hum....i did not mean long time survival. i know other examples of this kind where there was no act of heroism or some very special "individual" achievement. for example some maschinisten and obermaschinisten serving a long time on a sub also got it.i have read this in a book about a career of a sub.no special deeds of the honoured men were narrated there.the main reason given was that they took part in 12 (!) missions and were now rewared for the individual part in the uboats successes.whatever this may be. ´this was quite at the end of the war.maybe surviving in those times was so rare that it was deemed fully okay to hand out such a high decoration.