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Otto Kretschmer - The Life of the Third Reich’s Highest Scoring U-Boat Commander
Otto Kretschmer was only in combat from September 1939 until March 1941 but was the Third Reich’s highest-scoring U-boat commander sinking 47 ships totalling 274,333 tons. This definitive work details his personal story and the political backdrop from his earliest days. Aged 17 he spent 8 months studying literature at Exeter University where he learned to speak English fluently.
The following year, on 1 April 1930, he enlisted as an officer candidate in the Weimar Republic’s small navy. After completing his officer training and time on the training ship Niobe he served aboard the light cruiser Emden. In December 1934 he was transferred to the light cruiser Köln, then in January 1936 made the move to the fledgling U-boat service. His first operational posting was to the 2nd U-Flotilla s Type VII U35 where he almost being drowned during training in the Baltic Sea! During the Spanish Civil War, he was involved in several patrols as part of the international non-intervention force. He was finally given command of U23, a post which he held until April 1940.
He had already sunk 8 ships including the destroyer HMS Daring east of Pentland Firth on 18 February 1940. He demonstrated a cool approach to combat: his mantra one torpedo for one ship proved that the best way for his boat to succeed against a convoy was to remain surfaced as much as possible, penetrating the convoy and using the boat s high speed and small silhouette to avoid retaliation. His nickname Silent Otto referred to his ability to remain undetected and his reluctance to provide the regular radio reports required by Dönitz: he had guessed that the Allies had broken German codes.
Alongside his military skill was a character that remained rooted in the traditions of the Prussian military. While other U-boat commanders and crew returned from patrol with beards and a relaxed demeanour, U99 always returned with all men clean-shaven and paraded on deck. In the Bowmanville POW camp he organised a 2-way radio link to the German Naval High Command and planned a mass breakout with a U-boat rendezvous arranged. He was also instrumental in the Battle of Bowmanville that lasted for 3 days in October 1942. His antics behind the wire became the inspiration for the 1970 film The McKenzie Break . Postwar he answered the call for volunteers upon the establishment of the Bundesmarine. He retired from the rank of Flotillenadmiral in 1970. He suffered a fall celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary aboard a boat and died two days later at the age of 86.
The following year, on 1 April 1930, he enlisted as an officer candidate in the Weimar Republic’s small navy. After completing his officer training and time on the training ship Niobe he served aboard the light cruiser Emden. In December 1934 he was transferred to the light cruiser Köln, then in January 1936 made the move to the fledgling U-boat service. His first operational posting was to the 2nd U-Flotilla s Type VII U35 where he almost being drowned during training in the Baltic Sea! During the Spanish Civil War, he was involved in several patrols as part of the international non-intervention force. He was finally given command of U23, a post which he held until April 1940.
He had already sunk 8 ships including the destroyer HMS Daring east of Pentland Firth on 18 February 1940. He demonstrated a cool approach to combat: his mantra one torpedo for one ship proved that the best way for his boat to succeed against a convoy was to remain surfaced as much as possible, penetrating the convoy and using the boat s high speed and small silhouette to avoid retaliation. His nickname Silent Otto referred to his ability to remain undetected and his reluctance to provide the regular radio reports required by Dönitz: he had guessed that the Allies had broken German codes.
Alongside his military skill was a character that remained rooted in the traditions of the Prussian military. While other U-boat commanders and crew returned from patrol with beards and a relaxed demeanour, U99 always returned with all men clean-shaven and paraded on deck. In the Bowmanville POW camp he organised a 2-way radio link to the German Naval High Command and planned a mass breakout with a U-boat rendezvous arranged. He was also instrumental in the Battle of Bowmanville that lasted for 3 days in October 1942. His antics behind the wire became the inspiration for the 1970 film The McKenzie Break . Postwar he answered the call for volunteers upon the establishment of the Bundesmarine. He retired from the rank of Flotillenadmiral in 1970. He suffered a fall celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary aboard a boat and died two days later at the age of 86.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
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About the author
Lawrence Paterson
32 books19 followersBorn and raised in New Zealand, but now living in southern Italy. I've been interested in history, particularly WW2 history, since I can remember.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 9, 2026
Offered as a "just the facts" military life of one of Germany's greatest submarine commanders, the core of this book is the accounting of Kretschmer's war patrols, and it's a perfectly good book from that point of view.
As for Kretschmer's motivations, Paterson does lean a bit too hard into the apolitical German officer ethos, as there's a fine line between being apolitical servant of the state and self-serving caste, and that's a line that Paterson chooses not to explore. It would seem to be that having grown up in that part of Germany that was ultimately granted to Poland post-1945, and which was highly contested post-1918, Kretschmer likely would have grown-up a hardcore nationalist bent on settling accounts with the new Polish state. That was more than enough motivation for many to support the Nazi revanchist program.
Also, though Kretschmer went on to serve in the post-1945 Bundesmarine, it might be noted that those officers that did wear the new uniform made it very clear that they would not participate unless the German ranking naval officers Raeder and Donitz were released from Spandau Prison, and their complicity in Nazi criminality were glossed over. Whatever else Kretschmer privately thought about the criminality of the Nazi regime, he appears to have venerated his commanders until the end.
Perhaps the incident that best provides a mirror to Kretschmer's true beliefs is his involvement in the "U570" Incident. "U570" was a submarine captured by the British and it cannot be said that its commander, Bernhard Berndt, conducted himself in the best traditions of anyone's navy. Berndt essentially being the first man off his command, and doing nothing to mitigate the military damage done (notably the loss of cryptographic materials), or look to the welfare of his crew.
The denouement of all this was a highly-illegal "court of honor" presided over by Kretschmer while a POW, that ultimately held Berndt guilty of failing in his duties as an officer, with retribution being an impossible mission against "U570." This lead to the death in action that Berndt should have accepted as his possible lot in the first place.
Perhaps what Kretschmer's life best illustrates are the limitations of old-school German nationalism, in that it very much involved staying in one's "silo," keeping up appearances, and not asking questions. There's a reason why the basis of the post-1945 German military culture is "inner discipline" and the duty of the citizen to cultivate critical thinking about authority.
Still, this book is far from a waste of time if you're interested in German naval history. There are just questions unaddressed that one asks if you're a more general student of the Third Reich, and have been covered in the wider literature.
Given the opportunity I might have given this work a rating of 3.5.
As for Kretschmer's motivations, Paterson does lean a bit too hard into the apolitical German officer ethos, as there's a fine line between being apolitical servant of the state and self-serving caste, and that's a line that Paterson chooses not to explore. It would seem to be that having grown up in that part of Germany that was ultimately granted to Poland post-1945, and which was highly contested post-1918, Kretschmer likely would have grown-up a hardcore nationalist bent on settling accounts with the new Polish state. That was more than enough motivation for many to support the Nazi revanchist program.
Also, though Kretschmer went on to serve in the post-1945 Bundesmarine, it might be noted that those officers that did wear the new uniform made it very clear that they would not participate unless the German ranking naval officers Raeder and Donitz were released from Spandau Prison, and their complicity in Nazi criminality were glossed over. Whatever else Kretschmer privately thought about the criminality of the Nazi regime, he appears to have venerated his commanders until the end.
Perhaps the incident that best provides a mirror to Kretschmer's true beliefs is his involvement in the "U570" Incident. "U570" was a submarine captured by the British and it cannot be said that its commander, Bernhard Berndt, conducted himself in the best traditions of anyone's navy. Berndt essentially being the first man off his command, and doing nothing to mitigate the military damage done (notably the loss of cryptographic materials), or look to the welfare of his crew.
The denouement of all this was a highly-illegal "court of honor" presided over by Kretschmer while a POW, that ultimately held Berndt guilty of failing in his duties as an officer, with retribution being an impossible mission against "U570." This lead to the death in action that Berndt should have accepted as his possible lot in the first place.
Perhaps what Kretschmer's life best illustrates are the limitations of old-school German nationalism, in that it very much involved staying in one's "silo," keeping up appearances, and not asking questions. There's a reason why the basis of the post-1945 German military culture is "inner discipline" and the duty of the citizen to cultivate critical thinking about authority.
Still, this book is far from a waste of time if you're interested in German naval history. There are just questions unaddressed that one asks if you're a more general student of the Third Reich, and have been covered in the wider literature.
Given the opportunity I might have given this work a rating of 3.5.
December 23, 2025
A good update to the Terence Robertson bio, Night Raider of the Atlantic, from 1955. It puts some meat on the bones of that earlier bio and adds a bit of (forgive the pun) depth to the story of the man, but you never feel any affinity for the man who really was a cold, cold fish, personality wise.
It's 90% Kretschmer on patrol, with a bit of his early years and prewar service and a tiny bit of his postwar life, plus a slice of his POW years. The rather skinny background to his life and his upbringing, his early experience of the Nazi regime, leave many unanswered questions, however. Questions I think Paterson indirectly addresses with his recurrent theme of 'Kretschmer wasn't a Nazi, he was a good German officer'. This chorus is song loudly and somewhat frequently and I suspect, a bit falsely. There have been many naval historians who paint the officer corps of the Kriegsmarine as apolitical -- nationalists, perhaps, patriots, certainly, but not national socialists, no, no, never that. Paterson falls into this camp, earnestly assuring us of Kretschmer's political neutrality, crossing his fingers we will believe him.
I could do without it, especially as it's not convincing when you don't go into detail about his life int he early days of the regime leading up to the start of the war. This smells of much secondhand research, i.e. relying on the words of others rather than digging into the archives himself. It's not a fatal hindrance to the book and yet because he calls out attention to it so often, you can't help but notice it.
In the introduction he swears up and down he won't use any reconstructed conversations or any hearsay summations of conversations and won't speculate when he doesn't know the answer definitively. However... I believe he breaks this promise of historical purity a few times, most glaringly in respect to the cause of and responsibility for U47's (Gunther Prien) demise. Paterson wants to leave it really open ended and a bit mysterious, coming up with the solution that it could have been a floating mine or a circular running torpedo that did him in, but he's unwilling to concede that HMS Wolverine's depth charge attack was the fatal blow. It's a big ask of the audience. If you pick this book up, it's because you're a WW2 U Boat junkie. It's a small audience, shall we say. A truly, truly, small audience in the already somewhat isolated genre of military history. I'm not fond of his fishing about in this manner. I'm also not enthusiastic that his source for this summation isn't Stephen Roskill or Clay Blair, but the German archivist of all things U Boat, who had a veritable U Boat Smithsonian in his own home for decades. It's just an odd, odd thing to be a partisan of a mysterious cause for Prien's exit and thus, begs many other questions.
Still, I'd give it 3 stars and a worthwhile bio for U Boat junkies, even if he kinda steps on his own feet every once in a while.
It's 90% Kretschmer on patrol, with a bit of his early years and prewar service and a tiny bit of his postwar life, plus a slice of his POW years. The rather skinny background to his life and his upbringing, his early experience of the Nazi regime, leave many unanswered questions, however. Questions I think Paterson indirectly addresses with his recurrent theme of 'Kretschmer wasn't a Nazi, he was a good German officer'. This chorus is song loudly and somewhat frequently and I suspect, a bit falsely. There have been many naval historians who paint the officer corps of the Kriegsmarine as apolitical -- nationalists, perhaps, patriots, certainly, but not national socialists, no, no, never that. Paterson falls into this camp, earnestly assuring us of Kretschmer's political neutrality, crossing his fingers we will believe him.
I could do without it, especially as it's not convincing when you don't go into detail about his life int he early days of the regime leading up to the start of the war. This smells of much secondhand research, i.e. relying on the words of others rather than digging into the archives himself. It's not a fatal hindrance to the book and yet because he calls out attention to it so often, you can't help but notice it.
In the introduction he swears up and down he won't use any reconstructed conversations or any hearsay summations of conversations and won't speculate when he doesn't know the answer definitively. However... I believe he breaks this promise of historical purity a few times, most glaringly in respect to the cause of and responsibility for U47's (Gunther Prien) demise. Paterson wants to leave it really open ended and a bit mysterious, coming up with the solution that it could have been a floating mine or a circular running torpedo that did him in, but he's unwilling to concede that HMS Wolverine's depth charge attack was the fatal blow. It's a big ask of the audience. If you pick this book up, it's because you're a WW2 U Boat junkie. It's a small audience, shall we say. A truly, truly, small audience in the already somewhat isolated genre of military history. I'm not fond of his fishing about in this manner. I'm also not enthusiastic that his source for this summation isn't Stephen Roskill or Clay Blair, but the German archivist of all things U Boat, who had a veritable U Boat Smithsonian in his own home for decades. It's just an odd, odd thing to be a partisan of a mysterious cause for Prien's exit and thus, begs many other questions.
Still, I'd give it 3 stars and a worthwhile bio for U Boat junkies, even if he kinda steps on his own feet every once in a while.
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May 2, 2023I was very distracted while listening to this book.
I know there were some interesting bits for example when they were all getting depth-charged the captain seemed to be calmly reading his book while waiting for it to stop. But after ten minutes his second officer realized that he was not turning the pages and even had his book upside down.
I want to try listening to it again later.
I know there were some interesting bits for example when they were all getting depth-charged the captain seemed to be calmly reading his book while waiting for it to stop. But after ten minutes his second officer realized that he was not turning the pages and even had his book upside down.
I want to try listening to it again later.
July 19, 2023
Decent book as far as the events and facts concerning Otto Kretschmer are concerned. Also decent regarding submarine warfare during WW2. What is missing is the old-fashion Prussian tradition that shaped Otto Kretschmer's personality and his military drive; the same militaristic core that drove the Third Reich.
July 1, 2020
Wonderful
April 14, 2023
An exciting look at one of Germany's premiere submarine aces in WWII. Well-researched and easy to read, this text looks at the career of Otto Kretschmer. Worth the time investment to read.
June 29, 2022
Zajímavé čtení i nejlepším ponorkari všech dob.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews