![]() ![]() Around 30,000 of the 40,000 men who served in U-boats perished. Furthermore, of these, 215 were lost on their first patrol. 648 U-boats were lost-429 with no survivors. Dönitz ordered his submarines into battle until 1945 to relieve the pressure on other branches of the Wehrmacht (armed forces). ![]() ![]() From 1939 to 1943 the U-boats fought effectively but lost the initiative from May 1943. Dönitz was the main enemy of Allied naval forces in the Battle of the Atlantic. In January 1943, Dönitz achieved the rank of Großadmiral (grand admiral) and replaced Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. While in a POW camp, he formulated what he later called Rudeltaktik ("pack tactic", commonly called "wolfpack").īy the start of the Second World War, Dönitz was supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine 's U-boat arm ( Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU)). In 1918, he was commanding UB-68, and was taken prisoner of war by British forces. He began his career in the Imperial German Navy before World War I. As Supreme Commander of the Navy beginning in 1943, he played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Karl Dönitz (sometimes spelled Doenitz German: ( listen) 16 September 1891 – 24 December 1980) was a German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government following Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies days later. ![]()
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