Erich Topp (2 July 1914 – 26 December 2005) was a German U-boat commander of World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of Nazi Germany. He sank 35 ships for a total of 197,460 gross register tons (GRT). After the war, he served with the Federal German Navy, in which he reached the rank of Konteradmiral (rear admiral). He later served in NATO.
Topp was born in Hannover on 2 July 1914. Topp joined the Reichsmarine on 8 April 1934. He received his military basic training between 8 April 1934 – 13 June 1934. He was then transferred to the school ship Gorch Fock on 14 June 1934, and to the light cruiser Karlsruhe on 27 September 1934. Under the command of Kapitän zur See Günther Lütjens, Topp sailed on Karlsruhe's fourth training cruise. Karlsruhe left Kiel on 22 October 1934. The ship sailed via Skagen, the Azores and Trinidad to North America. Karlsruhe returned to Kiel on 15 June 1935.
Following his journey on Karlsruhe, Topp attended the main cadet course at the Naval Academy Mürwik (30 June 1935 – 29 June 1936). During this time at the naval academy, he advanced in rank to Fähnrich zur See (officer cadet) on 1 July 1935 and underwent further training. On 16 October 1936, he was again transferred to Karlsruhe, staying onboard until 31 March 1937. The next day, he was promoted to Leutnant zur See (second lieutenant) and took a torpedo training course, which he completed on 17 April. On 18 April, he was yet again posted to Karlsruhe, serving as an adjutant until 4 October 1937.
On 5 October 1937, Topp started his U-boat training at the U-boat school in Neustadt in Holstein and then became instruction officer. Topp was then posted to the Wegener Flotilla on 26 September 1938. There, he was appointed first watch officer on U-46 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Sohler. On 1 April 1939, Topp was promoted to Oberleutnant zur See (sublieutenant).
In May 1933, Topp joined the Nazi Party and in 1934 also joined the Allgemeine-SS. Topp took the Hitler oath, convinced it was the "right thing to do." To the beginning of the war at least, his peers regarded Topp as a Nazi. Topp made the acquaintance of Martin Bormann, Hitler's personal secretary and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. Bormann married the sister of Topp's crew mate, Walter Buch. Topp was close enough to be invited to Bormann's residence in Berchtesgaden. Topp's political outlook was not shared by his uncle. His aunt through marriage, Anna Topp, was Jewish. During the Nazi reign, she was sent to and survived the Theresienstadt Ghetto. In his memoirs, Topp claimed not to have believed in Nazi ideology. One analyst wrote, "the contrasts and Topp's individual course make obvious the limitations of any quantitative study" [of his political convictions].
Topp came to terms with the Nazi regime and its crimes postwar. He entered into heated arguments with former comrades over the cause for which they fought. Topp was particularly critical of Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander-in-chief of U-boats and later the Kriegsmarine, and briefly defacto President of Germany. After the war, Topp expressed his view that the German naval command, and his superior Karl Dönitz, knew of the Holocaust. Topp referenced Dönitz's commitment to National Socialism, admiration for Hitler, and his presence at the Posen speeches. Topp was critical of Dönitz's pretensions to have been an apolitical soldier. Topp said of Dönitz, that his failure to do anything about it "comes very close to a passive toleration of these insane crimes." Few former U-boat commanders were as vocal in attacking Dönitz's character. His aunt's experiences in the ghetto from 1943 may have been a factor. Dönitz confronted Topp personally when the latter called upon him. He purportedly greeted Topp with a question, "I understand you think I should have been executed?" He presented Topp with his accusation, underlined, and a letter from Samuel Eliot Morison, the official historian of the United States Navy, which accepted Dönitz's defence that he knew nothing of the Nazi crimes. Morison was who told Dönitz of Topp's accusations, or "doubts", as Topp later claimed they were.
World War II commenced following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. U-46, under the command of Sohler, had already been at sea since 19 August, returning to port on 15 September. Topp sailed on three further patrols on U-46 (3 October – 7 November 1939, 19 December 1939 – 10 January 1940 and 11 March – 23 April 1940). During these patrols, U-46 sank one ship of 7,028 gross register tons (GRT) on 17 October and another ship of 924 GRT on 21 December. For his service on U-46, Topp was awarded the U-boat War Badge (U-Boot-Kriegsabzeichen) on 7 November 1939 and the Iron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz zweiter Klasse) in January 1940. On 1 May 1940, he was transferred to the 1st U-boat Flotilla.
After eight war patrols under the command of Kapitänleutnant Claus Korth, command of U-57 of the 1st U-boat Flotilla was passed to Topp on 5 June 1940. Topp's fifth war patrol began in Kiel on 11 July 1940 and was destined for the North Atlantic, into the North Channel, and the Minch. Because the Gruppenhorchgerät, a hydrophone array, was experiencing technical difficulties, Topp took U-57 to port for repairs. U-57 arrived in Bergen on 15 July, departed again that day only to return to Bergen on 20 July. Two days later, U-57 was able to begin her patrol. The Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU—supreme commander of the U-boat arm) credited Topp with the sinking three ships of 12,773 GRT of shipping. On 7 August, U-57 arrived in Lorient, France.
On 14 August 1940, U-57 departed from Lorient on her 10th war patrol. Again, Topp led U-57 into the North Atlantic, the North Channel, and the Hebrides. On this patrol, Topp sank three ships of 24,088 GRT, and damaged another ship of 5,407 GRT. On 3 September 1940, U-57 collided with the Norwegian vessel Rona near the lock at Brunsbüttel and sank. Following the loss of U-57 — the boat was later raised and used for training purposes — Topp was awarded Iron Cross 1st Class (Eisernes Kreuz erster Klasse) and initially remained with 1st U-boat Flotilla. On 4 November, he was sent to Blohm & Voss, the shipbuilding works in Hamburg, for construction training of U-552, a Type VIIC U-boat.
On 4 December 1940, Topp took command of U-552 and commissioned the U-boat into the 7th U-boat Flotilla. Following sea trials and training, Topp, with Leutnant zur See Siegfried Koitschka as his second watch officer, took U-552 on its first war patrol on 13 February 1941. The patrol, which was destined for the North Atlantic west of Ireland, began in Kiel. That day, they headed for Brunsbüttel, where they stayed one day. The following day, U-552 made a stopover at Cuxhaven before leaving for Heligoland on 15 February. After three days at Heligoland, Topp took the boat into the North Atlantic. U-552's first patrol ended in Saint-Nazaire, France on 16 March 1941. On this patrol, Topp sank two ships of 12,749 GRT.
The second patrol on U-552 began on 7 April 1941 from Saint-Nazaire and targeted the shipping routes in the North Atlantic, south of Iceland. On this patrol, the BdU credited Topp with the sinking of three ships and one escort totaling 24,319 GRT. The patrol ended on 6 May, again in Saint-Nazaire. In reality, Topp sank three ships totaling 15,970 GRT, and damaged one ship of 8,190 GRT which was then sunk by U-201 (Adalbert Schnee). The third ship sunk during Topp's second patrol in command of U-552, was the troopship S.S. Nerissa (5,583 GRT, 207 casualties and 84 survivors) on 30 April 1941 about 140 nautical miles west of the North Channel. This sinking resulted in the third-largest loss of life for a ship sunk by U-boats in the approaches to the British Isles during the Second World War.
On 25 May, Topp took U-552 on its third war patrol. The next day, U-552 returned to Saint-Nazaire before heading for North Channel on 3 June. The BdU assumed that Topp sank three ships of 25,548 GRT and he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 20 June 1941. This patrol ended on 2 July in Saint-Nazaire. Later analysis revealed that the true tonnage sunk accumulated to 24,401 GRT. One of the ships was the 10,948 GRT Norfolk. The vessel carried mail and steel plates among 4,000 tons of general cargo. Captain Frederick Lougheed and 69 men were saved; one man was lost.