Like Hemingway on a fishing boat fought against

History 13/01/20 Like Hemingway on a fishing boat fought against “wolf packs” of Hitler

“All this war I had hoped to fight together with the troops of the Soviet Union and see how good you fight, but I don’t considered myself entitled to be a war correspondent in your ranks, first, because I don’t speak Russian, and, secondly, because I thought I would be useful in the destruction of the “stalk” (as we called the Germans) on another job. Almost two years I spent at sea in heavy jobs”. (Hemingway, letter to K. Simonov. June 20, 1946)

“Papa Carl”

Although the main battles of the Second world war were in Europe, its echoes were felt across the Atlantic, and especially in the Caribbean. At the time, Cuba has moved many adherents of General Franco and the fascist agents to supply information to German submarines, kreisiraadio off the North coast of Cuba and attacked the allied tankers that carried oil from the ports of Venezuela to the United States and Britain; they did not disdain commercial ships and even fishing boats.

the Commander of the Nazi submarine fleet, Admiral Karl Doenitz of submarine officers of the special privileged caste – the “unsinkable Pinocchio”, which is poking his long nose into all corners of the world ocean, and his godfather was called “Papa Carl”. By the summer of 1942 dream “Carl’s Dad” on a large submarine fleet became reality: there were 350 units of U-boat (from it. Unterseeboot – “undersea boat”), whose military “achievements” in the Atlantic amounted to more than 8000 ships lost with only 85 submarines.

When the second half of may 1942 off the coast of Cuba was sunk by seven transport and two tankers, Hemingway turned to the American Embassy and outlined his daring plan: he proposed to convert his boat “Pilar” for hunting for enemy submarines. The calculation was simple. German submarines, find fishing boats, pop up, stopped the fishermen took food stocks, and then sank the boats. Hemingway proposed to arm the “Pilar”, and when a submarine POPs up and orders the boat to come closer, to attack the submarine.

“Papa hem”

In good weather, the submarine afloat can be noticed for 10-12 miles and three to five miles to see her and at periscope depth, so it’s time to prepare for the battle the team will be enough. The Pentagon has approved the plan, and “Pilar” delivered everything you need, hand grenades, trinitrotoluene block, shaped charges, bundles of ammunition, anti-tank gun, five light hand-submachine guns Thompson, guns, shortwave radio, night binoculars, life jackets.

How did you find the Soviet journalist Yuri Paporov, the author of biographies of the writer, “Hemingway in Cuba”, in the command “Pilar” was part of Hemingway himself, whose friends respectfully called “Daddy ham”, captain Gregorio Fuentes, his assistant, two Basque-Republican, with whom Hemingway met in Spain and also a U.S. serviceman, Akustik Dan Saxon, who knew the German language.

War and fishing

In the first battle out of about forty miles from the shore team “Pilar” said German submarine, on the bridge which gleamed brightly in the room “U-157”. Radioman “Pilar” immediately gave the coast guard the coordinates of the submarine. It only remained to wait for help arrives.

as Hemingway once caught a blue Marlin, and it saved the boat from immediate attack. Divers repaired the radio antenna and also watched with interest the hard struggle of man and animal. For them, such a spectacle was a sort of discharge, and the commander of a warship was in no hurry to deal with a boat. Finally, when the exhausted Marlin was pulled to the side, “U-157” increased the speed and began to overtake the “Pilar”. At this time appeared on the horizon two “Boeing-25”, which is called “Pilar”. The Germans hastily disappeared in the hatch, andubmarine the beginning of the dive.

When the aircraft approached over the submarine has already closed but air can still be seen under water by a massive shadow. The bombers methodically dropped depth charges over the square a submerged submarine. Suddenly, from the depths of the sea came a huge explosion, and soon the surface of the water broke the thick dark oil circle.

it So happened that just that day the German radio announced that their submarines will now sink any ship encountered. And after some time in the Cuban journal “Bohemia” (13 September 1942) published an article “War submarines”, in which reference was made and this case.

By mid-1943, by the United efforts of the Caribbean countries managed largely to stop the pirate actions of the German submarine fleet in the waters of the middle Atlantic and clear from Nazi submarines Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of the United States. For the first six months of 1943 in the Atlantic was sunk 150 German submarines, some of them – merit “Pilar”. As later recalled Hemingway, “naval intelligence according to our reports found several Nazi submarines that were sakitani depth charges and was considered flushed. Was awarded for it.”

And when the submarines of the Third Reich in the Atlantic was put a reliable barrier, Ernest went to England to get to the landing of allied troops in Normandy.

Victor Sholokhov

Source:
© Russian Seven

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