Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 1939-1945

First-hand record of the views of Axis high command on naval strategy in the Second World War. Provides revealing commentary on key naval events. Hitler's comments and decisions noted throughout. As the Allies made their inexorable last assault upon Germany in 1945, Adolf Hitler, the supreme commander-in-chief of all German armed forces, ordered that every official military document should be destroyed. Admiral Karl Dsnitz, then supreme commander-in-chief of the Navy, felt differently. The Navy, he believed, had waged an honorable war, and posterity would prove the fairest judge. Accordingly, the records fell into Allied hands. Were it not for Dsnitz's singular decision, this remarkable book would not exist. Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 1939-1945 is the faithful, first-hand account of Hitler's meetings with his high-ranking officers. Such was the nature of these meetings that even secretaries were excluded, and both Raeder and Dsnitz personally checked the typescripts of the meeting-notes before approving them. The conferences concerned either subjects upon which Hitler requested information or topics that the commanders-in-chief wanted to bring to the Fuehrer's attention. This is, therefore, an authentic and intimate account of the views of Axis high command upon naval strategy and its execution throughout World War II, covering such key events as the assault on Norway, the plans to invade Britain, the sinking of the Bismarck, and the Normandy landings. Indeed, Hitler's comments and decisions are noted throughout.