Quote:
Originally Posted by frau kaleun
Officer ranks in the Kriegsmarine (and their rough equivalents) were as follows:
Fähnrich zur See - Midshipman
Oberfähnrich zur See - Sub-Lieutenant
Leutnant zur See - Lieutenant (Junior)
Oberleutnant zur See - Lieutenant (Senior)
Kapitänleutnant - Lieutenant-Commander
Korvettenkapitän - Commander
Fregattenkapitän - Captain (Junior)
Kapitän zur See - Captain
Kommodore - Commodore
Konteradmiral - Rear-Admiral
Vizeadmiral - Vice-Admiral
Admiral - Admiral
Generaladmiral - no equivalent
Grossadmiral - Admiral of the Fleet
From what I've read, Oberleutnant was usually the lowest rank at which an officer had command of a combat u-boat - altho this may have changed as the war went on and the available officers' ranks were being thinned out both by transfer of more experienced men to shore duty as well as heavy combat losses in the ubootwaffe overall.
The most commonly held rank for a commander in actual combat seems to have been Kapitänleutnant; promotion above this rank often resulted in transfer to shore duty, either as a staff officer, flotilla commander, or instructor back at one of the training facilities. Some officers stayed in or returned to command of a frontboot after being promoted past this rank but it seems to have been a relatively rare occurrence.
Altho an Oberleutnant might be assigned to shore duty of some kind, I doubt that he would placed in command of a flotilla at that rank, especially given the fact there would probably be other u-boat commanders in that same flotilla who would have more experience and already outrank him if and when the position needed to be filled.
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Except really for the first two years and change of the war when rank and operations worked like they were suppposed to the kriegsmarine had the lowest amount of officers of any service. Unlike the US where they could afford to have 2 and 3 star admirals commanding single ships, the Kriegsmarine couldn't muster up enough admirals in the whole branch to equal what we had just out at sea (mostly as flat top captains). In contrast to the kriegsmarine, most allied sub commanders started as either majors or lt. commanders (equivalent to Korvettenkapitän or Fregattenkapitän). Don't think there were any admirals that remained at sea in command of their own submarines, the highest being captains (Kapitän zur See). Though a few Kapitän zur See did remain at see in command of their own boats, you can count them on one hand!
Imagine if Kaleuns like Prien or Kretschmer took on positions as Flotille commanders or kommandant/senior trainers at u-boat schools the u-boat service might have been able to retain more of its initial higher level of proficiency when sending out new boats to sea. While no single action could have prevented the outcome, had each gross mistake been corrected it might have made things more interesting and reduced the fatality rate down from 75% to something at least humane, at that rate I think Kamikaze's actually inflicted more overall damage (despite the effort overall being a failure), it did inflict fear into the surface ship crews and usually cause moderate to major damage when a plane was successful.
At the least, it would have made the allies uneasy knowing that such great men were still alive and teaching/passing on their knowledge to new and existing officers might have shifted their priorities - to expend more resources bombing the u-boot pens and schools than using 100% of them to hunting u-boots instead. Just as the German wehrmact was scarred to death of Patton, the navies could have been equally freightened of Kretchsmer, Prien or Topp planning, organizing and sending out wolf packs that would've stood a much better chance at success.
In any other branch field grade officers became almost like flag rank status in the kriegsmarine - you had Korvettenkapitän's as Flotille commanders! That's the same as putting a Major from the allied forces in charge of a major base like Pearl Harbor or Gibraltor! In most cases it seemed that getting promoted to Korvettenkapitän was like a death sentence, with only a handfull of them actually surviving to either take a command on land or surive to the end of the war.