Here are some thoughts on being at the receiveing end of a depth charge attack:

     Heinz Schaeffer, commander U-977, compared the impact of a depth charge exploding to,"A huge hammer smashing into the boats hull. This is war alright real war, not a film war with the waving of flags and blaring music."

      Herbert Werner, commander U-953 and author of "Iron Coffins", "Waiting between explosions was the worst"; It "made us lose all sense of time."

      Lothar-Gunther Bucheim war correspondant and author of "Das Boot", describes this awful anticipation as being physical, to the point that the hull of a boat under siege became like the skin of the man inside. "Even the smallest sound is painful, a touch on a raw wound. As if my nerves had escaped and were now exposed.

      Peter (Ali) Kremer commander U-333, "So called heroism" commented Cremer after describing a particularly nasty attack in 1943, "has not much to do with it."

      I have to hand it to any submariner of any country who had to go thru such an ordeal, no where to run down there, just have to sit and take it. You cann't even fight back.