Did Germany has a strong navy during WW2 apart from submarines?

Question

Am I right to say that Hitler had given less thought on surface fleets?

Answer 1

Nope Germany's Navy sucked big time except for U boats.

They had Build the largest battleship in WW2 but they sank that one off the coast of South America.

Answer 2

The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) of WW2 was, surface fleet wise, much weaker than either the US Navy OR Royal Navy. However in many instances the Kreigsmarine was used very effectively. Instances such as The Luftwaffe, U Boats, and the Battleship Tirpitz combining to attack and destroy the arctic convoys which were keeping Russia supplied or the use of Kriegsmarine capital ships as Commerce Raiders.Also the German's kept up their technological superiority over the allies on sea also by building the truly fearsome battleships Tirpitz and Bismark and the revolutionary Super-Cruiser Graf Spee whose 11 inch guns far outweighed the 8 inch guns of Allied heavy cruiser types. The main reason however that the Kriegsmarine was still weak at the outbreak of WW2 however was that Hitler had promised the German Admiralty that they would not be going to War before the Mid-1940's and had plenty of time to complete work on the new German fleets then envisioned.

Answer 3

Not sure that I agree with the earlier answers 100%. The UK Defence Chiefs were certainly worried about the 'Pocket Battleships' of WW2 - the Tirpitz, Graf Spee etc. that they did all they could to ensure he destruction of these. The breakout of the Bismark caused great consternation. There were concerns as to what it would have done to the vital Atlantic convoys had it not been sunk.

In WWI Germany had a vast fleet and much British shipping, merchant and navy, was sunk other than by U-boats. there were at least two major sea battles (Battle of Heligoland Bight, Battle of Jutland). The latter was claimed as a Brit victory, but there are doubts now as to whether that was right - the Germans lost four fewer warships than the Royal Navy and 2,551 men to the RN's 6,097. However, the German High Seas Fleet did not emergen again until the end of the war.

Answer 4

The Germany Navy was not a strong player during WWII apart from her U-Boats. They had a few capital warships but overall they were only effective during the early stages of the war. The Graf Spee was a pocket battleship, rather small in size, that wreaked havoc in the South Atlantic for a few months before being scuttled by her crew, rather than having her sunk by the British Navy who had cornered her. The Bismarck was a large and capable battleship that had one or two brief moments of glory (sinking the HMS Hood, Britain's flagship battlecruiser) before she was smashed to pieces in 1941. On the whole, Hitler felt that Britain's strength, her Navy, was just too strong to challenge, and therefore sunk the most of his naval budget and research into submarines.

Answer 5

One of the biggest differences between Allied war planning and Axis war planning was that generally the Allied powers believed that surface naval power would be the key to victory, and the Axis powers didn't. Particularly, the Allied leaders had grown up in the 1920's when naval power equated with international status, and couldn't think otherwise. However, Hitler broke the Versailles treaty too late to possibly catch up, and wanted to win the war with his mighty Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and U-boats.

But the Allies never realised how little strategic and tactical value Hitler actually placed on his surface fleet, especially on the super-battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz. They worried far more about containing them and destroying them than they would have if they had known how lowly they stood in Hitler's plans.

Answer 6

This always gets me a big thumbs down and sometimes gets me reported but here it goes. Hitler was an Idiot. Hitler had no concept of Naval Warfare and Strategy and was truly happy having a solid Nazi such as Karl Donitz runs things, (after the brillliant Erich Raeder 'retired').

Certain Germans yearn for an Ocean Navy but the vast majority are comfortable on dry land and don't understand all the fuss & clamor for a Navy. That was Germany's Problem in World War One and World War Two.. Ships & equipment are important but what wins wars is Docrtrine, a set of beleifs, a Naval Tradition. Great Britain and her Colonies and America and Japan those are the Great Naval Nations.

Germany built Big Ships at Hitler's Insistence, then he demanded they be kept out of harms way because he couldn't bear the thought of scratching the paint on one of his Illustrious Ships. The Submarines were initially given scant funding, were never built up in number and their tactics were deplorable. Yes they made a lot of noise and killed a lot of people but as a weapon wielded by the Germans they were ineffective.

The German Naval Doctrine was Defective. Submarines told to sink 'weak'; merchant ships and avoid cmbat with Destroyers and Cutters. Guess what, when a nation is building or buying ships as Britain did during 1941 and 42 and 43, and you don't sink 'em, eventually they out number you!!! And again that was on Hitler's Insistence.

Germanys Navy was weak - - - poorly utilized, mismanaged as were all of the weapons at Hitler's beck and call. Thankfully.

Peace......

Answer 7

No

The use of U-Boats was perhaps the only way the Kriegsmarine could make an impression, for although the Germans had significantly powerful surface ships before the war started, these vessels were hounded off the oceans and sunk as very real threats to allied shipping, plus they were realiistically too few in number to rival allied naval power - exactly the reason that Churchill ordered the sinking of the French fleet to prevent it being handed over to Germany in 1940 or 1942 (although the French themselves have strenuosusly denied that would happen).

Answer 8

At the beginning of the war Germany had two heavy cruisers, Hipper and Blucher, three 'armored cruisers' or pocket battleships (really just very heavily armed cruisers) the Graf Spee, Deutschland (later renamed to Lutzow) and Scheer, two large battle-cruisers the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau both armed with nine 11" guns (most navies were building battleships with at least 15" main guns). Two battleships were still building (the Bismarck and Tirpitz), two heavy cruisers (only one completed) and two aircraft carriers of which none were finished.

This went along with 6 light cruisers and couple of dozen or so destroyers.

Compare this with the British fleet, which had at the beginning of the war, 12 battleships, 3 battle-cruisers, 60 cruisers, over 180 destroyers and you see how weak the German navy really was.

Answer 9

of course germany had a strong navy, it's just like comparing the navy of taiwan to the navy of china, if you know what i'm talking about! the germans had a small number of powerful fast ships which, if deployed en masse, could defeat any and all Allied naval forces in an area! but that was the problem! the allies had boats to play with, sending them in groups all over the atlantic and other sea areas. the germans had to deploy their small fleet to five basic large areas (west atlantic, north and south atlantic, barents and north seas, and to a little extent the baltic) in order to threaten merchant traffic, and thereby starve britain and prevent america from effectively entering the ETO, and to project german influence and naval power in those regions, which sunk them since they did not have enough ships to effectively do so! the Bismarck, the Tirpitz, gnessuanio or however you spell it, graf spee, and multiple other vessels could (and in some cases did) take entire allied task forces with them to their fiery and watery end!

Answer 10

The German Navy was weak in number of Surface Ships, compared to the other nations. The main advantage was all of the ships were Hi-tech up to date ships. The British had ships as old as the last world war. That was what hurt Hood, she was 20 years old and was in need of a upgrade yet it never received it and was sent to the bottom of the Denmark Strait by the up to date Bismark.

Answer 11

Germany didn't have a big navy. The Graf Spey was quite lightly armoured and was scuttled. The Bismark caused a few problems including siinking HMS Hood (a WWI veteran) before being hounded down and sunk). I'm not really aware of much else of great significance.