The following datum was compiled by myself in writing my Undergraduate
Honors Thesis in Summer, 2001. The data in this particular instance was
taken from the personal memoirs of Admirals Erich Raeder and Karl
Doenitz. The Raeder memoirs, in particular, are quite enlightening, and
worth reading. They are commonly found under their English title, My Life.
In German, a slightly expanded memoir is entitled Mein Leiben.
The table includes data for Allied surface combatant targets only and
does not include any civilian vessels. Intriguingly, neither Rader nor
Doenitz give precise percentages for vessels sunk by surface ships as
opposed to those sunk by submarines. Both, of course, had a stated
interest in portraying the success of their branch as much as possible;
we can extrapolate from this data and basic common sense however, that
most surface kills up to and including the 1942 campaign year were
made by the surface fleet, whilst the majority of kills from 1943 on were
made by the submarine fleet, at which time the surface units (while still
operational) had been strictly curtailed from their previously aggressive
stance.
As a final note, the table does not include data fr vessels sunk by land
based weapons, or by aircraft, nor does it include vessels sunk by the
Germans after occupation of conquered enemy territories. Most of the
vessels here are British, with the exception of the carriers, which are
predominantly American. The table also includes French, Polish, and
Norweigian vessels. Vessels damaged by the Germans and voluntarily
sunk by their own controlling nationalities are not included.
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Data copyright Alex Bagosy, MA, 2001-2005, all rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted for use by Wargamers and Webmasters
in not for profit work, only. The original author of the table above must
be cited. All other users should contact the webmaster for further
details.
Surface Warships Sunk by the Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945
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