This webpage is designed to depict the careers and adventures of a U-boat crew who are virtually depicted through the submarine simulator Silent Hunter III. Silent Hunter is a submarine combat simulator first designed in 1996 with the third version released in 2005. The material on this website is a mixture of historical information concerning the German U-boat service as well as real time updated information from an active simulation of Silent Hunter III. The material displayed on this website is obtained from the "Grey Wolves" expansion of Silent Hunter III.

The submarine simulator Silent Hunter III allows a player to take command of a German U-boat during the Second World War, deploy on various missions, and earn prestige points for the more successful a mission. Prestige (also known as "renown") may then be used to upgrade U-boats, obtain more sophisticated torpedoes, or take command of more advanced boats.

U-BOATS IN SILENT HUNTER III

ABOUT THE SIMULATOR

In the actual German Navy, submarine crew members often rotated between different submarines as individuals, however the game engine of Silent Hunter III is designed to transfer entire crews between boats in order to maintain levels of experience. The game is also not designed to transfer highly experienced crew members out of their current command, but instead keep these crew members at the same command for the duration of the game. For instance, a highly experienced First Officer, who in the actual German Navy would have been promoted to command his own boat, in Silent Hunter III remains with his current boat in order to provide a veteran character for better results on missions.

THE SILENT HUNTER III U-BOAT CREW

The original version of Silent Hunter III allowed crew members to hold one of nine ranks, spread across three classes of characters (sailors, warrant officers, and officers). The stock version of Silent Hunter III displayed these ranks in English, an oddity which was corrected through later game expansions which altered the titles to their German equivalents.

Available U-boat types, assigned flotillas, and bases in Silent Hunter III

The Silent Hunter III crew management screen

Officer characters in Silent Hunter III begin the game in the rank of Senior Midshipman (Oberfähnrich zur See). Lower officer candidate and cadet ranks are not depicted; however, the rank of Midshipman (Fähnrich) is listed on character biographies as displayed on this website. The highest officer rank obtainable by crew members is Oberleutnant while the player themselves may obtain the rank of Kapitänleutnant, which was the standard rank held by most submarine captains during the Second World War. For the purposes of this website, the player may obtain a further rank of Korvettenkapitän which was occasionally held by submarine officers in command of the larger and more advanced late war German submarines.

The ranks of Silent Hunter III (see right) are slightly different from historical German Navy titles, most notably that basic seaman (known as Matrose) begin the game displaying a single rank chevron when historically this insignia applied to the next higher grade. The game also omits several enlisted grades, which were awarded based on time in service rather than through promotion, nor does the game depict the petty officer ranks of Maat and Obermaat. For the purposes of this website, crew members who "max out" experience points may be symbolically advanced to the petty officer grades as displayed on their website biographies.

AWARDS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Click here to learn more about the game "Silent Hunter III"

At the end of each mission, the Silent Hunter III simulator allows the player to grant a submarine qualification to either an officer or chief petty officer member of the crew. Officers may hold a total of three qualifications while chiefs may hold one.

In the actual German Navy, rating qualifications were earned long before a crew member even set foot aboard a submarine (with some exceptions, such as watch standing duties earned through onboard experience). Ratings were also held by seaman, something which Silent Hunter III does not reflect.

There are nine qualifications which may be granted in Silent Hunter III (see right). For the purposes of this website, crew biographies will show proper rate titles in addition to standard Navy ranks.

After extremely successful missions, the simulator will allow the presentation of several German Navy awards to members of the submarine crew. Historically, German submariners were entitled to all military awards of the Wehrmacht as well as most civil decorations of the German state (most notably the various German sports badges). Political decorations of the Nazi Party were rare, due in part to military regulations against the display of political awards on armed forces uniforms.

The Silent Hunter III simulator permits the award of seven military decorations to members of the simulated crew. The award of these decorations is based primarily on the amount of tonnage a player sinks during a patrol. The player themselves may also earn the same awards (with the exception of the Wound Badge) with the criteria relating to tonnage sunk as well as missions completed where the player manually returns to base rather than exiting a mission while still at sea.

Available crew and player awards in Silent Hunter III

The Silent Hunter III simulator will present awards to the crew as soon as certain mission criteria are met, regardless of the historical date as to when the awards were initially created. It is also possible to earn the U-boat combat clasp before the U-boat badge, something which historically would never have occurred.

For the purposes of this website, awards will only be displayed after the historical date for which they were first created. The exception is the presentation of the U-boat clasp which will be displayed after January 1942 (two years before it was historically created). Both the Silent Hunter III simulator and this website display the U-boat clasp as a single award when historically it was presented in three grades (bronze, silver, and gold).

The player themselves is ineligible to receive the Wound Badge; however, for the purposes of this website the Wound Badge may be awarded to the player after a particular devastating enemy attack. Both crew members and the player receive the Wound Badge as a single degree when, like the U-boat clasp, the badge was presented in three separate grades based on severity and number of wounds received.

The player is further able to receive higher degrees of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross, whereas crew members may only receive the lowest grade (this is historically accurate as very few non-submarine commanders ever received the Knights Cross).

The simulator will also grant higher degrees of the Knights Cross in an unusually and non-historically rapid manner; for the purposes of this website the degrees are spaced out more evenly and awarded only after their historic dates of creation.

Right: Higher degrees of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross

Two awards which do not appear in Silent Hunter III, but which are displayed on this website, are the Wehrmacht Long Service Award and the U-boat Badge with diamonds. Historically, the long service medal was created in 1936 and issued in four classes for 4, 12, 18, and 25 years of military service. A special grade for 40 years was created in March 1939. For the purposes of this website, the Long Service Medal is added to crew biographies after three years of service from thier initial appointment to the player's submarine.

The U-boat Badge with diamonds was issued to twenty nine of the most successful U-boat commanders of the Second World; for the purpose of this website, the player may symbolically be awarded the decoration after 1944 for general accomplishments in the game.