Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz
Dönitz joined the Imperial German Navy in 1911. He served as an officer in the surface fleet primarily in the Black Sea fighting the Russian navy but transferred to submarines in 1916. In July 1918 his U-boat was sunk in the Mediterranean by a British destroyer – Dönitz survived and spent his captivity on Malta. As an experienced submarine officer he was selected to command the Kriegsmarine’s fledgling U-boat service. During the mid-1930s he devised much of his tactical planning for sub-surface warfare, including the Rudeltaktic, or wolfpack, method.
Dönitz realised early on that Germany’s failure to implement Plan Z – the re-equipment and expansion of the navy – would leave the U-boat arm as the primary means by which Germany could challenge Britain at sea. The initial success of the U-boats vindicated his belief that submarines were the future of naval warfare, and in 1943 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the navy. But in 1943 events overtook Dönitz as the Allied navies overwhelmed the Kriegsmarine, and by the end of 1943 the Battle of the Atlantic was all but over. Dönitz was nominated as Führer of Nazi Germany by Hitler during the last days of the war and was responsible for negotiating the surrender of German forces in 1945.
After serving ten years in Spandau Prison for war crimes, Dönitz was released in 1956. He spent the remainder of his years in relative obscurity, writing his memoirs and books on German naval history, and corresponding with historians. He died in December 1980 in Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany.
Admiral Sir Max Horton
Horton joined the Royal Navy in September 1898 as a 14-year-old cadet onboard the training ship Britannia, and by the outbreak of the First World War he had risen to the rank of lieutenant commander in charge of the submarine E9. Sub-surface warfare was still in its infancy, and Horton was an extremely successful submarine commander, sinking and damaging a substantial number of German ships. By 1920
