New Fuehrer cried ‘Kill! Kill!’ when he bossed U-boat crews
Adm. Doenitz devoted most of his 53 years of life to fanatical slaughter
LONDON, England (UP) – Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, self-announced successor to Adolf Hitler as Nazi overlord of dying Germany, ended the last war as an inmate of a British insane asylum and emerged in this one with the fanatical credo “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Doenitz scuttled and abandoned the submarine he commanded during a battle in the Mediterranean in October 1918. Then he surrendered to the British.
Taken to England, he was committed to the Manchester Insane Asylum. Some who knew him said he feigned insanity. But he was later repatriated to Germany as insane.
Veteran at killing
In this war, Doenitz sent his U-boat crews into battle with the cry:
Kill! Kill! Kill! That is your duty to the Fatherland and Der Fuehrer. Have no humanity in your labor. Humanity means weakness.
His record shows no signs of humanity and few of weakness. Most of his 53 years have been devoted to the art of killing. It was he who ordered U-boat crews to strafe the survivors of torpedoed ships as they tried to escape in lifeboats.
Doenitz is a navy man who hates ships, and his whole life has been centered on means of sinking them. His ruthlessness brought him quick favor from Hitler, who raised him from commodore to grand admiral in four years.
Hair close-cropped
Doenitz is a small, mean man with a tight jaw and close-set, shrewd eyes. He has close-cropped hair, a severe mouth, long nose and overhanging eyebrows.
Although he never was known particularly as an ardent Nazi, Doenitz has served their cause well. His last known public statement of prominence was on the occasion of the attempt on Hitler’s life last July. Doenitz condemned the plotters as “a small clique of mad generals” who would be destroyed ruthlessly.
Doenitz rated as one of the great German heroes of this war in the eyes of the German people because of the U-boat campaign against Allied shipping. Even when his submarines weren’t doing very well, the Germans never knew that for the Nazi high command communiqué still told of one success after another for them.
Suffered defeat
The new Nazi master ultimately suffered defeat in his attempts to blockade Britain by cutting the lifelines across the Atlantic. But he came perilously close to success sometimes, and the battle against the U-boats was one of the toughest the Allies ever fought.
Doenitz invented the wolfpack method of U-boat warfare, teaching his submarine skippers to travel in pairs or packs in their attacks against Allied convoys. He developed many new devices for submarines, including the long-range radio communication by which he directed their activities from his headquarters in France.
Doenitz was given charge of the German Navy’s submarine service in 1935, when Germany’s rearmament was still under cover. Under his supervision submarines were built in parts and packed in crates, ready to be assembled when the Versailles Treaty finally was flouted openly.
Succeeded Raeder
He became commander-in-chief of the German Navy in 1943, after a battle with the man he replaced, Grand Adm. Erich Raeder. Oddly enough, Doenitz protested against Gestapo and Storm Trooper activities at U-boat bases.
Doenitz also accused Raeder of falsifying the reports of Allied sinkings, a practice that did not noticeably cease when he took over.
Doenitz was born in the Baltic Province of Mecklenburg in 1892, the son of an engineer. He entered the navy as an ensign when he was 18.
It was Raeder, the man whose job he ultimately stole away, who persuaded Doenitz to remain in the navy after the war. He became a U-boat commander at 35, and reached the rank of captain in 1939. After a brief term as commodore, he became a rear admiral the same year. He was made a grand admiral when he became commander-in-chief.
Lost two sons
Doenitz has lost two sons in this war. The elder, Klaus, was killed when a British destroyer attacked a German motor torpedo boat in May 1944. Peter, the younger, was an officer aboard one of his father’s U-boats. He was killed in March of last year in the Atlantic.
Over Doenitz’s desk at his headquarters in Kiel hung the picture of Adm. Tirpitz, German naval commander in the First World War and like himself a past master at sea war without rules. An inscription on the Tirpitz picture says “die tat is alles” – “the acting is everywhere.”
Just before this war began, a German submarine reportedly was detected in the English harbor of Portland. A British destroyer dropped depth charges, and the U-boat surfaced. The commander apologized for being out of bounds. The admiralty later learned Doenitz was also aboard.
He was hiding in the torpedo room.