Goebeler Hans - Steel Boat, Iron Hearts: the Wartime Saga of Hans Goebeler and U-505

Out of the approximately 37,000 trained U-boat crewmembers in World War II, only about 6,000 survived the war to return safely to their homes in Germany, This represented the greatest percentage loss of any military service in our history. From the 1,000 or so German submarines in action during the war, only a handful remained after 1945. As unbelievable as it seems, the story of the U-boat mens sacrifice has never been truthfully and completely told in Germany. Only now, as logbooks and war diaries are being released from British custody, is a objective source of facts being made available to journalists and historians.

My friend and comrade Hans Gbeler has succeeded in describing in his book Steel Boat, Iron Hearts the day-to-day life of a wartime U-boat crewmember. The comradeship, the worries and fears, and the many unforgettable moments aboard his boat are all honestly portrayed in his autobiography. Many books have been written about the U-boat service, nearly all by the commander of the boat about his thoughts and decisions. What makes Hanss book invaluable is that it is written from the perspective of an ordinary crew member. As a member of the control room crew, he had the best opportunity to experience the real atmosphere on board a frontline U-boat.

Unfortunately, Hans did not live to see the publication of this honest (and what is sure to be popular) portrayal of the German Navy in the Second World War. Hans Gbeler passed away on February 15, 1999, after enduring a long period of severe illness.

In a highly praiseworthy manner Hans Goebeler, former crewmember of the U-505 , has researched and gathered together facts about the boat and his crew to be published in the form of a book. May the purpose of this book, to bring together all those that can still be found in one single willing act of comradeship, be fulfilled.

I put the U-505 into commission on the 26th of August, 1941, and in 1942 carried out three operations, including the trip to Lorient. At the commissioning, only two men had frontline U-boat experience, but the crew was brought to such a high level of professionalism that the boat was successful in the first year. The crew was, until the day I left and also thereafter, a first class crew in which no serious fall-outs occurred.

And so, my words should be a salute to all the men who sailed on the U-505 , who did their duties and lived in comradeship on the boat, through happy and difficult times.

Ever since that first day he stepped foot on her decks as a young recruit in 1942, Hans Gbelers life and soul revolved around U-505 . During the war, he sent hundreds of photos and mementos of his experiences aboard the submarine back to his parents for safekeeping. After the war, he meticulously collected every article or passing reference written about her. This book is entirely the result of his efforts to memorialize his beloved boat.

Hans was never shy about expressing his pride about U-505 , and about the U-boat service in general. In the climate of harsh political-correctness that dominated postwar Germany, he was often made to suffer because of his refusal to demonstrate the expected shame or repentance. He would have none of that, he said, because none was called for. Till the very end of his life, Hans steadfastly defended the bravery and devotion of his comrades in the German Navyno matter what the personal cost was to him or his career. Im no chameleon! he was proud of saying.

When U-505 was enshrined as a monument at Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry in 1954, Hans vowed to move near her one day. True to his word, when he retireed 30 years later, Hans moved his family from Germany to a suburb of Chicago. Once there, Hans organized the first reunions of the crews of U-505 and the American ships that had captured her on June 4, 1944. Unbeknowst to many, he had also been gathering materials and writing his memoirs of life about U-505.

Hans was generally satisfied with the published accounts of his boats history. During the 1950s, Daniel V. Gallery, commander of the task force that captured U-505 , wrote a detailed history of the incident titled Twenty Thousand Tons Under the Sea . Gallerys version is generally accurate, though Hans disputed his conclusion that the crew on U-505 was suffering from low morale. Hans was also pleased with the short memoir written by his friend and fellow crewmate Hans Joachim Decker, whose account was published as an article for the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings entitled 404 Days! The War Patrol Life of the German U-505 .

All of this changed, however, with the apperance in 1986 of a book by Lawrence Cortesi called U-505 Victory . In Hanss opinion, the book was filled with one egregious factual error after another. Horrified at what he perceived to be a perversion of his boats historical record, he accelerated the pace of work on his own autobiography to correct the historical record. Supplementing his remarkable memory with a copy of U-505 s logbook and interviews with many of his fellow crewmates, Hans produced a 300-page manuscript of his wartime adventures aboard the boat.