[Schöneboom]

Actually the use of Nazi "political officers" was a late-war development in all branches of the German military. They definitely threw a wet blanket on the U-boat's esprit de corps, what was left of it by this time. In the early years, there was often a PK (Propangandakompanie) man on board, like Lt. Werner in Das Boot, who of course was thoroughly indoctrinated. He wasn't much liked, because he wasn't really part of the crew and just got in the way most of the time.

It is worth noting that people everywhere tend to be most uncritically patriotic when their country is militarily successful, and only begin to have doubts when the war goes terribly wrong for them. Those who benefit directly from the system (in the military & arms industry) are the least likely to bite the hand that feeds them. And one cannot underestimate the power of well-crafted propaganda on those who want to believe they are the good guys, that history will vindicate them.

If you read the book, "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45" you'll have a much clearer sense not only of that society, but the weaknesses of humanity in general. Most citizens who owned a copy of "Mein Kampf" never actually read it. Who has time to think about politics when there's so much work to do?