the last Uboat captain

[sidslotm]

Thought I'd post this for you all. This fella looks brilliant, better than me anyway. did check to see if it was posted some where else, heh.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199218/Germanys-surviving-U-Boat-captain--decorated-twice-Hitler-bravery-sinking-27-Allied-ships--gets-modern-military-honour.html

[Dowly]

Good for him! :salute:

On a side note: I hate how some sources keep referring everything WWII-era
German as nazi this and nazi that. Silly. :doh:

[mookiemookie]

Hardegen is the last one left? I had no idea. He was always my favorite. From what I've read, he seems like a true gentleman.

[CCIP]

Hardegen is the last one left? I had no idea. He was always my favorite. From what I've read, he seems like a true gentleman.

Same, that's actually kind of a shock to read... There were really a few left, but I hadn't realized so many of them passed away so recently. Lassen, for example, passed away at 96 earlier this year.

Really quite sad, but at the same time, Hardegen is someone who deserved to be the last one. He has nothing to apologize for in his military career, and from all I've read, he was definitely a gentleman and a distinguished community leader in his civil life after the war.

Always a good time to reflect on the history as it passes from living memory...

[Stealhead]

Good for him! :salute:

On a side note: I hate how some sources keep referring everything WWII-era
German as nazi this and nazi that. Silly. :doh:

Right it would be like saying every American of the time was a Democrat because FDR was or that every Soviet was a communist because Stalin was.

The U-boat service was actually one of the least Nazi of any Germany military branch during the war they liked jazz and fast women that is very un Nazi.

My grandfather used to always talk about that whole notion he used to interrogate German POWs and he said that most of them where not die hards at all.
There most certainly where some though but it is very false to call every person that was in the German military during WWII a Nazi.

[CCIP]

Like I mentioned in another thread not too long ago, that's not to say that there weren't plenty of real nazis around the U-boat force. Some of the most famous U-boat commanders definitely were. But as far as I can tell, Hardegen was definitely not one of them.

[Oberon]

Ah yes, I remember reading of his deliberate maneuver to place himself between shore and the Gulfamerica before opening fire with his deck gun, at risk to himself and his crew, in order to avoid the potential of one of his deck gun shots missing the tanker and hitting the shore. He almost paid for it with his boat at the hands of the Dahlgreen, but fortune smiled on him.
Also one of the few to directly criticise Hitler and get away with it! :doh:

[Dowly]

Right it would be like saying every American of the time was a Democrat because FDR was or that every Soviet was a communist because Stalin was.

Exactly. Now, I understand the talk back then, Japs, Nazis etc. but why keep it
up after all these years? Like CCIP mentions, we've had these conversations before,
but I'll repeat what I said: I'm in no way defending the atrocities committed by
the German army during the WWII or anything like that. I just tend to look things
objectively and to me, calling the WWII-era Germans as Nazis is a slap to the
face o those who simply served their country, some even from 1939 to
the war's end without being in anyway connected to the Nazi party.

IMHO, the regular German soldiers deserve a bit more respect as what
they are getting.

[Jimbuna]

He went on to build up a successful oil trading company, and was a member of Parliament in his hometown of Bremen for 32 years.

Hardegen travelled extensively in America, where he met men who had tried to kill him during his U-Boat service.

'They are my friends to this day,' he said.


Just about sums it up for me.

[Oberon]

There were numerous cases at the end of the war, of German and Allied (mainly British and American) soldiers, pilots, sailors, meeting up with each other, usually through shared experiences or through being a prisoner of war. Adolf Galland with Robert Tuck, Werner Lott with Lord Mountbatten, people who had tried to kill each other, meeting up to share their experiences.

[nikimcbee]

Hardegen is the last one left? I had no idea. He was always my favorite. From what I've read, he seems like a true gentleman.

Whoa, is he really last? Pretty much what mookie said, I'll just add, I love listening to his interviews. I wonder how many U-boat vets are left?

[nikimcbee]

Like I mentioned in another thread not too long ago, that's not to say that there weren't plenty of real nazis around the U-boat force. Some of the most famous U-boat commanders definitely were. But as far as I can tell, Hardegen was definitely not one of them.

I think Gunther Prien was a nazi, and Wolfgang Luth definitely was. (true believers). I think the surface fleet had more nazis, but I don't remember. It's a moot point anyway. It's not like the Soviet Navy, that had the zampolit on board.

[Gato76]

Herbert Werner,the author of Iron Coffins still alive.