Wolfgang Luth's lecture on leadership

[U777]

Here is an excerpt with a link at the bottom, way too long to quote the whole thing here.

Much has been written about the award of medals, and this subject will continue to be a controversial one. This only shows the importance of the problem. The fact must not be ignored that there are some men who, when decorated with the Iron Cross First Class, suddenly develop diseases which cannot be spotted by an X-ray machine and which are generally known by the watch word of heart and stomach ailments and rheumatism. If every submarine man would submit to a conventional physical check-up, only few would be found fit for duty. It is necessary to appeal to a man’s iron willpower to maintain his health and to overcome minor difficulties. If two men are up for the Iron Cross First Class and only one can receive it, I prefer to give it to the man who stays on board rather than to the one who is lucky enough to be advanced to petty officer or chief petty officer and therefore has to leave the ship. After all, the Iron Cross is not to be awarded for charity; it is a decoration for bravery before the enemy, and the bearer has to prove himself even more worthy of it after the award.

http://www.uboatarchive.net/LuethLecture.htm

I read the whole thing, very good read even if he was Nazi, (which it didnt talk too much about) but the idea of being connected and caring about your men seems like the absolute right way to go as a Kaulen, the more they trust and respect you, the more efficient things would work. And the fact that he taught even basic seamen different things (navigation and such) or let them see different sights (whales, thunder storms, sinkings) only helps his cause, heck I bet if one of his officers went down (which I think there was part where a petty officer did and he did the same) he could almost confidently replace them with a Seaman.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Just read it. The man I see through (or between) these lines of text is a very demanding, dominative character. I'm almost sure I wouldn't go along well with him, I get fed up fast with such types - I understand my duty and how I perform it is under constant detailed control of superiors, but where it comes to my private life (or just private parts) I'm not letting any officer close to it. He won't tell me if I should visit brothels or not, if I should spend my hard earned money on vodka, or send it to family. "Sir, go realize your idea of perfect state of total control somewhere else, Captain Sir." Oh dear, I hate being paternalised so much, and this guy even wanted to decide which music is too hard for me to understand... One doesn't join the Navy to be raised by officers, people enlist to be soldiers, not kids. And under Luth "Everyone had to sing", "everybody had to tell the story over the loud-speaker", "Everyone had to compose"...

Two excerpts were striking to me. One reminded me once more how repugnant and abominable the Nazi ideology was, and how I despise all it stood for. Frankly speaking, when reading this I had - yet again - this short flash of doubt if I should play a NAZI Germany character/soldier, even in a simulator. Short one though - I had had this conversation with myself earlier already and conclusions were drawn.

Nevertheless you can't let them hang the picture of the Fuehrer on the left side of the bulkhead in the officers' mess and on the right side one of a girl from a box of candy which they bought in Paris. That shows bad taste. The same is true if they like to listen to American and British jazz. Whether they like it or not has nothing to do with the matter. They simply must not like it, just as a German man must not like a Jewess. In a tough war everyone must have learned to hate his enemy without reservation.

The second one striking excerpt follows:

We had on board the volume of the 1933 issues of the illustrated news magazine “Die Wochenschau”, a very good paper, which still showed in its first number of January 1933 many pictures of Jews. The crew was at that time on the average only ten years old, and had never experienced anything like that. Then came the day of the assumption of power, the Reichstag fire, the day of Potsdam, the super highways, the Reich Labor Service, etc. The men were surprised about many of these pictures, because they could not imagine that there had been a time in Germany when all these things to which we are now accustomed were still being fought for. We hung pictures from this paper in our “show window” duty roster, and there were always interested spectators crowding around. To the right and left were added comments in red and blue pencil.

Overall the text is fascinating as a historical document and a testimony of a submariner that had spent a large part of his life submerged - invaluable. With all his attention to details it reads very smoothly (although as for a lecture it's much too chaotic and without plan - I'm more used to highly qualified lecturers than such amateurs). Here, an interesting excerpt:

On the bridge I often talk to the watch officers. I ask them what we would do under today’s weather conditions to dodge a suddenly approaching destroyer, when we would have to today if a plane approached, when we would remain surfaced? Under what conditions do we attack and from what side, etc.? With the aid of the chart I discuss the situation with them and let them offer suggestions. They must be positive suggestions dictated by an aggressive spirit however, for I am scared enough myself and in that I don’t need help from anybody else.

Fear - the element of U-Boot sailor life which (most probably) no simulator will ever be able to simulate... unless with adrenaline injections when DCs fall.


If you're too lazy to read all of it, at least read the last 2 pages - these contain very good examples of what might go wrong when on a sub. And... just anything could.

Thanks for the link, it was an experience to read that.

Id have to disagree with the dominative character, in essence all he seemed to be doing was looking out for the well being of his men, and lets be honest most people if not all if they have a boss that they realize cares about what they think people are more motivated to put their selfish bull**** (excuse the language) aside and be more than willing to lay their life down for their fellow crew members who thanks to their captain they all know and have a deeper understanding of.
I think of it as team building activities, the more you get your men to work with eachother and have fun together and develop a more personal relationship, the easier they will function as a single unit. I know this just from when I played football, our coach was a big guy into being part of our lives and getting us to be a close team. As such during my 4 years at the HS playing for them, no we never went to state, but we were a determined team with the same goal and understood what needed to be done. In a game of emotion we were never the team to break because we worked with eachother so well.

yes he seems dominative, but as a captain you need to command a certain respect, but on the side (even though being a Nazi) he understood that if he cared about his men, they would care too, (like the part where he talked about treating his seamen like they werent pure trash and actually mattered) this makes sense because in essense, theyre part of a functioning unit, and without them, his U-boat is just a worthless piece of submergeable boat in the Atlantic.

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Just read it. The man I see through (or between) these lines of text is a very demanding, dominative character. I'm almost sure I wouldn't go along well with him, I get fed up fast with such types - I understand my duty and how I perform it is under constant detailed control of superiors, but where it comes to my private life (or just private parts) I'm not letting any officer close to it. He won't tell me if I should visit brothels or not, if I should spend my hard earned money on vodka, or send it to family. "Sir, go realize your idea of perfect state of total control somewhere else, Captain Sir." Oh dear, I hate being paternalised so much, and this guy even wanted to decide which music is too hard for me to understand... One doesn't join the Navy to be raised by officers, people enlist to be soldiers, not kids. And under Luth "Everyone had to sing", "everybody had to tell the story over the loud-speaker", "Everyone had to compose"...

[U777]

yes he seems dominative, but as a captain you need to command a certain respect, but on the side (even though being a Nazi) he understood that if he cared about his men, they would care too, (like the part where he talked about treating his seamen like they werent pure trash and actually mattered) this makes sense because in essense, theyre part of a functioning unit, and without them, his U-boat is just a worthless piece of submergeable boat in the Atlantic.

While I don't agree with his political views I do agree with most of the rules on his boat and the way he handled the crew, they were well intended for the benefit of the crew. If I was in command of a small diesel sub like a VIIC I would deff tear a page or two out of his leadership playbook.

[frau kaleun]

Say what you will about his political/social views - and those are pretty well-documented, and not pretty to say the least - everything I've read about him seems to indicate that his crews loved him and that his concern for them did not end when their service together did.

[verte]

A great read, and a good leader.