Andrew Williams - The Interrogator

Of the many books, papers and people I have consulted in researching the story, I would especially like to thank Volmar König for his memories of life behind the wire as a prisoner. Admiral John Adams helped me with his recollections of life aboard an old V and W Class destroyer in the first years of the war and of the dark days of the Liverpool blitz. I am grateful to Sarah Baring for her insight into life in the Citadel and on the home front and to Dr Iain Hamilton of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg for sharing his knowledge of the Naval Intelligence Division. Donald Coombes spoke to me of the night HMS Firedrake was lost. I interviewed Colin McFadyean more than once about his work as an interrogator and the late Sir Charles Wheeler also shared his memories of the Naval Intelligence division with me.

I would also like to acknowledge my debt to the following sources: The Admiralty’s A Seaman’s Pocket-Book (June 1943); Patrick Beesley, Very Special Intelligence — The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre 1939–45 and Very Special Admiral: The Life of Admiral J. H. Godfrey ; Clay Blair, Hitler’s U-boat Wars 1939–45 (2 vols); Kendal Burt and James Leasor, The One That Got Away ; Patrick Campbell, Trent Park: A History ; Simon Crump, They Call it ‘U-boat Hotel’ ; Roderick De Norman, For Führer and Fatherland: SS Murder and Mayhem in Wartime Britain ; Karl Dönitz, Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days ; Günther Hessler, German Naval History of the U-boat War in the Atlantic (3 vols); Chris Howard, The Battle of the Atlantic — The Corvettes and Their Crews ; Major H. R. Jordan, unpublished memoir in the Imperial War Museum of Major H. R. Jordan of Military Counter Intelligence; David Kahn, Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-boat Codes 1939–43 ; General Raymond E. Lee, The Journal of General Raymond E. Lee 1940–41 ; Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming ; Donald Macintyre, U-boat Killer ; Donald MacLachlan, Room 39: Naval Intelligence in Action 1939–45 ; Jak P. Mallmann Showell, German Naval Code Breakers ; Timothy P. Mulligan, Neither Sharks Nor Wolves: The Men of the Nazi U-boat Arm 1939–45 ; Axel Niestlé, German U-boat Losses During World War II ; James Owen and Guy Walters, The Voice of War ; Léonce Peillard, U-boats to the Rescue: The Laconia Incident ; Graham Rhys-Jones, ‘The German System: A Staff Perspective’ in The Battle of the Atlantic: The 50th Anniversary International Naval Conference ; Phil Richards and John Banigan, How to Abandon Ship (1942); Terence Robertson, The Golden Horseshoe ; Jürgen Rohwer, Axis Submarine Success of World War II ; Captain S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea (4 vols); Stephen Sansom, Westminster at War ; Hanns Joachim Scharff and Raymond F. Tolliver, The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns Joachim Scharff — Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe ; Lt Col A. P. Scotland, The London Cage ; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Enigma: The Battle for the Codes ; Lt Col R. W. G. Stephens and Oliver Hoare, Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi Spies ; John Strachey, Post D ; David Syrett, The Battle of the Atlantic and Signals Intelligence U-boat Situations and Trends 1941–45 ; Eric Topp, Odyssey of a U-boat Commander ; Colin Warwick, Really Not Required ; Herbert A. Werner, Iron Coffins ; Derek M. Whale, The Liners of Liverpool ; Richard Whittington-Egan, The Great Liverpool Blitz ; Joan Wyndham, Love is Blue and Love Lessons .

Finally, I would like to thank my agent Julian Alexander and my editor, Kate Parkin and all those who helped me with advice and encouragement. I hope they find enough of the spirit of the times in the story to forgive the liberties I have taken with the history.

The Battle of the Atlantic

D-Day to Berlin

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by John Murray (Publishers)

An Hachette UK Company

© Andrew Williams 2009

The right of Andrew Williams to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Epub ISBN 978-1-84854-257-0

Book ISBN 978-0-7195-2381-6

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