General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Reinhard Hardegen¡ªAn Inspiration
Posted by:
Ying
()
Date: January 10, 2001 05:43AM
<HTML>Just finished ¡°Operation Drumbeat¡±, but what touched me most was not the audacious adventures Hardegen has taken, but the humanity and compassion he showed in the war. I can¡¯t help but sharing my feelings here with all the Kameraden.
The most moving incident happened when U-123 (Kptlt. Hardegen) was en route home after its first American patrol. On 27 Jan. 1942, U-123 sank a Norwegian tanker ¡°Pan Norway¡±. Noticed that there was another ship (it was the Greek ¡°Mount Aetna¡± sailing under a Swiss flag) nearby, U-123 first approached the lifeboats to check whether the survivors were all right. Then it stopped ¡°Mount Aetna¡±, directing it to pick up the survivors. Hardegen went on to ensure that every man in the water was rescued, even when some of the saved Norwegians themselves attempted to persuade the Swiss master to depart prematurely (they feared that U-123 would sink ¡°Mount Aetna¡± too).
39 years later, one of the survivors, tanker motorman Wilfred Larsen, experienced nightmares of his escape from death and his nevers became really raw because he was ¡°unable to shake the mental picture of the man who had been both executioner and savior on that night¡ when his ship went down¡±, and he felt himself ¡°in terrible debt to the German who had transmuted the Atlantic from a battlescape to a sea of mercy and thus given him a life he would not otherwise have had.¡± Finally he decided to meet Hardegen because he believed it was the only remedy to cure his mental condition.
In December 1981 Wilfred met Hardegen at his home in Bremen¡¯s suburb. After a long, friendly talk, Hardegen took Wilfred out onto his lawn and garden. As the two men walked, Hardegen noticed that one of Wilfred¡¯s shoelaces had become untied. He then knelt in the grass to tie the sailor¡¯s shoe. When Wilfred returned home, he said: ¡°I shall tell you what made the deepest impression on me. When the German U-boat commander knelt down and tied my shoelace, at that moment I felt that, at last, all that had happened to me long ago was gone and forgotten.¡±
History has made them foes, but humanity has made them friends.
I¡¯m not trying to depict Hardegen as a philanthropist, I¡¯m well aware that as the winner of Knight¡¯s Cross with Oak Leaves, Hardegen definitely has sunk many ships that went down with great loss of lives. However, still I would like to thank Korvettenkapitaen Hardegen, for in such a cruel and bloody war, he has let us see humanity shine at the darkest hours of human history. In this sense he is an inspiration.
I wish him all the best and a long long life. I shall greatly appreciate if any Kameraden here could give me some clues as to how to contact him. Thank you in advance!
Best regards,
Ying
</HTML>
The most moving incident happened when U-123 (Kptlt. Hardegen) was en route home after its first American patrol. On 27 Jan. 1942, U-123 sank a Norwegian tanker ¡°Pan Norway¡±. Noticed that there was another ship (it was the Greek ¡°Mount Aetna¡± sailing under a Swiss flag) nearby, U-123 first approached the lifeboats to check whether the survivors were all right. Then it stopped ¡°Mount Aetna¡±, directing it to pick up the survivors. Hardegen went on to ensure that every man in the water was rescued, even when some of the saved Norwegians themselves attempted to persuade the Swiss master to depart prematurely (they feared that U-123 would sink ¡°Mount Aetna¡± too).
39 years later, one of the survivors, tanker motorman Wilfred Larsen, experienced nightmares of his escape from death and his nevers became really raw because he was ¡°unable to shake the mental picture of the man who had been both executioner and savior on that night¡ when his ship went down¡±, and he felt himself ¡°in terrible debt to the German who had transmuted the Atlantic from a battlescape to a sea of mercy and thus given him a life he would not otherwise have had.¡± Finally he decided to meet Hardegen because he believed it was the only remedy to cure his mental condition.
In December 1981 Wilfred met Hardegen at his home in Bremen¡¯s suburb. After a long, friendly talk, Hardegen took Wilfred out onto his lawn and garden. As the two men walked, Hardegen noticed that one of Wilfred¡¯s shoelaces had become untied. He then knelt in the grass to tie the sailor¡¯s shoe. When Wilfred returned home, he said: ¡°I shall tell you what made the deepest impression on me. When the German U-boat commander knelt down and tied my shoelace, at that moment I felt that, at last, all that had happened to me long ago was gone and forgotten.¡±
History has made them foes, but humanity has made them friends.
I¡¯m not trying to depict Hardegen as a philanthropist, I¡¯m well aware that as the winner of Knight¡¯s Cross with Oak Leaves, Hardegen definitely has sunk many ships that went down with great loss of lives. However, still I would like to thank Korvettenkapitaen Hardegen, for in such a cruel and bloody war, he has let us see humanity shine at the darkest hours of human history. In this sense he is an inspiration.
I wish him all the best and a long long life. I shall greatly appreciate if any Kameraden here could give me some clues as to how to contact him. Thank you in advance!
Best regards,
Ying
</HTML>
Reinhard Hardegen¡ªAn Inspiration