Quote:
Originally Posted by Missing Name
"You'll certainly live up to your name!" He then mentioned he had what I wanted: a Type IX at Wilhelmshaven, whose captain was removed for reasons I couldn't be told. "You have a large deck gun on that, bigger than what we can mount on a Type VII." After some pondering, I decided to go ahead and take command. And all because of one little comment... he must really want someone to take that boat.
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At that point in time no captain/officer would have refused a command of any submarine, there would have been no hesitation just a "yes sir". Had you told Donitz to "wait while I think about" it the position would have been filled pretty much right after he walked away from you. Getting a command of any u-boat was only given to the most experienced/most promising captains (Kretschmer's first command was a IIA). Early in the war they were very picky on who those chose to command boats (the only time when they had a large pool of experienced men to choose from) even getting a type II would have been a big career boost.