Erich Raeder - Hitler's Admiral who for his Crimes was Sentenced to Life Imprisonment - World War 2

World History
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Published 2024-07-11
Erich Raeder was born on 24 April 1876 in Wandsbek, then part of the German Empire. The First World War began on 28 July 1914. Two years later, in May 1916, Erich Raeder participated in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of World War I, fought between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet. Although the British lost more ships and sailors, they maintained naval dominance.
The First World War, which ended on 11 November 1918, had a profound impact on Raeder's personal life, as he lost his two younger brothers, who were killed in action. The Second World War began on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. When Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Raeder was shocked and shattered. For the German Navy, which surface fleet of which was inadequate to fight the British Royal Navy, this war came at least five years too early, and Hitler had previously assured Raeder that they would not have to confront a war until 1944. In October 1939, Raeder proposed to Hitler the invasion of Norway. The primary motivation for Raeder's push was to use it as a base for naval attacks on Britain. It was only in early 1940 that Raeder first mentioned protecting the sea lanes for Swedish iron ore as a secondary reason for the Norwegian occupation.

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All Comments (21)
  • @paulcorrigan3753
    This is a bit one-sided. The Kriegsmarine was the least 'Nazi' service of the Wehrmacht. There were significant acts of humanity by German naval captains during WW2. E.g., the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau hove to in an Arctic gale and heavy seas and rescued survivors of the auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi - while HMS Renown was believed to be close by. Hans Langsdorff, captain of the panzerschiff/cruiser Graf Spee, went to great lengths to preserve the lives of crews of merchant ships he sank. So did Kapt zur See (later Admiral) Theodor Krancke, of the Admiral Scheer, during its six-month long raiding sortie that took it into the Indian Ocean. Captain Helmuth Heye, of the cruiser Admiral Hipper, went to a great deal of effort to rescue the crew of the destroyer HMS Glowworm, which had just rammed his ship. I could go on. Despite the success of sinking HMS Glorious Norway was catastrophic for the Kriegsmarine. The surface fleet never recovered from the losses. It could not cover the proposed invasion of England, for example. Germany reverted to submarine warfare, as it had begun to during the Kaiser's time, because it could not compete with the Royal Navy. They attacked convoys. All the belligerents attacked their enemies' convoys. What saved Raeder and his successor, Karl Doenitz, from the dubious attentions of the Allies' hangmen were the American and British admirals who wrote to the Nuremburg trial. They said that if Raeder and Doenitz were to be hanged then they should be, too. Their conduct of the war had been not much different, they wrote. They also praised the conduct of the Kriegsmarine during the war. It was war but the Kriegsmarine still managed to inject some humanity into its actions where it could. The doom-laden narrator's voice intoned that no-one shed a tear at Admiral Raeder's death. Theatrical bollocks, I say.
  • @ladycplum
    And he asked to be shot rather than serve a prison sentence!
  • @TonyDonnelly64
    Wasn't he serving on the same ship as Heydrich before Heydrich was kicked out ? What a bad day that was when he got dismissed, leaving him in the position to join Himmler's notorious SS
  • @user-bv7py2px1w
    The truth is " There is no war crime when u win the war " .. Dont you think there are US ,UK and Soviet army commanders who are worse war criminals than Germans ?? Ask how many Women were r@ped by US forces in France and Belgium . How many unarmed civilians died in Dresden bombing ?? Let's not ask how Soviet killed innocent unarmed civilians in Estonia , Finland , Poland etc. Do u think the civilians in Hiroshima n Nagasaki were criminals ?? Think about it Conclusion : War is hell
  • @joeasthope2064
    Wasn't that just normal warfare that any country would do I don't understand why he was on trial Did any other country go to court for doing the same
  • @kingofsnakes1000
    Where did you find that photo? I've never seen Raeder's interim baton before.
  • @pji4994
    Reader was an intelligent officer who distanced himself from the Nazi hierarchy, but was still culpable of crimes. Think he probably should have gotten the same sentence as Doenitz.
  • @cracoviancrusader6184
    Admiral Nimitz of the USN declared the same in a letter to the victors' court defending Grand Admiral Doenitz.
  • @mariolasanda8116
    Thank you for this upload. He was not as evil as the other Nazis but he was responsible for a lot of atrocities committed by the Kriegsmarine.
  • @peter455sd
    You win the war you're a hero. You lose the war you're a criminal...
  • @brianferris8668
    "There were no tears shed for Eric Raeder". How do you know there weren't?
  • @BrianHayter-zl2uc
    Very interesting doco, great stuff. 👍👍👍😁😁😁🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺