HORST von SCHROETER attained the highest rank of any of the World War II U-bootfahrer when he was promoted to Vice Admiral in the Bundsmarine, the new post-war German Navy. He earned the Knights Cross for his service in WW II and was a fine Skipper with great honor. Here is his story.

SHARKHUNTERS: What is the responsibility of a Vice Admiral?

HORST VON SCHROETER: My last position as Vice Admiral was the commander Allied neighbored forces, Baltic approaches. That was the NATO Command, joining the naval forces of Germany and Denmark, and responsible especially in that time of the Cold War, in the Baltic.

SHARKHUNTERS: What was your job during World War II?

HORST VON SCHROETER: That of course, after passing all the trainings and courses, I was mainly on submarines. I started my first patrol in April ’41, as a second watch officer of U-123. I was aboard under the command of Captain Moehle, the next commander was Captain Hardegen (Member #102-LIFE-1985) & after returning from this last patrol, I took over command of U-123 at my own. And by this, I was more than three years on one boat.

SHARKHUNTERS: What is the responsibility of a U-boat captain?

HORST VON SCHROETER: On the one side, he must be very, very trained in handling the boat and using all possibilities of the boat, as well as in attacks, as well as in counter attacks, or what else. And the next one is, I think, to have a good spirit among the crew, and therefore that is one of biggest responsibilities.

SHARKHUNTERS: How did you maintain a good spirit in a U-boat?

HORST VON SCHROETER: I would say that is significant. The fate of all man aboard depends on the last young seaman. If a seaman on a lookout didn’t see a destroyer or a technician didn’t close correct valve right, that is the fate for the entire boat and crew, and that gets a very, very binding together, I should say. Though for instance, on patrol we didn’t wear a uniform or ranks, we had just, more or less the same clothing aboard. We know each other, and we know who was the other one.

SHARKHUNTERS: What was it like in a U-boat on patrol?

HORST VON SCHROETER: The life on a U-boat I should say, that the biggest difference to nowadays, is that the U-boats of World War II were constructed as surface vessels, with the possibility to dive, with the ability to dive. But we - we preferred, of course, to run surfaced and all time, and I remember the very first time of my practice aboard in ’41, from time to time the engineer must ask the captain to dive, in order to control the weight of the boat for being prepared for alarm diving and such things. But later on, and then they say contrast, after the break in ’43, my last patrol as captain, took 107 days. In this time, especially the air reconnaissance of the enemy, was so strong, that we were about only forty percent of the time surfaced, but sixty percent of the time submerged.

SHARKHUNTERS: What is an alarm dive?

HORST VON SCHROETER: Alarm dive means that there’s any danger, you have to disappear as quick as possible and that means, for my boat for instance, a boat of around about 1000 tons, that we were trained to disappear from the surface within thirty seconds. And it took another thirty seconds to get down to sixty meters depth. That means, well you can imagine what it means - you have four main lookouts aboard on the bridge. They have to jump into the boat, of course, close the hatch on top, and then the 1000 tons boat has to dive to disappear from the surface, and do all this within thirty seconds.

SHARKHUNTERS: What causes an alarm dive?

HORST VON SCHROETER: In a dangerous position, that means for instance, if you have an aircraft, an enemy aircraft, and you have to decide if you will have time enough to disappear, otherwise you have to stand on surface and fight against the airplane. That means about a distance of, I would say, five to six thousand meters, that might be a chance to dive by alarm but if the airplane is closer, then you have to stay on surface and use your guns in defense against him. All destroyer - any lookout has seen a destroyer in time, so the destroyer could recognize you, and that means you have to go down, and go down on a big depths in order for the, depth charges to be expected.

SHARKHUNTERS:How long were you at sea?

HORST VON SCHROETER: All together I participated in ten patrols, with a time of 620 days at sea. The shortest patrol was thirty, about thirty days, and the longest more than 100 days.

SHARKHUNTERS: How did you get fuel?

HORST VON SCHROETER: Most depending of course, on the area where you had been ordered. This last patrol of mine was more than 100 days, was on the West African coast, off the coast of Liberia. And the most strenuous effect of this time was to wait and to get a chance for sinking of any ship or so. It was very, very difficult to find a target in that time because we had to stay submerged and that means, submerged, you are more or less stationary, the normal speed submerged was two to three knots, in order to spare electric capacity of the battery, to spare petrol, and so on. So, you are more or less stationary, submerged, and that means that you must wait for accident to get a target anyway.

SHARKHUNTERS: What was it like to attack an enemy convoy?

HORST VON SCHROETER: I have relatively few own experience in attacking convoys. In my time as Watch Officer, I had only two patrols in the North Atlantic, and with some trouble with convoys. My first patrol as captain of the boat; we came out from Germany, from a general overhaul of the boat, and were positioned in the North Atlantic, and I remember one meeting with a convoy. We were positioned in a line of forty subs, the difference between one to another boat, I think was about twenty nautical miles. So, I was on the northern part of the line, and the convoy was detected by the southern boat, so it started for me to run on high speed one and a half day to come in the neighborhood of the convoy. And when I came down, suddenly visibility got down, and we came into a squall so I dived, and got the bearing of the convoy by sonar. And then took another time to come into firing position. But you know, the ‘Rudel Taktik’, the wolf pack tactic, was one boat reporting about position, course, and speed of the convoy, and the other boats must try to get any way in attack position. So I was in that time, I could sink two ships in this convoy, but then we lost, of course, we got counter actions, by destroyers, so we lost contact and that was all out of my experience in convoy.