The crew of U-862 pictured when the vessel was commissioned in Bremen in 1943. At the end of the war, First Officer Günther Reiffenstuhl wrote in his dairy: "We are all alive." Photo / Gerald Shone
The crew of U-862 pictured when the vessel was commissioned in Bremen in 1943. At the end of the war, First Officer Günther Reiffenstuhl wrote in his dairy: "We are all alive." Photo / Gerald Shone
January 15 will be the 80th anniversary of a daring maritime exploit of World War II when German U-boat U-862 sailed undetected into Gisborne harbour.
The 2016 publication of U-boat in New Zealand Waters, researched and written by the late Gerald Shone, will be updated by a second edition, which is scheduled for publication in January to mark the 80th anniversary.
Around midnight, January 15, 1945, Commander Heinrich Timm took the submarine into the harbour on the surface - as far as the Kaiti Basin - but found only small fishing vessels.
He reversed out of the harbour without firing.
The second edition, developed by Gerald’s siblings Mike and Sue in his honour, includes an epilogue about a unique service which took place in Gisborne’s harbour on November 30, 2022.
A Heritage New Zealand interpretation sign acknowledging the incursion of U-862 was unveiled near the boat ramp.
The unveiling was made more special by the presence of Dr Ingrid Heiter-Reiffenstuhl, the oldest daughter of U-862 First Officer Gunther Reiffenstuhl, and his great-niece Michaela Murray, who lives in Tauranga.
Dr Ingrid Heiter-Reiffenstuhl, in giving her pepeha, said: “My name is Ingrid Heiter-Reiffenstuhl. My mountain is Grossglockner, 3798m high. My river is the Blue Danube. My city is Vienna in Austria, which is in Europe. My music is Mozart … I am not a good singer, so I won’t sing.”
Heiter-Reiffenstuhl said she felt privileged to be at the unveiling ceremony, commemorating a place where the 88-metre-long German U-boat U-862 “slipped silently into the Gisborne harbour in a dark moonless night in January 1945″.
“The first watch officer on board was my dear father who at the time was only 23 years old. As a daughter, I feel so thankful and happy that there were no big ships at the pier of your harbour that could have been sunk by U-862.
“In his war diary, my father instead observed ‘happy people along the pier, dancing and singing old songs’ – oblivious to the imminent danger they were in at that historical moment – at a time when the war was almost over, and people here felt so safe.
“Later on, a crew member of U-862 described their Gisborne episode as ‘entering the Harbour of Happiness’,” she said.
Speaking to the Gisborne Herald, Heiter-Reiffenstuhl said her father, who died in 2017, was a passionate musician and loved hearing the music in the harbour that night - some of which he recognised.
Rumours about crewmen coming ashore or milking cows (at various other New Zealand locations) were untrue, she said.
Murray, married to a New Zealander since 1993, said New Zealand and Austria had long been at peace.
“I am the living proof of that.”
A heritage interpretation sign acknowledging the exploits of the U-boat which entered Gisborne Harbour during World War II was unveiled beside the harbour in 2022. Present at the unveiling were Michaela Murray, a great-niece of U862 First Officer Günther Reiffenstuhl, his oldest daughter Dr Ingrid Heiter-Reiffenstuhl, Sheridan Gundry of Heritage Tairawhiti, Tairawhiti Museum director Eloise Wallace and Mike and Sue Shone, siblings of the late Gerald Shone, who wrote the book U-boat in New Zealand Waters.
The crew of U-862 ended the war in captivity in Singapore after Japan’s surrender.
Günther Reiffenstuhl was sent on to a prisoner-of-war camp in Wales and was repatriated home to Austria just before Christmas of 1946.
He happily discovered his entire family had survived the war.
He went on to become a doctor and father of four.
Because U-862 remained undetected in New Zealand waters, the boat’s exploits only became known after Günther Reiffenstuhl published his war diaries in 1992.
Gerald Shone attended a reunion of the crew in 1997 and became a friend of Günther Reiffenstuhl.
Shone said the war veterans were happy to talk about their experiences in New Zealand waters.
Mike Shone said radio podcasts and YouTube videos covering the exploits of U-862, following on from his brother’s book, had been published in New Zealand and overseas.
One such video is the New Zealand-produced WW2 U-Boat Attack on Gisborne & Napier; the work of Paul Gilbert of Interesting FiNgZ5.
In 2020 ABC produced a podcast S5E10 – The Patrol of U-862 to Australia & New Zealand.
The broadcast involves a discussion between Dr David Stevens, former Australian naval officer and author of U-boat Far From Home, and Captain Dr Jörg Hillmann, Federal German Navy and Commander of the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the German Armed Forces, Potsdam, Berlin.
Captain Hillmann visited New Zealand and Australia in 2019 and lectured at Massey University.
Mike Shone said Hillmann was particularly familiar with the research and documentation relating to U-862 incursion into New Zealand waters and the dramatic entry into Gisborne Harbour.
It was an unusual and risky move in a tight space and in shallow water.
The late Gerald Shone, speaking to the Gisborne Herald in 2015 before publishing U-boat in New Zealand, said: “The sheer audacity of a big submarine to come into a port as small as Gisborne’s was very risky.”
Timms headed to New Zealand after sinking US Liberty ship SS Robert J Walker offshore from Sydney on Christmas Day 1944.
After travelling down the east coast of New Zealand, U-862 spent the daylight hours of January 15 lying at periscope depth out from Kaiti Beach, waiting for a ship worth sinking to pass.
Because no ship left or entered the harbour that day, U-862 entered Gisborne’s harbour to see whether any sizable ships were berthed at the pier.
Timms took the submarine in as far as the Kaiti Basin but found only small fishing vessels. He reversed out of the harbour without firing.
Gerald Shone said the crew were extremely lucky to make it out of Gisborne harbour undetected.
“From harbour records, I discovered the submarine came into the harbour with only one metre of water under its hull. The captain had no idea how shallow it was. They took an enormous risk because it could easily have run aground.”
But Timms was no novice seaman.
In 1940 while in charge of a minesweeper, he attacked Royal Navy submarine HMS Starfish. The British captain was forced to surface and scuttle his vessel.
Timms went on to serve in the West German federal navy after World War II.
From Gisborne, U-862 sailed on to Hawke’s Bay but again did not fire a shot.
