Karl D?nitz (1891-1980), Marshal of the Navy, founder of Nazi Germany’s submarine force. He created the submarine warfare method known as "Wolf Pack Tactics", which posed a great threat to the maritime transportation of Britain and the United States and other countries in the early days of World War II. However, during his tenure as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, he blindly promoted unrestricted submarine warfare, resulting in a mediocre performance of the German Navy.
Quotes
It is not words that serve as the standard, but actions.
The closer the spiritual unity of an army, that is, a military group, the stronger its combat effectiveness will be.
Life introduction
Denny was born on September 16, 1891 in Grenau, a small town near Berlin. The 18-year-old D?nitz joined the German Navy as soon as he graduated from high school. He first served on the cruiser "Hertha" and then was admitted to the Flensburg-Morwijk Naval School. After graduating in 1912, he was appointed as a naval officer candidate and served on the cruiser "Brest". In 1914, he participated in the raid on the French landing force embarking on the ship at the port of Annaba, Algeria, and the attack on the Russian oil port and merchant fleet.
In September 1916, D?nitz returned to China and transferred to the submarine force. From then on, he formed an indissoluble bond with submarines. He first served as submarine watch officer on U-39. In February 1918, he was transferred to the captain of the submarine U-68. In October, D?nitz was captured by the British army after his submarine was sunk. From then on, he realized that if he wanted to win the submarine war, he must concentrate multiple submarines to fight together.
After the end of World War I, D?nitz returned to his country and still served in the navy. Since the Treaty of Versailles prohibited the German army from possessing a submarine force, he served as captain of a torpedo boat and later served as a staff officer in the Baltic Naval District and Naval Headquarters. After being promoted to lieutenant commander in 1928, he served as commander of the Fourth Submarine Fleet. In 1933, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and served as captain of the training cruiser "Emden".
After Hitler came to power, he immediately began to rearm. D?nitz strongly agreed with it and became a fanatical supporter of the Nazi Party. In June 1935, Britain and Germany signed a naval agreement, and Germany immediately publicly established a submarine force. In October, D?nitz served as commander of the "Wedigan" submarine fleet, and was later appointed as the "chief submarine officer" at the naval headquarters and promoted to naval captain. In order to enhance the tactical effectiveness of submarine attacks, he experimented with a new tactic of unified command and group operations, known as the "wolf pack tactic."
In January 1939, Navy Commander-in-Chief Raeder proposed the "Z Plan" to Hitler to build large surface ships. D?nitz firmly opposed it and demanded that the number of submarines be expanded to only 57. After his efforts, Hitler gave up the "Z Plan" and approved the "Limited Naval Shipbuilding Plan" in December, which stipulated that 392 submarines should be built by the end of 1941.
In the early days of World War II, due to the insufficient number of submarines, D?nitz had to implement "small group tactics", in which a formation of 3 to 5 submarines fought under the direct command of a certain captain. Despite this, D?nitz's submarines still played an amazing role. In less than 2 years, the submarines sank 611 British ships of various types, with a total tonnage of 2.6 million tons, which brought great consequences to the United Kingdom. An extremely heavy loss. As a result, D?nitz was promoted to rear admiral in October 1939, and to vice admiral the following year.
In the spring of 1941, the Allies strengthened escort and anti-submarine measures (such as anti-submarine ships, aircraft equipped with directional devices), which frustrated the German attack. But D?nitz promptly adjusted his deployment and changed his tactics. Due to his proper command, D?nitz's submarine brought havoc to the Allied Atlantic sea lines of communication. From April to December 1941, Japan sank 325 Allied transport ships with a total tonnage of approximately 1.58 million tons. After the United States entered the war, the scope of German submarine activities expanded to the coast of the United States and the Caribbean. In 1942, nearly 97 Allied merchant ships were sunk every month, with a total tonnage of more than 520,000 tons. During the entire war, Japan sank 2,828 Allied transport and merchant ships, with a total tonnage of 14.687 million tons, and sunk and damaged 115 Allied warships.
In January 1943, Admiral Raeder resigned due to serious differences with Hitler on combat issues.
D?nitz succeeded as commander-in-chief of the navy and was promoted to marshal. However, with the establishment of powerful British and American escort fleets, the formation of strict air and maritime surveillance networks, and especially the introduction of new radars and new depth bombs for anti-submarine warfare into actual combat, the number of damaged German submarines continued to increase. Moreover, after D?nitz became the commander-in-chief of the Navy, he directed a series of battles very poorly. This was mostly due to his one-sided emphasis on submarine warfare, while underestimating and ignoring the operations and coordinated operations of other ship types.
In April 1945, Nazi Germany was on the verge of death and was falling apart internally, but D?nitz expressed his loyalty to Hitler as always. On April 20, Hitler appointed D?nitz commander-in-chief of the northern German forces. On April 30, before committing suicide, Hitler designated him as his successor as head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces. D?nitz immediately issued a statement on the radio in an attempt to call on the military and civilians to continue their stubborn resistance on the Eastern Front. On May 8, 1945, D?nitz had to sign a document announcing Germany's unconditional surrender. The German submarine force, based on the "Rainbow Plan" previously formulated by D?nitz, scuttled all 224 submarines that had surfaced.
On May 23, D?nitz was arrested by the Allies, tried as a war criminal in Nuremberg, and sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. After he was released from prison in October 1956, he settled in Orleans, but he remained a stubborn Nazi. On October 24, 1980, D?nitz died of illness in the village of Ommel near Hamburg. He is the author of "German Submarines in World War II", "Ten Years and Twenty Days", "My Changing Life", "German Naval Strategy in World War II", etc.
Classic Battles
In the early days of World War II, although Hitler repeatedly ordered the expansion of the navy, the German naval strength was still much worse than that of the United Kingdom. Therefore, between 1939 and 1942, Germany mainly used submarines to attack British ships, cargo ships and merchant ships. To this end, D?nitz specially formulated the "Wolf Pack Tactics".
On July 12, 1940, D?nitz commanded a German submarine to officially use the "wolf pack" tactic for the first time, successfully attacking a small British escort formation in the Atlantic. D?nitz was very proud of his first victory using the "Wolf Pack" tactic. As a result, in the following months, the "Wolves" launched several large-scale bloody massacres in the Atlantic Ocean.
In September 1940, the German army intercepted a wireless telegram and learned several days in advance where a transport team from North America would meet up with the British escort force. With this rare opportunity, D?nitz immediately dispatched four submarines to set up an ambush at the edge of the Atlantic where the convoy must pass. On September 10, the Allied fleet arrived as expected. The German submarine that had been waiting for a long time seemed like a pack of hungry wolves that suddenly saw its prey and immediately pounced on it desperately. Although there were huge waves on the sea that day and the highest wind force reached level 8, which caused certain difficulties for the submarine's attack, the submarine still sank five British merchant ships in one fell swoop and achieved considerable results.
Ten days later, one of the submarines participating in the operation discovered another group of prey - a British convoy convoy from North America. Since the boat's torpedoes had been exhausted at this time, the captain immediately notified several nearby submarines. On the night of September 21st to 22nd, five German submarines launched a fierce attack on this unsuspecting transport convoy, sinking 11 merchant ships and damaging 1. If all the torpedoes on each boat had not been exhausted, the results of the battle might not be just this.
If the "Wolf Pack" tactic achieved initial success in September, then by October, its results could be called "brilliant". In mid-to-late October 1940, D?nitz commanded the "Wolf Pack" to launch ferocious attacks on two Allied convoy convoys numbered SC-7 and HX-79 on both oceans, causing heavy losses to Allied merchant ships.
SC-7 is a slow-speed escort transport team composed of 34 ships, including 30 merchant ships and 4 frigates. The convoy sailed carefully all the way after setting off, and arrived in the waters near the Lokal Sand Bank in the North Atlantic on the evening of the 16th. Due to the blackout, the sea was completely dark, with only the dark shadows of ships moving slowly forward.
Seeing that half of the voyage had been successfully completed, the transport team was somewhat relaxed, and most of the crew fell asleep. However, they did not expect that the fleet was falling into the dragnet set by the "wolf pack" step by step.
The submarine U-48 was the first to find its prey. The course of SC-7 was facing the patrol line of the "Wolf Pack", which was very advantageous for launching an attack on the submarine. While D?nitz ordered Captain K?hler of the U-48 submarine to continue to maintain contact with the fleet, D?nitz ordered the other five submarines patrolling the waters near Lokal Sand Bank to quickly move closer to the target.
That night, the SC-7 fleet discovered U-48 and sent a frigate to pursue it. U-48 hurriedly dived for cover and escaped the frigate's attack. This matter did not attract the attention of the Allied transport team, so it is not surprising that it is common to occasionally encounter a single submarine. However, I did not expect that it was just a "sea wolf" in the "wolf pack". The real The threat is yet to come.
On the 18th, all the "wolves" entered their positions and arranged themselves in an arc facing the direction of the convoy. They only waited for nightfall to launch a massive attack. Just after 8pm, U-48 was the first to attack. It only used 2 torpedoes to send a merchant ship to the bottom of the sea. Only then did the Allied transport team realize that the danger was coming, and they couldn't help but panic and panic. The four frigates were busy searching for the German submarine that caused the accident, and the rest of the merchant ships were busy avoiding the submarine's attack. They had no time to take care of themselves, and the entire fleet was in chaos.
The "Sea Wolves" were overjoyed when they saw this, and they broke into the fleet one after another. As if they were in an uninhabitable territory, they rushed back and forth crazily to kill each other. They saw allied merchant ships exploding and sinking. After a night of fighting, 17 merchant ships were sunk by German submarines, and more than half of the SC-7 fleet was lost. Fortunately, the arrival of dawn saved the remaining merchant ships. Merchant ships are safe during the day, but submarines are afraid of attacks from frigates and generally hide underwater. Although the "Wolf Pack" still had unfinished business, they knew that they would not have another chance to attack the SC-7 fleet, so they had no choice but to leave angrily.
However, not long after leaving the heavily damaged SC-7 fleet, the "wolves" became excited again, because they received D?nitz's order: the submarines with unused torpedoes re-entered the position. Prepare to attack another Allied fleet - the HX-79 high-speed escort transport team.
The U-47 submarine first discovered the HX-79 fleet. The experienced captain Pulin did not launch an attack immediately, but followed closely, constantly reporting the fleet's position to the command post. After nearly 40 hours of tracking, he finally attracted the other "Sea Wolves" .
The HX-79 fleet consists of 45 ships. Among them are 35 merchant ships, 10 frigates, 2 destroyers, 1 minesweeper, 4 submarine-driving speedboats, and 3 armed trawlers. The powerful escort force coupled with the high speed gave the British confidence in the safe delivery of this batch of supplies. Unexpectedly, the HX-79 fleet had long been targeted by D?nitz's "wolf pack".
On the evening of the 19th, all the "wolves" entered the attack position, and they launched a fierce attack on HX-79 for two consecutive nights. Although the HX-79 has a strong guard force, it is still unable to withstand the crazy attacks of the "wolf pack" in the dark night. Submarines always avoid escort ships and seek out unarmed merchant ships for attack. As a result, a total of 12 merchant ships of the HX-79 escort convoy were sunk and 2 were severely damaged. The losses were not much smaller than those of the SC-7.
The "Wolf Pack" once again won a great victory. After the battle, D?nitz personally welcomed the "heroes" who returned triumphantly, and praised the military exploits of these outstanding submarine officers. Of course, he was even more proud that his "wolf pack" tactics finally achieved the desired results.
Character Comments
D?nitz is a talented submarine warfare expert. He was full of religious devotion and love for submarines, and he also showed real care and compassion for the sailors. The "Wolf Pack Tactics" he created raised submarine combat capabilities to an unprecedented level and caused great damage to the maritime transportation of the Allies, especially the United Kingdom.
No wonder British Prime Minister Churchill wrote with lingering fear in his post-war memoirs: "During the war, the only thing that really scared me was the threat of German submarines... For me, this battle is more important than the decisive air battle on the British Isles. It's even more worrying. "As a submarine commander, D?nitz is undoubtedly an outstanding general, and the fighting spirit and sense of cooperation that he carefully built the German submarine force are still worthy of learning and reference by the contemporary military. However, as commander-in-chief of the Navy, he was an incompetent failure. He has a keen eye for observation and unique tactical thinking, but lacks deep naval academic attainments and strategic planning capabilities. He was cunning, ambitious, and a fervent advocate of fascism. It was precisely because of his outstanding ability in submarine command and his undying loyalty to Hitler that he climbed to the highest position in the navy and even Nazi Germany.