Quote:
Originally Posted by Penguin
Ah, a Das Boot thread, nearly missed this one 
Many sailors were previously in the merchant fleet (like Der Alte) and as those international travellers, thus most of them spoke some English and it was en vogue among them to do so.
I read stories of German captains from the 30s-50s, they used quite a lot of english expressions in their tales. Many expressions where the sailor of today uses a (nautic) german word for have been in English. |
In addition I expect foreign language studies, including English, were part of the officer candidate curriculum at the naval academy. Not to mention the fact that some officers had already been exposed to English in an educational or even everyday setting before joining up. Cremer, I think, had an English grandmother and Kretschmer spent the better part of a year living and going to school in England.