For the record, S-33 did make one Atlantic/Panama patrol in 1942 under command of Walter. P. Schoeni. S-33 along with five other "30 class" boats were transferred to the Pacific and operated out of Alaska starting in April 1942. Source: Silent Victory by Clay Blair.

The notion that a group of USN Submariners can take over and operate a German submarine instantaneously is totally false. I served on a US Fleet Snorkel boat in 1961-62 with a First Class Electrician who was part of the "prize crew" on U-2513 in June 1945. He told me that the US Submariners spent a month on the boat alongside in Lissahally Northern Ireland in School-Of-The-Boat with their German counterparts before they ever took the boat to sea. He also said the CPO's had it hardest of all in their training as they had to learn all the German technical terms/words that were on nameplates/etc. in order to operate equipment as a Chief-of-the-Watch in the Control Room. In addition, when the 2513 and the 3008 boats sailed stateside in late summer of 45 they retained about a half dozen key German submariner's with them that stayed with the boats until the end of the year before being sent to POW Camps.