SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT ON GERMAN VESSEL "ODENWALD"
     
 
dated March 17th, 1942.
 
     
          The report on the captured German vessel "ODENWALD" dated March 12th, 1942, and issued from the office of the Chief of Naval Operations, U.S.A., has just been received and studied with advantage.  It is of interest to note that this 46 page report was only issued four months after the capture of the ship, while Lieutenant Samuel's 5-page report of March 17th, 1941, was completed twelve days after the receipt from Washington of several hundred photostats of ODENWALD documents.  
     
          In the U.S. report considerable use is made of the "ODENWALD" log and manifest, of which photostats were not sent to Ottawa; it is also based, of course, on the interrogation of the 46 captured Germans.  The description of a certain sketch by the First Officer as being the "ODENWALD" when disguised is now seen to be an error; it is clear that it was the British vessel "DENBIGHSHIRE" encountered at sea by "ODENWALD" on September 23rd, 1941.  (The U.S. report, page 7, derives this information from the logs and from certain additional memoranda, photostats of which were also not sent to Ottawa).  
     
          It was also not detected that the Wireless Officer was an absconded "GRAF SPEE" prisoner, although his letter of July 4th, 1941, in which he writes that he had worked as a peon and had crossed the Cordilleras on foot was available.  It does not, however, appear that he "was in a somewhat special category. . . . . . . indicated by the fact that he was not mustered as a member of the "ODENWALD" crew (page 20).  His name duly figures on the Hamburg-Amerika Line crew lists dated Yokohama, July 11th, 1941.  (photostat 1  01  000  001).  
     
          The statement (recorded on pages 3 and 4) that "ODENWALD" disguised as "WILLMOTO" was thanked by two British corvettes for informing them "that a German raider had been sighted to southward" can, probably, be disbelieved.  Such an incident could only have occurred during the closing days of October, 1941, but there is no reference to it in the diaries of Seaman Laengle, Stoker Kadler or Seaman Juenemann; it also finds no place in the report of September 11th, 1941, signed by the Master and officers of the "ODENWALD".  
     
          The one vital matter disclosed in the "ODENWALD" papers was the fact that she was scheduled to make two rendezvous for supply purposes on the 18th and 22nd of November, 1941.  This is not brought out very clearly in the U.S. report (pages 10-13) The words "1 Bezugsort" and "2 Buzugsort" (page 10) signify "First Supply Point" and "Second Supply Point".  Moreover "Orade" and "Orfe" are obviously code words describing neighbouring map squares on some chart that has been overprinted with a grid.  An interesting point is made on page 13 of the U.S. report, namely that when the "SPREEWALD" ex "YOKOHAMA" was sunk on January 31st, 1942, she was "apparently approaching Orfe on the run to Bordeaux".