Hi.
This is from 'Second U-boat Flotilla':
8 August: U65 sailed from Wilhelmshaven carrying two extra passengers aboard. For the third time during 1940 the 2nd U-Flotilla was tasked with carrying agents to Ireland, although this time the two characters to be transported were as disparate as possible.
The first was General Sean Russell, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army, and an experienced and ruthless man dedicated to the IRA’s ongoing fight against the British Empire. Russell was well versed in sabotage techniques, many that he had already used within Northern Ireland. In September 1939 Russell had been caught by the outbreak of war in the United States while engaged in raising money from America’s strong Irish community. Already under surveillance by both British and American intelligence agencies he smuggled himself out of the country aboard a merchant ship bound for Genoa, Italy, using the alias John McCarthy. There he walked into the German consulate and was later transported to Germany under the request of the head of the Nazi Foreign Office’s Irish Desk, Dr Veesenmeyer. Once ensconced within the borders of the Reich Russell began training in the use of the latest sabotage equipment beneath Abwehr auspices.
The second of von Stockhausen’s passengers was Frank Ryan, recently released from Spanish prison and now an agent for the Abwehr’s Office 1 (West). Ryan had been born in Elton, County Limerick, joining the East Limerick IRA Brigade in 1922 as an officer. During 1929 he had been elected to the IRA Army Council, the following year representing the IRA at the Clann na Gael Convention in America. However, during the mid-thirties there had been unrest within the IRA, the socialist and non-socialist republicans splitting, Ryan firmly aligned with the former. He was one of three men that subsequently founded the left-wing Republican Congress.
When Civil War broke out in Spain Ryan was given command of the Irish Brigade, later a part of the International Brigade that fought against Franco’s Nationalists. On 31 March 1938 Ryan was wounded and was captured by Italian fascist troops during the fighting around the Ebro valley, a drawn-out battle that marked the end of any Republican hopes for victory. Imprisoned at Calaceite he was court-martialled and sentenced to death, dubiously being found guilty of war crimes.
While Ryan languished in Burgos Prison various Irish newspapers learnt of his plight and began calling for his release, prompting the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, Eamon De Valera, to privately intervene. After repeated diplomatic failure the end of the Spanish war allowed De Valera to officially appoint one of Spain’s best lawyers as Ryan’s defence. Following an appeal during January 1940 the defence counsel managed to secure the commuting of Ryan’s death sentence to one of thirty years penal servitude. Meanwhile the Abwehr had become interested in the enigmatic Irishman and on 14 July 1940 German Intelligence, in conjunction with sympathetic Spanish government officials, aided his escape from prison. The Abwehr, who were convinced that his strong IRA connections would make him useful to the German war effort, brought Ryan to Paris. However, the politically astute Irishman was no longer the fit healthy individual that had gone to Spain to fight. Years of confinement in barbarous, almost medieval, conditions had damaged his health considerably, also aggravating the partial deafness that had plagued Ryan for years. Nonetheless, Ryan was taken from Paris to Germany where he met fellow Irish republicans Francis Stuart (working as a lecturer in Berlin University) and Sean Russell with whom he was destined to travel back to Ireland aboard U65.
It was an unhappy match. The two men were ideologically opposed and by all accounts detested each other. Sixty years later, Russell would be described as a provisional IRA man (i.e. military, Irish-centric, nationalist, non-revolutionary) as opposed to Ryan’s communist revolutionary type who is said to have abhorred the use of indiscriminate terrorism as advocated by Russell. However the Abwehr were more than willing to return the two to Northern Ireland where German Intelligence was keen to sow discord against occupying British forces and improve relations between the Wehrmacht and IRA. Code-named ‘Operation Taube’ (Dove) Kaptlt Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen was scheduled to land the two men by rubber dinghy in an area to be specified once the U-boat was at sea.
At midday on 13 August BdU radioed U65 the all clear to proceed with ‘Traub’, the landing scheduled for two days later. Fate, however, would have otherwise. As the U-boat battled through a Force 8 gale en-route to Ireland, Sean Russell began to complain of severe stomach cramps at first thought to be no more than chronic constipation caused by enforced inactivity within the submarine’s confined space. After attempting whatever remedies to the mysterious illness could be provided by the U-boat’s radio operator/medic Russell collapsed and died during 14 August from what was later diagnosed by doctors as a perforated stomach ulcer, based on von Stockhausen’s report. There are (unlikely) rumours of a fist-fight between the two combative Irishmen, while there is also suspicion that Ryan might have had more to do with Russell’s death than he later said — he was known to have acted previously under orders from the communist party, rather than either the IRA or Irish national interests. More importantly for Ryan, there was now little that he could achieve, his mission objectives remaining a mystery as he had never had his intended role explained sufficiently by either the Abwehr or Russell.
Interestingly, much debate still surrounds the probable purpose of Russell’s planned undertaking. While many historians have simply stated that it was an operation designed to kick-start the IRA into action against the British, this explanation seems too general in the face of detailed examination. Ryan was by no means the natural choice to unite the IRA in concerted anti-British action. Indeed his presence may well have served to divide yet further an already factional para-military group. However in Gwynne Thomas’ intriguing book King Pawn or Black Knight he surmises that Russell was sent not by the Abwehr but by Ribbentrop’s Foreign Office to make contact with the Southern Irish Government and ferment the possibility of an armed uprising, backed with German paratroopers, against the British authorities. Ryan, the devout communist, is labelled by Thomas as having been ‘turned’ by the Abwehr during his Spanish incarceration and sent along by the Abwehr to monitor Russell and his Republican ambitions.
But in the North Atlantic none of these possibilities bothered von Stockhausen as he ordered Russell’s body sown into a bed sheet, taken on deck and buried at sea. Although the commander of U65 was willing to continue with the landing Ryan, in a state of agitation and confusion, was not and the operation was cancelled. U65 loaded all torpedo tubes and prepared to enter the North Atlantic convoy war. It was a short-lived attempt. Two days later von Stockhausen was compelled to break off his cruise after his U-boat developed a strong oil leak from unknown causes. The dismal patrol was cut short and U65 sailed for Lorient. While en-route U65 was informed that facilities were not yet ready to deal with the boat’s problem and so Von Stockhausen ordered course set for Brest, the nearest friendly port equipped with the necessary amenities. She was the first German U-boat to dock in that harbour on 22 August. U65 was immediately placed into dry-dock beside the winding Penfeld River. After disembarking Frank Ryan, von Stockhausen and his crew were hosted by freshly installed Kriegsmarine units within the city, while deck plating was removed and Kriegsmarine officials and engineers inspected the boat in search of the persistent problem. Draped in hastily prepared camouflage netting that barely disguised its shape, U65 was the subject of much attention from troops in Brest. Generalleutnant Hans Kratzert, commander of 251 Infantry Division, was shown around the boat by Von Stockhausen, the delighted General, a veteran of the First World War, relishing his first-hand glimpse of one of the much-vaunted ‘Grey Wolves’. By the end of August U65 was fit to sail and slipped from harbour during the day on 28 August to patrol west of the British Isles for a month before returning to Lorient."

Cheers
Lawrence