Germany Loses Another U-Boat “Ace”

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 95, 22 April 1941, Page 6

Germany Loses Another U-Boat “Ace”

STEADY TOLL TAKEN (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, April 20. Mr A. Vp Alexander, the First Loro j of the Admiralty, when speaking at Tottenham on the Battle of the Atlantic, announced the destruction of a U- j boat of which the commander was a famous German “ace." Mr Alexander i had previously assured his hearers : that neither the U-boats nor the German long-range aircraft were having it j all their own way. “We can continue," he said, "to take toll of both, and, as the strength of the | co-operation of the Coastal Commaiid j of the RAF. increases and the num- j ber of escorting destroyers and cor- ; vettes expands, that toll will increase j until the battle is won." He continued: “About a fortnight ago, , we were able to announce that Otto Kretchmer, the captain of U-boat 99, was a prisoner of war in our hands, and his U-boat destroyed. Kretchmer was known and idolised in Germany as the Wolf of the Atlantic.’ He had the largest record of destruction of any U-boat captain. "This afternoon, I can tell you that another German U-boat ‘ace’ has ceased to operate against our shipping; Captain Schepke, of U-boat 100, is dead and his U-boat has gone to join Üboat 99 and many others which lie on the floor of the Atlantic. He, too, was regarded by Germany as an ‘ace. “Both Schepke and Kretchmer had been decorated by Hitler with oak leaves—the highest decoration which Germany bestows on her unde'r-water j pirates. There are only three German captains who have held this decora- j tion, and now you know that two cf them are out of commission. I think that the way in which these men are idolised in Germany shows to what great extent the German U-boat service depended on the efforts of a very few ‘aces,’ and there is cause for gratification, though without boasting, in the removal from the trade routes of scourges of this sort. "Early this year, the German Press reported that Schepke and other German officers had addressed many meetings of the Germans for recruits for the U-boat service. We published the other day that now we had many hundreds of U-boat prisoners, but many more lie at the bottom of the ocean.*'