*** Admiral Karl Dönitz








Admiral Karl Döntiz (1891-1980)


Figure 1.--Submarines were not expected to play an important role in World War II. The British Royal Navy had defeated the U-boat threat in World War I and thus they were not seen as a threat. Not only the British Admiralty, but Hitler and the German Admiralty agreed on this. As a result, Adm. Dönitz had only a handful of U-boats when Hitler launched the War. Even so his superbly trained crews and his new tactics quickly showed that the U-boat was very much a firce to be reconned with. Hitler responded with a crash program to build U-boats. Dönitz assured Hitler that with 300 U-boats he could cut the sea lanes with America and Canada. In turn the Allies launched a major effort to develop anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tactics. The exploits of the U-boat commanders were publicized by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebels. U-boat commanders becamne heroes of the Reich and Dönitz became a popular figure. Here Hitler Youth boys are seeking the Admiral's autograph.

Admiral Karl Dönitz commanded the Kriegsmarine U-Boat fleet which came very close to victory in the North Atlantic. Dönitz commanded a U-boat in World War I. After neing captured by the British his thoughts immediately turned to developing ideas about how to win the next war. Hitler gave him his chance. Not only the British Admiralty but Hitler and the German Admiralty did not believe that U-boats would play an important role in the coming War. They had been defeated in World War I and thus they were not seen as a threat. Döntiz is widely credited with conceiving the tactics that almost defeated the Allies. From the beginning of the War, the daring eploits of U-bost commandrs helped give the U-boat force the aura of an elite force. Dönitiuz also becamne enormously popular. And Döntitz was delivering victories after the Heer and Luftwaffe were only reporting defeats. Less commonly mentioned is his inflexibility. Unlike the Allies he did not adapt to the changing military situation as the Battle of the Atlantic was fought out. The tactics Dönietz employed at the start of the War (1939) were the same he used later when the U-boats were decisively defeated (1943). Especially costly to his U-boat commanders was his excessive use of communications. This assisted the Allies in locating U-boats and providing the volume of messages needed to crack Emigma. Dönitz was the most cautious of all the German commanders about Enigma, adding a third rotor. Ironically his penchant for closely directing his U-boats played a role in defeating them. Because of the failure of the German surface fleet and the fact Dönitz was an ardent NAZI, Hitler appointed Dönitz as overall naval commander. It was an honorary post because not much was left of the surfsce fkeet when he took commnbd. Then Hitler before shooting himself, named him as the new head of state, but not the second Führer. Dönitz had no allusion about the military situation. His only real task as Führer was to arange Germany's surrender. He seems to have some illusions about forming an occupation government that would be recognized by the Allies. For the week he theoretically controled NAZI Germany, his chief concern was to get as much of the Wehrmacht as far west as possible so that they could surrender to the British and Americans raher than the Soviets. The NAZIs seemed to have leaned where the post-War occupation zone boundaries would be drawn. The Allies were unablre to try Hitler at the Nurenberg War Crime Trials, but they did try Dönitz. He was not tried for his brief stint as Führer, however, but for his war time activities. This proved complicated, however, because of the American submarine campaign in the Pacific. Additional information has surfaced about Dönitz after the Nuremberg Trials. He liked to distribute the booty from the Jews murdered at the death camps to his U-boat crews.







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Created: 1:13 AM 8/10/2018
Last updated: 1:13 AM 8/10/2018