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Originally Posted by Penguin
Yes, you're right that most officers could speak some English. I am not sure if it was part of the curriculum for all officers, if so then certainly only in the earlier years of the war.
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Yep, and it was probably even more likely for those who'd done their time there pre-war and were already commissioned early on. I think there's even a line in Das Boot (the book), when they have stopped a Spanish ship, where der Alte says something to someone from the potential target and then turns to his own men and says something like, "Yes, I had Spanish too!"
Altho the close ties between Hitler's Germany and fascist Spain might've had something to do with that.
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I am somehow impressed about Topp's language skills which he shows in this interview:
He really speaks free and coherent, no search for words. Definitely not common in his age group.
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That interview looks like it was done after he retired, though, or at least very late in his career. You have to keep in mind that by then he'd spent some time working within NATO as part of the new German Navy and was even "stationed" in the US for a while. No doubt it helped to keep his English pretty fresh.
