U-boats and the Music We Associate With Them

[Kaptlt.Endrass]

Has anyone noticed that when you hear music concerning the Ubootwaffe, it almost always has that ominous yet melancholy tune to it? (Point in example, the opening of Sabaton's 'Wolfpack' and the entirety of 'Das boot''s soundtrack).

Any ideas as to why this might be?

[Niume]

I don't know why. But I am glad what you like Sabaton Wolfpack song

[Doolar]

[Prometheus]

Ok ,so can anyone tell me what is the name of song at the beginning of this video ,please.

[s7rikeback]

Originally Posted by Niume

I don't know why. But I am glad what you like Sabaton Wolfpack song

Just bought their lastest album "The last Stand"
Awesome band.

[CaptBones]

The Battle of the Atlantic was ominous and melancholy; the music fits.

The "Happy Times" were not at all "happy" for the Allies and regardless of those brief periods of success, the long-term outlook for the U-Boats was doomed from the start. Doenitz knew that from the beginning...his comment on hearing that Great Britain had declared war says it all; "Dammit! That this has to happen to me again!" (but in German, of course).

He knew that he needed 300 boats in order to successfully prosecute his "tonnage war" and he started the war with 56; only 22 of those were "Atlantic Boats", the other 24 were the Type II "Canoes". It's astonishing what that meager force accomplished in the first year of the war. But, by mid-1941 the tide was turning and the technologies available to the Allies had already made all of the U-Boats in service and under construction, obsolete. Technological improvements to the U-Boat force were too little and/or too late from then on.

What is most ominous and melancholy is that, from mid-1943 on, they kept on going out in the face of hopeless odds against returning, let alone of scoring any real successes. The notion at BdU that they were "tying up" significant Allied resources was almost absurd...but it spurred them on...straight to a 75% casualty (fatality) rate. "Ominous and melancholy" is exactly what the music should be.

Originally Posted by CaptBones

The Battle of the Atlantic was ominous and melancholy; the music fits.

The "Happy Times" were not at all "happy" for the Allies and regardless of those brief periods of success, the long-term outlook for the U-Boats was doomed from the start. Doenitz knew that from the beginning...his comment on hearing that Great Britain had declared war says it all; "Dammit! That this has to happen to me again!" (but in German, of course).

He knew that he needed 300 boats in order to successfully prosecute his "tonnage war" and he started the war with 56; only 22 of those were "Atlantic Boats", the other 24 were the Type II "Canoes". It's astonishing what that meager force accomplished in the first year of the war. But, by mid-1941 the tide was turning and the technologies available to the Allies had already made all of the U-Boats in service and under construction, obsolete. Technological improvements to the U-Boat force were too little and/or too late from then on.

What is most ominous and melancholy is that, from mid-1943 on, they kept on going out in the face of hopeless odds against returning, let alone of scoring any real successes. The notion at BdU that they were "tying up" significant Allied resources was almost absurd...but it spurred them on...straight to a 75% casualty (fatality) rate. "Ominous and melancholy" is exactly what the music should be.

I agree with you, except on the point that "the notion of "tying up" significant Allied resources was almost absurd". No, it was not absurd at all. They indeed were tying up a huge amount of ships and aircrafts which would have been used somewhere else if the U-Boots refused to fight, for example in bombing civilians.

It was a sacrifice. They didn't have other choice. As soldiers, they had to defend their country, they couldn't abandon the fight. So yes, what a ominous destiny ! Germany wasn't prepared at all to be attacked by the first naval power ... It was the most critical error of judgment by Hitler ... A war without chance of success, with only the defeat at the horizon ... I really wouldn't want to have been in the place of the Germans at that time ! It was as the sacrifice of the Spartans, but knowing that it was useless ... just to save a little time ... just horrible ... Death was a kind of liberation from this ***** world ....

[CaptBones]

Respectfully...I’m sure you and many others believe that about the “huge resources” tied up to counter the U-Boats; BdU and OKW certainly did. But the facts are much different.

I wrote a couple of treatises relevant to the subject when I was a student at the Naval War College and participated in a study of the US shipbuilding industrial base from 1939-1989 during my last two years of active duty at Naval Sea Systems Command HQ. To begin with, 95% of the ships and 90% of the aircraft involved in suppressing and then hunting the U-Boats to extinction were useless for operations in the air-war and land-war in Europe. Their sole utility was maritime operations, ”War at Sea”, and regarding the Kriegsmarine from 1942 on, that meant convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare.

At the time the US entered the war, there were four North Atlantic Convoy Areas; “Western Local”, “Mid-Ocean”, “Eastern Local”, and “Iceland Shuttle”. Eight (8) British and Canadian units under Canadian Command and based in Boston provided the escort duties in the Western Local area. Fourteen (14) US, British, Canadian, Polish, and Free French units operating between Argentia, Newfoundland and Londonderry, N. Ireland covered the duties in the Mid-Ocean area, usually accompanied by the battleships “New York” or “Texas” and one or two cruisers. The Royal Navy handled escort duty in the Eastern Local area; the number of ships assigned varied widely depending on other operational needs, but was never adequate until the Corvettes started arriving in numbers. The Iceland Shuttle was taken care of exclusively by USN units…exactly two (2) destroyers based at Hvalfjordur. Those arrangements were the best the Allies could do at the time and were maintained until the summer of 1943, when ship construction caught up to the needs. So, prior to 1943 your point is valid, in that there simply weren’t enough ships and aircraft to begin with. But, the notion of sending the boats out simply to “tie down” Allied resources wasn’t part of any strategic plan until later in that year; by then it was too late to actually be effective.

Consider this: at the start of 1942 the US Atlantic Fleet had only 76 Destroyers (the Pacific Fleet had 80); by 1944 it had added 7 Escort Carrier “Hunter Killer” groups with 97 Destroyer Escorts, whose sole purpose was extermination of the U-Boat threat. During that same period the US built more than 20 “Fleet Carriers”, 40-some Escort Carriers, over 200 Destroyers and most of the 563 Destroyer Escorts that were produced; not to mention 75,000 aircraft delivered to the Navy alone. The war ended with the USN at a strength of 6,768 ships; the “Huge Resources” to equip the Navy were being delivered to the Pacific Theater, the waning days of the Battle of the Atlantic didn’t divert anything of consequence.

Yes, the drain on financial and industrial resources to produce those Atlantic Fleet ASW resources could have been used to other purposes. But even then, considering the industrial capacity of the US wasn’t strained or even brought to full utilization until the beginning of 1945, the allocation of resources to the Battle of the Atlantic was minimal compared to the resources allocated to building and equipping Armies and Air Forces to send to Europe and a Navy to lead the campaign across the Pacific. The German leadership never understood what Yamamoto knew, and feared, about the unbelievable industrial capacity of the US in those days…sad to say, we don’t have that anymore.

Thank you for these explanations !

[CaptBones]

You're very welcome shipmate. Now, let's get out there and sink some of those convoys and try to turn the tide of the war in our favor before it's too late!

[Kaptlt.Endrass]

Originally Posted by CaptBones

The Battle of the Atlantic was ominous and melancholy; the music fits.

The "Happy Times" were not at all "happy" for the Allies and regardless of those brief periods of success, the long-term outlook for the U-Boats was doomed from the start. Doenitz knew that from the beginning...his comment on hearing that Great Britain had declared war says it all; "Dammit! That this has to happen to me again!" (but in German, of course).

He knew that he needed 300 boats in order to successfully prosecute his "tonnage war" and he started the war with 56; only 22 of those were "Atlantic Boats", the other 24 were the Type II "Canoes". It's astonishing what that meager force accomplished in the first year of the war. But, by mid-1941 the tide was turning and the technologies available to the Allies had already made all of the U-Boats in service and under construction, obsolete. Technological improvements to the U-Boat force were too little and/or too late from then on.

What is most ominous and melancholy is that, from mid-1943 on, they kept on going out in the face of hopeless odds against returning, let alone of scoring any real successes. The notion at BdU that they were "tying up" significant Allied resources was almost absurd...but it spurred them on...straight to a 75% casualty (fatality) rate. "Ominous and melancholy" is exactly what the music should be.

Never thought of it like that...

It is amazing to think that those men were so willing to die for Germany (or Adolf Hitler) that they would continue to fight on. Doenitz must have been quite the leader to influence men up against such odds. I do think I would like to meet him if they ever built some sort of time machine.