SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Otto Kretschmer interview

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Otto Kretschmer interview

Who do we know who speaks German and doesn't mind writeing a lot....?

j/k! ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letum

Who do we know who speaks German and doesn't mind writeing a lot....?

j/k! ;)

:rotfl:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dowly

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letum

Who do we know who speaks German and doesn't mind writeing a lot....?

j/k! ;)

:rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Give me some time and I'll come up with a translation. Or someone else is faster than me ;)

I did a rough translation of the first video; there are some termns in the middle of it which I am really not sure about (the magnetic torpedo stuff).
Read it or leave it ;)

Quote:

Question (0:11):
How was your military career going after your had studied abroad?

Kretschmer:
Returned from Spain in the year 1937 I soon became commander of the U-Boot U-23 on October 1st 1937 and till the begin of the war I had done almost 2 months of peacetime training with it which took place in the Baltic sea and which was very in-depth.
You started from Kiel where U-23 was stationed with the U-Flottille Wedding. You started into the middle Baltic sea on Sunday evening where the training took place against target ships around the dive quadrants of Rügen - at night and day. You returned on Saturday evening.
So you practically had only 24 hours a week to see something else as the sea in Kiel - not even time to go shopping because the stores were closed by then. It was a very strict training which later had proved it's value in the results.

I began war with U-23 and had to notice that we had faulty torpedos and during the whole war time - mine lastet until March 17th 1941 - you could have had almost twice as high successes with intact torpedos.
The torpedoes had been developed by the (Kriegs)Marine and we shot with a magnetic detonator. The targets had been undershot so that the torpedo would detonate mid-ships under the target and therefor develop a huge detonation. Actually a nice idea, however it did not work.
The electro magnetic status of the torpedo were not fully controllable what made the torpedo sometimes detonate in front or behind the target.
Furthermore the magnetic fuse had to be changed depending on the latitude the U-Boot was operating in.
So the torpedo detonated when the earth magnetism had been changed by the ship magnetism of the target. Unfortunately that did not work always.
Therefor it had been ordered to shoot the torpedos with impact because it had been discovered that the torpedos were running deeper than were adjusted. That was known to the testers of the (Kriegs)Marine but they tolerantly ignored this fact with the reason that the torpedo nevertheless
needs to "undershoot" the target and thus the actual depth of the torpedo does not matter. But this had consequences when we had to shoot with impact later: then the torpedos did not work because they were running too deep and did not hit the target. So you had to select the shallowest setting of 3 meters - at least that's what I did - since with a shallower setting the torpedo would turn into a surface runner.
Furthermore the torpedos sometimes tended to change course and were running in circles so that the shooting ship (the U-Boot) endangered itsself.
So when you shot at night or a electro torpedo - which did not have a bubble trail - you had to turn on the hydrophone to check whether the torpedo stayed on it's course or if you were in danger of sinking yourself.

Qestion: Did that happen? (5:57)
Kretschmer: Yes (laughs a bit), I think that's what sank Prien - that's my personal opinion.

Question (6:04):
The British could intercept the german U-Boot radio transmissions already during WWI. How was it in WWII?

Kretschmer:
These silly transmissions have been repeated in WWII. I myself used it - when at all - unwillingly. That's why once Admiral Dönitz asked me when I reported from a Feindfahrt:
Kretschmer, don't you want to obey orders any more?
And I said: Herr Admiral,... not all of them. I am responsible for the security of my boat and I don't want to be triangulated all of the time because of the radio transmissions and thus lure airplanes with depth charges to my position. And I want to do everything to help win the war.
And he accepted it, but I don't know if others could have said that to him.
In any case I have the opinion today that much of the U-Boot War's success had been lost because of this damn radio transmissions.

I myself always were very cautious and have thought that the code cannot be secure because I knew the Britains from my studying time and had recognized their attitude related to practice compared to the more scientific attitude of the Germans schools.
The high commanders always calmed us down: dont' worry the code cannot be broken; but myself I was worried.

Here's the second part of the interview:

---------------------------------------------

How did you lose your boat?

Flottillenadmiral (ret.) Kretschmer: By the end of 1940, I sent two of my officers off to CO school, because I figured that these two fine officers would make good CO's and this way could better contribute to winning the war, while hoping that at the same time I would get similarily good replacements. Unfortunately however, that was not the case, which partly contributed to my last patrol in the beginning of 1941 turning out a disaster that did cost the boat and the lifes of 3 crew members.

I was returning from a convoy battle, out of torpedoes, and the bridge watch ran into an enemy Hunter Killer Group which was just in the process of hunting down my U-Boat comrade Schepke in U-100 and actually sinking him. I didn't get away because the WO gave orders to dive, even though I had issued standing orders NOT to dive when making surface contact at night, instead to turn the stern towards the enemy, call me to the bridge, and I would assume command from that point on. So this wasn't possible anymore, we were stationary, got depth charged, had flooding and were barely able to surface with the last bit of compressed air.
I had no torpedoes left to defend us and we recieved heavy gunfire, however they failed to hit us with their guns and machine guns in the night, so I got the chance to get the crew on deck and wait for the boat to sink. The stern dropped first and everybody on the deck was washed into the sea, with their life belts on. With the operational mission over my last duty as CO was to take care of the safety of the crew, so I let morse codes being signaled to the enemy: "From Captain to Captain: Please rescue my men drifting in your direction. I am sinking."*
And that's what he did, all the time signalling nicely via his top lights that he recieved and understood.
He wasn't far away, it was the HMS Walker, a destroyer, under the command of a CO who later became a friend of mine.
So, that way the part of the crew which was washed into the sea got rescued. I myself had to support the sinking of the boat because the British DD wanted to capture it, which had to be prevented because without doubt secret material would have fallen into his hands, so I had to accelerate the sinking by flooding a ballast tank. At that point, I was the last one left on the bridge and was then washed into the sea when it sank - so the notion of people being dragged below by a sinking ship is wrong, I stayed afloat with my life belt on.

Was there any order issued by Dönitz to shoot shipwrecked sailors?

Flottillenadmiral (ret.) Kretschmer: I know nothing of the kind. Quite the opposite, we were always reminded that we had to conduct the war according to international law. That's where we oriented us on, and we also had - especially in the U-Boat Waffe - the impression that we were not to conduct war against people, but sink ships instead, and that shipwrecked sailors should expect to recieve help as far as that was in our possibility. That's what we did and actually once I had a sailor aboard - whose name escapes me right now - whom I had rescued from a float, and he first thought he was on a British sub, telling me in English that the "bloody Germans"* had sunk him after all but that he now was finally fished out of the ocean by his own folks. Later I put him into a lifeboat under sail which we ran accross. This lifeboat was manned by two white men in blue Merchant uniform, and manning the rudders were some yellow men, from Vietnam, Anamese as they were called back then. When I gave orders to them via the megaphone to come alongside, they seemed a bit scared, thinking now their end was near. So they were mighty surprised when instead one of their own folks, wearing a German overall, carrying his own wet clothes in one hand and some provisions in the other hand, was to come aboard their boat. The Brit who was manning the helm was so impressed, he grabbed into his pocket and threw a pack of cigarettes onto our deck, as a sign of gratitude. I wished them well and that they may reach Ireland safe and sound - all this happened West of Ireland - and asked them if they knew the heading, yes yes they knew, etc., so they set sail. The weather was pretty fine so they could well get back home.

There was NO order, not even the implication of it, that we were to conduct war against people. We sink ships, that's it, and shipwrecked sailors recieved help when possible. In fact, often they were dispersed and not properly retrieved by their own boats at the scene of a sinking, and you had to support them saying "Look over there, there's another one, come over get this one, etc."

*Non-translated, original at 03:09 in the (second) vid. Also "Bloody Germans" he kept in mind at 05:35. ;)

Thanks gents, very interesting stuff.

Thank you!:up: Would be nice to get the full interwiew somewhere..

Thank you very much for writing it all down it was very interesting reading it!
:up: :up:

I read the book writen by Captain Donald Mcintyre "U-Boat killer" isbn 0-304-35235-7, in which he described sinking Prein, Schepke, and capturing Kretschmer in a chapter called The fate of three aces. He described Kretschmer as "a sinister and deadly menace" also "as a proffessional naval officer and a most skillful one". I would recomend the book as it gives a good picture from the persective of a destroyer captain who was there. To me all very interesting. :D

Kretschmer was the best in more than one way

My thanks as well, both for the videos and the translations.

Good stuff!:rock: