Former Admiral Roeder Writes His Memoirs

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28153, 17 December 1956, Page 6

Former Admiral Roeder Writes His Memoirs

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

TUEBINGEN. The former Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, chief of the German Navy from 1928 until 1943, says in the first volume of his memoirs, publish&d here, that it was the tragedy of his life that Germany and Britain came into conflict in the Second World War. Admiral Raeder, aged 80, who was released from the Spandau prison for major war criminals last year because of illness, repeatedly speaks of his friendly feelings for Britain in the book, which deals with the period up to 1935. He says that he supported the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935, proposed by Hitler, which restricted German naval forces. The agreement, he adds, also gave Germany “freedom in defence,” his way of saying that Germany felt that after the agreement she could no longer be held to the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty. On the other hand, Britain had secured German support for the forthcoming talks on a general settlement of naval strengths with other Powers. Admiral Raeder says the wish for such an agreement had been unconsciously a part of both navies’ thinking. The one-time chief of Hitler’s navy has particular praise for Admiral Earl Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the British fleet in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, in which Admiral Raeder played an important part as Chief of Staff to the German cruiser and torpedo boat force. He says that Lord Jellicoe, later First Sea Lord, had “always worked in the interests of Britain for a compromise with Germany” and adds that it was certainly in the spirit of Lord Jellicoe that German and British warships exchanged visits between the two World Wars. British officers had taken part in German regattas. “Here many relationships grew up which—so I hoped—would contribute in the long run to relationship between the two navies. And indeed it was shown from visit to visit that on both sides there was the strong wish not to have to face one another again as opponents.”

Admiral Raeder says that on the death of Lord Jellicoe in November 1935 he paid him “an honourable and sincere tribute” and ordered the Commander of the German fleet, ViceAdmiral Foerster, to attend the funeral. “At the end of the state funeral, the Prince of Wales (now Duke of Windsor) who represented King George V who was ill, expressed to the German Admiral the thanks of his father and the whole British people and assured him of his personal friendship for Germany.” He says that he thought at the time that he had good reason to look to the future with trust—-“all the more as the director of German policy, Hitler, had repeatedly told me that conflict with Britain would never again be conceivable.”

Admiral Raeder, who received a life sentence at Nuremberg in 1946, for planning and waging aggressive war and for war crimes, describes how he allowed infringements of the naval disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty after he became naval chief in 1928. He explains that he did so with Government approval, fiv° years before Hitler came to power. The former Grand Admiral, son of a grammar school headmaster, says that he was brought up to fear God, and to love truth and cleanliness. Of his own political attitude, he says: “I was a seaman and a soldier, but not a politician.” After being sentenced at Nuremberg, Raeder said that he believed he had made the mistake of not being more of a politician rather than just’a military man.

He says in his book that it was the navy’s duty, particularly in troubled times, to keep out of all party politics and be loyal to the state and its elected Government. He himself had no misgivings about taking an oath to Hitler when the Nazi leader became Head of State on the death of Hindenburg in 1934. “Hitler was appointed Chancellor

by President von Hindenburg in a legal manner, the German people had repeatedly . . . demonstrated their confidence in him: thus, he could be regarded as the legal successor of- Hindenburg . . . Further, in view of the estimate of Hitler’s capabilities current at that time, no-one could have proposed another personality in his place.” The second volume of Raeder’s memoirs, to be published next year, is likely to throw more light on his relations with Hitler up to his resignation in 1943 after a disagreement on a tactical matter. He includes in this first volume a reference to his successor, former Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, himself sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment at Nuremberg. During the trial, Doenitz snubbed Raeder for several days after a document in which Raeder had called him “Hitler-boy Doenitz” had been read to the court. In his book, Raeder says that “undoubtedly” he was right to appoint Doenitz to build up the German Üboat Fleet in 1935. He praises Doenitz’s energy and passionate devotion to duty. His work in building up and leading the U-boat force was an extraordinary performance, Raeder says. Doenitz, who was released in October after serving his sentence, is expected to give his opinion of Raeder in his own memoirs. He has already announced that he is preparing them.