General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
shore leave
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: April 16, 2001 04:16PM
<HTML>I couldn\'t help changing the title.
When Germany first overran France (and most of Europe) and it looked like they were going to \'win\', many of the locals were quite friendly to the Germans, including U-boat men. U-boat bases, like all military bases in all ages, developed a nearby network of businesses, many of which were bars and \'professional\' ladies. Some working in these businesses were spies, most just opportunists \'bending with the wind\'. Whether this showed pragmatism or treason is another discussion.
Also, remember, that people are people, and there is more to most than just drinking and the nearest professional skirt. Some of these liasons were genuine romances between occupier and vanquished, similar to the waves of Japanese wives that would accompany their GI husbands to the US in a later time.
The British were very aggressive about using the contacts between the locals and the U-boat men for intelligence. The contacts were not all of the horizontal kind, either. A washerwoman would notice when a U-boat came in by the load of dirty clothes from a certain crew, bar hostesses and others would note going away parties prior to shipping out... the opportunities for leaks were endless. Obviously loose lips, be it with a prostitute, girlfriend, shopkeeper, or favorite bar owner, were a problem exploited by those whose hearts were on the allied side.
As the tide turned, and it became clear the Germany was going to lose, the atmoshpere around the U-boat bases (as other German bases, I gather) turned from friendly to hostile, and the leaks became pervasive. (Myth would have that all Frenchman were in \'la resistance\', but in fact in the first few years most were quite apolotocally adapted to the Germans. Only when the tide turned did attitudes shift....) Security was recognized to be quite a problem, and there were a lot of tonque wagging lectures from the higher ups of the \'loose lips sink [boats]\' variety.
When Germany lost, the French women who had been close to the Germans were generally subjected to extreme ostracism, reviled as traitors and callow opportunists (is anyone besides Duffy here old enough to remember the term \'Quisling\'?) The children of such marriages and liasons were subject to similar abuse. (BTW, on a smaller scale, such things also happened with Japanese troops in the Phillipines).
As for the US submariners, in all my reading of first hand accounts of the US sub war, never once was there any mention of jealousy over the French privleges had by their U-boat comrades. Probably few were aware of it till after the war. US submariners enjoyed many a wild shore leave in Hawaii, Australia, Panama, and the West Coast, far from home and near many a friendly female smile. Australian women were especially famous for their hospitality. Many a sub looked forward to a rotation down under (as, in a later era, did Soviet subs look forward to docking in Cuba...). I might add that unlike their German brethren, the US submariners didn\'t have to worry about enemy spies sharing the sheets with them.
Reflecting the society they came from - part wide open and free, part extremely religious and conservative, US submariners were a mix ranging from totally amoral predators who chased any skirt with a clutch of cash in hand, to the fastidously religious who literally ran off to church as soon as the boat docked (many subs even conducted Sunday morning church services in the forward torpedo room during patrol).
Later in the war, patrols became longer, with stopovers on God forsaken atolls with nothing more than birds for company, but the boats always came home to a port with plently of companionship, like Pearl.
The major \'girl\' problem were the submariners who married Aussie lassies: unlike U-boats, which tended to stay in a paticular theater, US subs rotated routinely between Pearl and Australia, and there were often long separations, leading to the usual problems; loneliness, divorce, and morale difficulties. Many a sub skipper would try to talk a crew member out of marrying an Aussie, but young and in love in wartime is not a formula for patience.....
I\'ve gone on enough for now.....</HTML>
When Germany first overran France (and most of Europe) and it looked like they were going to \'win\', many of the locals were quite friendly to the Germans, including U-boat men. U-boat bases, like all military bases in all ages, developed a nearby network of businesses, many of which were bars and \'professional\' ladies. Some working in these businesses were spies, most just opportunists \'bending with the wind\'. Whether this showed pragmatism or treason is another discussion.
Also, remember, that people are people, and there is more to most than just drinking and the nearest professional skirt. Some of these liasons were genuine romances between occupier and vanquished, similar to the waves of Japanese wives that would accompany their GI husbands to the US in a later time.
The British were very aggressive about using the contacts between the locals and the U-boat men for intelligence. The contacts were not all of the horizontal kind, either. A washerwoman would notice when a U-boat came in by the load of dirty clothes from a certain crew, bar hostesses and others would note going away parties prior to shipping out... the opportunities for leaks were endless. Obviously loose lips, be it with a prostitute, girlfriend, shopkeeper, or favorite bar owner, were a problem exploited by those whose hearts were on the allied side.
As the tide turned, and it became clear the Germany was going to lose, the atmoshpere around the U-boat bases (as other German bases, I gather) turned from friendly to hostile, and the leaks became pervasive. (Myth would have that all Frenchman were in \'la resistance\', but in fact in the first few years most were quite apolotocally adapted to the Germans. Only when the tide turned did attitudes shift....) Security was recognized to be quite a problem, and there were a lot of tonque wagging lectures from the higher ups of the \'loose lips sink [boats]\' variety.
When Germany lost, the French women who had been close to the Germans were generally subjected to extreme ostracism, reviled as traitors and callow opportunists (is anyone besides Duffy here old enough to remember the term \'Quisling\'?) The children of such marriages and liasons were subject to similar abuse. (BTW, on a smaller scale, such things also happened with Japanese troops in the Phillipines).
As for the US submariners, in all my reading of first hand accounts of the US sub war, never once was there any mention of jealousy over the French privleges had by their U-boat comrades. Probably few were aware of it till after the war. US submariners enjoyed many a wild shore leave in Hawaii, Australia, Panama, and the West Coast, far from home and near many a friendly female smile. Australian women were especially famous for their hospitality. Many a sub looked forward to a rotation down under (as, in a later era, did Soviet subs look forward to docking in Cuba...). I might add that unlike their German brethren, the US submariners didn\'t have to worry about enemy spies sharing the sheets with them.
Reflecting the society they came from - part wide open and free, part extremely religious and conservative, US submariners were a mix ranging from totally amoral predators who chased any skirt with a clutch of cash in hand, to the fastidously religious who literally ran off to church as soon as the boat docked (many subs even conducted Sunday morning church services in the forward torpedo room during patrol).
Later in the war, patrols became longer, with stopovers on God forsaken atolls with nothing more than birds for company, but the boats always came home to a port with plently of companionship, like Pearl.
The major \'girl\' problem were the submariners who married Aussie lassies: unlike U-boats, which tended to stay in a paticular theater, US subs rotated routinely between Pearl and Australia, and there were often long separations, leading to the usual problems; loneliness, divorce, and morale difficulties. Many a sub skipper would try to talk a crew member out of marrying an Aussie, but young and in love in wartime is not a formula for patience.....
I\'ve gone on enough for now.....</HTML>
