Interrogation of ISN-5-3 (NA)                      U-701                                       September 8, 1942
	Werner Seldte, ISN-5-3 (NA)
	By: Capt. H.W. Boesch
	Q. What is your rank?     A. Yeoman mechanic, sir.     Q. What is your identification mark number?  Do you know it?     A. UN 5831/40S     Q. Do you smoke?     A. Yes sir.     Q. Then light yourself a cigarette.  I have a cold and am smoking these, they're mentholated.     A. Yes sir.     Q. We, the Army, are taking charge of you today.     A. Yes sir.     Q. I have to ask various questions for the purpose of keeping our files accurate.  You can answer these at once.  Now, you are from the submarine "Lemke"?     A. No, from the "Degen".     Q. Oh yes, the submarine "Degen" 701 - Captured?     A. On the ninth of July.     Q. Have you any brothers?     A. One sister.     Q. No brothers?     A. No.     Q. When were you born?     A. On the fifteenth of October, 1920.     Q. The color of your eyes?     A. Brown.     Q. What were you before you joined the Navy?
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	A. Do you mean my occupation, sir?     Q. Yes.     A. A machine-tool maker.     Q. Where are you from?     A. From Hamburg.     Q. Oh, Hamburg! (Sings) "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um half eine".  How long have you been in the Navy?     A. Since '40.     Q. When in '40?     A. July.     Q. Where were you trained?     A. In Braake.     Q. Braake, where is that?     A. Oldemburg.     Q. Thunderation!  Another one!  And I thought I knew Germany.     A. It's between Bremen and Wilhelmshaven.     Q. Between Bremen and Wilhelmshaven; that's where Oldenburg is.  And Braake is right there.  But it's just a little town?     A. It's only for the Navy.     Q. What sort of training did you have there; just the usual infantry training?     A. Yes, three months.     Q. Where did you go from Braake?     A. To Wilhelmshaven.     Q. And then?     A. (No answer)     Q. Just a minute; 701, that's from Kiel built in Hamburg by Stuttenberg - - in Kiel.  And you must have been in Gotenhafen and Danzig.  So from Hamburg you went to Braake and then to Wilhelmshaven and then where?
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	A. To school.     Q. But we know all that.  I'm not trying to find out technical information; our Navy attends to that.  I just want to know where you spend your time.     A. I was under a Special Command.     Q. You embarked on the 19th of July - No, not the 701; that was the 210.  You left Brest on the 25th of May and touched at Lorient to take various things on board.  So you were in Brest on the 25th of May.     A. I don't know what I'm allow to say.     Q. But I have all of that here.  I don't want to get any military secrets from you.  I just want to know where you've been since June so that I can form a picture.     A. But I've already said that I was under a special command.     Q. But you can't have been under this command from June of 1940 to 1942.     A. I was through.     Q. Then where were you?  Were you in Kiel?  Were you in Flensburg?  Gotenhafen?     A. In training school and then in the torpedo school.     Q. Where was your training school?     A. In Pillau.     Q. In Pillau?  Where is that?     A. In the Baltic near Königsberg.     Q. When was that?     A. In early 1941.     Q. From Pillau you went to Gotenhafen?     A. No sir, I went to Torpedo School in Flensburg - Nöwick.     Q. Is Glöwick a suburb of Flansburg?     A. Yes sir.     Q. How do you spell Glöwick?
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	A. G-L-Ö-W-I-C-K.     Q. That was the torpedo school, and you went there toward the end of 1940?     A. No, that was in the year 1941.     Q. You were a machine-tool maker in Hamburg; I know Hamburg very well.     A. Yes sir, I lived in Hamburg.     Q. I know the Hamburg circus there, and it's a nice zoo.  I used to travel by air from Amsterdam and then go to the Lüneburger Heide.     A. Oh, it is beautiful there.     Q. Do you speak low German too?     A. Yes sir.  I can't speak it very much here because the other prisoners don't understand it.     Q. Yes, they're from everywhere; from Bavaria, Thuringia, and everywhere.  Well the war is over for you.  I think you understand how you are to conduct yourself; be prudent and you'll be treated much better.     A. It was bad in the other camp, too.  We were put up singly and that was unpleasant.     Q. Well, it's going to improve.  You'll get cigarettes and other things you need.     A. How long will that take?     Q. Oh, a few days.  We want to help you.  Perhaps you have friends in the Navy who have been taken prisoner like you, and we can arrange to have you put together in the same camp.     A. I have a friend on a boat, a minesweeper.     Q. Where is he?     A. In Germany - but he isn't liable to be taken prisoner.  And then I have another comrade who is in England now.  He's a very fine fellow.  He was taken prisoner sometime last year.
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	Q. Well, our Navy probably knows about him.     A. I know about one of them, he's here now.     Q. What's the name of the man you know on the Minesweeper?  Was it sunk?     A. Hans Seldte.  It was sunk.     Q. Hans Seldte?  Is that a cousin of yours?     A. Yes.     Q. And what is his rank?     A. Machinist's mate.     Q. What's the name of the ship?     A. It was (?Blögel) (Kapitäult) (Lt. Su.)     Q. Well it could be that he would come into a prisoner camp here, anyway.  I can look that up.  You were in school until '41, and the rest is on record.  When were you in Hamburg last?     A. That was . . . at the end of '41.     Q. Weren't you there shortly before you left?     A. I can't remember.     Q. Where did you stay there?     A. (Mentions Alsterdamm)     Q. Now, here is the main railway station; and there you cross the station square.  Here you reach the Alsterdamm and here is the Alstersee.  And here is a dock where the boats are.     A. Yes, the steamers tie up there.     Q. And opposite is there a department store?     A. Yes, a department store.     Q. Is that . . . ?     A. No, it's the Alsterhaus.     Q. And when you go through this little street passing the store, what's it's name?
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	A. That  is Post Street.     Q. Yes, there a big Dürer-street there?     A. It may be so.     Q. You haven't been in Hamburg since 1941, how did it look there?     A. It still was alright except it was bombed and many civilians had to die.     Q. Is that so?     A. Yes sir.     Q. Barnbeck is probably the section that was bombed, isn't it?     A. Yes, heavily.     Q. That is a residential section for officials of the railway, Post Office, etc.     A. No, for workers more or less.     Q. And a street goes straight up here; but that is rather far from the harbor.  Why did they bomb it?  That leads to the airport doesn't it?  It took me three quarters of an hour to go form the station square, where I lived in a hotel, to the airport.  There goes the Elbe. . . I can't understand yet why they bombed it there.     A. Well, the harbor section is tremendously fortified with Flak Guns.     Q. Yes, but the Harbor with all it's industries, shipyards like Blom Voss should always be quite a target.     A. The harbor presents such a good target, though, that it's easy to bomb.  The English always fly very high but you should hit something when you are flying over the harbor.     Q. Didn't they hit anything in that area?     A. No sir, very little.  They always dropped their bombs in residential districts like Hirtendorf, Barmbick, and Neuköln.
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	Q. It's possible that the pilots lost their way.     A. Yes, or perhaps they wanted to terrorize the populace.     Q. Perhaps that could have influenced it.  I have heard of uprisings in Hamburg.  THe people made trouble.  Perhaps these bombings influenced that.  The people had to repair the damage by strenuous labor.  They had to work at night, and to spend most of their time in cellars.  By the way, how are those cellars constructed?  Are they safe?     A. They're well-built.     Q. Aren't they sometimes penetrated by bombs?     A. Yes, sometimes that happens when they get a direct hit.     Q. Yes, but according to you these whole sections have been bombarded.     A. Yes to a great extent.     Q. Well, that's pretty close to the harbor.     A. Yes sir.     Q. I can understand that then.  The English fliers simply dropped their bombs thinking that they were over the harbor.     A. But they generally fly around the harbor.     Q. That too, is understandable.     A. No sir, that a hell of a thing to do.     Q. So, but don't forget that in England many cities simply aren't there any more, thousands of people were wounded and dead.     A. Yes, when we were at home England bombed us; and the Führer said that reprisals would be made, and they were.  There's no cause for surprise when the other does the same.     Q. What of everything that happened in Holland?     A. There was much propaganda about it.     Q. Of course there was, but it was true that thousands of people there were killed.
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	A. The prime factor of this war is propaganda.     Q. We have seen pictures of English towns completely annihilated.     A. And about Hamburg?     Q. As I have said, there have been uprisings in Hamburg; whether that was because of bombings I'm not sure.  The people may have been protesting against starvation.     A. It's true that food is rationed and times are somewhat hard, but people are still getting enough.     Q. All they need?  Butter?  Meat?  Milk?  eggs etc.     A. We're a little hungry sometimes, but it's coming along.     Q. Yes, if you have anything but potatoes, you can get along.     A. They'll fill the belly.  We eat potatoes four times a day, and potatoes and eggs, too.     Q. But if you can't get any more eggs?  You're getting them of course, from Holland and from Denmark.  How bad were the bombings in Barmberg?     A. When the bombers came we were all in the cellar.     Q. Was it at night.     A. Yes, at night, the time they always come.     Q. How does it look along the Baltic Sea?  How about Pilau?     A. It is not affected by this war.  It's an industrial and farming region way off in East Prussia.     Q. How far is that from Danzig?     A. It's in the North and East, in the direction of Poland near Königsberg.     Q. Oh yes, that's where it is, and Memel is a bit further North?     A. Yes, it is.     Q. I've never been in that part of the country.  I was in Hamburg, Bremen, Köen, Berlin, and once to the Rhine.
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	A. I used to go on hikes only.  That was with my comrades.     Q. I see.     A. We've been all over Hamburg, Lüneburger Heide, Weser - Bergland, Sanerland, Siegerland, and then down to the Rhein to Rüdesheim and there we cut across the Taumus to Wieshaden, Frankfurt, Thuringia, and back again.     Q. I am sure it was nice.  You have seen a lot and should have much to tell of all your travels.  Well, what else can you tell me?  Maybe you saw the aircraft carrier - "The Graf Zeppelin".     A. Are you referring to the aircraft carrier.     Q. Yes.     A. I've never seen the carrier itself, on photos, yes.     Q. I was told she is in Gotenhafen.     A. No, we've been there and I didn't see her.  I should have noticed a bulky construction like that.     Q. She was in Gdingen first and was brought to Gotenhafen later.     A. Gotenhafen is Gdingen.     Q. However, she should be in Gotenhafen now.  When she was taken there she was not quite completed.  There was also the 24,000 ton ship which was christened after the diplomat who was shot in Switzerland.     A. You mean the Wilhelm Gustoff".     Q. Yes, that is right.  I understand the Tirpitz and Admiral Hipper were there too, temporarily only, but the Tirpitz was badly damaged by bombs.     A. Is that so?     Q. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau did get through and arrived at Kiel at the time, but the Prinz Eugen took to another port.
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	A. They all found shelter in Kiel but were heavily bombed later on.  The Scharnhorst was hit badly as they tore her anchors and front turret away.     Q. But I was definitely told the Prinz Eugen did not get to port.     A. Oh, I don't know.  I am positive they all got thru one way or the other.     Q. But you yourself did not see the Prinz Eugen at Kiel, or did you?     A. No, I did not.  But she did get thru to another port.     Q. That was around March or April, wasn't it?  You were at Kiel then?     A. That was this year, exactly when it was, I don't know.     Q. You left Brest May 25 and were there for 6 weeks with the U-Degen before you left.     A. Yes sir.     Q. You got there at around middle of April and according to your statement they were not at Brest.  Then it took place either in March or early in April.     A. Yes sir.     Q. Didn't you see any of the Cruisers, Leipzig, Koln, Liützow, Emden?     A. Those things were in the Baltic most of the time.     Q. Say, didn't you have any of the large size subs there such as 1600 tonners?     A. Small ones only.  800 tons and I've seen 750 ton ships.     Q. You lived together with all kind of men.  Goebbels with his propaganda machine is taking care of the situation.  As long as Russia still has from five to eight million men to be thrown into the fight it represents a military power.  Germany will have quite a time to get out of there.     A. Yes, (Expresses some kind of confidence in German arms)     Q. But meanwhile Germany will be bombed to such an extent and in addition to that, the U.S. will go into action somewhere soon.  Where, I can't tell you
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	Q. However, it will be soon.     A. That is no secret to us either.  After all, we are at war with the U.S. now.     Q. We'll build 50,000 aircraft this year.     A. An you intend to fly them across.     Q. We certainly will.  We have bases in England, Ireland, Iceland.     A. Suppose things change on the Eastern Front, and we don't have to bother with the Russians anymore.     Q. Well, but a lot can take place in a year and you won't be able to finish Russia this year.     A. I don't quite think so.     Q. You still believe that you will win this war?     A. In the East War we were dependent on ourselves alone.     Q. And who are your allies now?  YOu have the Italians, of course.     A. Yes, but Germany has much more support.  Volunteers from Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway.  They all fight for us.  That is a very good sign, despite the occupation, they volunteer for Germany.     Q. There are always certain types of people who like to fight.     A. And I simply cannot imagine that those fellows get such a kick out of just killing people.     Q. You don't think so.     A. No, even though this war may have to last 10 years.     Q. Don't you want to talk to me a little about your last trip?     A. About the last trip?     Q. Yes.     A. What should I tell you about it?     Q. After all the Navy has all the details on it already.  What about the second last trip?
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	A. All right, in my opinion the second last trip was the most pleasant one we ever had - it was not for long.  We went to Iceland.  There we drove along the coast line during the daytime.  It was the first time in my life that I saw real mountains.     Q. Is that so?     A. It can't be compares to the Harz.  These are mountains, too, but they are more some kind of hills.  In Iceland they are covered with snow and ice.  It was very impressive.  I won't forget that.     Q. I see.     A. I witnessed a sunrise.  The tops of the mountains were glittering in the sun, it was simply marvelous.     Q. I can well believe that.     A. The Americans were there.  We sank 4 of their ships.     Q. Four of them?     A. Yes, one of them was some kind of merchant ship, about 1500 tons.      Q. It hardly pays to waste time and ammunition on such little ships does it?     A. If you take about 10 of them which go back and forth between Iceland and England, then you can figure it out and it does pay after all.  That pays just as well as one big vessel.     Q. Yes, I see what you mean.     A. That afternoon we saw two more ships and our Captain said that they were sub chasers, the old type.  We followed them and finally got into position to fire two torpedoes.     Q. What type of ship was that?     A. That was a small one I believe, but she must have had ammunition on board, for she went high up into the air afterwards.  I've never seen one blowing up like that.
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	Q. Very likely she did carry ammunition.  You said that there were many small ships around?     A. Yes, they can be very dangerous too, for they have depth-charges on board.  However, they can't do much damage to us while we are on the surface.     Q. I was under the impression that these things move with great speed.     A. Yes that is true of the Corvettes.  They are specially built for destroying U-boats very fast.     Q. The English have many of them, haven't they.  Then you sunk four more ships?     A. One during the first night.  And the next day towards noon, it was a beautiful day, we cruised close to the shore line.  We wondered about the Americans, whether they were on the alert or not.  Finally a large plane came overhead, it was a heavy bomber.  Of course, we submerged and after he was out of sight we surfaced again and took care of the rest of them.     Q. Tell me, how large are these small ships?     A. Oh, well, I can't say exactly.  They have quite a number of them.  Let's say about the size of a fisher boat - that's just approximately, maybe a little larger.  After they were taken care of we submerged again.  However, the Commander kept looking through the periscope to find more.  Toward evening we located two more.  We fired a torpedo and the whole works went up in the air immediately.  Presumably she was armed and the weapons went up too.  After that a searchlight flashed up all over the place and the other vessel engaged in rescue work.  We did let her go without attacking.  After all, she had picked up the wounded.  But the following day we sunk another one and she blew up the same as the others - we were on the surface
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	A. most of the time.  Sometimes it looked as if those fellows were asleep.  (P/W mentions engagement with another ship where light-signals (green) were used.  Apparently it was not as easy going as the day before.     Q. Didn't you see some of our new fast torpedo chasers?     A. No sir, these were old fashioned, coal-burning and very slow.  They had steam engines, no motors.  They could easily be picked up by the trail of smoke they left behind.     Q. I see, This was still the old type ship.  But you know we have those new "E" boats or whatever they are called.  They carry something like 2 torpedo tubes.     A. We call them speed boats.     Q. You did not accomplish so very much sinking only four little ships.     A. No, just the same, we have been credited for it in Germany, because after all, even those little ships are rather dangerous at times.  The U-Rathke is the best example, as you know.  Just one fast little boat came along and sank her.  These little things certainly are dangerous.     Q. You said before that you were just as fast as the sub-chaser.  How much of a chance does a sub-chaser have to get away then?     A. On the surface, they can't catch us.     Q. Submerged then, they could spot you.     A. That's true.     Q. You said that you did not get many eggs lately.  How many do you receive per day?     A. It depends - On ration we receive, as soldiers, 2 eggs per week.     Q. What about civilians?     A. Oh, they get about one egg per week.     Q. How about meat and sausage?
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	A. Of course it is rationed too.     Q. What does your father do?     A. He is with the police force right now.     Q. What is he doing there?     A. Oberwachtmeister or whatever he may be now.     Q. What did he used to do?     A. Oh, he was a carpenter on board a ship.     Q. Then he must know about damage done to harbors by bombing.     A. Very little damage was done.  Occasionally they dropped a bomb.  Maybe they damaged a few old buildings.  Blohm and Voss (large shipyard) had some damage done to one of the main buildings once.  It tore the corner down, but the damage was repaired after two weeks.  And another time incendiaries were dropped over Blohm and Voss.  They did no damage to speak of.  The fire was detected by the Air Raid Service and extinguished immediately - Then they dropped something now in the way of a bomb.  It's a kind of a bomb which on bursting spreads gasses over a considerable area which starts burning at once.     Q. Didn't they (Germans) start using artificial fog to deceive bombing planes?     A. You probably mean a smoke screen     Q. Yes, they started it not long ago.     A. It is not used very frequently but it was done as far back as 1940.     Q. I know that it happened in Kiel this year.  Did you hear about the bombing of Lübeck, Rostock and Kiel?     A. Yes, I heard about it.  While traveling thru Hamburg for example you may find a damaged building here and there.  But as a whole you can't see much.  Even though they started raiding it as far back as 1940.
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	Q. How do you learn about those things.  Lübeck for instance?     A. I was not there.  Comrades returning from furlough told us.  They travel around and see what happened.  About 80% of Lübeck was destroyed, they said.     Q. And when I was told at first that 40,000 people lost their lives, I didn't want to believe it.  Again propaganda.  I thought.     A. The only thing left of Lübock is the Draeger-plant where they make armatures for subs, etc., they said.     Q. It is called after a man, or is it a company?     A. It is a company, I believe.     Q. The Draeger-Werke was their objective, I presume, and why ruin the whole city instead?     A. People don't understand that either.     Q. Where abouts are the Draeger- Werke?     A. By street-car a little outside.     Q. Have they been severely hit?     A. I did not hear anything about that.  However the bombing raid on Rostock was rather bad too, but not nearly as bad as Lübeck.     Q. What is there in Rostock worthwhile bombing?     A. The Heinkel airplane works are in Rostock.  They can be easily located with their large air dromes near by and all the rest.     Q. That has been almost completely destroyed too?     A. I doubt it very much.  Where there is any very vital defense industry not a single bomb has been dropped yet.  However, houses, Churches, Hospitals, etc. have been destroyed in many cities.  The people can take it.     Q. But if there should be raids every night, with first hundreds of dead in different places, and later on, thousands, they'll eventually get sick of
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	Q. that.     A. Oh no, When I was in Hamburg last, they felt quite different about it.  People said:  "Let them come as often as they please.  It is not nice but we can stand it."  If they try to undermine the morale of the civilian population, they are mistaken.  This creates twice as much stubbornness as there was before.  And you may rest assured that a 1918 won't happen again this time.     Q. You don't think so.     A. No, I am convinced of that.     Q. You may have to stay here for a few more days.  Do you wish to have a smoke now or later.  I will see to it that you get a few cigarettes out of the Canteen.     A. Yes sir.  That's very nice of you.     Q. Would you like to tell me something of you rescue.  Were you really swimming around in oily water for 50 hours?     A. I can't understand that only 7 of us were saved and why we were not rescued sooner.  We saw many planes, large numbers of them.  Two of them caught our attention, particularly.  One of those flew high above us while the other one turned back.  We thought they had spotted us.  We waved to them, but both flew back.  We wore highly disappointed.  However, we kept on swimming throughout the night until the next day when we were picked up.     Q. Yes, it's strange.  Tell me, how it was in Brest and in Lorient.     A. I've told you all about it once before.  It was terribly dirty there an I really mean it, as compared with Germany.  The Administration is still French and carries on with it's duties in the same old way as before the war.
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	Q. It is French, of course, but under the influence of your government.     A. That's right.  There was so much mismanagement in France that something had to be done.  Children are undernourished; they go begging on the streets.     Q. That's just it.  Germany takes all the food away from France.     A. On the contrary.  We have given them our bread to keep the French civilians from starving.     Q. Your bread?  Are you sure about that?     A. Yes, I am positive about it.  But the French Peasants have to contribute their grain and many of them refuse and hide it.     Q. Well, We've had quite a good talk and I will see you again before you leave here.  Goodbye!     A. Goodbye!
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