On 12 September 1942,, carrying some 80 civilians, 268 British Army soldiers, about 1, 800 Italian prisoners of war, and 160 Polish soldiers ( on guard ), was struck and sunk by a torpedo from Kriegsmarine submarine off the coast of west Africa.

Raeder longed to sack Dönitz, but was unwilling to do so as he felt that was nobody to replace the aggressive and fanatically National Socialist Dönitz, who knew more about submarine warfare than any other admiral in the Kriegsmarine and seemed to be on the verge of winning the Battle of the Atlantic.

Spanish submarine G-7 was originally U-573, a Type VIIC submarine of the German Kriegsmarine.

In January 1945, the German Kriegsmarine U-boat ( submarine ) U-862 entered and departed from the port of Napier undetected.

Hitler believed them necessary to protect Kriegsmarine submarine bases along the Baltic coast.

That same year, he made a proposal to the Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine ( OKM – Naval High Command ) suggesting that a submarine powered by one of these engines would have considerable speed advantages over the conventional combination of diesel engine ( s ) for surface running and electric motor ( s ) while submerged.

It not only serviced the German submarine fleet, but was also the only dry dock on the Atlantic capable of housing the German battleship Tirpitz, one of two Bismarck-class ships built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

* Seehund type XXVIIB Most successful midget submarine in the Kriegsmarine.

This base served Axis submarine forces: ( Italian Regia Marina, German Kriegsmarine, and the Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun, or Imperial Japanese Navy ).

The 949 survivors were rescued by Kriegsmarine vessels led by cruiser Admiral Hipper, although it is claimed that " the big warship could not risk heaving to, with a submarine close by.

During World War II the Kriegsmarine experimented with such a system as an alternative to the Walter peroxide system, including a variant of the Type XXVIIB Seehund midget submarine, the " Klein U-boot ".

* February 11 – Operation Cerberus A flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports ; the British fail to sink any one of them.

Naval forces of the resistance were formed as early as 19 September 1942, when Partisans in Dalmatia formed their first naval unit made of fishing boats, which gradually evolved into a force able to engage the Italian Navy and Kriegsmarine and conduct complex amphibious operations.

From 1945 to 1956, the German Mine Sweeping Administration and its successor organizations, made up of former members of the Kriegsmarine, became something of a transition stage for the Marine, allowing the future Marine to draw on experienced personnel upon its formation.

A notable contradiction existed in Hitler's strategic planning between embarking on an anti-British foreign policy, whose major instruments consisted of a vastly expanded Kriegsmarine and a Luftwaffe capable of a strategic bombing offensive that would take several years to build ( e. g. Plan Z for expanding the Kriegsmarine was a five year plan ), and engaging in reckless short-term actions such as attacking Poland that were likely to cause a general war.

" The Kriegsmarine response was rather more restrained but equally focused on pointing out the many difficulties to be surmounted if invading England was to be a viable option.

When Franz Halder, the Chief of the Army General Staff, heard of the state of the Kriegsmarine, and its plan for the invasion, he noted in his diary, on 28 July 1940, " If that plan is true, all previous statements by the navy were so much rubbish and we can throw away the whole plan of invasion ".

The Kriegsmarine later used some of the motorized Sea Lion barges for landings on the Russian-held Baltic islands in 1941 and, though most of them were eventually returned to the inland rivers they originally plied, a reserve was kept for military transport duties and for filling out amphibious flotillas.

The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.

Through the Dithmarschen ships, Raeder planned to greatly extend the length of time that Kriegsmarine raiders could spent on the high seas before being required to return to Germany.

When Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Raeder was shocked and shattered by the outbreak of a general war that for the Kriegsmarine was at least five years too early.

Raeder wrote in the Seekriegsleitung war diary on 3 September 1939: " Today the war against England and France, which the Führer had previously assured us we would not have to confront until 1944 and which he believed he could avoid up until the very last minute, began ... As far as the Kriegsmarine is concerned, it is obvious that it is not remotely ready for the titanic struggle against England.

As a counterpart to his policy of terror, Raeder placed great emphasis on " spiritual leadership " as a war-winning factor in the Kriegsmarine, which in practice meant an intense program of National Socialist propaganda.

Raeder went on to call for indifference to National Socialism in the Kriegsmarine to be destroyed " root and branch " and stated: " We cannot win the war against a fanatical enemy with the old principle of ' live and let live '".

The Royal Navy went on to note that based on its interrogations of Kriegsmarine POWs that Raeder's indoctrination policy had borne fruit in that the morale of the Kriegsmarine was extremely high, with the majority of officers and sailors very proud to fight for Führer and fatherland.

Raeder first raised the subject of invading Norway during a meeting with Hitler on 10 October 1939, during which he argued that naval bases in Norway would allow the Kriegsmarine to avoid the North Sea, and thus strangle Britain better.

Since the victory over France provided the Kriegsmarine with the better placed French ports on the Atlantic and the iron fields of Lorraine, Weserübung proved to be unnecessary.

The destruction of the much of the Kriegsmarine surface forces in the Norwegian campaign forced Raeder to rely even more on the U-boats to wage a guerre de course against British shipping.

Hitler overruled him, arguing that such harsh terms were bound to be rejected by the French and that the French fleet would sail over to Britain to continue the struggle if confronted by such a demand ; as a result of the armistice of 21 June 1940, the Kriegsmarine was only allowed to take over the French Navy's bases on the Atlantic coast.

Hitler was so confident of the success of Barbarossa that on 20 June 1941, two days before Barbarossa was to begin, he ordered that from 1 January 1942 the army was to go from first to third in regards to spending and allocation of raw materials to build up the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe.

Raeder himself was personally pleased by the sinking of the Bismarck, feeling this had won the Kriegsmarine some much needed glory on the high seas and was consistent with his goal of " full engagement " where the Kriegsmarine capital ships were to sent into action until they all were sunk to win his service glory, but Hitler was more than annoyed at the loss of the Bismarck.

He joined the Kriegsmarine as Seekadett on 25 September 1935.

Bernhard Rogge ( 4 November 1899 – 29 June 1982 ) was a Captain () of the German Navy ( Kriegsmarine ) who, during World War II, commanded a merchant raider.

The " A " Device was awarded to any member of the United States Navy who, while deployed to the Atlantic Ocean between June 22 and December 7, 1941, engaged in armed conflict, or potential armed conflict, with naval forces of the German Kriegsmarine.

The Anglo-German Naval Agreement ( A. G. N. A ) of June 18, 1935 was a bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and German Reich regulating the size of the Kriegsmarine in relation to the Royal Navy.

From 10 June 1940, submarines of the Regia Marina took part in the Battle of the Atlantic alongside the U-Boats of the German Navy ( Kriegsmarine ).

Lieutenant Commander Herbert Schultze ( 24 July 1909 – 3 June 1987 ), was a German U-boat commander of the Kriegsmarine during World War II.

Destroyer War Badge () is a German military decoration instituted on June 4, 1940 by admiral Erich Raeder and awarded to officers and crew for the service on Kriegsmarine destroyers ( worn on the lower part of the left breast pocket of the naval service tunic, underneath the 1st class Iron Cross if awarded, or equivalent grade award ).

* ( 1938 ), an auxiliary cruiser operated during World War II by the Kriegsmarine, which was lost following a mutually destructive engagement with the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1941

The third German Antarctic Expedition ( 1938 – 1939 ) was led by Alfred Ritscher ( 1879 – 1963 ), a captain in the Kriegsmarine ( German navy ).

When the Kriegsmarine began planning for a war with Britain in May 1938, the Kriegsmarine's senior operations officer, Commander Hellmuth Heye concluded the best strategy the Kriegsmarine could follow was a Kreuzerkrieg fleet of U-boats, light cruisers and Panzerschiff operating in tandem.

in the army, Flieger in the Luftwaffe from 1935 on, Matrose and Heizer ( until 1938 ) in the Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine, respectively.

The forerunner of the modern replenishment oiler was a Kriegsmarine ( German Navy ) ship, the Dithmarschen, which was built in 1938.