The son of a simple engineer who inherited analytical thinking from his father, Karl Doenitz was an independent, strong-willed and faithful man. These qualities, coupled with the ability to clearly follow the plan, a keen sense of prospects and the ability to defend their opinions, made Doenitz the "Fuhrer of submarines" and Hitler's successor. He lived a long life and witnessed many of the fateful events of the Second World War for the whole world. After the war, having accepted the punishment with honor, he will begin to write - Karl Doenitz’s memoirs will become a valuable source of information about the Second World War.
Childhood and youth Doenitz
The future grand admiral Doenitz was born in September 1891. He was the second and last child in the family of optical engineer Emil Doenitz, who held a position in the well-known company Zeiss. The homeland of Karl Doenitz was the city of Grunau, located near Berlin. The boy was left without a mother early, but his father tried to make every effort to give children a decent upbringing.
Little Karl studied first in Zerbst, and later enrolled in a real school in the city of Jena. At the age of 19, Karl becomes a cadet of the naval school, which will determine the direction for his whole future life.
As a cadet, Karl was known as a loyal debt and homeland and a highly moral person. In addition, he was a hardworking and quiet young man. However, these qualities did not help him gain the respect of his peers and establish himself among the cadets. Perhaps the excessive seriousness of the boy and the constant desire to act in accordance with the rules and the charter affected this.
In 1912, Doenitz was transferred to the school in the city of Murwick, and then sent as a watch officer to the Breslau cruiser. On it, Doenitz will become a participant in the Balkan crisis and will take part in the blockade of Montenegro. A year after the events in the Balkans, Karl Doenitz receives the rank of lieutenant.
Doenitz in the First World War
It is on the Breslau cruiser that Dozen finds World War I. In the Black Sea, the cruiser joined the fleet of the Ottoman Empire and fought against Russia with great success.
In 1915, luck changed Breslau, which by that time had sunk many Russian ships. In the Bosphorus Strait, a cruiser is blown up by a mine and goes for lengthy repairs. During the repair of the cruiser, Doenitz is sent to study as a submarine officer, which will be crucial in the biography of Karl Doenitz.
By the end of Doenitz's training, it became clear that the German submarine fleet was failing at the front and was easily destroyed by the British, who had developed a system of convoys and depth charges. But Doenitz manages to distinguish himself and sink the ship of Italy (true, peaceful). Returning to the base, Doenitz puts the submarine aground, but for the sinking of the Italian ship he is still awarded the order.
When the submarine was repaired and removed from the shallows, Doenitz again led her into the sea. The new campaign was a great success for Germany and as a reward Karl Doenitz was assigned to command a new high-speed submarine. Unfortunately, she was unstable when immersed, and the crew, who went to Doenitz along with the submarine, was untrained and inexperienced.
Soon it played a cruel joke with the submarine. When attacking a British convoy, due to the incorrect actions of the mechanic, the submarine quickly rushed to the bottom. Huge pressure threatened the ship and crew. In a critical situation, Doenitz gave the order in full swing to change the position of the rudders. As a result, the submarine stopped at a depth of 102 meters (which is more than 30 meters below the permissible limit). But the team did not have time to lift the ship - due to pressure, tanks with compressed oxygen burst, and the submarine was thrown to the surface. The crew was not injured, but it soon became clear that the boat emerged in the center of the British environment, and the British immediately opened fire on the Dozen submarine. By order of the commander, the crew hurriedly left the boat. The mechanic who was drowning her hesitated for a second inside. A second delay caused the sinking boat to take him away. The picture of his death haunted Grand Admiral Doenitz until the end of his days.
Temporary insanity Karl Doenitz
The British captured the sailors from the Dozen submarine. He himself, as the commander of the submarine, was sent to the camp for officers. There were several ways to get rid of it: for example, to wait for the end of the war or to become seriously ill. Despite the fact that the conditions for the captured officers in the camp were quite good, Doenitz wished by all means to return to his homeland to continue military service.
In order to return to Germany as soon as possible, Doenitz invented to pretend to be crazy. For a long time he acted like a child, playing with empty cans and collecting porcelain dogs, which led him to the greatest amazement of his comrades who did not expect insanity from such a person at all. In the end, not only familiar officers, but also the British authorities believed in a severe mental illness of Karl Doenitz. In 1919 he was allowed to return to Germany and was released from the camp. Many years later, the officers who saw Grand Admiral Doenitz in British captivity were perplexed how this madman was able to go up and occupy high government posts.
Political Views Doenitz
The 20s of the 20th century were a difficult time for many countries. In Germany, the monarchy fell, Hitler came to power. Many young officers quickly took over the new government. But not Karl Doenitz. According to his convictions, he was and remained a monarchist. Such views did not prevent him from growing up in the new Germany, since, in his opinion, he defended his homeland, which was, is and will be regardless of political games. Hitler himself sarcastically said that the naval forces in his country were entirely Kaiser, and not German. Doenitz continued with honor to do military service, returning to a military base in Kiel. His dream was the revival of the German submarine navy, which was banned after defeat in the First World Versailles Treaty.
Career growth Doenitz
Under Hitler, Doenitz continued to serve in the navy, but was transferred to torpedo boats. Very quickly, Doenitz became a lieutenant commander, and after that he was invited to the public service to assist in the development of a depth bomb. In 1924, Karl Doenitz took a short officer course and transferred to Berlin to work on a new naval charter. Constant interaction with the government developed a disgust for him in politics, the methods of influence in which were very different from the usual directness of the army.
Karl Doenitz proved himself to be a diligent and demanding person. Having distinguished himself in training maneuvers, he attracted the attention of the military "leaders". Rear Admiral Gladish, having deservedly appreciated the qualities of Doenitz, invited him to work on secret preparations for submarine warfare.
The FĂĽhrer Submarines
In 1935, Hitler gave the order to begin the construction of submarines. Six weeks later, he announced that Germany refused to abide by the articles of the Treaty of Versailles and to restrain the country's military potential.
Karl Doenitz was appointed "Submarine Fuhrer". The first submarine flotilla was in his power. A few months later, Doenitz received the rank of captain.
The situation of Doenitz could not be envied. Opponents of the submarine fleet, who did not understand its advantages and potential, had great weight in the military administration. Many of the ideas of Karl Doenitz remained incomprehensible to contemporaries. Doenitz’s plan, according to which the attack was to be carried out by a group of small and fast submarines, was brutally criticized by the “giantomani” admirals, who knew how to fight only the old fashioned way, on large ships.
In the end, with great difficulty, the Fuhrer of the submarines managed to convince the government to give preference to small, maneuverable and inexpensive submarines. The Second World War confirmed Doenitz in this matter. Because of Karl Doenitz, the Reich's submarine fleet was able to successfully wage war.
The beginning of World War II
Doenitz foresaw the approach of a new war, but the news of its beginning met with a stream of foul language: after all, who else but the Fuhrer of submarines should understand in what distress the submarine fleet is! Nevertheless, having actively entered the war, submarines under the command of Doenitz began to successfully operate in the arena of water battles.
With his assistance, the English battleship Royal Oak was sunk, which was a great success. For this operation, Doenitz was promoted to rear admiral. Thanks to the actions of Doenitz, soon the number of sunken ships in England, which at that time was the enemy of Germany, began to exceed the number of built and repaired.
“The war of the poor”
The successes of Doenitz at the front were all the more surprising because the German fleet at that time was extremely weak. Most ships were damaged by bombs, ice or rust. Some of the vessels were entirely suitable only for use as “bait” and floating targets. The situation changed somewhat by 1940, but even then the lack of specialists and finances was acutely felt in the submarine fleet. The government gave all the funding for the construction of large ships, still not believing in the prospect of using submarines. Therefore, the submarine wars of that period received the sonorous name of "the war of the poor."
In the summer of 1940, Karl Doenitz moved the command post to Paris. His study was distinguished by Spartan conditions; there was never luxury or excess in it. Karl Doenitz was very strict about himself: he never ate or drank excessively and tried to live according to the regime. He took great care of the people entrusted to him: he personally met all the boats returning to the base, personally congratulated the graduates of the submarine school, and arranged sanatoriums for submariners. Not surprisingly, sailors soon began to highly value their admiral. Between themselves, they called him Papa Karl or Leo.
Submarine War Strategy Doenitz
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz has developed an extremely simple and at the same time effective strategy for warfare: to raid enemy ships as soon as possible and retreat to a safe zone.
Doenitz successfully fought against England, but on December 11, 1940, Hitler declared war on the United States. A strong American fleet could only mean defeat for Germany.
Feeling of the end
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz was able to objectively evaluate the enemy. He understood that against the USA the probability of victory of his small fleet was practically zero. Waging war against the United States, the Doenitz fleet, of course, drowned enemy ships. But the damage done to Germany by America was disproportionately great.
Karl Doenitz was powerless to fight against these circumstances. To support his spirit, Hitler decides to make Doenitz a grand admiral. So, in just three years, Doenitz grew from captain to full admiral.
He moved headquarters to Berlin and continued to sink the ships of America and England. True, now there was no hope of victory: every sunken ship of the United States or the British Kingdom took a German ship with them. And Doenitz knew exactly what this meant for Germany.
Nuremberg trials
Admiral Karl Doenitz always supported Hitler in his decisions. This came from his upbringing: he clearly followed military subordination and therefore was not entitled to criticize the decisions of his leader. When Adolf Hitler committed suicide, by testament, the position of the Fuhrer was transferred precisely to Karl Doenitz. Of course, these actions could no longer stop the fall of the Reich. Doenitz tried to end the war, actively helped save the Germans from Soviet troops, and removed refugees. On May 23, his short reign came to an end. US Major General Lowell summoned Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz to his ship. Instead of the usual reception between the representatives of the two countries, Doenitz was declared to be a war criminal. The admiral, and now the Fuhrer, was immediately arrested.
He soon appeared before the tribunal. Karl Doenitz was almost the only one who behaved with dignity at the Nuremberg trials. As befits a military man, he did not proceed to criticize Hitler and answered many questions that he was obliged to comply with the order. Karl Doenitz’s memoirs also do not contain criticism of the regime.
During meetings in Nuremberg, many submariners personally came to speak in defense of the admiral. US Judge Francis Biddy was on the defendant's side. And indeed, all this time he waged a fair war and never intervened and was not interested in political affairs. His sentence was a compromise: he received 10 years in prison, but saved his life. The book "Ten Years and Twenty Days" by Karl Doenitz tells in detail about this period of his life.
After conclusion
Karl Doenitz endured his 10 years and 20 days stoically: he was no stranger to Spartan conditions. In prison, he became interested in growing vegetables, and, as usual, achieved great results through painstaking work. He completely served his sentence and, leaving Spandau, found his wife and continued to lead a peaceful life.
Karl Doenitz Books
Doenitz devoted all his free time to literary activity. The most popular book was his autobiographical work, describing a military career, war and short service as the Fuhrer. Karl Doenitz’s book, Ten Years and Twenty Days, was named according to the number of days he spent in custody.
In addition to The Ten Years, Karl Doenitz writes an autobiography, “My Exciting Life,” a book on naval strategy and several other works on naval topics.
The death of Karl Doenitz
In 1962, Doenitz's wife dies. The loss of a loved one affected the lifestyle of Admiral Doenitz. He became a zealous Christian, regularly attended the church and the grave of his wife. Towards the end of his life, Doenitz became a hot-tempered and self-absorbed man. He stopped going to visit his old comrades and spent more and more time at home or in troubles about his funeral: Doenitz could not accept that, under the ban of the government, he could not be buried with military honors and military uniforms. Outside of military service, he did not think of himself: even in the photo of Karl Doenitz it is difficult to see without a uniform.
He died in the winter of 1981, at that time he was the last German grand admiral. Dozens of his comrades came to say goodbye to him.