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While public opinion in America and most other countries saw U-boat attacks on civilain vessels as nothing short of barbaric, this was not the case in Germany. The Germans saw U-boat captains and their crews as brave heoes, much like fighter pilots. These two groups, aviators and U-boat men were see as different, removed from than the terrible grinding slaughter on the Western Front. The U-noat men were seen as taking on the mighty Royal Navy in small, flimsy boats. This made headlines with a single U-boat captain scored an unbeieveable success at the onset of the war. Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen on U-9 patrolling the Broad Fourteens (southern North Sea) attacked a squadron of three obsolescent British Cressy-class armoured cruisers (HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, and HMS Cressy), which were positioned to prevent German surface vessels from entering the eastern end of the English Channel (September 22, 1914). The U-9 became the most popular German naval vessel of the War. Boys with sailor caps wanted U-9 tallies. The popularity of U-boat commanders was in part because German propaganda emphasized attacks in Royal Navy vessels more than sinking merchant vessels and liners like Lusitania. Thus like the Red Baron and other fighter pilots, they were depicted as gallant warriors and that is how the German public perceived them. This may sound callous, but in fairness to the Germans was not much different than how Americans viewed their submariners in the World War II Pacific War. And American war propaganda like German propaganda focused on sinking naval vessels, not the the Japanese merchant (maru) fleet which was the major target. .
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