EDITOR NOTE HANS-GEORG HESS was Watch Officer on U-466 and received excellent combat training on that boat. Then in August 1944, just a couple months after his 21st birthday, he was given command of U-995 and thus became the youngest combat submarine Skipper of any navy in World War II -- possibly of all time. After the war, he practiced law and is now a Doctor of Law, still in practice. Here is his interview from early 2000.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe how you joined the U-boat force.

H-G HESS: I joined the U-boat force in the summer of '42 and I entered the U-466 in the autumn of this year and when my beginning patrol was Captain Gerd Thäter on 466, it was January '43. And this was the beginning of the sub war for me. I learned to handle the sub from my friend Gerd Thäter.

Formal photo of HESS with the Knights Cross
HESS at the beginning of a patrol. No beard!

SHARKHUNTERS: What was your job?

H-G HESS: I was on the sub as a watching officer, watchkeeping officer, as second and then as a first. Then I have to be responsible for all the war on board for the torpedoes, for the guns and then the personal and crew well being. I have to provide for the eating.

SHARKHUNTERS: Tell us about life on a U-boat.

H-G HESS: Life on a U-boat is not described in two sentences, but I think... For the U-boat sub, submarine, life is difficult for fifty men. Compared with the space ship, a space ship is much larger. Some remember it is very narrow on board. It is very noisy with the diesels going and then the water closet (toilet), one for fifty men is not so fine. And the beards on like men, this beard I think is, became long and longer on patrols.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe one of your typical patrols.

H-G HESS: The typical patrol in the north Atlantic was between one and three months; that's how long. And in the Bering Sea, even north of Norwegian where I was with U-995 as commanding officer, as they already had not so long patrols and we had only between one and six weeks.

SHARKHUNTERS: What was it like diving in submarines?

H-G HESS: In my patrols, seven or eight patrols, eight in the north Atlantic, U-466 was a non snorkel boat, and this my old boat in the north of Norwegian, our harbor was Narvik, we are going without snorkel in the end of the war and we was on the shipyard to get a snorkel. I have no experience with snorkel.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe attacking a convoy.

H-G HESS: The attacking is from time to time different. I remember an attack on board U-466, we are coming in, in the night surfacing and we go north to torpedo ocean ship, but we find another destroyer and this is what was in case of our luck, and it (the destroyer) was sunk. And in the north of Norwegian Bering Sea, we had a surprise to stay in the group of four destroyers, American destroyers escorted convoy four more months, but supplies with army and there the night was illuminated by signals by the destroyers and when I got caught, I could read the paper by this light. But we had to torpedo and we torpedoed three in the front and one in the, from the end, from the back of the sub and then we dived. Then we had crashed one destroyer and then another was only torpedoed and then we had quiet because they had to cue their own sailors and we had no bombs or water bombs and only three hours later that we had some attacks by water bombs, but without success. And we're happy that it was so.

SHARKHUNTERS: Speak about the technology.

H-G HESS: I don't wish to speak about the technology, but I will speak about the human eyes, the eyes of the sailors on the bridge, on the tower.

SHARKHUNTERS: Tell us about the eyes of the sailors on the bridge?

H-G HESS: It was very important that the lookouts on the bridge (four men, sailors and one officer) and they have to see if they could locate a convoy or to hear and to see some flight, some correct flights.

SHARKHUNTERS: Airplanes?

H-G HESS: Aircraft, to see aircraft. And the time was very difficult in the direction of the end of the war because radar was coming better and better and the surprise by the aircraft in the night, but most terrible what we caught, get caught by radar at night. You know that it was a period that's very important and surfacing. We had the listener (sound man) and at Christmas '44, he listened and the fishing ship we saw, we saw later in the distance of 40 kilometers and then he was coming and we patrolled and find him. We sank him and then we tried to rescue the crew but we saw only one sailor in the sea, the ice sea. It was the time of Christmas in December, '44. And when we rescued him we had another sailor from a smaller cruise ship on board and, and then we had two prisoners, but they had survived.

SHARKHUNTERS: Tell us the limitations of the U-boat.

H-G HESS: We have some limitation and more than this. We had one time the U-995 that we have to go in the depth and then we reach 240 meters and that is a depth that's not reached by other boats. It's not often to come to the surface (after this deep dive) and we heard after they wrote that we had a sub with very good steel only three or four boats of the Hamburg, Hamburg shipyard global force had it.

A happy HESS on return from patrol.

SHARKHUNTERS: Tell us about the speed of the U-boat.

H-G HESS: The speed was up to 18 sea miles (knots) and underwater three miles and it was impossible to rest longer than 40 hours. And it was not good on 466 before, in front of the coast of French Guyana and we had attack from two aircraft, CATALINA or LIBERATOR and after our, after the attack with the two aircrafts, we had to dive with three or five wounded men, I was a little bit wounded because I had to shoot also with early anti aircraft cannons. And then we had to go down 24 hours and when we came up for batteries, necessary to load on and then we had three or four days American aircrafts in the end and we have to dive for cat and mouse game, not so good.

SHARKHUNTERS: What is a U-boat ace?

H-G HESS: I think the word comes from the SHARKHUNTERS. They spoke about U-Bootwaffe and very good commanding officers.

SHARKHUNTERS: What was the duty of the commanding officer?

H-G HESS: It was necessary that we bring together the boat and the crew. And we had to motivate the crew to have a little joy about the patrol. The motivation was very important. He had another duty. He had to bring the best man on the right place, the right position. What's necessary is he could, that he could have the best men on the position - on the bridge, in the machine room, and so on.

SHARKHUNTERS: What did you fear most from the enemy?

H-G HESS: The surprise of the presence of flight in the night and this is possible by the new radar technology from our enemies and this surprising attack was terrible impression we have in the last two years of the war.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe one of those attacks.

H-G HESS: We had to stay surfacing if aircraft was nearer than 5,000 meters. And in the night we heard them coming, aircraft and when we had to shoot and we had to have luck that the bombs didn't hit us.

SHARKHUNTERS: Describe a depth charge attack?

H-G HESS: Many examples I could say to you. Important is that the men are quiet, that there is no irritation by noise and nervous men, it is important that the men are trained to stay in their position and not to be irritated. And it was also a game of cat and mouse as the commanding officer have right course for the boat & he had to think about attack by the destroyers, by the frigates, because it was a dual between two commanders. That is my impression of the war.

SHARKHUNTERS: What were you thinking about the other commander?

H-G HESS: I think he was comparable with me. He liked his country, he will destroy me and only the boat, not the people, the crew, and the same in the other direction I think, that if he could survive this battle. And also if he had destroyed lots of ships, I think seven or eight were destroyed, sunk in the Bering Sea in front of the Russian harbor Murmansk and then our feeling was not fun and luck, but because we thought about survival of the dead sailors, our comrades on the other side.

SHARKHUNTERS: What did you think when you thought about them?

H-G HESS: I have looked in the eyes. It's not good feeling, but this was our duty and my joy is that we had many contact with the enemies in the war as they become our friends today and we have meeting year for year, year after year in the states or Germany and friendship, comradeship.

EDITOR NOTE - Captain HESS refers to our SHARKHUNTERS ‘Patrols” in Europe & the USA where former enemies meet as friends.

SHARKHUNTERS: What kind of men were needed to succeed in U-boats?

H-G HESS: I think it is necessary to have some possibilities. He had to be very able. He had to have sense of comradeship. He had to be tolerant. He had to be provide that all positions are best served. A good U-boat man have to be able for his own decision. He had not to wait for order because the time is not, he has no time to ask what I have to do. That is important for me to be alone on the position and to think of the other person, comrade are also in the best situation on her position, on his position.

SHARKHUNTERS: Explain the dangers of serving on a U-boat.

H-G HESS: As a simple answer - so terrible to die, he has to die, to be sunk perhaps and he has the risk of his life all 40,000 men on the subs in the Atlantic and other seas of the world. And you know perhaps that from the 40,000 submariners, believe 30,000 were lost, very terrible - but it was necessary to go out, to go out to the end of the war because we had to, we had the 3,000 bomber aircraft were on the sea to watch and to control and destroy us and not the German towns. That was important for me.

This is wonderful, first person history from Oberleutnant z.S. d.R. HANS-GEORG HESS. Vielen Dank! Remember, you can have a copy of this videotape. Just check our pages on Videotapes of History. Don’t forget to also look at our website. www.sharkhunters.com

Interview with Hans-Georg Hess II