Dönitz: The Last Führer: The Last Fuhrer - Softcover

Padfield, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909609382 ISBN 13: 9781909609389

Publisher: Thistle Publishing, 2013

Synopsis

Grand Admiral Karl Donitz was a major military commander in the Second World War. His name will always be associated with his attempt to cut Britain's supply lines with U-boats deployed in mass 'pack' attacks on convoys in the Atlantic. Research in the German naval archives has allowed Peter Padfield to describe the evolution of the strategy and the demands Donitz placed on his commanders and crews. Triumphant in the early war years, Allied countermeasures eventually turned the tables and the hunters became the hunted. Yet, as the life expectancy of U-boat men on operations fell to a matter of weeks Donitz continued to send out his young men to probable violent death. Just why is the theme of this book: far more than a study of war at sea, it is a portrait of a sensitive officer who proved his ability as a U-boat commander in the First World War and preserved an ice-cold leadership veneer, yet was personally insecure and a fantasist in need of a cause to serve. He found it in the person of Adolf Hitler. An early convert to Nazism - contrary to the non-political image of him constructed by his peers after the lost war - he followed the Fuhrer with blind fanaticism to the end. Rewarded by promotion to Commander-in-Chief of the German navy, finally Hitler appointed him his successor, and he became the last Fuhrer of the Third Reich. This is the story of a personal tragedy played out within the greater tragedy of a nation. 'Peter Padfield's compellingly readable book conveys a flavour of Nazi leadership unmatched by anything outside the memoirs of Albert Speer. It is difficult to frame higher praise.'

About this title

Book Description:

Comprehensive biography of the man who led Hitler's U-boat war.

About the Author:

Peter Padfield is a leading naval historian and biographer. He trained for the sea as a cadet in H.M.S.Worcester, subsequently serving in the P & O Line. In 1957 he sailed under Cdr. Alan Villiers in the replica pilgrim bark, Mayflower II, from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Mayflower is now preserved. Working his passage to the south Pacific he sailed among the Solomon Islands before leaving the sea and settling with his wife in Suffolk, England. His first major book, The Titanic and the Californian defended the captain of the Californian from the charge of not going to Titanic’s rescue. He subsequently turned to naval subjects, particularly great gunnery, strategy and tactics. His biography of the U-boat admiral, Karl Dönitz, led him to a portrayal of submarine warfare in War Beneath the Sea, and to biographies of other leading Nazis, Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess, subsequently translated into many European languages. Latterly he has returned to naval history, attempting to bring it out of the specialist closet and present it as a major determinant of the modern world in a trilogy whose second volume, Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, won the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, 2003.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thistle Publishing
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1909609382
• ISBN 13: 9781909609389
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 596