General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: Rahmlow U570
Posted by:
H H Eccles
()
Date: June 18, 2001 04:39PM
<HTML>The surrender of U570 is fully documented. For example, there is a well written account of the action and subsequent tribulations of Hans-Joachim Rahmlow and his crew in pp 340-348 of Clay Blair\'s book \"Hitler\'s U-Boat War - The Hunters 1939-1942\".
A detailed appraisal of the likely reasons for the surrender, covering an assessment of the damage to U570 and the inexperience of the Captain and crew, was completed by the late Gordon Rayner in January, 1999.
Rayner had been the Sea Systems Manager (Armaments) in VSEL at Barrow-in-Furness and had had lifelong experience in submarine matters. He concluded that the Captain and crew were \'victims of the system, as it had to be at the time, and as this document developed, I found myself starting to feel rather sorry for them\'.
In my opinion, the judgement of cowardice on Rahmlow was rather harsh. He was certainly not a good leader, but his inexperience and also that of his very young crew led him to behave in a manner well short of upholding the best traditions of his Service.
I understand that Kapitanleutnant Rahmlow died some time ago.
Thomas Caramela wrote:
-------------------------------
I was briefly reading in Edwin P Hoyt\\\'s book, Death of the uboats. That Rahmlow surrendered to an airplane. What ever happened to Rahmlow in POW and after the war? I wonder if he is still disgraced to all surviving submariners like Kretschmer?
Thank you,
Thomas</HTML>
A detailed appraisal of the likely reasons for the surrender, covering an assessment of the damage to U570 and the inexperience of the Captain and crew, was completed by the late Gordon Rayner in January, 1999.
Rayner had been the Sea Systems Manager (Armaments) in VSEL at Barrow-in-Furness and had had lifelong experience in submarine matters. He concluded that the Captain and crew were \'victims of the system, as it had to be at the time, and as this document developed, I found myself starting to feel rather sorry for them\'.
In my opinion, the judgement of cowardice on Rahmlow was rather harsh. He was certainly not a good leader, but his inexperience and also that of his very young crew led him to behave in a manner well short of upholding the best traditions of his Service.
I understand that Kapitanleutnant Rahmlow died some time ago.
Thomas Caramela wrote:
-------------------------------
I was briefly reading in Edwin P Hoyt\\\'s book, Death of the uboats. That Rahmlow surrendered to an airplane. What ever happened to Rahmlow in POW and after the war? I wonder if he is still disgraced to all surviving submariners like Kretschmer?
Thank you,
Thomas</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
Rahmlow U570
|
Thomas Caramela | 06/17/2001 11:17PM |
|
RE: Rahmlow U570
|
H H Eccles | 06/18/2001 04:39PM |