|
Hitler launched World War II 5 years too early for the Germany Navy. Hitler had told his admirals that there would be no war until the mid-1940s. He subsequently pushed forward his time table. At the time he launched the War, the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmact were the most powerful air forces and armies in the world. The Germany Navy ranked as a potent, but relarively small force. The Kregsmarine again played a minor role in World War II. The German surface fleet was a major disappointment to Hitler. The U-boat proved again to be Germany's primary naval threat. And for time seemed to offer some propects for a major victory. Churchill after the War wrote that the u-boat campaign in the Battle of the Atlantic was the one threat that really worried him. The German naval high command (OKM) wanted an impressive surface fleet, but Germany's limited industrial capacity made that impossible. As a result, only minor resources were allocated to U-bpat construction before the War. This changed after the War began and the U-boat proved to be Germany's most potent naval weapon. The Germans devoted considerable resources to building U-boats. Ironically while the German u-boat campaign is one of the great legends of the World War II, it was the Americans in the Pacific who waged the only successful submarine campaign in history--a stark example of what the German might have achieved. While the Battle of the Atlanic was the central struggle for the Kriegsmarine as well as the Royal Navy, the Atlantic was not the only operational area. The KM also fought battles in the Arctic, North Sea, Baltic, and Mediterranean.
The naval campaigns are often given superficial coverage in assessments of World War II in Europe. In fact, the most important battle of the War was the Battle of the Atlantic. Churchill was to write after the War that it was the the loss Battle of the Atlantic that was the only thing he feared. Battles could be lost or won, but the cutting of Britain's life lines to the Dominions and especially America would have made it impossible for Britain to have continued the War. It was no accident that Anglo-American military cooperation began in the North Atlantic well before America entered the War. Hitler on the other hnd gave lttle attention to the U-boat fleet until after the War began. Hitler and approved Plan-Z, a secret plan to prepare the Kriegsmarine for war with Britain by 1944. It involved the construction of massive capital ships and two aircraft carriers. The Germans with U-boats, surface fleet, and long range aircraft hope to cut off Britain from its Empire and supply from the United States. Although neutral in the early years of the War, President Roosevelt was determine to support the Allies. A few days after the fall of France in 1940, a sjocked American Congress approvd the Naval Construction Act. The immediate impact of the fall of France in 1940 tremendosly increased the effectiveness of the German naval campaign, providing indespenseable French Atlantic ports. The Royal Navy had ben strongly depleted during the inter-war era by naval limitations treaties. After France fell, the Royal Navy stood alone againt the German ans Italian navies. The Germans had a growing surface fleet and the Italian a fast modrn fleet that threatened to seize control of the Mediterannean. The the German u-boat operations proved highly effective, despite the fact that Hitler launched the War years beore the Kriegsmarine was prepared. Even before America entered the War, the U.S. Navy was deployed in the North Atlantic to protect British convoys. Anglo-American naval and scientific cooperaion resulted in the defeat of the u-boat campain by 1943. Combined with American construction of liberty ships, not only was Britain kept supplied, but America assembled a massive force of men and supplies in England that in 1944 was unleased on Hitler's Atlantic Wall.
World War Ii was the first time in history that importnt military operations were conducted in the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic extends from Iceland and the North Sea east to the Bering Strait. The German involvemnebt was ancillery to the Battle of the Atlantic and the European Lnbd camoigns, especially the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the titanic war in the East. Before the War, activities in the Arctic were primarily fishing and mining (Narvik and Petsamo). The countries involved were nostly the Norwegins and Soviets with rctic coastlines. Soviet settlements along the Arctic coast and rivers of the Barents Sea and Kara Sea relied upon summer coastal shipping for supplies originating in railheads at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Soviet Union ust before the War extended its Northern Sea Route past the Taymyr Peninsula to the Bering Strait (1935). The Arctic Sea route was not nearly as open at the time as is now the case. The Winter War (November 1939) opened the northern flank of the Eastern Front, but did this did not immediately affect Arctic operations as Finland did not have an Arctic coastline. The Germans began to develop more involved relations with the Finns. The Soviet Northern Fleet at the outbreak of the war consisted of a few destroyers with larger numbers of submarines, minesweepers, and torpedo cutters supported by icebreakers was the only important naval force in the Arctic. This began to change as aresult of the German invasion of Norway (April 1940). After the Burih and French withdral, Norway gave the Kriegsmarine (KM) naval bases from which Germany's capital ships could challenge the Royal Navy Home Fleet. Norway also provided bases for Luftwaffe anti-shipping aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG 26) and Kampfgeschwader 30 (KG 30). Kriegsmarine and Luftwffe operatins were at first primarily focused on North Sea operations, especially guaranteeing shipments of Swedish iron ore to Germany. Operations also involved the Battle of Britain and then the all-importnt Battle of the Atlanic. The Germans conducted routine reconnaissance using Küstenfliegergruppen aircraft including Heinkel He 115s and Blohm & Voss BV 138s. This changed with Opertion Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). Sudenly the Artic became an important theater of operations. Hitler's invasion converted the Soviet Union from a NAZI ally to another victim of MAZI aggression in need of support. Churchill immediately offered upport and President Roosevelt pressed Congress to qulify the soviets for Lend Lease aid. The Allies eventually opened three routes to aid the Soviets. The shirtest route was through the arctoc to the soviets ports and rail heads at Murmansk and Arc Angel. Soon Allied convoys forming in Scotland laden with war material entered the Arctic for the soviet pots. The convoys were designated PQ and JW depending on the direction. The faced a daunting gauntlet of Luftwaffe air craft and KM U-boats and surface ships based in Norway. The freighters were escorted by destroyers, corvettes and minesweepers. The Royal Navy also committefd cruisers outside the convoy force including battleships and aircraft carriers in case the KM commited its capital ships to intercept the Arctic convoys.
The Baltic Sea was dominated by the Kreigsmarine (KM) and Sovier Red Navy. Norway, Sweden, Denmark Finland, and the Baltic Republics also had Baltic coasts, but did not have navies of any importance. Poland has a small coast, but no importnt port, using the German populasted free city of Danzig. As a result, World War II naval operations were primarily conducted by the Germans and Soviets. Curiously British Prime-Minister Churchill was interested in the Baltic in both World Wars. Churchill is one of the great figures of the 20th cetury, primarily because of his World War II leadership, but he did have some daft ideas and at the top of the list was British naval operations in the Baltic. 【Roskill, p. 93-95.】 Both the Germans and Soviets used the Baltic for training operations before the War. Taking advntage of the NAZI-Soviet Pact, the Soviets seized yhe Bzltic Republics and their important ports. The situation changed dramatically with the onset of Barbarossa (June 1941). The Germans quickly overran the Baltics and bottled up the Red Naby in Leningrad. Luftwaffe opeations made it impossible for the Soviets to opertate surfce ships. The Baltic became a German lake. This meant safe passage for Swedish iron ore, vital for the German war industries. The KM used the Baltic as a safe haven for capital ships and a training a refitting area for irs U-boats. As the War turned against the Germans and the Red Army seized Baltic ports and Luftwaffe bases, the Red Navy was able to resume Balyic opetions, especially submarines. The British Royal Navy planned Operation Catherine for the control of the Baltic Sea and its exit choke point into the North Sea. In addition to naval wafare, the Germans and Soviets laid some 60,000 naval mines and anti-sweep obstacles. Many were laid in the shallow Gulf of Finland which became one of the most densely mined waters of the War.
The Mediterranean naval war was almost entirely fought by the Italian Navy to a disastrous outcome. For most of the first year of the War, the Mediterranean was quiet. The Powerful French Fleet dominated the western Mediterranean and a small British force the eastern Mediterranean. Italy largely because of this did not enter the War. The collapse of France changed this. Now only facing the small English Mediterranean Squadron and a handful of British soldier in Egypt, Italy as President Roosevelt phrased, 'struck a knife into the back of a neighbor'. The Germans wanted the French fleet which would have turned the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean. The British action at Oran reduced the potential value of the French fleet. And the French true to their word, scuttled their vessels in Marseilles when the Germans tried to seize them after the Torch landings (November 1942). The basic German naval action was moving some U-boats from the Mediterranean during the height of the Battle of the Atlantic. Dönitz opposed the diversion, but Hitler insisted. Some German E-boats were deployed in the Mediterranean, but we have few details at this time. The U-boats has some success. The U-73 torpedoed and sank the Royal Navy Carrier Eagle while escorting a convoy to Malta during Operation Pedestal (August 11, 1942). Malta would prove key to the Mediterranean and North African campaigns. The Admiralty wanted to abandon it as indefensible. Churchill refused to give it up. The major battles were fought by the modern and fast Italian fleet--although rather reluctantly. On paper the Italians had the more powerful fleet and a substantial land-based air force to support it. The hard-pressed Royal Navy could only spare a minor force. Even so Admiral Andrew Cunnngham, one of the great naval commanders of the War and cut out of the Nelson mold, found that his major problem was bringing the Italians to battle. The Italians did the best they could to avoid battle. And they could do this effectively because their ships were more modern and faster--to Cunningham's growing frustration. Cunningham had two advantages: radar and aircraft carries. The Fleet Air Arm was an absurdity--still using biplanes such as the Swordfish better known as the String Bag, but it was good enough against a navy without carriers. The Italians had good reason to avoid battle, because when forced into battle they lost ships. Critical to the Royal Navy's victories was the carrier strike on Taranto on the heel of the Italian boot (November 1940) which decimated the Italian battleship line. An action the Japanese observed with great interest.
The British Royal Navy in World War I managed to bottle up the North Sea as part of a naval embargo which slowly undermined the German War economy and civilian morale. It also impaired U-boat operations in th North Atlantic. The British also attempted a North Sea embargo with the outbreak of World War II. This was undone by the German aliace with the Soviet Union (August 1939) amf the seizure seizure of Norway (April 1940). The NAZI-Soviet alliance provided the Germans vast quantitie of food and raw materail that had beed denied in World War I (1939-41)--at least for nearly 2 ttears of the War. The seizure of firtst Norway and then France meant that not only could the Grmans not be bottle up in the Nrth Sea, but they had access to invaluable Atlantic ports as well as the highly productive French economy--both agrcultural and industrial (1940). The limited range of German fighters meant that the Luftwaffe could not use its bases in Norway in the Battle of Britain and Operation Sea Lion. And after the fall of France, the North Sea Route for German U-boats was no longer of critical importance. The Norwegian North Sea fijords and bases provided locations for German capital ships. The primary importance of the North Sea, however, was an all weather route to ship Swedish iron ore to Germany and the fter the Grmans incaded the Soviet Unon (Jne 1941), the support areas for the vital Arctic Convoys to support the Soviet Union. There would beno massive Jutland-like fleet actions in the North Sea, but there would be a range of smaller actions of imprtance, beginnng with sinking of the aging Royal Navy battlship Royal Oak (Septenber 1939) and the badly botched defense of Norway (April 1940). Here Norway bears some responsibility clining to neutralism as a defense, but there is no doubt the British Admiralty performed pporly, including Churchil who was First Lord. .
Unlike World War I, there were no substantive German ncal operaions in the Pacific during World War II, but a few German raiders and U-boats did make it to the Pacific. The raider Komet got to the Pacific with the aid of two Soviet ice breakers (Lenin and Stalin (August-September 1940). This of course was during the priod that the Soviet Union and NAZI Germany were allies (1939-41). The German Government after extended negotiations, paid the Soviet $300,000 for this assitace. 【Miller, p. 142.】 It was safer than taking the Atlantic route arund the Cape of Good Hope to get to the Pacific hunting grounds. Komet operated in the South Pacific with Orion amd the supply ship Kulmerland posing as Japanese Marus. They partcipated in the attack io Naru which had become a phosphate island (December 1940). Komet commander Robrt Eyssen made a forray into the Indian Ocean, but mostly operated in the Pacific. After completing successful South Pacific raid, Komet despite the loss of so many riders ws prepared for a second raid. She was promply sunk by a British motor torpedo boat while attempting to break out into the Atlantic (October 1942). British defenss were hardening. The raiders were very sccessful in 1940, but this began to change whem British cruisers caught Graf Spee (December 1940). Cpt. Langsdorff disregarded orders and engaged the British ships. The surface raider concept was especially damaged when the Briustish sank Bismarck (March 1941). The problem with German raiders is that there were few friendy ports in the Atantic for supply and repair. In the Pacific the Germans had Japanese oports, but the Japanese were none too suportive. or s In enly
Orion made only one raid. It managed to returned to Bordeaux in occupied France (August 1941). Because the raiders by this time had mostly been sunk, she was decommsioned as a raider.
Gruppe Monsun or Monsoon Group was a U-boat force of German U-boats that operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during World War II, mostly in the Indian Ocean. One Geramn U-boat we know of in the Pacifiuc is U-862 that operated around New Zealand out of Japanese-occupied Batavia (January 1945). We know that German high tech weaponry was delivered to Japan by both Grman and Japanese sunmarines. This involved noth the Yanagi and Monsun Misions. The Germans were not too willing to turn over their high-tech to the Japanese despite the Axis alliance. . (Compare this to the Tizard Mision.) But this changed as German fortunes declined. A much celebrated Japanese submarine reached Brest with gold the NAZI demande in payment. (June 1943). Unfortunately for the Japanese, by this time, the Atlantic had becone a very dangeros place for Axis submarines. Most of the German U-boats on the U-234 was packed with enriched uranium and advanced weaponry and dispatched to Japan, but the boat was still in the Atalantic when Germany surrendered and they tey killed the Japanes offices on boad and suuenderd to the Americans (May 1945).
Miller, Nathan. War at Sea: A Naval History vof World War II (Scribner: New York, 1995), 592p.
Roskill, Sephen. Churchil and the Admirals (william Morrow: New York, 1978). 351p.
Navigate theCIH World War II Section :
[Return to Main Kriegsmarine World War II page]
[Return to Main German Navy page]
[Return to Main military force page]
[Return to Main German military force page]
[Return to Main German World War II military organization page]
[Return to Main German World War II page]
[Biographies]
[Campaigns]
[Children]
[Countries]
[Deciding factors]
[Diplomacy]
[Geo-political crisis]
[Economics]
[Home front]
[Intelligence]
[POWs]
[Resistance]
[Race]
[Refugees]
[Technology]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Return to Main World War II page]
[Return to Main war essay page]
