Survival to war's end, and the Mods needed.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by Stiebler

Concerning retirement of commanders:
Yes, they could be promoted out of their sea jobs, and nearly all took the option. But you could insist on staying at sea (just as a soldier could insist on the right to fight on the Russian front). Naturally, not many took the option on sea or land. In late 1944 a very senior officer of BdU, Kpt zS Dobratz, demanded the right to quit BdU and conduct one cruise in a Type IX. He wanted the sea experience for career reasons, survived the patrol, and returned to BdU. There remains a photograph of an exhausted Dobratz on the conning tower of his battered and rusty boat when it returned to port. (Can't show the photo for copyright reasons.)

Dobratz only ever did a single patrol, and he didn't demand to quit BdU - he joined the Ubootwaffe like every other commander recruit. In fact, according to Uboat.net he was in the Luftwaffe when he transferred to the Ubootaffe. This is not an example of a U-boat commander who finished a long career and was promoted, only to return to command another boat. Such examples do exist, but even so, no commander ever did more than 16 patrols. If it was possible to insist on staying at sea for the duration, why is it that no one did?

[Stiebler]

Beery wrote:

Dobratz only ever did a single patrol, and he didn't demand to quit BdU - he joined the Ubootwaffe like every other commander recruit. In fact, according to Uboat.net he was in the Luftwaffe when he transferred to the Ubootaffe. This is not an example of a U-boat commander who finished a long career and was promoted, only to return to command another boat. Such examples do exist, but even so, no commander ever did more than 16 patrols. If it was possible to insist on staying at sea for the duration, why is it that no one did?

I don't think that my earlier comments about Dobratz are actually in conflict with yours.

But if you'd like the names of some earlier commanders who returned to sea after retiring, I can think of Guggenheimer, Kuppisch and Cremer (reporting on conditions at sea in 1943 for BdU), or any of the commanders (eg Rollmann) taking type IXC40/IXD2 boats into the South Atlantic in mid 1943. As Doenitz sadly admitted later, their previous experience failed to save them from new Allied technology (aircraft fitted with radar). Nearly all were sunk en route.

But my point is simply this: if you chose to stay at sea, you could. Even if all real U-boat commanders had better sense than that.

In an effort to improve chances of staying alive at sea, I'm experimenting with RUb 1.44. It's a great showcase for all the modifications; congratulations.

[Beery]

Jaesen is working on getting SH3 Commander to allow retired commanders to re-enter the game at a later date. It's a tough thing to program though, and I'm not sure if it will be possible in the end. One thing is for sure, and that is that, for one reason or another, BdU had a policy that effectively barred commanders from doing more than 16 patrols, and that's the point I was trying to make. The exact nature of that policy (whether it was a definite rule, whether it was an unwritten law, or whether it was just caused by pure chance) is yet to be determined. The de-facto 16 patrol limit applied equally to commanders who did one 'tour of duty' and to those who did two or more.