[PavelKirilovich]

Recently I was reflecting on my 1940-1945 career (Yeah, I survived the war) and it occurred to me that every time I went on patrol near the Christmas season, I tried to arrive back in base around 20 December so that "my lads" were garunteed everything to about a week and a half past New Year's on furlough.

Other things I find myself doing are remembering the ranks and last names of my crewmen, setting up a duty roster without realizing it - more on that later - and constantly surfacing after successful attacks (I stopped this practice in 1942, when it became near-suicidal to surface, and that's without GWX) to "pick up survivors."

Regarding the duty roster: I found that the Type VII has enough spaces in the stern crew accomodations to man the engine compartments at full capacity. I took four POs and qualified them Engineering, then took sufficient crewmen so that it was two POs and the rest were Other Ranks (ORs) and promoted and awarded decorations as nessecary. My U-Boat was very well served by her engines, both electric and diesel, since the on-duty shift would automatically transfer into the electric engine compartment when I dove, meaning the off-duty shift could continue to rest until they were needed (when the on-duty shift got tired).

This generally meant that I was shorthanded sometimes if I had a full watch shift abovedecks (this is a non-negotiable thing: It is always fully manned and well rested) and had to reload torpedoes quick-like (meaning I had most of the other lads in the torpedo compartment).

I found that with about four torpedo qualified POs, one medically qualified POs, two radar/hydrophone/signals POs, one Damage Control PO, two FlaK-qualified POs, and one deck gunnery qualified PO, plus the petty officers aft of the control room working in the engine spaces, I never had problems shuffling crew around under any circumstances. With the highly qualified officers I had by 1943, I was able to survive the war years.

Managed to get through the entire war without any casualties, either wounded or killed, as well. The "Sani" (Medic) was probably very bored on my combat cruises - but that's a good thing.