HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The (, ) was the
navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
of
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the
Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...
of the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
(1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
. The was one of three official branches, along with the and the , of the , the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945. In violation of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...
, the grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s. ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
(1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing
non-intervention Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans. In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive shipbuilding program, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
by 1944. When
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building program for submarines ( U-boats) instead of
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
surface warships, and land and air forces were given priority of strategic resources. The Commander-in-Chief of the (as for all branches of armed forces during the period of absolute Nazi power) was
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
, who exercised his authority through the ('High Command of the Navy'). Among the 's most significant ships were its U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. Wolfpacks were rapidly assembled groups of submarines which attacked British convoys during the first half of the Battle of the Atlantic but this tactic was largely abandoned by May 1943 when U-boat losses mounted. Along with the U-boats, surface commerce raiders (including auxiliary cruisers) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war, the most famous of these being the heavy cruisers '' Admiral Graf Spee'' and ''
Admiral Scheer Carl Friedrich Heinrich Reinhard Scheer (30 September 1863 – 26 November 1928) was an Admiral in the Imperial German Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine''). Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet and progressed through the ranks, commandi ...
'' and the battleship '' Bismarck''. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, greatly reduced the effectiveness of surface commerce raiders against convoys. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the 's remaining ships were divided up among the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Some were loaded with superfluous chemical weapons and scuttled.


History


Post–World War I origins

Under the terms of the 1919
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...
, Germany was only allowed a minimal navy of 15,000 personnel, six capital ships of no more than 10,000 tons, six cruisers, twelve destroyers, twelve torpedo boats and no
submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
or aircraft carriers. Military aircraft were also banned, so Germany could have no naval aviation. Under the treaty Germany could only build new ships to replace old ones. All the ships allowed and personnel were taken over from the ''Kaiserliche Marine'', renamed the''
Reichsmarine The ''Reichsmarine'' ( en, Realm Navy) was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the '' Reichswehr'', existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the ...
''. From the outset, Germany worked to circumvent the military restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans continued to develop U-boats through a submarine design office in the Netherlands ('' NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw'') and a torpedo research program in Sweden where the G7e torpedo was developed. Even before the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933 the German government decided on 15 November 1932 to launch a prohibited naval re-armament program that included U-boats, airplanes and an aircraft carrier. The launching of the first pocket battleship, in 1931 (as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought battleship ) was a step in the formation of a modern German fleet. The building of the ''Deutschland'' caused consternation among the French and the British as they had expected that the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles would limit the replacement of the pre-dreadnought battleships to coastal defence ships, suitable only for defensive warfare. By using innovative construction techniques, the Germans had built a heavy ship suitable for offensive warfare on the high seas while still abiding by the letter of the treaty.


Nazi control

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler soon began to more brazenly ignore many of the Treaty restrictions and accelerated German naval rearmament. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 18 June 1935 allowed Germany to build a navy equivalent to 35% of the British surface ship tonnage and 45% of British submarine tonnage; battleships were to be limited to no more than 35,000 tons. That same year the ''Reichsmarine'' was renamed as the ''Kriegsmarine''. In April 1939, as tensions escalated between the United Kingdom and Germany over
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, Hitler unilaterally rescinded the restrictions of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. The building-up of the German fleet in the time period of 1935–1939 was slowed by problems with marshaling enough manpower and material for ship building. This was because of the simultaneous and rapid build-up of the German army and air force which demanded substantial effort and resources. Some projects, like the D-class cruisers and the P-class cruisers, had to be cancelled.


Spanish Civil War

The first military action of the ''Kriegsmarine'' came during the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
(1936–1939). Following the outbreak of hostilities in July 1936 several large warships of the German fleet were sent to the region. The heavy cruisers ''Deutschland'' and , and the light cruiser were the first to be sent in July 1936. These large ships were accompanied by the 2nd
Torpedo-boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
Flotilla. The German presence was used to covertly support
Franco's Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from ...
Nationalists although the immediate involvement of the ''Deutschland'' was humanitarian relief operations and evacuating 9,300 refugees, including 4,550 German citizens. Following the brokering of the International Non-Intervention Patrol to enforce an international arms embargo the ''Kriegsmarine'' was allotted the patrol area between
Cabo de Gata Cabo de Gata is a cape located in Níjar, Almería in the south of Spain, one of the biggest capes. It is the driest place in the Iberian Peninsula (150-170 mm average precipitation, being the lowest 52 mm in 1981). However, the area th ...
(Almeria) and Cabo de Oropesa. Numerous vessels served as part of these duties including . On 29 May 1937 the ''Deutschland'' was attacked off Ibiza by two bombers from the Republican Air Force. Total casualties from the Republican attack were 31 dead and 110 wounded, 71 seriously, mostly burn victims. In retaliation the ''Admiral Scheer'' shelled Almeria on 31 May killing 19–20 civilians, wounding 50 and destroying 35 buildings. Following further attacks by Republican submarines against the off the port of Oran between 15 and 18 June 1937 Germany withdrew from the Non-Intervention Patrol. U-boats also participated in covert action against Republican shipping as part of Operation Ursula. At least eight U-boats engaged a small number of targets in the area throughout the conflict. (By comparison the Italian ''
Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("M ...
'' operated 58 submarines in the area as part of the ''Sottomarini Legionari''.)


Plan Z

The ''Kriegsmarine'' saw as her main tasks the controlling of the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
and winning a war against
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in connection with the German army, because France was seen as the most likely enemy in the event of war. But in 1938 Hitler wanted to have the possibility of winning a war against Great Britain at sea in the coming years. Therefore, he ordered plans for such a fleet from the ''Kriegsmarine''. From the three proposed plans (X, Y and Z) he approved Plan Z in January 1939. This blueprint for the new German naval construction program envisaged building a navy of approximately 800 ships during the period 1939–1947. Hitler demanded that the program was to be completed by 1945. The main force of Plan Z were six H-class battleships. In the version of Plan Z drawn up in August 1939 the German fleet was planned to consist of the following ships by 1945: * 4 aircraft carriers * 10
battleships A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type o ...
* 15 armored ships (''
Panzerschiffe The ''Deutschland'' class was a series of three ''Panzerschiffe'' (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the ''Reichsmarine'' officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the cl ...
'') * 3
battlecruisers The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...
* 5 heavy cruisers * 44 light cruisers * 158 destroyers and torpedo boats * 249
submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
* Numerous smaller craft Personnel strength was planned to rise to over 200,000. The planned naval program was not very far advanced by the time
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
began. In 1939 two s and two H-class battleships were laid down and parts for two further H-class battleships and three s were in production. The strength of the German fleet at the beginning of the war was not even 20% of Plan Z. On 1 September 1939, the navy still had a total personnel strength of only 78,000, and it was not at all ready for a major role in the war. Because of the long time it would take to get the Plan Z fleet ready for action and shortage in workers and material in wartime, Plan Z was essentially shelved in September 1939 and the resources allocated for its realization were largely redirected to the construction of
U-boats U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare rol ...
, which would be ready for war against the United Kingdom more quickly.


World War II

The ''Kriegsmarine'' participated in the Battle of Westerplatte and the Battle of the Danzig Bay during the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...
. In 1939, major events for the ''Kriegsmarine'' were the sinking of the British aircraft carrier and the British battleship and the loss of the at the
Battle of the River Plate The Battle of the River Plate was fought in the South Atlantic on 13 December 1939 as the first naval battle of the Second World War. The Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser , commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, engaged a Royal Navy squadron, command ...
. Submarine attacks on Britain's vital maritime supply routes ( Battle of the Atlantic) started immediately at the outbreak of war, although they were hampered by the lack of well placed ports from which to operate. Throughout the war the ''Kriegsmarine'' was responsible for
coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form o ...
protecting major ports and important coastal areas. It also operated anti-aircraft batteries protecting major ports. In April 1940, the German Navy was heavily involved in the
invasion of Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...
, where it suffered significant losses, which included the heavy cruiser sunk by artillery and torpedoes from Norwegian shore batteries at the Oscarsborg Fortress in the
Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the N ...
. Ten destroyers were lost in the Battles of Narvik (half of German destroyer strength at the time), and two light cruisers, the ''
Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...
'' which was bombed and sunk by Royal Navy aircraft in Bergen, and the ''
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
'' which was sunk off the coast of Kristiansand by a British submarine. The ''Kriegsmarine'' did in return sink some British warships during this campaign, including the aircraft carrier . The losses in the Norwegian Campaign left only a handful of undamaged heavy ships available for the planned, but never executed, invasion of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
( Operation Sea Lion) in the summer of 1940. There were serious doubts that the invasion sea routes could have been protected against British naval interference. The Fall of France and the conquest of Norway gave German submarines greatly improved access to British shipping routes in the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. At first, British convoys lacked escorts that were adequate either in numbers or equipment and, as a result, the submarines had much success for few losses (this period was dubbed the First Happy Time by the Germans).
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
entered the war in June 1940, and the Battle of the Mediterranean began: from September 1941 to May 1944 some 62 German submarines were transferred there, sneaking past the British naval base at
Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = "Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gibr ...
. The Mediterranean submarines sank 24 major Allied warships (including 12 destroyers, 4 cruisers, 2 aircraft carriers and 1 battleship) and 94 merchant ships (449,206 tons of shipping). None of the Mediterranean submarines made it back to their home bases, as they were all either sunk in battle or scuttled by their crews at the end of the war. In 1941 one of the four modern German battleships, sank while breaking out into the Atlantic for commerce raiding. ''Bismarck'' was in turn hunted down by much superior British forces after being crippled by an air-launched torpedo. She was subsequently scuttled after being rendered a burning wreck by two British battleships. In November 1941 during the Battle of the Mediterranean, German submarine '' U-331'' sank British battleship '' Barham'', which had a magazine explosion and sank in minutes, with the loss of 862, or 2/3 of her crew. During 1941, the ''Kriegsmarine'' and the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
became
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
belligerent A belligerent is an individual, group, country, or other entity that acts in a hostile manner, such as engaging in combat. The term comes from the Latin ''bellum gerere'' ("to wage war"). Unlike the use of ''belligerent'' as an adjective meaning ...
s, although war was not formally declared, leading to the sinking of the . This course of events were the result of the American decision to support Britain with its Lend-Lease program and the subsequent decision to escort Lend-Lease convoys with American war ships through the western part of the Atlantic. The Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
and the subsequent German declaration of war against the United States in December 1941 led to another phase of the Battle of the Atlantic. In Operation Drumbeat and subsequent operations until August 1942, a large number of Allied merchant ships were sunk by submarines off the American coast as the Americans had not prepared for submarine warfare, despite clear warnings (this was the so-called Second Happy Time for the German Navy). The situation became so serious that military leaders feared for the whole Allied strategy. The vast American ship building capabilities and naval forces were however now brought into the war and soon more than offset any losses inflicted by the German submariners. In 1942, the submarine warfare continued on all fronts, and when German forces in the Soviet Union reached the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
, a few submarines were eventually transferred there. In February 1942, the three large warships stationed on the Atlantic coast at Brest were evacuated back to German ports for deployment to Norway. The ships had been repeatedly damaged by air attacks by the RAF, the supply ships to support Atlantic sorties had been destroyed by the Royal Navy, and Hitler now felt that Norway was the "zone of destiny" for these ships. The two battleships and and the heavy cruiser passed through the English Channel ( Channel Dash) on their way to Norway despite British efforts to stop them. Not since the Spanish Armada in 1588 had any warships in wartime done this. It was a tactical victory for the ''Kriegsmarine'' and a blow to British morale, but the withdrawal removed the possibility of attacking allied convoys in the Atlantic with heavy surface ships. With the German attack on the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in June 1941 Britain started to send Arctic convoys with military goods around Norway to support their new ally. In 1942 German forces began heavily attacking these convoys, mostly with bombers and U-boats. The big ships of the ''Kriegsmarine'' in Norway were seldom involved in these attacks, because of the inferiority of German
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
technology, and because Hitler and the leadership of the ''Kriegsmarine'' feared losses of these precious ships. The most effective of these attacks was the near destruction of Convoy PQ 17 in July 1942. Later in the war German attacks on these convoys were mostly reduced to U-boat activities and the mass of the allied freighters reached their destination in Soviet ports. The
Battle of the Barents Sea The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (''Kriegsmarine'') and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Bare ...
in December 1942 was an attempt by a German naval surface force to attack an Allied Arctic convoy. However, the advantage was not pressed home and they returned to base. There were serious implications: this failure infuriated Hitler, who nearly enforced a decision to scrap the surface fleet. Instead, resources were diverted to new U-boats, and the surface fleet became a lesser threat to the Allies. After December 1943 when had been sunk in an attack on an Arctic convoy in the
Battle of North Cape The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle that occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic naval operations of World War II, Arctic campaign. The , on an operation to attack Arctic Convoys of war materiel from the ...
by , most German surface ships in bases at the Atlantic were blockaded in, or close to, their ports as a '' fleet in being'', for fear of losing them in action and to tie up British naval forces. The largest of these ships, the battleship , was stationed in Norway as a threat to Allied shipping and also as a defence against a potential Allied invasion. When she was sunk, after several attempts, by British bombers in November 1944 ( Operation Catechism), several British capital ships could be moved to the Far East. From late 1944 until the end of the war, the surviving surface fleet of the ''Kriegsmarine'' (heavy cruisers: , , , , light cruisers: , , ) was heavily engaged in providing artillery support to the retreating German land forces along the Baltic coast and in ferrying civilian refugees to the western
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
parts of Germany (
Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label= Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schweri ...
,
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
) in large rescue operations. Large parts of the population of eastern Germany fled the approaching
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
out of fear for Soviet retaliation (mass rapes, killings and looting by Soviet troops did occur). The ''Kriegsmarine'' evacuated two million civilians and troops in the evacuation of East Prussia and Danzig from January to May 1945. It was during this activity that the catastrophic sinking of several large passenger ships occurred: and were sunk by Soviet submarines, while was sunk by British bombers, each sinking claiming thousands of civilian lives. The ''Kriegsmarine'' also provided important assistance in the evacuation of the fleeing German civilians of
Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
and
Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...
in March and April 1945. A desperate measure of the ''Kriegsmarine'' to fight the superior strength of the Western Allies from 1944 was the formation of the '' Kleinkampfverbände'' (Small Battle Units). These were special naval units with frogmen, manned torpedoes, motorboats laden with explosives and so on. The more effective of these weapons and units were the development and deployment of
midget submarine A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...
s like the '' Molch'' and '' Seehund''. In the last stage of the war, the ''Kriegsmarine'' also organized a number of divisions of infantry from its personnel. Between 1943 and 1945, a group of U-boats known as the ''Monsun'' Boats (''Monsun Gruppe'') operated in the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
from Japanese bases in the occupied
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...
and Malaya. Allied convoys had not yet been organized in those waters, so initially many ships were sunk. However, this situation was soon remedied. During the later war years, the ''Monsun'' Boats were also used as a means of exchanging vital war supplies with Japan. During 1943 and 1944, due to Allied anti-submarine tactics and better equipment the U-boat fleet started to suffer heavy losses. The turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic was during Black May in 1943, when the U-boat fleet started suffering heavy losses and the number of Allied ships sunk started to decrease.
Radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
, longer range air cover,
sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...
, improved tactics and new weapons all contributed. German technical developments, such as the ''Schnorchel'', attempted to counter these. Near the end of the war a small number of the new '' Elektroboot'' U-boats (types XXI and XXIII) became operational, the first submarines designed to operate submerged at all times. The ''Elektroboote'' had the potential to negate the Allied technological and tactical advantage, although they were deployed too late to see combat in the war.


War crimes

Following the capture of Liepāja in
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
by the Germans on 29 June 1941, the town came under the command of the ''Kriegsmarine''. On 1 July 1941, the town commandant ''
Korvettenkapitän () is the lowest ranking senior officer in a number of Germanic-speaking navies. Austro-Hungary Belgium Germany Korvettenkapitän, short: KKpt/in lists: KK, () is the lowest senior officer rank () in the German Navy. Address The off ...
'' Stein ordered that ten hostages be shot for every act of sabotage, and further put civilians in the zone of targeting by declaring that
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
soldiers were hiding among them in civilian attire. On 5 July 1941 ''Korvettenkapitän'' Brückner, who had taken over from Stein, issued a set of anti-Jewish regulationsEzergailis, ''The Holocaust in Latvia'', at page 209 in the local newspaper, '' Kurzemes Vārds''.''Kurzemes Vārds'', 5 July 1941, page 1, at website of National Library of Latvia.
Summarized these were as follows:Ezergailis, ''The Holocaust in Latvia'', at page 233, n.26 and page 287 * All Jews were to wear the yellow star on the front and back of their clothing; * Shopping hours for Jews were restricted to 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Jews were only allowed out of their residences for these hours and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.; * Jews were barred from public events and transportation and were not to walk on the beach; * Jews were required to leave the pavement if they encountered a German in uniform; * Jewish shops were required to display the sign "A Jewish-owned business" in the window; * Jews were to surrender all radios, typewriters, uniforms, arms and means of transportation On 16 July 1941, ''
Fregattenkapitän Fregattenkapitän, short: FKpt / in lists: FK, () is the middle field officer rank () in the German Navy. Address In line with ZDv 10/8, the official manner of formally addressing military personnel holding the rank of ''Fregattenkapitän'' ...
'' Dr. Hans Kawelmacher was appointed the German naval commandant in Liepāja.Dribins, Leo, Gūtmanis, Armands, and Vestermanis, Marģers, Latvia's Jewish Community: History, Tragedy, Revival (2001) at page 224 On 22 July, Kawelmacher sent a telegram to the German Navy's Baltic Command in
Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
, which stated that he wanted 100 SS and fifty '' Schutzpolizei'' (protective police) men sent to Liepāja for "quick implementation Jewish problem".Anders and Dubrovskis, ''Who Died in the Holocaust'', at pages 126 and 127 Kawelmacher hoped to accelerate killings complaining: "Here about 8,000 Jews... with present SS-personnel, this would take one year, which is untenable for hepacification of Liepāja." Kawelmacher on 27 July 1941: "Jewish problem Libau largely solved by execution of about 1,100 male Jews by Riga SS commando on 24 and 25.7." In post-war 1945, U-boat Commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck of was tried and executed with two of his crewmen for shooting at survivors; was alleged to have shot at sunken ship survivors, but as the vessel was lost at sea with its crew, there was no investigation.


Post-war division

After the war, the German surface ships that remained afloat (only the cruisers and , and a dozen destroyers were operational) were divided among the victors by the Tripartite Naval Commission. The US used the heavy cruiser in nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in 1946 as a target ship for the Operation Crossroads. Some (like the unfinished aircraft carrier ) were used for target practice with conventional weapons, while others (mostly destroyers and torpedo boats) were put into the service of Allied navies that lacked surface ships after the war. The training barque SSS ''Horst Wessel'' was recommissioned USCGC ''Eagle'' and remains in active service, assigned to the United States Coast Guard Academy. The British, French and Soviet navies received the destroyers, and some torpedo boats went to the Danish and Norwegian navies. For the purpose of mine clearing, the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
employed German crews and minesweepers from June 1945 to January 1948, organized in the German Mine Sweeping Administration, the GMSA, which consisted of 27,000 members of the former ''Kriegsmarine'' and 300 vessels. The destroyers and the Soviet share light cruiser were all retired by the end of the 1950s, but five escort destroyers were returned from the French to the new West German navy in the 1950s and three 1945 scuttled type XXI and XXIII U-boats were raised by
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
and integrated into their new navy. In 1956, with West Germany's accession to
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
, a new navy was established and was referred to as the '' Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy). Some ''Kriegsmarine'' commanders like Erich Topp and Otto Kretschmer went on to serve in the ''Bundesmarine''. In
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...
the '' Volksmarine'' (People's Navy) was established in 1956. With the reunification of Germany in 1990, it was decided to use the name ''Deutsche Marine'' ( German Navy).


Major wartime operations

* ''Wikinger'' ("Viking") (1940) – foray by destroyers into the North Sea * ''Weserübung'' ("Operation
Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...
") (1940) – invasion of Denmark and Norway * ''Juno'' (1940) – operation to disrupt Allied supplies to Norway * ''Nordseetour'' (1940) – first Atlantic operation of ''Admiral Hipper'' * ''Berlin'' (1941) – Atlantic cruise of ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' * '' Rheinübung'' ("
Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...
exercise") (1941) – breakout by ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' * ''Doppelschlag'' ("Double blow") (1942) – anti-shipping operation off Novaya Zemlya by ''Admiral Scheer'' and ''Admiral Hipper'' * ''Sportpalast'' (1942) – aborted operation (including ''Tirpitz'') to attack Arctic convoys * ''Rösselsprung'' ("
Knights A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
Move") (1942) – operation (including ''Tirpitz'') to attack Arctic convoy PQ 17 * ''Wunderland'' (1942) – anti-shipping operation in Kara Sea by ''Admiral Scheer'' * ''Paukenschlag'' ("Drumbeat" ("Beat of the Kettle Drum"); "Second Happy Time") (1942) – U-boat campaign off the United States east coast * ''Neuland'' ("New Land") (1942) – U-boat campaign in the Caribbean Sea; launched in conjunction with Operation Drumbeat * ''Regenbogen'' ("Rainbow") (1942) – failed attack on Arctic convoy JW 51B, by ''Admiral Hipper'' and ''Lützow'' * ''Cerberus'' (1942) – movement of capital ships from Brest to home ports in Germany ( Channel Dash) * ''Ostfront'' ("East front") (1943) – final operation of ''Scharnhorst'', to intercept
convoy JW 55B Convoy JW 55B was an Arctic convoy sent from Great Britain by the Western Allies to aid the Soviet Union during World War II. It sailed in late December 1943, reaching the Soviet northern ports at the end of the month. All ships arrived safely. ...
* ''Domino'' (1943) – second aborted Arctic sortie by ''Scharnhorst'', ''Prinz Eugen'' and destroyers * ''Zitronella'' ("Lemon extract") (1943) – raid upon Allied-occupied Spitzbergen (Svalbard) * ''Hannibal'' (1945) – evacuation proceedings from
Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia ...
, Danzig-West Prussia and East Prussia * ''Deadlight'' (1945) – the British
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
's postwar scuttling of ''Kriegsmarine'' U-boats


Ships

By the start of World War II, much of the ''Kriegsmarine'' were modern ships: fast, well-armed and well-armoured. This had been achieved by concealment but also by deliberately flouting World War I peace terms and those of various naval treaties. However, the war started with the German Navy still at a distinct disadvantage in terms of sheer size with what were expected to be its primary adversaries – the navies of France and Great Britain. Although a major re-armament of the navy ( Plan Z) was planned, and initially begun, the start of the war in 1939 meant that the vast amounts of material required for the project were diverted to other areas. The sheer disparity in size when compared to the other European powers navies prompted German naval commander in chief Grand Admiral Erich Raeder to write of his own navy once the war began "The surface forces can do no more than show that they know how to die gallantly." A number of captured ships from occupied countries were added to the German fleet as the war progressed. Though six major units of the ''Kriegsmarine'' were sunk during the war (both ''Bismarck''-class battleships and both ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships, as well as two heavy cruisers), there were still many ships afloat (including four heavy cruisers and four light cruisers) as late as March 1945. Some ship types do not fit clearly into the commonly used ship classifications. Where there is argument, this has been noted.


Surface ships

The main combat ships of the ''Kriegsmarine'' (excluding U-boats):


Aircraft carriers

Construction of the was started in 1936 and construction of an unnamed sister ship was started two years later in 1938, but neither ship was completed. In 1942 conversion of three German passenger ships ( ''Europa'', ''Potsdam'', ''Gneisenau'') and two unfinished cruisers, the captured French light cruiser and the German heavy cruiser , to auxiliary carriers was begun. In November 1942 the conversion of the passenger ships was stopped because these ships were now seen as too slow for operations with the fleet. But conversion of one of these ships, the ''Potsdam'', to a training carrier was begun instead. In February 1943 all the work on carriers was halted because of the German failure during the
Battle of the Barents Sea The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (''Kriegsmarine'') and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Bare ...
which convinced Hitler that big warships were useless. All engineering of the aircraft carriers like catapults, arresting gears and so on were tested and developed at the ''Erprobungsstelle See''
Travemünde Travemünde () is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, and the Danes ...
(Experimental Agency Sea in Travemünde) including the airplanes for the aircraft carriers, the Fieseler Fi 167 ship-borne biplane torpedo and reconnaissance bomber and the navalized versions of two key early war ''Luftwaffe'' aircraft: the Messerschmitt Bf 109T fighter and Junkers Ju 87C Stuka dive bomber.


Battleships

The ''Kriegsmarine'' completed four battleships during its existence. The first pair were the 11-inch gun , consisting of the and , which participated in the invasion of Norway ( Operation Weserübung) in 1940, and then in commerce raiding until the ''Gneisenau'' was heavily damaged by a British air raid in 1942 and the ''Scharnhorst'' was sunk in the Battle of the North Cape in late 1943. The second pair were the 15-inch gun , consisting of the and . The ''Bismarck'' was sunk on her first sortie into the Atlantic in 1941 (
Operation Rheinübung Operation Rheinübung ("Exercise Rhine") was the sortie into the Atlantic by the new German battleship and heavy cruiser on 18–27 May 1941, during World War II. This operation to block Allied shipping to the United Kingdom culminated ...
) although she did sink the battlecruiser ''Hood'' and severely damaged the battleship ''Prince of Wales'', while the ''Tirpitz'' was based in Norwegian ports during most of the war as a fleet in being, tying up Allied naval forces, and subject to a number of attacks by British aircraft and submarines. More battleships were planned (the H-class), but construction was abandoned in September 1939.


Pocket battleships (''Panzerschiffe'')

The pocket battleships were the (renamed ''Lützow''), , and . Modern commentators favour classifying these as "heavy cruisers" and the ''Kriegsmarine'' itself reclassified these ships as such (''Schwere Kreuzer'') in 1940. In German language usage these three ships were designed and built as "armoured ships" (''Panzerschiffe'') – "pocket battleship" is an English label. The ''Graf Spee'' was scuttled by her own crew in the
Battle of the River Plate The Battle of the River Plate was fought in the South Atlantic on 13 December 1939 as the first naval battle of the Second World War. The Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser , commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, engaged a Royal Navy squadron, command ...
, in the
Rio de la Plata Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...
estuary in December 1939. ''Admiral Scheer'' was bombed on 9 April 1945 in port at Kiel and badly damaged, essentially beyond repair, and rolled over at her moorings. After the war that part of the harbor was filled in with rubble and the hulk buried. ''Lützow'' (ex-''Deutschland'') was bombed 16 April 1945 in the Baltic off Schwinemünde just west of Stettin, and settled on the shallow bottom. With the Soviet Army advancing across the Oder, the ship was destroyed in place to prevent the Soviets capturing anything useful. The wreck was dismantled and scrapped in 1948–1949.


Pre-dreadnought battleships

The
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
era Pre-dreadnought battleships and were used mainly as training ships, although they also participated in several military operations, with the latter bearing the distinction of firing the opening shots of WWII. and were converted into radio-guided target ships in 1928 and 1930 respectively. was decommissioned in 1931 and struck from the naval register in 1936. Plans to convert her into a radio-controlled target ship for aircraft was canceled because of the outbreak of war in 1939.


Battlecruisers

Three s were ordered in 1939, but with the start of the war the same year there were not enough resources to build the ships.


Heavy cruisers

, , and Never completed: ,


Light cruisers

The term " light cruiser" is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser". Light cruisers were defined under the Washington Naval Treaty by gun caliber. Light cruiser describes a small ship that was armoured in the same way as an armoured cruiser. In other words, like standard cruisers, light cruisers possessed a protective belt and a protective deck. Prior to this, smaller cruisers tended to be of the protected cruiser model and possessed only an armoured deck. The Kriegsmarine light cruisers were as follows: * * * * * * Never completed: three s Never completed: KH-1 and KH-2 (''Kreuzer'' (cruiser) Holland 1 and 2). Captured in the Netherlands 1940. Both being on the stocks and building continued for the ''Kriegsmarine''. In addition, the former ''Kaiserliche Marine'' light cruiser was captured by Germans on 11 September 1943 after the capitulation of Italy. She was pressed into ''Kriegsmarine'' service for a brief time before being destroyed by British MTBs.


Auxiliary cruisers

During the war, some merchant ships were converted into " auxiliary cruisers" and nine were used as commerce raiders sailing under false flags to avoid detection, and operated in all oceans with considerable effect. The German designation for the ships was Handelstörkreuzer''' thus the HSK serial assigned. Each had as well an administrative label more commonly used, e.g. Schiff 16 = Atlantis, Schiff 41 = Kormoran, etc. The auxiliary cruisers were: * (HSK-1, Schiff 36) * (HSK-2, Schiff 16) * (HSK-3, Schiff 21) * (HSK-4, Schiff 10) * (HSK-5, Schiff 33) * (HSK-6, Schiff 23) * (HSK-7, Schiff 45) * (HSK-8, Schiff 41) * (HSK-9, Schiff 28) * (HSK number not assigned, Schiff 14, never active in raider operations.) * (HSK not assigned, Schiff 5, never active in raider operations, used as a training ship)


Destroyers

Although the German World War II destroyer (''Zerstörer'') fleet was modern and the ships were larger than conventional destroyers of other navies, they had problems. Early classes were unstable, wet in heavy weather, suffered from engine problems and had short range. Some problems were solved with the evolution of later designs, but further developments were curtailed by the war and, ultimately, by Germany's defeat. In the first year of World War II, they were used mainly to sow offensive minefields in shipping lanes close to the British coast.


Torpedo boats

These vessels evolved through the 1930s from small vessels, relying almost entirely on torpedoes, to what were effectively small destroyers with mines, torpedoes and guns. Two classes of fleet torpedo boats were planned, but not built, in the 1940s.


E-boats (''Schnellboote'')

The E-boats were fast attack craft with torpedo tubes. Over 200 boats of this type were built for the ''Kriegsmarine''.


Troop ships

, , , , .


Miscellaneous

Thousands of smaller warships and auxiliaries served in the ''Kriegsmarine'', including minelayers, minesweepers, mine transports, netlayers, floating AA and torpedo batteries, command ships, decoy ships (small merchantmen with hidden weaponry),
gunboats A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-stea ...
, monitors, escorts, patrol boats, sub-chasers, landing craft, landing support ships, training ships, test ships, torpedo recovery boats, dispatch boats, aviso, fishery protection ships, survey ships, harbor defense boats, target ships and their radio control vessels, motor explosive boats, weather ships, tankers, colliers, tenders, supply ships, tugs, barges, icebreakers, hospital and accommodation ships, floating cranes and docks, and many others. The ''Kriegsmarine'' employed hundreds of auxiliary ''
Vorpostenboot ''Vorpostenboot'' (plural ''Vorpostenboote''), also referred to as VP-Boats, flakships or outpost boats, were German patrol boats which served during both World Wars. They were used around coastal areas and in coastal operations, and were tasked w ...
e'' during the war, mostly civilian ships that were drafted and fitted with military equipment, for use in coastal operations.


Submarines

The Submarine Arm of the ''Kriegsmarine'' was titled the ''U-bootwaffe'' ("submarine force"). At the outbreak of war, it had a fleet of 57 submarines. This was increased steadily until mid-1943, when losses from Allied counter-measures matched the new vessels launched. The principal types were the
Type IX The Type IX U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany's '' Kriegsmarine'' in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern U ...
, a long range type used in the western and southern Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans; the
Type VII Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. 703 boats were built by the end of the war. The lone surviving example, , is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial located in Laboe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. ...
, the most numerous type, used principally in the north Atlantic; and the small Type II, for coastal waters. Type X was a small class of minelayers and Type XIV was a specialized type used to support distant U-boat operations – the "''Milchkuh''" (Milkcow). Types XXI and XXIII, the "'' Elektroboot''", could have negated much of the Allied anti-submarine tactics and technology, but only a few of this new type of U-boat became ready for combat at the end of the war. Post-war, they became the prototype for modern conventional submarines, such as the Soviet . During World War II, about 60% of all U-boats commissioned were lost in action; 28,000 of the 40,000 U-boat crewmen were killed during the war and 8,000 were captured. The remaining U-boats were either surrendered to the Allies or scuttled by their own crews at the end of the war.


Captured ships

The military campaigns in Europe yielded a large number of captured vessels, many of which were under construction. Nations represented included Austria (riverine craft), Czechoslovakia (riverine craft), Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States (several landing craft) and Italy (after the armistice). Few of the incomplete ships of destroyer size or above were completed, but many smaller warships and auxiliaries were completed and commissioned into ''Kriegsmarine'' during the war. Additionally many captured or confiscated foreign civilian ships (merchantmen, fishing boats, tugboats etc.) were converted into auxiliary warships or support ships.


Major enemy warships sunk or destroyed

The first warship sunk in World War II was the destroyer , of the Polish Navy, by Junkers Ju 87
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact through ...
s from the carrier air group of aircraft carrier on 3 September 1939. This carrier air group (Trägergeschwader 186) was part of the ''
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
'', but at that time under command of the ''Kriegsmarine''.


Organization


Command structure

Adolf Hitler was the Commander-in-Chief of all German armed forces, including the ''Kriegsmarine''. His authority was exercised through the '' Oberkommando der Marine'', or OKM, with a Commander-in-Chief (''Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine''), a Chief of Naval General Staff (''Chef des Stabes der Seekriegsleitung'') and a Chief of Naval Operations (''Chef der Operationsabteilung''). The first Commander-in-Chief of the OKM was
Erich Raeder Erich Johann Albert Raeder (24 April 1876 – 6 November 1960) was a German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank, that of grand admiral, in 1939, becoming the fir ...
who was the Commander-in-Chief of the ''Reichsmarine'' when it was renamed and reorganized in 1935. Raeder held the post until falling out with Hitler after the German failure in the
Battle of the Barents Sea The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (''Kriegsmarine'') and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Bare ...
. He was replaced by Karl Dönitz on 30 January 1943 who held the command until he was appointed
President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
upon Hitler's suicide in April 1945. Hans-Georg von Friedeburg was then Commander-in-Chief of the OKM for the short period of time until Germany surrendered in May 1945. Subordinate to these were regional, squadron and temporary flotilla commands. Regional commands covered significant naval regions and were themselves sub-divided, as necessary. They were commanded by a '' Generaladmiral'' or an Admiral. There was a ''Marineoberkommando'' for the Baltic Fleet, Nord, Nordsee, Norwegen, Ost/Ostsee (formerly Baltic), Süd and West. The ''Kriegsmarine'' used a form of encoding called '' Gradnetzmeldeverfahren'' to denote regions on a map. Each squadron (organized by type of ship) also had a command structure with its own Flag Officer. The commands were Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines ('' Führer der Unterseeboote''), Torpedo Boats, Minesweepers, Reconnaissance Forces, Naval Security Forces, Big Guns and Hand Guns, and Midget Weapons. Major naval operations were commanded by a ''Flottenchef''. The ''Flottenchef'' controlled a flotilla and organized its actions during the operation. The commands were, by their nature, temporary. The ''Kriegsmarine'' ship design bureau, known as the ''Marineamt'', was administered by officers with experience in sea duty but not in ship design, while the naval architects who did the actual design work had only a theoretical understanding of design requirements. As a result, the German surface fleet was plagued by design flaws throughout the war. Communication was undertaken using an eight-rotor system of Enigma encoding.


Air units

The ''
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
'' had a near-complete monopoly on all German military aviation, including naval aviation, a major source of ongoing interservice rivalry with the ''Kriegsmarine''. Catapult-launched spotter planes like Arado Ar 196 twin-float seaplanes were manned by the so-called ''Bordfliegergruppen'' (shipboard flying group). In addition, ''Trägergeschwader 186'' (Carrier Air
Wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...
186) operated two ''Gruppen'' (''Trägergruppe I/186'' and ''Trägergruppe II/186'') equipped with navalized Messerschmitt Bf 109T and Junkers Ju 87C Stuka; these units were intended to serve aboard the aircraft carrier which was never completed, yet provided the ''Kriegsmarine'' with some air-power from bases on land. Furthermore, five coastal groups (''Küstenfliegergruppen'') with reconnaissance aircraft, torpedo bombers, ''Minensuch'' aerial minesweepers and air-sea rescue seaplanes supported the ''Kriegsmarine'', although with lesser resources as the war progressed.


Coastal artillery, flak and radar units

The coastal batteries of the ''Kriegsmarine'' were stationed on the German coasts. With the conquering and occupation of other countries coastal artillery was stationed along the coasts of these countries, especially in France and Norway as part of the
Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall (german: link=no, Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticip ...
.J. P. Mallmann-Showell: ''Das Buch der deutschen Kriegsmarine 1935–1945''. Publisher Motorbuch. Stuttgart 1995 p. 75-91 Naval bases were protected by flak-batteries of the ''Kriegsmarine'' against enemy air raids. The ''Kriegsmarine'' also manned the ''Seetakt'' sea radars on the coasts.


Marines

At the beginning of World War II, on 1 September 1939, the '' Marine Stoßtrupp Kompanie'' (Marine Attack Troop Company) landed in Danzig from the old battleship for conquering a Polish bastion at Westerplatte. A reinforced
platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...
of the ''Marine Stoßtrupp Kompanie'' landed with soldiers of the German Army from destroyers on 9 April 1940 in Narvik. In June 1940 the ''Marine Stoßtrupp Abteilung'' (Marine Attack Troop Battalion) was flown in from France to the
Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
to occupy this British territory. In September 1944 amphibious units unsuccessfully tried to capture the strategic island Suursaari in the Gulf of Finland from Germany's former ally Finland (
Operation Tanne Ost Operation Tanne Ost ("Fir East") was a German operation during World War II to capture the island Suursaari (Swedish: ''Hogland'', Russian: ''Gogland'') in the Gulf of Finland before it could fall into Soviet Union, Soviet hands. Suursaari was es ...
). With the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and the Soviet advance from the summer of 1944 the ''Kriegsmarine'' started to form
regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...
s and divisions for the battles on land with superfluous personnel. With the loss of naval bases because of the Allied advance more and more navy personnel were available for the ground troops of the ''Kriegsmarine''. About 40 regiments were raised and from January 1945 on six divisions. Half of the regiments were absorbed by the divisions.Jörg Benz: ''Deutsche Marineinfanterie 1938–1945''. Publisher Husum Druck. Husum 1996.


Personnel strength


Ranks and uniforms

Many different types of uniforms were worn by the ''Kriegsmarine''; here is a list of the main ones: * ''Dienstanzug'' (Service suit) * ''Kleiner Dienstanzug'' (Lesser service uniform) * ''Ausgehanzug'' (Suit for walking out) * ''Sportanzug'' (Sportswear) * ''Tropen-und Sommeranzug'' (Tropical and summer suit) – uniforms for hot climates * ''Große Uniform'' (Parade uniform) * ''Kleiner Gesellschaftsanzug'' (Small party suit) * ''Großer Gesellschaftsanzug'' (Full dress uniform)


See also

* Glossary of German military terms * List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients of the Kriegsmarine * List of naval ships of Germany * List of World War II torpedoes of Germany * Rolf Carls * Wilhelm Canaris


Notes


External links


The Nazi German Navy 1935-1945 (Kriegsmarine)
* * * * *

Photos of minelayers on combat missions and various ''Kriegsmarine'' vessels. {{Subject bar , portal1 = Military of Germany , portal2 = World War II , commons = y , commons-search = Kriegsmarine 1935 establishments in Germany Disbanded navies Military history of Germany during World War II Naval history of World War II Wehrmacht