HATER OF BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 103, 3 May 1945, Page 6

HATER OF BRITAIN

THE NEW FUHRER

A COLOURFUL CAREER

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 10.20 a.m. LONDON, May 2.

Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who succeeds Hitler as Fuhrer, is declared to be a fanatical hater of Britain.

Now in his early fifties, he joined the Kaiser's new navy in 1910. The son of an engineer, he served as a junior lieutenant in the Breslau when she escaped from Constantinople with the Goeben, and then transferred to seaplanes.. He is stated to have been a good pilot, but lie disliked the air as much as he disliked the sea. In 1916 he transferred to the submarine service, first serving in the U39 and then commanding the U25.\ While in the U6B he was sunk by the Snapdragon when attacking a convoy off Malta in October, 1918. The British ship damaged his U-boat with gunfire, and Doenitz scuttled his craft and was taken prisoner with his crew. He was sent to Donnington Hall, and, feigning madness, went to the Manchester lunatic asylum. He was thus one of the first Germans to be repatriated in 1919. He reported back to the navy and rejoined the service, and saw the German fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow. SUBMARINE SPECIALIST. Obsessed with the idea of breaking the Treaty/of Versailles, he joined the Nazis and studied submarines and their strategic use, with the sole object of ultimate attack on Britain in furtherance of his conviction that Germany might have won the last war by 1920 had there been continued and unrestricted U-boat warfare. When the Nazis first came to power he was already making submarines in sections. He hid the parts in packing cases, away from the eyes of Allied investigators. With the denunciation of the clause in the Versailles Treaty forbidding Germany to possess a navy, he became the leader of the first official U-boat flotilla. He also had a hand in designing the pocket battleships, but his chief job was in building the U-boat fleet. In 1937 he made a secret trip in a U-boat i to Portland waters to check British Admiralty reports of the currents there. The U-boat was spotted by a British destroyer, which dropped depth charges, and the U-boat surfaced. Doenitz apologised for his presence in British waters. When Germany sent supplies to General Franco during the Spanish War, Doenitz used the convoys, for manoeuvres. In 1939 he was at sea in a U-boat, and sank the Royal Oak, for which he was promoted rear-admiral. Boasting that he could starve Britain to surrender, he invented the wolf pack tactics and directed the Battle of the Atlantic from a subterranean chamber on the French coast. He went out in every type of craft, and received every U-boat commander on his return from a cruise or patrol. PROMOTION AS NAVAL HEAD. Hitler promoted Doenitz naval com-mander-in-chief in 1943, over the heads of many senior admirals. It is .stated that he believes in machines, not men; in engineers like himself, not sailors; and in mechanical genius, not seamanship. ° Doenitz is a stern man who combines friendliness to and consideration for his crews with murderous treatment of his enemies. He rules himself rigorously, rising at 5 a.m. and walking for an hour, breakfasting at 7 a.m., and sleeping after lungh for an hour. He> has had two sons killed in the war. It is declared that common disillusionment, coupled with a maniacal common pretence that they would achieve their aims, tied Doenitz and Hitler close together in personal friendship. Doenitz was one of the four speakers who broadcast from Hitler's headquarters on the night of July 20, 1944, after the attempt on the Fuhrer's life. He deputised for Hitler six weeks ago on "Heroes' Day" after hearing that one of his sons had been killed. During the last year he has been brought to the forefront as one of the main agitators for keeping the workers, especially German youth, enthusiastically in favour of the war. The general opinion of him is that he is one of the most ruthless and hard-driving men left in Germany. MOST RECENT EVENTS. The "Daily Herald's" diplomatic correspondent, commenting on his appointment as Fuhrer, suggests that the following has been the trend of even t S :_-Himmler told Count Bernadotte at their first meeting three weeks" or so ago that he was prepared to surrender, but Hitler was set on continuing the war. Then Hitler had a stroke. Himmler saw his chance and consulted the chiefs of the army and the navy, some of whom were still against surrender. There followed the compromise of' offering peace to Britain and America, but not Russia. This had no chance of success, but gained time. When the. Allied reply came Himmler favoured surrender, but Doenitz preferred to continue the fight. There was a deadlock, and rip answer could be sent until the internal conflict had been settled. Himmler counted on succeeding Hitler, but Doenitz and the "no surrender" party won.