So he should write 100 times then the following phrase

'I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat History again':p ;) :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Good idea. :know:
Why do I now have the picture of a guy on a ladder in my mind who's writing "Romani ite domum" on a city wall?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._ite_domum.jpg

People call Romanus go the house?;) :p :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Classic:up:

Woof1701: ah come on, I realized my mistake (if you read the posts a bit further). And now it's there for all of us to laugh at :D

BUT, that said, I've just started writing.

I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian.
I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian.
I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian.
I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian........

100 times.

:rotfl:

@jasonsagert

Since we're in a 'funny' mood, if you don't like the above stated message you can write 100 times instead the following one

'I will NEVER ask Bernard for Historical References';) :D :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

your choice mate;) :D :up:

EDIT: Since you've already wrote the punishment you're OK. Now get on that brand new IXC and go and sink someone;) :D :up: :up:

What? Bernard isn't a reliable historical reference?

I have a book in front of my right now entitled, "The Kriegsmarine During the Second World War", authored by Bernard. You mean this isn't a realiable source?

On page 210, Bernard states that he actually sank more U-Boats than the allies. He states that he did this because he felt "bad" for the Tommies. How can this not be true? It's in print for christ sake!!

:o :hmm: :D :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:o :rotfl: :rotfl:

I was still writing the post while you realised it :) I let it stand anyway. BTW I'm sure you're cheating and wrote it only once and copied the other three in there. ;)

Woof1701: You, my friend, are correct. Guilty as charged. I loves me the copy/paste feature of these new fangled typing machines. But don't think it's trivial to do it 100 times. That's enough of a punishment within itself.

and for a sense of closure on this, here are the final four copy and pastes af the 100 I've done (which I copied and pasted to this thread)...wow, I'll never make that mistake again.

I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian.
I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian.
I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian.
I will not make a mistake about my Commander in Chief and I will read the U-Boat history agian

:rotfl:

Donitz was charged with being involved with waging aggressive war, conspiracy to wage aggressive war, and crimes against the laws of war. Specifically, he was charged with waging unrestricted submarine warfare and as you rightly point out Woof1701, with issuing an order after the Laconia incident not to rescue survivors from ships attacked by submarine.

As I mentioned earlier, as one of the witnesses in his defense, Donitz produced an affidavit from Admiral Chester Nimitz who testified that the US had used unrestricted warfare as a tactic in the Pacific and that American submarines did not rescue survivors in situations where their own safety was in question. Despite this he was found guilty of "crimes against peace", for which he was sentenced to, and served, 10 years in prison. Of all the defendants at Nuremberg, the verdict against Donitz was probably the most controversial. The Soviet judge actually voted for his acquittal on all charges, and Donitz always maintained that he did nothing that his Allied counterparts weren't doing.

The point I was making earlier, was that Donitz knew by 1944 that the u-boat had lost the Battle of the Atlantic and Allied ASW was sinking u-boats at an alarming rate. Despite this, Donitz continued sending u-boats and their crews out to sea to fight a battle that had already been lost, which resulted in thousands of u-boat men needlessly losing their lives. It is this that should be taken into consideration, when assessing the integrity of Donitz himself.

Nemo

Captain Nemo I agree that in restrospect, the fact that Donitz sent u-boat crews to sea during 44' seems like possible (if not total) negligence on his part. But, in your assessment, what are you taking into consideration? Simply historical hindsight?

What other issues/pressures/justifications could have existed for his actions? I can't believe that it was as simple as, "Meh, I know they have no chance, but I'm sending them anyway".

As I stated in my previous post, I thought one of the justifications was to keep enemy forces tied down with fighting the u-boats--even if they were sacrificed.

I don't know. I'm curious about your and others opinions about this.

J

They had known just like the B-24/B-17 crews knew that statistically the odds were not in their favor.

hahaha:rotfl:

Yes it is easy to make judgements in retrospect. You're right in your view that part of the strategy was to keep the Allied surface fleet tied up escorting convoys so that the Allies couldn't redeploy them in other theatres of war. Hitler was also paranoid about an Allied invasion of Norway hence several u-boats were deployed in those waters and the Barents Sea to attack arctic convoys. Donitz privately thought that an Allied invasion of Norway was unlikely and the deployment of u-boats in the arctic a waste of u-boat resources. The Mediterranean was another area where Hitler insisted on keeping a force of u-boats to help Rommel in North Africa. In fact they made very little impact. It was Donitz's view that the North Atlantic was where all u-boats should be deployed to have the maximum effect on convoys and supplies to Britain. At no time during the war was the level of u-boats in the North Atlantic to Donitz's satisfaction because of Hitler's insistence that they should be deployed elsewhere.

To a degree I think Donitz was a yes man and dedicated Nazi so even though he knew that sending out u-boats towards the end of the war meant sending thousands of sailors to the bottom he did it to appease Hitler.

Nemo