H. Ahbe, Wentzel

ヴェンツェル・H・アーべ

Wentzel Ahbe was a highly decorated U-boat commander in the Kriegsmarine, having survived numerous depth-charge engagements during the Battle of the Atlantic. In March 1945, he commanded U-1324 out of Kiel, Germany, on a final mission: to transport Lt. Col. Matsuda back to the Japanese base in Batavia (now Jakarta), located in the South China Sea. Ahbe selected one additional passenger... SS Lt. Col. Spielberger, who was transporting an unknown cargo.
For the most part, U-1324 was remarkably fortunate: it encountered few enemies and even torpedoed an enemy tanker. However, just as it approached Batavia, it encountered a U.S. Navy patrol group and switched to silent running. They might have succeeded... if the group had not used active sonar. U-1324 was struck hard by depth charges, causing it to be driven nose-first into the ocean floor. While the forward torpedo crew managed—at the cost of their own lives—to seal the rest of the submarine from their flooding compartment, there was no way for them to escape their fate. It was then that Captain Ahbe relieved his crew of their duties to the Third Reich... allowing them to face death in their own way.
While awaiting his end, Captain Ahbe met Lt. Col. Spielberger (Lt. Col. Matsuda had already committed seppuku, a.k.a. ritual suicide, earlier). It was then that Spielberger, after pleading with Ahbe about the chances of escape, revealed he was carrying a painting... "The Twelve Knights Led by Brunhilda," allegedly painted by Adolf Hitler (in reality, it was later revealed years later to be a meaningless painting). Although Ahbe was a patriot, he was not a Nazi, and had openly told Spielberger about his disgust at Spielberger's failure to think about his family, which Ahbe did. Spielberger was offended by Ahbe's lack of loyalty to the Nazi cause and murdered him. Spielberger was later killed by Ahbe's loyal crew.
Although Ahbe's story was that of a heroic fighter, Revy had no compunctions about seeking Ahbe's Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, which Ahbe earned during his tour of duty in the Atlantic, which she sought only as a means to get a quick buck.