My name is Helmut Schmoeckel and during the war, I was Commanding Officer of the submarine U-802, TYPE IX-C. But this was only at the end of the war that I started my submarine career. The submarine left Kiel for the first time in January, 1944. But the good times for successes were gone a long time ago. The main thing was to survive. It was very difficult at that time to find and sink a ship.

U-802 was like this TYPE IX-C boat

We normally left for five months without any supply. Then after 5 or 6 months, we came back to France or to Germany.

Twice I visited the Canadian coast line - once near Halifax (March-April 1944) and a second time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence down to the St. Lawrence River. In fact, I could see the Canadian coast on both sides! It was not very good there (September 1944).

There was never any moment on my patrols when I was frightened that we might not come back. We were so optimistic that, when we left Kiel in January 1944, I told my fiancée that when I come back in May, we will marry. Nobody thought that you could not come back.

The conning tower emblem of U-802. Later on, under Schmoeckel, the tower emblem was the Olympic Rings.

We had just left Norway on a patrol when the war ended. That was on 3rd or 4th May of 1945. Hitler was dead, Berlin was conquered, and Dönitz was at Flensburg, and there was no hope. I had as an operating area, the harbor of New York. Wasn’t that silly? I brought my submarine to a port in the north of England for the capitulation of the German naval forces, and the Royal Navy took over my boat.

What was my crew’s mood; how did they feel when they got the word that the war was over? I had a crew of very fine people and I could trust them. There were no difference, political or other ways. They were all very good people and, of course, we on our side were glad the war was over. There was no possibility to continue, it was finished - really. The end was there and we had survived.

Every year we have a reunion, but the number gets slowly lower. But all are very thankful that we survived and maybe, they are also thankful to me that I led the submarine in such a manner that we all survived.

HARRY’S NOTE - HELMUT wrote a book, published in Germany, entitled ‘Menschlichkeit im Seekrieg’ which loosely translated, means ‘Humanity in the sea war’ and it details the many, many incidents where German U-Boats gave assistance, medical aid, food, water, supplies and navigational help to survivors of ships they sank in combat.