Hi Kapt. prien,

Normally this would be an easy question, but not this time.

First the Crew year for the German navy isn’t the year you graduate from the Naval Academy like it is in America, it’s the year you joined the navy. Prien joined the navy in 1933 so normally he would have been Crew 33. However Prien was a special case.

Prien was one of several former merchant marine officers (referred to as HSOs) who volunteered for the navy in order to replace some of the men from Crew 32 that were lost when their sail training vessel Niobe sank in 1932. Prien was already an experienced merchant marine officer when he joined the navy.

At the time Prien joined the navy there was just one intake of officer candidates per year. Thus all the officers of that Crew year (Crew 33 in this case) trained together, went to the Naval Academy together and graduated together. However the intake of Naval Officer Candidates for 1933 occurred April 1st 1933 and Prien joined along with several other former merchant marine officers January 16, 1933, 2 and a half months before the regular intake of men for that Crew year. He had already finished boot camp when Crew 33 started it.

Prien and the men he joined with went through a training schedule separate from Crew 33. For administrative reasons they were assigned to Crew 31 which would compensate for their prior experience in the merchant marine when it came time for promotion. In the early stages of their careers the whole Crew was generally promoted at the same time. As a result Prien was promoted on the Crew 31 schedule much earlier than those in Crew 33.

Prien did spend his last 80 days at the Naval Academy during the first 80 days Crew 33 was at the academy but Prien was well over a year ahead of them by then (the HSOs skipped sail training and the world cruise that Crew 33 went through before attending the Academy) and as an upper classman he wouldn’t have had much to do with the new guys of Crew 33. Prien also graduated from the Naval Academy many months before Crew 33 did. Crew 33 left the Academy April 1935. Prien finished September 1934

Since Prien and the men who joined with him really weren’t part of Crew 33 but they joined the navy in 1933 and were administratively affiliated with Crew 31 they were given the Crew designation of Crew 33/31.

Now, getting back to your question, I don’t know which info goes on the “dog tag”. If it is the year they joined the navy then it is 1933. If it is the Crew year then it is Crew 31 or Crew 33/31. The year he finished the Academy doesn't enter into it. Though Prien is sometimes referred to as being Crew 33, the members of the real Crew 33 consider him Crew 31. He also isn’t in their Crew Book.

Regards,

Ken Dunn