General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: Doenitz, and an outcome tangent
Posted by:
kpp
()
Date: November 28, 2000 05:47PM
<HTML>Hi Fin,
you are completely right. But the problem was just that England knew that and began the war at a moment where the german navy was not ready.
A.H. thought that England would not begin a war because of the Poland question and told this to the leaders of the different parts of the Wehrmacht on August 22, 1939 on the Obersalzberg.
The memeorandum of Dönitz asking the 300 boats was made after this meeting only on August 28, 1939.
And Raeder wrote on September 3,1939 that the German Navy only would have opened a war against England at the end of 1944/45.
Even on September 7, 1939 Raeder and A.H. decided to limit the U-Bootwar and to hold back the Graf Spee and the Deutschland detecting that France had not will to fight and hoping that England would finally accept the new situation in the east.
So the war began at a moment that Germany was not ready and England saw that it was the last moment and perhaps the last occasion to begin it under favorable conditions.
So if Germany would have made a great armament effort earlier, which he couldn\'t because of his limitated production and raw-material capacities, England would have begun the war earlier too.
Nevertheless the Kriegsmarine tried to make the best of this unfavourable situation but had no optimistic feeling about the result.
</HTML>
you are completely right. But the problem was just that England knew that and began the war at a moment where the german navy was not ready.
A.H. thought that England would not begin a war because of the Poland question and told this to the leaders of the different parts of the Wehrmacht on August 22, 1939 on the Obersalzberg.
The memeorandum of Dönitz asking the 300 boats was made after this meeting only on August 28, 1939.
And Raeder wrote on September 3,1939 that the German Navy only would have opened a war against England at the end of 1944/45.
Even on September 7, 1939 Raeder and A.H. decided to limit the U-Bootwar and to hold back the Graf Spee and the Deutschland detecting that France had not will to fight and hoping that England would finally accept the new situation in the east.
So the war began at a moment that Germany was not ready and England saw that it was the last moment and perhaps the last occasion to begin it under favorable conditions.
So if Germany would have made a great armament effort earlier, which he couldn\'t because of his limitated production and raw-material capacities, England would have begun the war earlier too.
Nevertheless the Kriegsmarine tried to make the best of this unfavourable situation but had no optimistic feeling about the result.
</HTML>
