Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine:

Established on June 1, 1935, the Kriegsmarine was established by Admiral Raeder by Hitler’s orders. The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany, which differed among various other navies. The Kriegsmarine was one of the biggest instances of the Nazi War Machine. Like the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine was responsible for naval combat and fighting.

The Kriegsmarine, meaning War Navy, succeeded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire during WWI and the Reichsmarine, after WWI and before WWII. Like the Luftwaffe or the Heer, it was one of the three main branches in the Wehrmacht, meaning Defense Force, also considered the Armed Forces. This navy consisted of various battleships, Adolf Hitler reformed the German class of battleships: The U-Boat class, which was used for various ships for combat.

The Treaty of Versailles limited the amount of warships that Germany could have at the time after WWI, in addition to the prohibition of the building of German submarines. But because of Hitler's obvious and expressed hatred towards the treaty, he violated the condition of the treaty and continued to build many U-Boats and submarines, unfortunately, Britain and France didn't overlook this.

During the Spanish Civil War, German warships were sent to Spain, under the guise of non-intervention, but discreetly supporting the Nationalists than the Republicans. The Commander-In-Chief of the Kriegsmarine during the time period of full Nazi power was Adolf Hitler, as he expressed his power via Oberkommando der Marine, or High Command of the Navy.

One ship called the Scharnhorst was one of the Nazis’ many important U-Boats, which were created after Plan Z, a ship-building program, was abandoned by the beginning of the Second World War. The Scharnhorst was a titan compared to other ships in Nazi Germany’s fleet. The Kriegsmarine were responsible for the invasions of Norway and Denmark but were somewhat stopped by British naval mines, which resulted in the Wehrmacht deploying via the Luftwaffe.

The Scharnhorst alone sank 6 battleships of British origin. With another battleship called the Gneisenau sinking 3. The Kriegsmarine was one of Hitler’s proudest achievements, until when the Scharnhorst, surrounded by British ships, was sunk in battle. By the end of WWII, the U-Boats and other weapons of war in the Kriegsmarine were split by the Allies and used for mine-sweeping, which was to eliminate the threat of naval mines, as they could be a danger to civilian vessels.

Karl Dönitz:

Karl Dönitz (1891–1980) was a German naval officer who played a significant role in the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during World War II. He is most notably remembered for his leadership of the U-Boat (submarine) fleet and for briefly succeeding Adolf Hitler as the leader of Germany.

Dönitz was the architect of the German U-boat strategy in World War II, leading the development of "wolfpack" tactics, where groups of submarines coordinated attacks on Allied shipping convoys in the Atlantic.

As Commander of the U-boat fleet (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote), he was instrumental in the early successes of the U-Boat campaign, which severely disrupted Allied supply lines.

In 1943, Dönitz was promoted to Grand Admiral (Großadmiral) and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, succeeding Erich Raeder.

When Nazi Germany started collapsing due to the Allied incursions on both fronts, Hitler commited suicide. Due to this, those in his will were supposed to take leadership of the Reich.

Karl was one of these men, who was among those like Heinrich Himmler. During his time as leader of Germany, he oversaw the surrender of the Reich when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics flag hung over Berlin, officially ending the war in Europe.