to Berlin, where he met the same fate as the conspirators of the 20 July plot...garroted on a meathook with piano wire. I understand Himmler and Goebbels both witnessed his final moments, and it was filmed for the Fuhrer's enjoyment later.

For capturing Churchill, I was personally promoted Generaladmiral by the Fuhrer, and those crewmembers who personally captured him were all awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class.