The Odyssey of a U-Boat Commander

by Erich Topp

  March 13, 1958

  My first day at sea aboard a French-built submarine chaser. We provide cover and escort for the U-boat Hecht. It would be no exaggeration to state that nothing works on this ship except for the sonar and radar equipment. A rubber dinghy transfers me to the U-boat. The boat and its commanding officer trained under me in the last phase of the war. It's the old odors, the old atmosphere, but everything even more cramped than I recalled it from the war. The officers are rather resigned and reserved; nobody quite knows what lies ahead, what all this will lead to. But the enlisted men are first-rate.

  March 17, 1958

  We tour Cuxhaven Naval Base. Paperpushers and bureaucrats have a field day here, very little efficiency. The signal station is badly improvised, the quarters no different from the old barracks. The arsenal reveals a hodge-podge of obsolete weaponry from formerly American, Turkish, French, and Italian stocks.

  Where there is nothing to do people create assignments and projects artificially. Every officer seeks to justify his area of responsibility to manifest himself by appearing to work extra hard. Only a third of the old pier for ocean liners is usable, the rest in need of repair. The oil pier can only service minesweepers with their relatively shallow draft. No possibility for larger vessels to moor. The contract with British Petroleum was concluded by superior authorities in Koblenz without knowledge of the local situation. Tank trucks must make twelve round trips from their depot at Grooden to ensure adequate reserves. The base is supposed to function as a supply point for all kinds of naval units. It is a small beginning. Every morning the only available bus takes the security guards to the base. All this reveals not only a deliberately slow start but also mutual mistrust between the various naval commands, bureaucratic gridlock, and tolerance of mediocre human performance.

  Exercise "Lion Bleu. " We get a briefing about the strategic situation. Lots of abbreviations that make little sense to me. Once again everyone is eager to justify his own existence here. These are adults at play, and they take themselves very seriously as they let their units of minesweepers, corvettes, and supply ships of 600 tons steam along at 6.3 knots while a nuclear exchange is under way. Gannet and Seahawk aircraft fly eye-level reconnaissance at an altitude of 300 feet, then come back to rearm as fighters and bombers. The supervisor of the exercise, Flottillenadmiral Karl-Adolf Zenker, sums up the purpose of all this: to defend the "Wet Triangle" of the German Bight once the new destroyers and PT boats are operational. I was struck by the notion how completely the lessons of the last war appeared to have been forgotten and how quickly innovations in weaponry will eradicate even these remaining ideas of traditional naval warfare.

  March 24, 1.958

  Training Depot Gluckstadt. The installations look comparatively modern. Introductory presentation by Commander Herbert Schultze. As volunteers the basic attitude of the soldiers is positive. But there is also disappointment over broken promises. They do not get shipboard commands; they sit around in shore-based units instead. People talk openly about these matters and the economic reasons for signing up. Some of the lieutenants and lieutenant commanders have little prospect of being promoted. Therefore they act like typical bureaucrats, never doing more than is minimally necessary. They know all about soldiers' rights but look away when it comes to their obligations.

  March 25, 1958

  We tour the entire compound-swimming pool, exercise rooms, the gymnasium, dining hall, the kitchen. Everything appears quite generous. From the first floor windows you can see the Elbe River. On the other side the parade ground. Formal exercises, saluting, handling rifles-just as in the old days. Nobody is being pushed to the limit.

  While listening in on a presentation about nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, which is being taught here no differently than a rifle drill, one of the men asks me about my collaboration in making the movie Sharks and Little Fish. The questions make clear that the men are quite critical of the old-school training methods. I feel it will require much intuition to find the right way to treat these men.

  In the afternoon we are off to Neustadt Naval Base. It is exciting to revisit the old U-Boat Training Command with its beautiful grounds right on the water's edge, the familiar officer casino where we had celebrated many a merry party with Endrass and other Crew comrades.

  March 28, 1958

  We are guests of the Technical Naval School. Its commanding officer, Captain Hans Looschen, has organized the place analogous to the staff of the former UBoat High Command. Every day there is a comprehensive briefing involving all departments so they know what is going on elsewhere. But here, too, the same complaints. No clear concepts; nobody is prepared to assume ultimate responsibility for the construction schedule. For example, the PT boat program undergoes changes all the time. All weaponry and instruments such as sonar are among the items still to be decided upon. It is a tedious, hesitant process to get clearance through the central procurement office. Those who want to push ahead wear themselves out. Verbatim: "And that in our command where we do not even have to deal with ordinary pencil-pushers."

  March 29, 1958

  Baltic Training Squadron, consisting of Eider, Trave, two refurbished Canadian corvettes, and six formerly British coastal minesweepers. Young, fresh commanding officers who enjoy their privilege of holding a shipboard command, albeit on ancient vessels. Here you do not sense problems caused by the slow procurement system. Delays in promotion are compensated by other factors such as visits abroad and the enthusiasm of the youthful crews. The vessels themselves are on the verge of falling apart, held together only by their coats of paint. You can penetrate the wooden hulls easily with the tip of a knife; the diesels have about had it because of a lack of spare parts and are being kept alive by mechanics who must possess a touch of genius. Yet everywhere you feel eagerness and commitment on part of the men.

  March 31, 1958

  We are guests of the Personnel Training Command. Captain Heiko Fenn, a fine, sober-minded officer, briefs us about the training levels of enlisted personnel. He believes development up to the rank of chief petty officer functions well and organically, but there is little prospect of further advancement beyond that point. There is the possibility that the best and brightest will be taken over into the regular officer corps.

  April 1, 1958

  We are at the Naval Arsenal in Kiel. Its director, Herr Ludwig, went to Pakistan after the war to organize a shipyard in Karachi. He is a friend of Karl Fischer at the Defense Ministry in Bonn. This assures close cooperation between him and the procurement office. Here the bureaucratic juggernaut is being circumvented because Fischer has direct access to the defense minister. Dr. Fischer thinks the United States considers us primarily as a scientific reservoir. For this and other reasons the focus of our efforts should be on research and development. The arsenal is generously designed with an eye toward future expansion and possible use for civilian purposes.

  Summary of the Orientation Course:

  In all the commands we visited we met three distinct types of officers: (1) older officers, mostly junior captains and full captains, who regard their return to active duty as a mere transition period before retirement; (2) officers of the middle ranks, lieutenant commanders and commanders, men with wartime experience, well-rounded and self-made men in the interim, men who now desire a predictable career and sometimes are genuinely eager to make lasting contributions to the service; and (3) younger officers, mainly lieutenants, who have great expectations for the future.

  We also had a talk with the Fleet Commander, Admiral Rolf Johannesson. I asked him whether the Navy was likely to regain its former position. His reply:

  1. Parliament, the Chancellor, and the President consider the Bundeswehr a necessary evil, and do not mind saying so. The state does not protect its own child. A child that is only tolerated but not loved will develop differently than a child that is blessed with parental love. The present situation is likely to produce complexes that will retard a healthy development of the ar
med forces.

  2. Widespread conformism undermines creative and constructive thinking. For most there exists only one strategic situation. Alternative views are not being considered. This system can become dangerous considering the far from brilliant qualities of most men in leadership positions. Valuable ideas are being swept under the carpet. As a result mediocrity reigns supreme.

  3. The top brass of the Navy has no frontline experience. That has negative consequences in the areas of strategy, tactics, and training.

  Throughout the orientation course I had many depressing experiences, but here and there I also saw promising beginnings. I met several officers who towered above the rest, men with whom it would be possible to build up the Navy properly. I learned to appreciate the importance of NATO, and after a long inner struggle I decided in favor of reactivation despite all the difficulties and mediocrity I had witnessed. I knew I would exchange the generosity and freedom of my life as a freelancer for something I had little control over, for instance petty administrative details. I became part of a bureaucratic ladder whose rungs were occupied by men less qualified by performance than by seniority. The nonconformist outlook I had won through my artistic work was likely to earn me criticism and hostility, but also friendship with likeminded officers. All this was clear to me from the beginning. I decided in favor of the Navy and thus in favor of Washington as my first assignment.

  Early in 1959, after our move to Washington, I received a letter from Dr. Wulf Muller in Celle, an old acquaintance of mine. His views not only showed me that my decision to go to Washington had been the right one but also demonstrated how many of my opinions he shared, even if he arrived at them from a different perspective:

  We understand, of course, that the turmoil of changing careers and residences did not allow for long farewell ceremonies. All the more we appreciate that even while enjoying the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico you managed to drop a few lines to an old friend back home.

  Naturally we envy you for the change of scenery and the move that now, thank God, is finally completed. Despite the many novel impressions, you are likely to remain in touch with our concerns over here. The great controversy over Berlin makes clear that the division of that city and of Germany has brought about something that Mr. Weinstein in today's Frankfurter Zeitung calls a split consciousness affecting all Germans no matter where they may live. You will probably agree with me that the timing of bringing up this question now is not particularly advantageous for us.

  No one sees a satisfying solution anywhere, and many fear that the American public will lose interest in the problem one of these days. Then the temptation will increase to either sweep the German Question under the carpet or to solve it by force. Being a world power means carrying a heavy burden. The history of ancient Rome makes clear that the Roman citizens had no particular plans to dominate the world, in fact they did not understand at first the responsibilities that grew from their own successes. These responsibilities descended upon the shoulders of the ruling people gradually and were not fully appreciated for quite some time. Our German problem acts as a brake for those who exercise power today. If they get involved in it at all, they are unlikely to do so out of affection for us.

  It is a bad feeling to be dependent on others. Perhaps a future generation will be kinder to those who started World War 11 in order to introduce to the world a third superpower in violation of so many human and divine laws. But even then we will be accused of having chosen mediocre leaders, men whose hubris grew in proportion to the dangers they found themselves in and who brought about deliberately what every reasonable human being would seek to avoid. Now we have to bear the consequences. We have had a lot of luck and are proud of our so-called economic miracle. The hectic preoccupation with economic reconstruction may in part have been an escape from the helplessness and insecurity that we all felt over the question whether it is still appropriate in our times to think in terms of fatherland and a common destiny for our people. Those who nevertheless ponder such problems end up torn and perplexed. If you are an optimist you may console yourself with the hope that in the course of human affairs divine punishments have often been challenges from which grew renewed strength and a new sense of responsibility.

  Anyone who wants to do something for the future and freedom of our children must constantly adjust his thinking and learn to adapt. I congratulate you on having the courage to throw your bourgeois baggage behind you, not to return to old symbols and old comrades, but to be among those who reach out to new shores.

  Diary:

  On July 22, 1958, I landed at New York's Idlewild airport and set foot on American soil for the first time. New York-a city that has pushed individualism to its limits, ego magnification and utter helplessness. A city radiant with intellectual and artistic activity, but also weighed down by social tensions and terrible crimes. A city pulsing with life and creating loneliness on the edge of existence. A city that attracted me like a magnet and then repulsed me after a short time. Only much later would I get to know and love the place.

  Two days later, arrival in Washington. Mighty thunderstorms. Captain Friedrich Kemnade, whom I am scheduled to replace, and his lively, charming wife Britta await me at the airport. A most cordial introduction into an alien environment.

  The next day I report to my immediate superior, General Hans-Georg von Tempelhoff. A pleasant, open personality. My colleagues here are Army Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Thomas-bright, critical, aggressive-and Luftwaffe Lieutenant Colonel Adalbert Tagtmeyer. The latter appears very helpful. After the war he worked as a miner, which has left an imprint on him. I served on the staff that represented Germany in the Military Committee of NATO.

  That night the Kemnades take us to a gigantic, open amphitheater, Cater Baron, in Rock Creek Park. Huge crowds; I guess about 20,000 people altogether. Unexpectedly good acoustics, but rather poor and formal from an architectural standpoint. The problem of parking is made easier by discipline and consideration for others. The musical program is an odd cross section of the American soul, a mixture of gospel music, musical comics, solo performances, both serious and humorous, prayers, and Christmas carols. The whole presentation moves somewhere between sentiment, kitsch, and irony, but somehow it is a celebration of life and joy. What a difference to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." Here one senses next to the clever and psychologically experienced business manager the easily impressed naivete of the masses. This crowd is like any other, amorphous but ready to be shaped. It is open to the joys of life and art.

  The following encounters are spotlights, pieces of the mosaic of the Washington atmosphere that brought color into our life:

  A conversation with Mr. Archibald of the Foreign Office. He thinks Washington's cultural scene is relatively insignificant when compared to Philadelphia or New York City. Its main attraction seems to be the cocktail parties. Constitution Hall is run by a reactionary board of directors; the black singer Anderson was not allowed to perform there. Instead, Mrs. Roosevelt arranged an outdoor concert for her. Even though racial discrimination has been outlawed, it remains an undisguised social phenomenon. A black Nobel Prize recipient was barred from joining a white tennis club in New York. India's ambassador in Washington and his family wanted to go swimming in Chesapeake Bay. They were not allowed to use the beach reserved for whites. A hotel in Atlanta refused to give a room to the economics minister of a black African country. [These observations were made in 1958.] The social integration of blacks is likely to cause a wave of unrest. Still, Mr. Archibald believes that American pragmatism will solve the problems in the long run.

  A talk with Admiral Denny of the Royal Navy. He mentions how difficult it is to coordinate fourteen different opinions under the auspices of the Standing Group, NATO's military executive, without endangering military effectiveness.

  My first meeting with the Chief of Staff, Colonel Gernot Nagel, whom I am slated to replace. Very conventional, little substance. He represents a group of officers preoccupied with external appeara
nces like playing tennis and talking about vacations and parties. They bathe in the luster of their wartime experiences and stand shakily before the backdrop of another war. All they can do is to dissect as neatly as possible the military options.

  We take a walk to the White House, to the Washington Memorial, and to the Capitol. It was quite an enterprise considering the distances involved, the traffic, and the complete lack of sidewalks. When we got home we were exhausted.

  On February 19, 1959, the Member of the German Bundestag, Vice Admiral (ret.) Hellmuth Heye, wrote me as follows:

  You will receive a telephone call from the Member of the Bundestag Baron zu Guttenberg. His father was a naval officer belonging to Crew 1912. He is one of our younger representatives, but clearly destined to become a future political leader. His family has money and real estate in Franconia (Castles Guttenberg and Deidesheim). He is a bright intellectual with fine political instinct. Has a charming wife, liberal-Catholic, many children. It would be mutually beneficial if you could advise him during his stay, for instance suggest whom he should contact. He would like to meet Allan Dulles. Perhaps you or Hermsdorf could make the arrangements. Dulles should be interested in talking to him. Guttenberg has been invited to stay in the United States for six weeks. His English is excellent.

  From this initial contact grew a friendship among two politically likeminded men. On several occasions the Guttenbergs were our guests in Washington. We exchanged experiences from our respective areas of responsibility. Thanks to my growing familiarity with the political situation in the Atlantic Alliance and in the United States, I was able to pass on to Guttenberg much information he was interested in. Our contacts, by correspondence and otherwise, remained frequent until Guttenberg became Parliamentary State Secretary under Chancellor Kiesinger and too busy politically to keep up the pace of our earlier exchanges. In July 1968 he let me know of the seriousness of his illness.