The Scotsman
4 December 1939

U-Boat Survivors Landed at
Scottish Port


Five officers and 38 members of the crew
of a German submarine, who were rescued
when their vessel was destroyed, were given
a remarkably friendly send-off by their
captors when they landed at a Scottish port
yesterday.
The arrival of the Germans was thus
briefly officially recorded in an Admiralty
communiqué issued last night: "A number of
U-boat prisoners were landed last night at
a Scottish port, the result of recent naval
operations."
The submarine crew were brought in by
two destroyers which berthed at the wharf
alongside each other, and when the prisoners
went down the gangway they were cheered
by the sailors, who lined the rails and decks
the warships. One little fair-headed
German was greeted by the British sailors
as "Blondie," and he was given a special
cheer to himself. He is said to be a fluent
English speaker and to have made himself
popular with his captors.
The U-boat commander, a strongly-built
young man, was the last to go ashore, and
as he stepped across the gangway there
was clapping and cheering. An officer in
charge of the military armed guard on
the quay remarked to him, "I suppose you
will be glad to be out of it," and the
German replied, "Yes." Before landing the
submarine commander shook hands with the
officers of the warship.
Cigarettes were distributed to the prisoners
by British sailors. As the Germans drove
away in motor buses to an internment camp,
there was more cheering, and the members
of the U-boat crew, who were all scantily
attired, replied by waving their hands.