gswan@watpix.waterloo.edu (Geo Swan) (05/16/89)
From: gswan@watpix.waterloo.edu (Geo Swan) In his recent article Adrian Hurt referred to a battle during one of the Murmansk convoys involving The German cruisers Admiral Hipper, Lutzow (ex Deutchland) and a bunch of British convoy escort. I read a book on this battle entitled "The battle of barent's sea". The author of this (very interesting) book quoted various German documents that showed that prior to the battle the German commanders were warned to be excessively cautious. That after the battle Hitler was furious and did indeed plan to scrap all the capital ships, and use their turrets for shore defence. He either sacked Raeder, or Raeder refused to scrap the ships and resigned, or Raeder refused to scrap the ships and was sacked. I don't remember the details. Anyhow this is when Doenitz was appointed CNO. He was at the time practically the most junior admiral. According to the author of this book, because Doenitz was more popular with Hitler he was able to keep the capital ships, where Raeder couldn't. (In re-reading this I was struck by a memory that he was the most senior naval officer who was also a member of the Nazi party. Can anyone confirm?) Another reason why the capital ships made relatively few sorties was that the German never did capture the caucus oilfields, and they felt they couldn't afford the oil. Sorry I can't recall the author's name. He was a british fellow.