The Wilmington morning star., 1943-02-01
interpreting
The War
By JOHN M. HICHTou,,,p

ruthless Karl Doenitiz from ",
boat officer to grand admiral .n.
chief of the German navy f. 81
most certainly due to the fact tbo,
of all Germany's once victorio.,
arms, only the submarine nou
meets any degree Of success
The Nazis badly needed a CLAM
our boy to present to their no,
pie as symbol of hope for even,
tual triumph. They had sucs
figure of invincibility in sbra,rd
competent General Erwin Rc~
mel until the British Eighth Ar,1r
broke the power of his Ar,+os
Corps and drove him back l 5o0
miles from the ramparts of Foynt
to a beachhead in Tunisia. Nav
the hero's mantle has fallen from,
the shoulders of the desert fov 10
those of the sea-wolf, Doenitz
It was logical, in fact aImost
inevitable, that this should han.
pen. When things are going had
ly for country at war, there i
no tonic for morale like nev,
public hero. Certainly in this WOW
things have never gone worse for
Germany than at the present mo.
ment.
For German citizen and soldier
alike the daily news. sveelened
though it is with the sugar of pro.
paganda, must have the bitter
taste of defeat. Through MANY
long weeks the Nazi armies have
lost heavily in positions, men and
materials on the Russian front
Their investment of troops and
machines in North Africa which
appeared to be highly profitable
enterprise last fall, now verges on
bankruptcy.
The aerial offensive against their
industrial centers at home-whicb
Hitler once boasted could never be
bombed-has now reached such a
point that Saturday, the anniver.
sary of the Fuehrer's rise to DOW.
er, Royal Air Foorce planes blast.
ed Berlin itself by daylight
Only in the war at sea can the
Nazis speak to their people con.
vincingly of triumphs and hold out
with pleasible arguments a prom.
ise of victory. The Nazi sub.
marine campaign is the one cam.
paign that still shows up as an Of.
fersive operation
Actually it has fallen far short
of what the Nazis hoped it would
accomplish in preventing Amer.
can military might from reaching
the European war zone. But many
a tank and plane, many drum
of aviation gasoline that would
have gone into action over there
but for the submarines now rests
on the bottom of the Atlantic.
For this Doenitz must be given
much credit. British sources al
tribute to him the development Of
| wolf-pack tactics in Atlantic war.
fare. These raider squadrons
have undoubtedly been much more
successful in attacking our vital
conveys than lone-wolf subs would
have been.
London likewise quoted Doentz
as having once told his men:
''Have no humanity in your labors.
Humanity means weakness" His
admonition has been guilty fol-
lowed by his legions of the deep,
as hundreds of survivor accounts
of United States ship sinkings
have shown.
While becoming grand admiral
of the German navy Doenitz re-
tains direct control of the subma-
rine forces. This is a reasonable
arrangement. The navy is LARGE
" composed of submarines and the
relatively few surface ships afloat
have accomplished little.
1t might be said that the eleva-
ton of Doenitz, who commanded
submarine in the first WoFia
war. and has devoted his life 10
the study of that type OF war
fare. would mean a new and ruth
less turn in the eneny's sub cav
paign. But it is inconcelVaoe
that there should be any form ot
ruthlessness which has not already
been adopted.
Doenitz might, of course, chap'e
the pattern of operations to the
extent, say, of sending underSea
raiders back to United STATES
coastal waters from which lAe'
were driven last fall by our pa
troll and escort ships But If ns
does, the ratio of his own loss21
will go up instantly and such
course would certainly be an IU
vitation to disaster for him.