U-boat Morale

From peppery little Vice Admiral Percy W. Nelles (rhymes with Hellas), senior Canadian naval officer in Britain, came a prediction last week that Germany's final gamble to turn the tide of war would take the form of a massive submarine campaign.

Like many another Allied expert, Percy Nelles apparently was convinced that, despite the recent success of antisub measures in the Atlantic, the morale of the German crewmen in the dangerous, uncomfortable undersea service is showing no sign of cracking.

Since early in the war Nazi leaders have spared no effort to keep that morale high. U-boat crews have been treated like the supermen of the super race. When a sub comes in from a long cruise it is met at its base by a brass band, cheering dockworkers, flower-throwing civilians and a quayside loaded with the handsomest girls obtainable, primed to give their all for the returning heroes.

Then follows a brisk program of wining, dining, entertainment and patriotic speechmaking, after which the men are whisked off to health resorts, accompanied by the entertainment corps.

Crews normally do about three long voyages a year, with eight weeks of fun and high living sandwiched in between. Men seldom travel alone or get home to see the devastation wrought by Allied bombers. Each crew is entertained as an isolated unit, to keep the depressing news of lost subs and comrades from circulating too freely via the scuttlebutt.

Submarines themselves are now equipped with heavier anti-aircraft guns to protect them from the patrol planes, which the men mortally hate & fear. They carry medical officers, have new-model rubber escape boats. Like U.S. subs, they stock the best food their country can provide-- chicken, wine, oranges, real butter, good meat.

British naval officers have noticed only one change in German submariners captured recently. While there are exceptions (see cut) most are polite, whereas men taken early in the war were insufferably arrogant. But they are still volunteers, still capable seamen, still devout and stubborn Nazis.

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