The Terrible Price of Freedom 235
and Malayan sailors were put on flimsy rafts, while the only real life-
boat was filled with European crew. The color line was as ubiquitous as
the Equator. A couple of days later, another cargo boat was sighted, but
on this occasion the U- 180 surfaced by mistake. The British vessel tried
to ram the submarine as the captain gave the order to dive. In the midst
of the crisis, Hasan heard Bose’s voice: “Hasan, I have dictated the
matter to you twice and you have not taken it down!” Once the subma-
rine had steadied itself under the sea, after a close shave with the enemy
ship, Captain Musenberg instructed his sailors to emulate the unflap-
pable demeanor of the Indian leader and his secretary when in dan-
ger.^84
Following its adventures in the Atlantic, the submarine rounded the
Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, on
April 20, 1943, the Japanese submarine I- 29 had left Penang with the
flotilla commander Captain Masao Teraoka on board. Local Indians
had been intrigued by the crew’s decision to buy supplies for the on-
board preparation of Indian meals. On April 26, the German and Japa-
nese submarines spotted each other at approximately 25 degrees south
latitude and 60 degrees east longitude, in the Indian Ocean, some four
hundred nautical miles off the coast of Madagascar. After they surfaced
at their prearranged rendezvous point, the crews discovered the sea
was very rough, making a transfer of passengers virtually impossible.
The two submarines sailed alongside each other for what seemed to
Teraoka to be an eternity. Late in the afternoon on April 27, a German
of fi cer and a signalman swam across to the Japanese vessel. At dawn
on April 28, though the waves were still high, it was decided to attempt
the transfer, since continuing the surface maneuver was riskier. The
two Germans rode a rubber dinghy back to their submarine, dragging
a strong hemp rope. Bose and Hasan climbed down from the U- 180
into the raft and made their way through the surging sea toward the
I-29. Drenched to the bone, the Indian leader and his adjutant clam-
bered aboard the Japanese submarine to a very warm welcome. An as-
tonishing military feat had been accomplished: the only submarine- to-
submarine transfer of passengers in the annals of World War II, in
waters where the enemy was superior in air and naval power. The mor-
tality rate on German U- boats was greater than 80 percent, and the risk