Heinz told his story on the BBC Wales Bus. The following is a transcription based on the interview.

I was born in East Prussia, Germany. During the war I joined the German Navy and later volunteered for the U-Boat force, submarine. I was attached to U22 which was being built and we went down to have lessons about everything. We left Kiel, I think in the summer of 1941 - it was a long time ago.
I like to forget because it was a terrible time.

It was very difficult on the U-Boat. It was a small submarine, only 600 tonne with 54 people, very crowded. We were sleeping on top of the torpedoes and eating sitting down with our plates on our laps. It was very, very crowded.

I believe that it was nine times we went out, until on 2nd June 1943 we were spotted by three Corvettes. One of the boats picked me up. We scuppered the submarine, we had lost 18 people, it was in the middle of the night, two o'clock in the morning, and we were shot at. I was one of the last to come out of the boat because my station was right up front. I put on a life jacket with various compartments that you blew up and if one was punctured, the others didn't deflate. So I got off, there weren't many there. I had seen our cook lying on the bridge with his belly slit open, it looked terrible. So eventually I got down, the boat was already sinking then. We opened our valves and I slid in the water, most of them had already gone. The old man come on deck, he stayed on top to make sure everything was going down. One or two come up at me after, one of the machine bosses, he came up.

I was in the water then for about an hour or two, terribly cold, and I was picked up then by a boat and pulled in. I just hung on to the ropes on the side, put my arm through and held on, I couldn't pull myself into the boat, I thought I'd lost my legs. I felt everything was gone. There was a depth charge in the water as well which knocked the breath out of me, but it was more like a dream, I can't actually remember what really happened.

So I got onto the Corvette and we were treated well by the sailors, really marvellous crowd. They threw tobacco and cigarettes to us, boxes and tins, you know, and I must thank I think the Petty Officer, or something like that, burly chap. I was delirious, whether it was the depth charge that was in the water and hit me and blew my chest, I don't know what happened. I was bleeding in my mouth and I was kept in a sick bay. So I couldn't eat anything because I couldn't eat solids, so he made me some soups. He was marvellous; he was like a father to me. He was really good. I wish I could have remembered, I should have tried to get in touch with him after that war, but I don't know at the time, I felt too afraid, you know. But I thank him a lot, he helped me a lot.

I became a Prisoner of War and was brought to Liverpool, and then I went to hospital and stayed there for about ten days. I was shipped down to London to the interrogation camps and from there then to a camp in Lake District. Many years later my wife went on holiday there and showed me a card. I said, 'I've been there too,' I said, 'as a prisoner of war.'

I then went to Camp 24 in Scotland; from there we were transported to Canada. When the war finished I came back to England and to Carmarthen, from Carmarthen to Port Talbot and from Port Talbot to the Gower. I went to work on the farms and I was a farmer's son myself so I was quite handy on farms and I had a job. Later on these people became my family, I married their niece. I was released as a prisoner of war, but I stayed because my home was now Russian and I didn't want to go back there...

Heinz Mindt

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