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Hitler and Regent Horthy of Hungary observing Kriegsmarine U-Boat maneuvers in 1938
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The Kriegsmarine (or "War Navy") was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine. The main war vessels available to the Kriegsmarine were U-boats, three pocket battleships, two battleships (Bismarck and Tirpitz), two battlecruisers (Scharnhorst and Gneisenau), three heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and various smaller ships such as destroyers, torpedo boats, minelayers, minesweepers, gunboats and E-boats. Two old WW-I battleships were used mainly as training ships.
The main battles the navy fought were the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of the River Plate. Somewhat smaller engagements included the sinkings of the HMS Royal Oak, HMS Glorious, Bismarck, HMS Hood, Scharnhorst and Cap Arcona.
The German Navy of today is called Deutsche Marine.
Comparative Ranks (during WWII)
Submarines (U-boote) WWII
Top 10 U-Boat Aces WWII |
266,629 tons (44 ships sunk) |
Otto Kretschmer
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225,712 tons (43 ships) |
Wolfgang Luth |
193,684 tons (34 ships) |
Erich Topp |
186,064 tons (29 ships) |
Karl-Friedrich Mertn |
171,164 tons (34 ships) |
Victor Schütze |
171,122 tons (26 ships) |
Herbert Schultze |
167,601 tons (28 ships) |
Georg Lassen |
166,596 tons (22 ships) |
Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
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162,333 tons (30 ships) |
Heinrich Liebe |
160,939 tons (28 ships), plus the British battleship Royal Oak inside Scapa Flow
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Günther Prien
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See also
External links