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Medals and awards were even better evidence of one’s own achievements than wild adventure stories. As we have seen, Hitler and the leadership of all three branches of the armed forces created the most varied system of military honors among all the nations involved in World War II, establishing a hierarchy of status within the Wehrmacht. Frontline fighters, whose medals and badges made them instantly recognizable as such, enjoyed the highest social prestige. This system of incentives, an extension of its predecessor from World War I, was firmly anchored in the frame of reference of soldiers of all disciplines and ranks and had significant impact on what they perceived as success. In soldiers’ conversations, people were often identified by the medals they had been awarded, along the lines of: “Have you heard anything of Oberst BACHERER, the holder of the Knight’s Cross?”⁷⁰⁰

It was a source of shame to have served without having won a medal. “I shall be a laughing-stock when I get home,” lamented First Lieutenant Herz of the Afrika Korps. “In the first place I’ve been captured unwounded, and then I haven’t even got the Iron Cross, Class I.”⁷⁰¹ Heinrich-Hans Köstlin, whose E-boat was rammed by a fellow German vessel during defensive maneuvers in February 1942 and subsequently sank, was plagued by similar concerns: “As Ps/W we ought to be given some sort of award, otherwise it won’t be fair to people like us. My pals will now become officers and will get the E-boat badge and the E.K.1. If later on we go to a training school, it will be possible to see at a glance that they were in the war. But I haven’t anything. You get the E.K.1 after fifty sorties.”⁷⁰²

The desire to earn accolades was especially strong in units whose successes were measurable. Luftwaffe fighter and bomber pilots spoke endlessly about the number of kills and missions they had as well as the decorations they had been awarded. Particularly in the first phase of the war, in which the quality of German training and warplanes led to quick success, airmen’s thinking was dominated by fame and public acknowledgment. In the navy, too, where the tonnage of ships sunk was the dominant criterion, soldiers’ attention revolved around decorations. Revealingly, Lieutenant Otto Kretschmer fretted intensely as a POW over whether his last radio message had reached Dönitz. Along with the regrettable fact that he had had to abandon ship, Kretschmer wanted his superior to know about his successes on his final mission, which had made him Germany’s top submarine commander.⁷⁰³

Reports from the naval command reveal that submarine duty was popular because sailors had excellent chances to be decorated. Almost half of Knight’s Cross recipients in the navy served aboard submarines, and U-boat commander Günther Prien was the first publicly celebrated hero of Nazi propaganda.⁷⁰⁴ While a Knight’s Cross was beyond most soldiers’ reach, it was a matter of pride to wear the insignia of one’s unit. And the chances of doing that by serving on a submarine were significantly better than in other units, especially at the start of the war, when losses were relatively small. The commander of U-473, Captain Heinz Sternberg, is reported to have told his crew in 1943: “We need twice twenty-one days to get the U-boat badge. I should like to have a U-boat badge. As I’ve been doomed to sail in a U-boat anyway I should also like to have the badge.”⁷⁰⁵ But Sternberg’s wishes did not come true. His ship was sunk on its second mission, and Sternberg was killed.

Statistically, sailors were far more likely to survive aboard surface vessels. But that sort of service was far less popular as of 1942; because of lack of fuel and the navy leadership’s fears of unacceptable losses, many German warships lay idle in ports. How were they supposed to prove their mettle and collect accolades, sailors reasoned, if they didn’t carry out any operations against the enemy? Navy Private Birke, for instance, who survived the sinking of the battleship Scharnhorst in 1943, complained that he had been at sea since August 1940 and still hadn’t gotten an Iron Cross.⁷⁰⁶

The pressure to fight and win medals was enormous. As the Scharnhorst raised its anchor on December 25, 1943, in the northern Norwegian fjord of Alta and set sail to attack a British convoy, the mood was jubilant. Finally the sailors were going to see some action. Few of them realized that they were being sent on a virtual suicide mission. The Scharnhorst was sunk the following day, and only thirty-six men from a crew of nearly two thousand survived. They were brought to the Latimer House POW camp, where they proudly told of their mission.