An Excellent Account of Hitler's successor.

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	• Memoirs: Ten Years And Twenty Days Karl Doenitz Da Capo Press, 1997 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

ten years and twenty days

The book is fairly complex reading; only because, I feel, that I was looking at it from "my side", and the analysis was that much more difficult. Doenitz was a remarkable man, a brilliant strategist, and a professional soldier in the highest regard. One has to constantly keep referenced to the basis of Doenitz's dissertation, and moreso, keep in proper perspective the historical trackwork of the war.
One of the things that I found a little humourous was the statement that Doenitz was "appalled at the pictures of the contrentration camps". I believe that statement was to keep his neck out of the noose! And he was smart enough to know that he was in a position to "stay above" any indictments of war crimes and atrocities. His only crime, as recorded, was to have been "GrandAdmiral ReichMarine". To his credit, many allied high-ranking officers, Nimitz in particular, accorded him the highest respect and esteem. To his fear and chagrin, Eisenhower seemed to be "gunning" for him; at least as I perceived it.
Excellent book. Read the liner notes on rear cover. I think you will agree. Gives one pause to wonder...

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Once You Start You May Never Stop

My friend lent me this book. It was my first book on the naval aspect of the Second World War. I figured after the hundreds I had read on the land and air element I should start to look into the naval war. I could not put this book down, I devoured it. I have been gobbling up submarine books since that day.
Wow! First you have to be awed by the fact that this is a book written by the man that became the successor to Hitler. Second, its the best way to get the big picture of the U-boat campaign from the German viewpoint. Doenitz wrote this before he found out about allied successes in breaking his naval codes.
There are many fascinating stories here, about individual submarine actions, convoy battles, raids, rescue missions. Great stuff that you could make into great movies some day. You really get a good sense of how close the Germans were to winning the war. Thankfully, and Doenitz goes into it, the Third Reich did not take the U-boat arm seriously until it was too late. Whew!
Doenitz was charged with war crimes after the war and jailed. Specifically for conducting unrestricted submarine warfare.
Like every nazi that seems to write after the war - he defends himself by saying that being at the front he was not aware of everything going on back at home. Truth? Maybe, maybe not. But you cannot stop yourself from sympathizing with the man who was left holding the bag in May of 1945. We forget that the Allies waged unrestricted submarine warfare against the Japanese from the beginning. Doenitz has written that some American admirals were sympathetic after the war, and tried to get him acquitted. Very interesting story. A must for every World War Two reader.

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Excellent

This has been one of a number of books in either biography or memoirs categories of the elite or main players from World War 2 that I have read and again this is excellent reading.
The book gives details of his earlier career in the German Navy during World War 1, inter war years then through to World War 2 and his days as the last leader of the Third Reich - covers everything from torpedeo development / failures, submarine development or advancement to counteract Allied advances in anti submarine warfare, uboat losses and the aces, the constant pressing to enlarge the uboat fleet and gain a naval air arm - this book is well written, easy to follow and certainly not something you will get bored with.

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An Excellent Account of Hitler's successor.

Ten Years and Twenty Days is a direct reference to the time Karl Doenitz spent in Spandau Jail having been convicted of War Crimes.

As an English boy growing up in a post-war Britain (I was born in 1950), we would play games where the Germans always lost - just like the Cowboys always won and the Indians always lost. Much later in life, I began to research various ships and shipwrecks through my scuba diving and the name of Karl Doenitz came up time and again. Over many years I came to respect this man for the way in which he conducted both himself and his branch of the war with Britain. I consider him to have been an honourable enemy of my country.

Having read so many accounts of this once great Admiral before reading his own memoirs, I have reached the conclusion that he was convicted of no more a crime than "being one of the enemy" and it was for that he served his ten years and twenty days. Others, of course, were directly responsible for the great human atrocities of WW2 and it was they who were either sentenced to death of life imprisonment.

I am sure there are those who will disagree with my assessment of this man - and, indeed, their own assessment may be more accurate. Nevertheless, this book is a great work and one which should be read by all those with an interest in Karl Doenitz the German Naval Officer and Karl Doenitz - the last Fuhrer who's first task on succeeding Hitler was to seek peace.

NM

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From behind the scenes

Do you know Doenitz? Are you a WWII enthusiast? A historian? A submariner? Then, this book is a MUST HAVE. There are lots of books about the WWII submarine campaign, from both sides, many of them better written. So what's special? No other book provides that specific background knowledge and information. Why didn't Germany build more submarines than it did in the crucial early years? How did the wolf pack tactics evolve? What measures did the German Naval High Command take after discovering their torpedo crisis? How did they counter Allied scientific breakthroughs? Why didn't they devine Enigma was being broken? Finally, you will hear the German opinion about Roosevelt's "Short of War" strategy - nowaday's United Nations would be in turmoil...

Second, if you can read between the lines, this book will reveal the personality of one of the mightiest leaders of WWII. Was he a war criminal? Maybe, but certainly his biggest crime was to be a soldier (with very limited horizon apart from his daily duty) who happened to fight on the wrong side. Bad luck, for both sides...

This book certainly doesn't replace other narratives about the "Atlantic War", but it supplements all of them. Only here, you can find the background story.

If you're looking for more WWII memoirs, try Doenitz' superior, Raeder, and DON'T OVERLOOK Churchill, as he was the greatest writer among all of them.

If you still have no idea as to who Doenitz might have been, then try to read Lothar Guenther Buchheim's vivid picture about how the submariners themselves felt, instead; that is indeed great war literature.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Commander of the U-boat fleet, Supreme Naval Commander, and finally Hitler's successor in the last days of the Third Reich, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz (1891?1980) has been condemned as a Nazi and praised as one of the most brilliant and honorable military leaders of the war. His "wolfpack" tactics resulted in a handful of U-boats sinking 14.5 million tons and nearly deciding the Battle of the Atlantic. Sentenced to ten years at the Nuremberg Trials, Doenitz wrote his memoirs upon his release. In a clear firm style he discusses the planning and execution of the U-boat campaign; the controversial sinking of the Laconia; America's "neutrality" before its entry into the war; the Normandy invasion; the July 1944 bomb plot; his encounters with Raeder, Göring, Speer, Himmler, and Hitler; as well as his own brief tenure as the last Führer. Doenitz's invaluable work allows the reader to view the war at sea through the periscope's eye.

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