If you commaned U-2511

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by andwii

Sure the orders to surrender were given but I still think I would fire a torpedo, and then head to argentina and scuttle the boat. No surrender.

Easy thing to say from the comfort of a computer keyboard almost 70 years later, but even Heinz Schaeffer and his crew eventually found themselves in a US POW camp despite the sailing to Argentina stunt. As for Schnee, he may have witnessed what excesses the Red Army was capable of during the evacuation of Danzig's U-Boat bases, and perhaps decided that it wasn't worth alienating the Western Allies any further just to get a Parthian shot in.

[VONHARRIS]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

Easy thing to say from the comfort of a computer keyboard almost 70 years later, but even Heinz Schaeffer and his crew eventually found themselves in a US POW camp despite the sailing to Argentina stunt. As for Schnee, he may have witnessed what excesses the Red Army was capable of during the evacuation of Danzig's U-Boat bases, and perhaps decided that it wasn't worth alienating the Western Allies any further just to get a Parthian shot in.

I agree.
Even if U-2511 had wiped out the entrire TF HMS Norfolk was part of , that wouldn't have contributed nothing to the German side at that time.

But two years earlier? ..............

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by VONHARRIS

I agree.
Even if U-2511 had wiped out the entrire TF HMS Norfolk was part of , that wouldn't have contributed nothing to the German side at that time.

But two years earlier? ..............

I assume you mean if the Germans had had the Type XXI two years earlier?

In war nothing happens in a vacuum. If the Type XXI had made it's debut earlier than likely so would the Allied ASW countermeasure that were already being experimented on near war's end. Sonabouys, dipping sonar, helicopters, better homing torpedoes. etc. With their superior resources and an unassailable industrial base to work from, I have no doubt these more advanced ASW developments would have been acclerated.

By all account Adalbert Schnee was no fool and so it is probably reasonable to presume he realized that the end of the war was just days or weeks away and that Germany would be totally defeated with no accommodation with the Western Allies possible.

So, with the end in sight where is the sense in placing your boat and your crew in a situation where they can be amongst the last to die?

Likewise if one wants the Anglo-Americans to help Germany fight the Bolsheviks, torpedoing a major warship on the eve of a probable surrender is unlikely to be an incentive for them to do so.

In my view, by not shooting KK Schnee demonstrated consummate professionalism and a solid grasp of what Germany's situation really was.

[u crank]

Well said.