Captain-Lieutenant Günther Prien
Holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and Oak Leaves, the ninth most successful German submarine commander with 164,952 GRT
Holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and Oak Leaves, the ninth most successful German submarine commander with 164,952 GRT
Albrecht Brandi was a German U-boat commander in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. Together with Wolfgang Lüth, he was the only Kriegsmarine sailor who was awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.
The German naval offensive, launched immediately in September 1939 by the Kriegsmarine, was named the Battle of the Atlantic. Because its goal was to cut off Atlantic shipping lines to Britain and cut off the country from raw materials and food. The main German weapons of this battle were submarines, although the Kriegsmarine initially deployed surface vessels, from battleships to auxiliary cruisers, and Luftwaffe and aircraft. However, after the British sank the isolated surface invaders (Graf Spee, Bismarck, Scharnhorst) or blocked the bases (Tirpitz), the weight of the whole battle lay on U-boats from 1942.
Many people probably had the opportunity to enjoy the film of the same name from the works of Hollywood filmmakers. A heroic epic, before which the famous Soviet war films of yesteryear pale... The subject of this sentimental nonsense led me to take an interest in the fate of the real U 571. Just as an aside, let me note that rather than another "heroic epic" from the Hollywood studios, the heroism of the men who fought in one of the toughest and undoubtedly longest battles of World War II, the Battle of the Atlantic, could be commemorated and honored by filming any of the myriad stories that actually took place - which are undoubtedly far more compelling and imaginative than what we have been offered ...
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