But he failed to give much credibility to the U-boat campaign of World War I. Emden was undoubtedly Raeder’s inspiration for his vision of fast raiders running wild through Allied shipping. In three months in the Indian Ocean, Emden sank two Allied warships and captured or sank 16 merchant vessels totaling 70,000 tons. The most successful surface raider was the light cruiser SMS Emden. They had proved successful during World War I, even if their impact on the outcome was negligible. Erich Raeder, who had risen to command the Kriegsmarine after a career that went back to being a junior officer aboard Kaiser Wilhelm II’s yacht Hohenzollern to the post of chief of staff for Admiral Franz von Hipper’s battlecruiser force in the Great War, was a strong advocate of fast surface commerce raiders.
0 kommentar(er)
