history · 14 May 1945 · 79 years ago
British Admiral Sir Max Horton (Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches) formally accepted the surrender of a token force of eight U-boats at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The U-boats which had been escorted from Loch Alsh, Scotland, United Kingdom by destroyer HMS Hesperus, Canadian Frigate Thetford Mines, and USS Paine had their torpedoes and two-thirds of their crew removed before their journey up the Foyle. The German crews were mostly very young men. Some were sullen and many were arrogant but the morale among the officers was unbroken. They were convinced that Hitler had died in action and their first question was "When do we start fighting the Russians?" One or two were so convinced that war with Russia was imminent that they had retained their confidential books and secret equipment to be ready when the war faced east.
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