Lot 287

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KARL DONITZ 
German admiral who headed the U-Boat arm of the German Navy, later succeeded Hitler as Fuehrer after Hitler's suicide. Lengthy, fine content T.L.S. 2pp. legal folio, Padua, Apr. 21, 1964, in German responding to a series of questions. After complimenting his correspondent for requesting this exchange of ideas which is ‘…honorable, rich and interesting for me…', Donitz gets down to business, in part: ‘…The essential for the fighting power of a troop is its mental attitude. Without their voluntary, self-sacrificing commitment, without their conviction that this dedication is more important and valuable than their own lives, even the best-trained and best-equipped troops have no full combat value and will fail…The Russians have not yet been able to prove their sustainability. I don't know to what extent these continental people can and have already converted inwardly to sea combat…my experience tells me that it is not easy. For we Germans, it took a century and despite this long period of time, our attitude towards naval warfare turned out to be inadequate…Whether the Russians have the total submarine and whether their way of fighting with subs has changed fundamentally since 1945, I do not want to comment on that…In my new book I have changed the chapter on the Laconia and the chapter on the Scharnhorst because I have since gained access to other documents related to these incidents. For example, today's confession by Major General Richardson (at NATO in Paris), that he would have bombed the German U-Boats while rescuing the survivors of the Laconia and that he would have done the same if he had known that the U-Boats were rescuing Englishmen: for the German submarines had to be bombed in any case...It is quite possible that the invasion would have been defeated if our anti-invasion measures had been more in tune with coastal and sea conditions…you are very correct to say that allowing Soviet Russia gain a foothold in the heart of Europe was the greatest mistake…'. Fine.

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November 29, 2023 10:00 AM EST
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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$100 $499 $20
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