Admiral Eric Raeder
by Eric Raeder was in charge of the German Navy for much of the Second World War. He had a long career within the Kriegsmarine as well as its Imperial and Republican predecessors.
Raeder was born in the town of Wandesbek during 1876 and he later decided to join the rapidly expanding Imperial German Navy. He proved to be an able commander and he was given the prestigious position of captaining the royal ship Hohenzollern.
Raeder played a noticeable role during the First World War when the German Navy attempted to overturn the supremacy of the Royal Navy. However despite the vast amount of money spent on the Imperial German Navy, and the role that the Anglo – German Naval Arms Race had played in prompting Britain to join the war the Royal Navy was not defeated.
The new Republican era and the strict terms of the Versailles Treaty meant the German Navy, which he remained within was much weaker. It was nothing more than a coastal defence force banned from building aircraft carriers, battleships, and submarines. Even during the Weimar Republic the Germans sought ways to get around restrictions on the size and the power of their navy.
When the Nazi Regime took over Raeder was chosen to be the head of the navy and plan its expansion in defiance of the Versailles Treaty. Raeder and his second in command Donitz had ambitious plans to make the German Navy powerful enough to make a significant impact in any future war.
Naval expansion was nowhere near complete at the start of the Second World War, and the surface ships would prove to be a major disappointment over all. Its ships were decimated by the Norwegian campaign, a dozen destroyers been sunk by the battleship HMS Warspite alone. In 1941 the brand new Bismarck did succeed in sinking the Hood before been sank herself.
Conversely the German armies spectacular victories of 1940 provided the U boats with the opportunity to defeat Britain by sinking the merchant ships that maintained its war effort. Hitler has never entirely convinced of Raeder’s loyalty and replaced him with the more ardent Nazi Donitz. The change of leadership could not prevent Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. After serving a sentence for war crimes Raeder died of natural causes in 1960.
Biography
Hobsbawm, E Age of Extremes the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, (1994) Penguin Books Ltd, Middlesex
James H, (2003) Europe Reborn – A History, 1914 – 2000, Pearson Longman, Harlow
Palmowski J, (2008) Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary World History, Oxford
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