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The World at War: Karl Dönitz

color="black"> Admiral Karl Doenitz had served in U-boats (Unterseeboot, i.e. submarines) during World War I and remained in the German Navy, although the Versailles Treaty would not allow Germany to keep any submarines. When Germany began to rearm, Doenitz was chosen to organize the new submarine service, and became Chief of U-boat Forces. When war broke out, in 1939, he was promoted to Rear Admiral, but had far fewer submarines than were required by the war plans (which did not expect a war to start before 1942). In spite of this, Doenitz' U-boats were highly successful, scoring one coup after another, while the warships of the German surface navy, like the Bismark or Graf Spee, seemed to make headlines only by being hunted down and sunk! These early successes brought Doenitz an increasing share of German Navy resources and faster expansion of U-boat forces. During 1941 and 1942 Doenitz submarines nearly won the war for Germany, sinking a large percentage of the ships carrying essential supplies to Britain and the Soviet Union. This success was partly due to faulty anti-submarine strategy which the Allies were slow to abandon, but it was mostly the result of Doenitz' imaginative coordination of reconnaissance aircraft, resupply vessels and multiple-submarine wolf-packs, all of which allowed his boats to strike where they were most effective and least expected.

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