Karl Dönitz served most of his military career in the submarine fleet. He developed the tactics and strategy of the submarines and made every effort to create a powerful fleet of German submarines. A few days before the collapse of the Third Reich, the Fuehrer appointed Dönitz as his successor. But the admiral did not last long at the head of the former "great empire."
From the biography of Karl Dönitz
The future German military leader was born in Berlin on September 16, 1891. He was left without a mother early. Karl was interested in military affairs from childhood. In 1910 he entered the Imperial Naval School, which he graduated three years later. The naval service of the future German Grand Admiral began.
Since 1916, Dönitz served in the German submarine fleet. In 1918, a submarine commanded by a naval officer was sunk by the British, and Dönitz himself was captured. The officer returned to his homeland only in 1919.
Under the Versailles Treaty, Germany was forbidden to have a submarine fleet, so in subsequent years Dönitz served on surface ships. Everything changed when the demoniac Fuhrer came to power in the country.
In 1935, Dönitz was assigned to lead and reorganize the newly created submarine fleet of Nazi Germany. The officer personally supervised the design of submarines, relying on his past experience and foreign works on the strategy and tactics of the submarine fleet. Subsequently, German submariners mastered underwater technology according to the instructions drawn up by this famous sailor.
Dönitz during World War II
Karl Dönitz intended to create a powerful submarine fleet of three hundred boats. However, by the beginning of World War II, the naval commander had a little more than fifty submarines at his disposal. But even these forces were enough for the German submarine fleet to sink 114 enemy merchant ships in 1939.
For the country's submarine fleet, which has shown its effectiveness, more and more resources were allocated. The number of submarines grew. The number of enemy ships sunk by submarines also increased.
America entered the war in 1941. This expanded the scope of German submarines, which sent 585 US ships to the bottom in 1942 alone. In 1943, Dönitz was promoted to admiral and led the entire German fleet. In this position, he worked diligently, never ceasing to take care of the technical equipment of submarines and their number.
Reich Chancellor of Germany and his fate
Before his inglorious suicide, Hitler appointed Dönitz to succeed him as head of state. But already on May 7, 1945, the newly-made Reich Chancellor agreed to the surrender of Germany. After signing the documents, Dönitz was arrested and charged with war crimes.
The position of the captive grand admiral was mitigated by the fact that he was not a member of the Nazi party. However, during the years of the fascist regime, he more than once justified Hitler's actions and even made propaganda statements in the spirit of Nazi propaganda.
Dönitz spent 10 years in prison; it was the mildest sentence of Nuremberg. After serving his sentence, the former admiral calmly lived out his life in Hamburg with his wife. And he even received a small pension, which was enough for the life of his family. The Grand Admiral passed away on December 24, 1980. The admiral's two sons served in the navy and died during the war.
