Knight of the North Atlantic - Baron Siegfried von Forstner and the War Patrols of U-402 1941 1943

In recent years readers have benefitted from publications about the Battle of the Atlantic which have been sourced from the wider access now available to archives in Germany, the UK and USA, often aided by first-hand testimony. Arguably the best of these have adopted a revisionist approach, dispelling some myths about the long-running conflict, such as Lawrence Paterson’s The U-Boat War and the excellent Total Undersea War by Aaron Hamilton. The latter writer, in his latest book, admits a personal connection. His maternal grandfather served on board U-402 but transferred off the boat after its fourth patrol - well before its loss over a year later. The author is very experienced and knowledgeable on this subject and his intimate grasp of the technical details and workings of, in this case, a Type VIIc U-Boat are truly amazing. This allows Hamilton to recreate each of the eight war patrols undertaken by U-402, in places on a minute by minute basis. In contrast to other works of its kind which rely heavily on Nazi war-propaganda photographs, the text is also supported by a proliferation of privately sourced images with extensive captions, which admittedly of an inferior quality, lend an immediacy and realism to the text. Although von Forstner was ranked as an ‘ace’, U-402 sinking fifteen Allied merchant vessels and damaging a further three between January 1942 and May 1943, in reality two thirds of the total sinkings occurred on just two patrols. This is no panegyric, endlessly praising either the skills of von Forstner or the excellence and efficiency of the Type VIIc. The skills had to be learned. For example, on the second war patrol, von Forstner spent days fruitlessly pursuing the Union Castle liner Llangibby Castle which he only finally managed to damage. He was on the receiving end of some constructive criticism from Dönitz following that patrol. One can contrast this with the later, highly successful deployments where he handled his boat with clinical efficiency and, in Hamilton’s view, developed a second sight with regard to anticipating the next move of the enemy. Yet, even at the best of times, torpedoes did not always run straight, equipment failed just as U-402 was reaching a favourable firing position and patrols had to be terminated prematurely due to mechanical failure or damage inflicted by increasingly efficient and numerous escort ships and aircraft. Von Forstner’s uncle had served in U-Boats in World War I and uncannily foresaw the future threat of the aircraft-launched ‘radio-controlled, visibly guided bomb’ that ultimately accounted for U-402 which was lost without trace in mid-Atlantic in October 1943. Baron Siegfried von Forstner, as his name implies, was a scion of old Prussian aristocracy. Hamilton equates him with what we like to regard as the traditions of ancient chivalry and takes pains to highlight his humanity and his intolerance of younger crew-members who had been imbued with the ideals of the Nazi Party. Instead, he claims that von Forstner was driven by the injustices handed to his country following the Treaty of Versailles and the need to make amends against Britain and France. Whether or not one can appreciate the author’s elevation of him to the status of a medieval knight amidst the merciless carnage of World War II, is another matter.