Hitler had issued a policy stating that if a senior officer such as Dönitz lost a son in battle and had other sons in the military, the latter could withdraw from combat and return to civilian life. Peter was killed on when U-954 was sunk in the North Atlantic with all hands. Both of Dönitz's sons were killed during the Second World War. They had three children whom they raised as Protestant Christians: daughter Ursula (1917–1990) and sons Klaus (1920–1944) and Peter (1922–1943).

On, Dönitz married a nurse named Ingeborg Weber (1893–1962), the daughter of German general Erich Weber (1860–1933). He remained a prisoner of war until 1919 and in 1920 he returned to Germany. He was captured by the British and incarcerated in the Redmires camp near Sheffield. On 4 October, after suffering technical difficulties, Dönitz was forced to surface and scuttled his boat. On 2 July 1918, he became commander of UB-68, operating in the Mediterranean.

He served as watch officer on U-39, and from February 1918 onward as commander of UC-25. He attended the submariner's school at Flensburg-Mürwik and passed out on 3 January 1917. He requested a transfer to the submarine forces, which became effective on 1 October 1916. On 22 March 1916, Dönitz was promoted to Oberleutnant zur See. They began operating out of Constantinople, under Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, engaging Russian forces in the Black Sea. In August 1914, the Breslau and the battlecruiser SMS Goeben were sold to the Ottoman Navy the ships were renamed the Midilli and the Yavuz Sultan Selim, respectively. When World War I began, he served on the light cruiser SMS Breslau in the Mediterranean Sea. On 27 September 1913, Dönitz was commissioned as a Leutnant zur See (acting sub-lieutenant). In 1910, Dönitz enlisted in the Kaiserliche Marine ('Imperial Navy'). Oberleutnant zur See Karl Dönitz as Watch Officer of U-39 during World War I.ĭönitz was born in Grünau, near Berlin, to Anna Beyer and Emil Dönitz, an engineer, in 1891. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment after his release, he lived in a village near Hamburg until his death in 1980. He was found not guilty of committing crimes against humanity, but guilty of committing crimes against peace and war crimes against the laws of war. Following the war, he was indicted as a major war criminal at the Nuremberg trials on three counts: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity planning, initiating, and waging wars of aggression and crimes against the laws of war. Dönitz remained as head of the Flensburg Government, as it became known, until it was dissolved by the Allied powers on 23 May.īy his own admission, Dönitz was a dedicated Nazi and supporter of Hitler. On, he ordered Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), to sign the German instruments of surrender in Reims, France. On 30 April 1945, after the suicide of Adolf Hitler and in accordance with his last will and testament, Dönitz was named Hitler's successor as head of state, with the title of President of Germany and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. 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.

Atlantic station suspicious package