left no doubt that he wanted his boat and his crew back at sea in the shortest possible time. Almost every U-Boat had one or more emblems PAINTED on their conning tower fairweather. After sinking the Magog, he gave his crew brandy as a reward. He sank another vessel on his fifth patrol to earn the Iron Cross first class, and he notched up further kills as the war progressed. The boat went to the yard for repairs and. [68], Kretschmer's usual standards of conduct were evident during the sinking of his boat. Six months later, on 15 December, he officially became Flottillenadmiral. At the time, Kretschmer . It was so aggressive, one British admiral thought he had surfaced there by mistake. [65] British reports of the action mention a large red glow appearing deep below the surface amid the depth charge explosions. [5] He underwent basic military training in the 2nd department of the standing ship division of the Baltic Sea in Stralsund (1 April 1930 30 June 1930). When giving their wartime histories, the normal U-Bootfahrer would tell what boat he rode. This was not OTTO KRETSCHMER! At the Indienststellung (commissioning) of U-99. As OTTO said;I am a Prussian officer; we are not pirates!. Kretschmer was released from captivity on 31 December 1947, and returned to Germany. [28] Kretschmer returned to Wilhelmshaven on 15 January. HMS WALKER had drifted several hundred yards from the spot U-99 had disappeared and, still wearing his full set of leathers AND sea boots (filled with water), OTTO made the difficult swim to HMS WALKER only to grab onto the scramble nets as the destroyer was beginning to pick up speed they didnt know he was on the nets! Karl Dnitz, Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU), ordered attacks on Allied shipping at sea, beginning the Battle of the Atlantic. [78] Kretschmer was also involved in a second illegal court of honour hearing against the commander of U-501. Laurentic and Patroclus were attacked on the night of 3/4 November. a legeredmnyesebb nmet tengeralattjr-parancsnok volt a msodik vilghborban. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. Although he fought doggedly for Nazi Germany during the war, his affection for Exeter remained with him until his death. 176 men died. Kretschmer attempted to sink the ship with gunfire, but return fire and the appearance of an aircraft forced him to submerge. Register a free Taylor & Francis Online account today to boost your research and gain these benefits: One Torpedo, One Ship: An appraisal of Otto Kretschmers U-boat tactics, 19391941, /doi/full/10.1080/00253359.2021.1898209?needAccess=true. The crew abandoned ship and were questioned by Kretschmer. He dispensed with the standard practice of firing salvoes of torpedoes from long distances. [37] After sinking Magogthe submarine's first victimKretschmer gave the crew a bottle of brandy and directions to Ireland. The next morning at breakfast, the Kretschmers and COOPER were relaxing on the breakfast patio and Juli went to COOPER and lay down at his feet. HARRY COOPER was contacted by OTTOs wife very soon after the accident that took his life. In addition, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern) on 26 December 1941. Death and burial ground of Kretschmer, Otto Wilhelm August "Silent Otto". A fall caused fatal injuries. [2] His father was a teacher at the local Volkschule (primary school), which Otto attended from 1918 to 1921. The ship was loaded with coal, set for Buenos Aires, Argentina. [9], In 1933 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. She had been married before, to a doctor who was killed in action with the Afrika Korps. [63] On 7 March Kretschmer sank two ships from the convoy including the 20,638GRT Terje Viken. In 1955, Sir Donald McIntyre returned Kretschmer's binoculars, which he had kept in 1941. From September 1939 until his capture in March 1941 he sank 44 ships, including one warship, a total of 274,333 tons. He was on a holiday cruisefrom Regensburg to Budapest when he tried climbing some almost vertical steps. I gratefully acknowledge the help of Marianna Colasuonno for patiently reading the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions throughout the drafting of this paper. Dave Powell. Rahmlow and his second-in-command, Bernhard Berndt, were found "guilty of cowardice"; the other two officers were "acquitted". His particularly brazen and risky innovation was to execute these night surface attacks inside the convoy. It was not this way with U-99. The ship did not reach port. From September 1939 to March 1941, Germany's Otto Kretschmer terrorised Allied shipping on the high seas. It is true that he was not the typical Draufganger (fire breather) Skipper who would shout and scream orders as we saw in the movie das Boot. At the time, Kretschmer was president of the Deutscher Marinebund, a member club of the International Maritime Confederation. Kretschmer purportedly confined his remarks to the lack of air support from the Luftwaffe, a point Raeder was fully aware of. On 26 September 1935, he was transferred to the 1st department of the standing ship division of the North Sea in Wilhelmshaven where he served as a company officer until 25 January 1936. Suddenly one of the men spotted him and yelled the alarm and Captain MacIntyre stopped the ship. Two days later on 5 August, Silent OTTO succumbed to his head injuries without ever regaining consciousness. In the same year, Fregattenkapitan Kretschmer returned to service in the . [21] The next day, he sank Tiberton, 5,225GRT, in the Moray Firth. "He prided himself on being able to take advantage of whatever the passing moment offered and made no elaborate plans for attacking convoys. Otto Kretschmer Fregattenkapitn ( Crew 30) U-boat Commands Kptlt. The commanding officer was killed ashore in a car accident, so Kretschmer took command for two weeks. Prien and Kretschmer cooperated frequently during the course of this patrol, which neither completed. While on vacation in Bavaria in the summer of 1998, after an accident on a boat on the Danube, while celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary, he stumbled and was unconscious, he died two days later, old age 86, on 05-08-1998. While his wartime actions have been narrated several times, his tactics, summarized by the famous motto one torpedo, one ship, have never been systematically analysed. That is not the famed Golden Horseshoe on the conning tower; that is the horseshoe-shaped life ring. The Norwegian Varild 1,085GRT was sunk east of the Shetland Islands. Restore content access for purchases made as guest, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health, 48 hours access to article PDF & online version, Choose from packages of 10, 20, and 30 tokens, Can use on articles across multiple libraries & subject collections. Death: November 08, 1981 (85) Millicent, South Australia, Australia. [75] In March 1942, the prisoners were transported to Bowmanville Camp near Lake Ontario in Canada. Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, "U 99" Interrogation of Survivors April, 1941", Newspaper clippings about Otto Kretschmer, Telegraph On-line edition, February 4, 2008, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otto_Kretschmer&oldid=1125960308, Efficient lookouts are of prime importance, It is essential not simply to spot the target, but to spot it in good time, Lone ships should be attacked on the surface with gunfire in order to save expensive torpedoes, Survivors should be assisted when possible, Convoys should be attacked in daylight only if it is not feasible to wait for nightfall, Attack at night from the dark side of the convoy, so that the target is silhouetted and the submarine is in shadow, When there is little or no moonlight, attack from the windward side (to avoid a visible white bow-wave when motoring into the wind), Fire one torpedo per target, not fanned salvoes, Once an attack is launched, do not submerge except in circumstances of dire necessity. Kretschmer was transferred to the training ship Niobe (1 July 1930 9 October 1930), attaining the rank of Seekadett (cadet) on 9 October 1930 before embarking on a 14-month stay on board the cruiser Emden (10 October 1930 4 January 1932), which took him to the Far East through the Mediterranean and Suez canal. Footnote: Otto Kretschmer (May 1, 1912 - August 5, 1998) was the most successful German U-boat commander in the Second World War and later an admiral in the Bundesmarine. On 1 June 1965, he was promoted to Flottillenadmiral (flotilla admiral/Commodore/Rear Admiral), a rank which he initially held on probation. German propagandists feared the triple loss might be too damaging to morale. German radio acknowledged the capture and the death of Schepke. Kretschmer travelled the world as he rose up through the ranks, before joining the U-boat service in 1936. Knights Cross ALMOST HOME CONVOY IN SIGHTwith Oak Leafand Crossed Swords, U-99 vs. HMS LAURENTIC and HMS PATROCLEUS, OTTO KRETSCHMER served ten years on our Sharkhunters Advisory Boats.Click here to view the entire Board. My ship deserted me!. He spoke English quite well, though he lacked practice. Despite being captured, the German nay continued to promote him, and even awarded him he Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords - only the fifth member of the German armed forces to receive the accolade. Heinrich Bleichrodt hit and sank two. This definitive work details his personal story and the political backdrop from his earliest days. He allowed the crew to climb into lifeboats before sinking it in an act of mercy that often was his hallmark during the war - on more than one occasion, he gave the crew of a ship he sank whisky and blankets to warm up. In the Atlantic, Kretschmer became bolder and bolder. At 2250hrs on 3 November, 1940, one of the most dramatic battles of the U-boat war began. [29] U-23 returned to port on 29 January. 3 binoculars included in this lot. Hitler invited Kretschmer to sit in on a lunch meeting with Hitler and Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet Union's ambassador to the Third Reich. His first patrol, with Oberleutnant zur See Adalbert Schnee as first watch officer, took U-23 into the North Sea and along the coast of the Netherlands. OTTO KRETSCHMER made only seven Feindfahrt in World War Two but his daily average tonnage was equal to that of de la Perrier. [66], On 16 March 1941 Kretschmer attacked Convoy HX 112. He then caused havoc in the rest of the convoy, winning him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. After the war he served in the German Federal Navy, from which he retired in 1970 with the flag rank of commodore. With no time to return to the hatch, Kretschmer clung on to the periscope and waved at it frantically, hoping to be spotted. 2.6K views, 39 likes, 4 loves, 2 comments, 23 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from German U-Boats Crews and Commanders: Otto Kretschmer (1 May 1912 - 5 August 1998) was the most successful German. From September 1939 until his capture in March 1941 he sank 44 ships, including one warship, a total of 274,333 tons. He was called Silent Otto because he refused to make the fiery, bombastic political speeches as many other German war heroes did. For this he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (German language: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes . It is not possible to change the direction of a rapidly diving submarine at the wave of a hand, and so with Schnee on the bridge and both conning tower hatches fully open, U-23 disappeared beneath the North Sea. The renaming of the navy was a symbolic gesture, to erase the unpleasant memories of the 1920s and symbolise a new era. Otto Kretschmer, Comandante alemn de U-Boot de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, fue sin duda el ms eficaz de toda la Kriegsmarine. This was not the case with U-99. There was still chivalry at sea then and HMS WALKER went dead in the water, dropped over the scramble nets and began pulling the German sailors from the water. Prien and Kretschmer, along with U-70 (Matz) and UA, attacked the convoy. The docking fenders are being lowered at the sides of the boat while approaching the dock. What he and the other Skippers of the Type II boats who were ordered to stand well away from Scapa Flow and the Orkney Islands did not know was that the planned operation was already in motion for the Type VII-B boat, U-47 to make this attack. He was upset, but he was a proper officer and obeyed his orders. The crew were permitted ashore at the resort town of San Sebastin. . [18], From 1 March to 31 October 1958, Kretschmer served as Admiralstabsoffizier (Astoofficer of the admiralty staff) with the Fleet Command. KLAUS BARGSTEN (328-1987) and his II.W.O. Kretschmer captured the vessel, the only such ship seized by U-99. Kretschmer sank all but one of the ships lost by the convoy. Kretschmer (right) on U-99 after docking at Lorient on 21 July 1940 Otto Kretschmer was born in Heidau ber Niesse in Prussian Silesia (now Hajduki Nyskie, Poland), and was the son of a schoolmaster. He earned the nickname "Silent Otto", both for his successful use of the "silent running" capability of U-boats and for his reluctance to transmit radio messages during patrols. The ship was accompanied by three other vessels, but she was darkened and the black out aroused Kretschmer's suspicions. He clung to the periscope in the hope of being seen through the optics. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. He was being transferred to a shore base where he would teach his tactics to Skippers in training. Unfortunately, his mother died from tetanus after a medical incident, so he returned home to be with his family. [58], Several of Kretschmer's senior officers left the boat before the final patrol. For this he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, among other awards. His first operational posting was to the 2nd U-Flotillas Type VII U35 where he survived almost being drowned during training in the Baltic Sea. OTTOs New Boat, the Type VII-B boat U-99. Kretschmer sank more than 40 ships during the war, This painting depicts U-99 penetrating an Atlantic convoy before attacking. Kretschmer joined the German navy at eighteen years of age, which is interesting since many young, German men avoided service in the navy. Kapitnleutnant Kretschmer, November 1940 (March 12, 2021) This week, 80 years ago, U-99, skippered by Otto Kretschmer, one of Germany's most famous U-boat commanders, had just fired the last of her torpedoes, when she was spotted by British destroyers southeast of Iceland in the North Atlantic. [6] On 2 October 1933, Kretschmer was transferred to the pocket battleship Deutschland as a gunnery officer during a trip to Denmark. Kretschmer ordered his U-boat to be turned around, and they rescued the lone sailor. One attack saw him surface in the midst of a convoy before opening fire. Click on the prints to see their descriptions. However, he was haunted by the image of a lone survivor in a life raft who would surely die if not rescued. During the Spanish Civil War, Kretschmer was involved in several patrols as part of the international non-intervention force. With this result, Kapitnleutnant Kretschmer has reached . [23] Kretschmer targeted the Danish Scotia, a 2,400GRT on 7 December. In fact, out of 116 torpedoes fired in action, Kretschmer scored 74 hits (equivalent to a 69.8% success rate). Laurentic of 18.724 brt and H.M.S. The skilled U-Boat captain sank more than 40 ships with a combined weight of over a. Browse 597 otto kretschmer stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. [46] Kretschmer's logbook recorded the chaos. [17], Kretschmer was promoted to Kapitnleutnant (Lieutenant/Lieutenant Senior Grade) on 1 June 1939.[9]. Did you know that with a free Taylor & Francis Online account you can gain access to the following benefits? He captured the number one German U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer (whose Zeiss binoculars he took and used for the rest of the war); in the same battle, he directed the attack that killed the second-scoring ace Joachim Schepke. [40] The BdU acquired new bases along the French Atlantic coast after the Battle of France. On February 22, 1941, Kretschmer set off on his final patrol. Of his personality and view of the war, it stated: "He gave the impression of being a quiet, deliberate man, and looked more like a student than a U-Boat Captain. Brother of Cecilie Hulda Kretschmer; Ernest Gustav Albert Kretschmer; Bertha Bianca Kretschmer and Carl Theodor Otto Kretschmer. [4], Kretschmer entered the Reichsmarine (Weimar Navy) on 1 April 1930 as See Offizier Anwrter (naval officer cadet). German U-boat commander Otto Kretschmer studied literature at the University of Exeter before becoming a German war hero, Kretschmer spent almost a year at the University of Exeter - known as University College of the South West of England, Seamen abandoning a blazing tanker in an oil painting by John Hamilton. He continued to serve as Watch Officer of U-35 until 30 September 1937. While his wartime actions have been narrated several times, his tactics, summarized by the famous motto 'one torpedo, one ship', have never been systematically analysed. [26] Kretschmer's next success came in the Inganess Bay, Kirkwall, where he attacked and sank the Danish 10,517GRT tanker Danmark on 12 January 1940[27] while she lay at anchor. Kretschmer then met Hitler at the Reich Chancellery and he repeated his opinions on the war situation. The establishment of the Wehrmacht (Nazi German Armed Forces) in 1935 divided the major branches of the armed forces. The nomination was approved on 5 November 1940. Kretschmer was taken separately, but his crew had to negotiate the streets of Liverpool and were subjected to missiles thrown by angry civilians; the city had been heavily bombed and was closely linked with the Atlantic war. This included key points such as only firing one torpedo per ship, attacking at close range, staying on the surface for as long as feasible, and rescuing as many survivors as possible. Otto Kretschmer was only in combat from September 1939 until March 1941 but was Germany's highest-scoring U-boat commander, sinking 47 ships totaling 274,333 tons. Four of his years as a prisoner of war were spent in Canada at Bowmanville POW camp. The attack was conducted with no warning, and consequently all 15 crewmen died. Prien's demise was not disclosed. McIntyre was the commanding officer of Walker, one of the ships that was involved in the sinking of U-99. The main area of operations were the seas and estuaries off East of England and Scotland, with mine-laying operations in the Baltic, to counter the Royal Navy Submarine Service at the end of 1939. Klaus Bargsten served aboard U-99 under Kretschmer, before being promoted to captain himself and becoming the sole survivor of U-521 on 2 June 1942. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. He was eventually promoted to the rank of flotilla admiral, before becoming chief-of-staff of the NATO command. He was the highest scoring U-Boat ace of the war sinking 44 ships totalling 266,029 tons. "[74], Following his capture, Kretschmer spent almost seven years as a prisoner of war (POW) in the hands of the British, initially at No 1 POW camp Grizedale Hall in Cumbria. The Life of Germany's Highest Scoring U-boat Commander. 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From September 1939 until his surrender in March 1941, he sank 44 ships, including one warship, a total of 274,333 tons. A prize crew boarded to sail it to Bordeaux. Otto Kretschmer (1 May 1912 - 5 August 1998) was a German naval officer and submariner in World War II and the Cold War. For 13 days Kretschmer sailed without success. His crew loved and respected him, and would have got into hell if that was the order he gave. Chivalry was still at work at this time and former enemies who had been killing each other the previous day could play cards together. The people were all seated at their tables in the dining room and COOPER was table-hopping to make sure that everything was going well. [18] Further patrols took U-23 around the British coast. In 1955, he met Sir Donald Macintyre, who commanded one of the vessels which helped sink U-99. The first watch is at attention on the foredeck and the second watch is at attention on the after deck. 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