Editor's
Note: this article is reproduced from pages 424 to 431
of The
Iron Time.
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of 3
“We
looked up to Topp, we all respected him. He was four
years older than me.
“We
had an expression for the men aboard the ships we sunk.
We called them Armen Schweine, “poor boys,”
those on the other side. I think it is important to
look at basic distances in the navy war compared to
the army war. The navy does not fight against men, but
material. We speak of those poor boys deaths. Of course,
we had a lot of tankers sunk, and tankers blow up anyway.
You have a lot of fire and oil and such on the surface
and it was very very bad, very cruel.
“After
the war we went through a process called ‘re-education.’
We were re-educated about all the cruelties in the war.
But in my opinion they only started looking at 1933.
And they don’t look, for instance, at Versailles.
There is a title of a book, Hitler Born In Versailles.
You must look at bit longer into the past to have the
real picture. That is the one thing. The next thing,
they are only looking at German crimes. And they don’t
ask what is correct, or why the Germans did these things.
The crimes were done especially in the Russian war,
and they were often reactions to Russian actions. You
must put these things together to get a clear picture
of the past.”
A
clear picture of history is often difficult to find.
Schroeter witnessed the rapid decline of the U-boat
service and is one of the very lucky few who survived
it. He saw the war from above and below the surface,
as a hunter and the hunted.
Horst
von Schroeter began his general officer training in
1937. He participated in the occupation of Norway in
1940 as a midshipman on board the battle cruiser Scharnhorst.
After his duties in Norway were over, he was ordered
to special submarine training and started seagoing U-boat
warfare in April 1941.
Schroeter
became watch officer on U-123 from April 1941 to June
1942. Soon he earned a promotion to commander of the
same ship at the age of 23 years. He fulfilled that
role from August 1942, until June of 1944 with the 2nd
U-boat Flotilla based at Lorient. In August of 1944,
he took command of the new U-boat type XXI, U-2506.
His career with the Kriegsmarine ended in the area of
Bergen, Norway. As his ship was heading out on a new
patrol, the war was over.
In
1956, Horst von Schroeter rejoined the navy and served
for another 23 years. His time in the Bundesmarine was
spent training midshipmen ashore and at sea. Schroeter
served as head of the Naval Division of the Armed Forces
Staff College, as well as Executive Officer aboard the
destroyer “Z1.”
On
April 17, 1970 Schroeter was promoted to Flotilla Admiral
and then, in October 1971, to Rear Admiral. That same
year he became Deputy Chief of Staff in the Naval Ministry.
His success and the confidence of his superiors was
reaffirmed when, in 1976, Schroeter was named Commander
of Allied Forces, Baltic Approaches. He would retire
with the rank of Vice Admiral in 1979. Afterward, he
proudly served as the Chairman of the Naval Officers’
Association from 1982 until 1990. He currently lives
in retirement.
In
1942, German shipyards were producing some five U-boats
a week. By 1943, two out of every three boats that sailed
from U-boat pens never made it back to port. It was
a known fact among U-boat men that the greatest danger
came from the sky. On a cloudy day or a clear night,
the crew had to be exceptionally vigilant. It was recommended
that if an aircraft surprised a submarine on the surface,
the boat should defend itself using its guns. Some had
tried to get away by diving. If a U-boat was hit at
the critical moment of submerging, chances are it would
never come up again. Off the coast of Cape Hatteras,
North Carolina, Horst von Schroeter’s happy hunting
ground, there sleep the crews of several U-boats who
did not heed the warning. Horst von Schroeter mentioned
at one point in the conversation, “I am lucky to
be alive.”
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©
Stephen Previtera 2002
