The word literally struck terror through the ranks of the allied merchant seamen in WWII - In the early years of the war the U-boats were the scourge of the seas. Winston Churchill would one day write, "The only thing that ever really frightened me was the U-boat war. It was our greatest evil and Germany would have done well to stake all upon it." At first they were the hunters, ranging alone or attacking in groups called "wolf packs," directed by their indomitable leader Gross Admiral Carl Donitz. However, technology in the end was to be their undoing, and as the war drew to its inevitable conclusion the odds were greatly against them. Three out of four men serving on U-boats would lose their lives and by the middle of 1944, to be given orders to sail on a U-boat was a virtual death warrant. And still they sailed, even until the last day of the war. Actual Size 32 "x 17”. Commanders who signed the Type VII-C U-boat Limited Edition: 1 . Karl Fredrich Merten .... U-68 and top-10 U-boat. 2. Alfred Eich ... U-510 KC. 3. Kurt Baberg ... U-618 His U-boat made the deepestrecorded dive of any Type VII-C. 4. Heinrich Schroeteler ... U-667 KC. 5. Gerhard Tater ... U-466 Commanded a Type XXI boat (U-3506) at the end of the war. 6. Otto Kretschmer ... U-99 KC & top submarine ace of all time. 7. Hans Georg Hess ... U-995 KC Youngest submarine skipper of the war. 8. Carl Emmerman ... U-172 KC 13th ranked U-boat skipper. 9. Otto Westphalen ... U-968 KC. 10. Erich Topp ... U-552 KC & top-10 ace. |
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