They Asked Dönitz Why He Stopped Rescues. He Named One Admiral.

In the autumn of 1945, an American naval lawyer walked into Room 166 of the Nuremberg prison and almost walked past the man he had come to see. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz had a story to tell the Americans, and an American admiral's sworn answers would change how the judges counted his war at sea. CHAPTERS 0:00 The man in Room 166 0:54 John Bracken and the interview 1:57 Operation Drumbeat: the name behind the fires 2:46 The Laconia rescue 5:04 The order of September 17, 1942 6:12 The Peleus and the Hamburg trial 7:40 Black May 1943 and the price of the U-boat war 9:35 The charges and Dönitz's lawyer 10:38 Admiral Nimitz's sworn answers 12:09 The verdict and the sentence 13:07 Why was he in the dock at all? 14:14 Operation Hannibal 15:07 What Dönitz asked the Americans for SOURCES - John Bracken, account of his interview of Karl Dönitz at Nuremberg (Room 166, late October 1945), U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 1990 (written decades after the events; used for the scene in the prison room and for Bracken's own opinion, which is one person's recollection) - International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg: transcript of the court session of July 2, 1946 (answers of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to the interrogatory submitted by Otto Kranzbühler, Exhibit Doenitz 100) - International Military Tribunal, Judgment of October 1, 1946: the section on Karl Dönitz - The Laconia incident, September 12-17, 1942: war journal of U-156 (Werner Hartenstein), Dönitz's order of September 17, 1942 (the "Laconia Order") - The Peleus case (British military court, Hamburg, October 1945): trial of Heinz Eck and four crew members - Operation Hannibal (January-May 1945), Operation Drumbeat (1942), and U-boat losses in the Battle of the Atlantic (Black May 1943) If someone in your family sailed the Atlantic in the war, in the Navy or on a merchant ship, tell us about it in the comments. Subscribe to World War 2 Desk for the next story. #WW2 #Donitz #Nuremberg