Captain does and doesn't

JScones · 11-02-09, 07:54 PM

I've always found Wolfgang Lüth's PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP IN A SUBMARINE lecture from DEC43 insightful. I recommend reading it to get an idea of life onboard his boat...from the man himself (not 20 years later by hearsay).

But pls bear in mind two things when reading:

1. Lüth was an IX Kaleun, thus his techniques are tuned for longer cruises. His approach would unlikely be as practical in II or VII boats, ie the majority of cases.

2. Many of his colleagues, including the Subsim-favourite Buchheim (Das Boot), ridiculed his speech and found his approach to management laughable, suggesting that his ideal was the exception rather than the norm. Indeed, Jordan Vause in his book U-Boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang Luth states in response "that many officers in the German military establishment at the time, officers young and old, did not think it necessary to "like" their crews or to take care of them, any more than they accepted the idea of a crew as an extended family and the captain a surrogate father. It was not unusual for officers to be successful and disliked, even hated, at the same time."

Just offered to reaffirm the diversity and prove that extreme comments such as "Kaleuns always wiped their crew's butts" are just as wrong (if not moreso) as "Kaleuns never spoke to their crews".

11-02-09, 07:54 PM	#16
JScones Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 5,501 Downloads: 19 Uploads: 0	I've always found Wolfgang Lüth's PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP IN A SUBMARINE lecture from DEC43 insightful. I recommend reading it to get an idea of life onboard his boat...from the man himself (not 20 years later by hearsay). But pls bear in mind two things when reading: 1. Lüth was an IX Kaleun, thus his techniques are tuned for longer cruises. His approach would unlikely be as practical in II or VII boats, ie the majority of cases. 2. Many of his colleagues, including the Subsim-favourite Buchheim (Das Boot), ridiculed his speech and found his approach to management laughable, suggesting that his ideal was the exception rather than the norm. Indeed, Jordan Vause in his book U-Boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang Luth states in response "that many officers in the German military establishment at the time, officers young and old, did not think it necessary to "like" their crews or to take care of them, any more than they accepted the idea of a crew as an extended family and the captain a surrogate father. It was not unusual for officers to be successful and disliked, even hated, at the same time." Just offered to reaffirm the diversity and prove that extreme comments such as "Kaleuns always wiped their crew's butts" are just as wrong (if not moreso) as "Kaleuns never spoke to their crews". Last edited by JScones; 11-02-09 at 08:20 PM.