Wolfgang Luth's lecture on leadership

[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.