Castaways of the Kriegsmarine

December 1943 brought little cheer to Hitler's Kriegsmarine.In January 1944 two hundred and fifty exhausted, disoriented survivors converged on two remote English country houses. They had lived through Nazi shipwrecks from North Africa to North Cape, from blockade runner to battleship. There, waiting for them, was a highly tuned intelligence production line created to draw valuable information from their heads as quickly and painlessly as possible. Few of the castaways disgorged at Latimer House and Wilton Park still believed in victory, a gift for their experienced, adaptable, patient interrogators. The system had two secret weapons. Every word the captives said in their cells was overheard and, if interesting, recorded by covert listeners. And some prisoners had changed sides, thrown in their lot with their captors. Read how it was done, how it tilted the balance of the sea war, and the human stories behind the machine.