Memoirs: Ten Years And Twenty Days

New York: Da Capo Press - A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 1997. First De Capo Press Edition . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5 1/4" X 8 1/2. 520 Pages Indexed. Previous owner has written several interesting and sometimes caustic comments, often in red ink, on several pages. Example on the front endpaper he has written see page 405 for description of Bill Clinton and Al Gore and all traitors to the country of their birth. Most of the underlining, lengthy marginal comments, and yellow highlighting are confined to pages i thru xxiii and the first page of the Prologue. And they occur again on pages 430 thru 437. All of the other text pages are free of marks. The author was Commander of the U-boat fleet, Supreme Naval Commander, and finally Hitler's successor in the last days of the Third Reich, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz (1891-1980) has been condemned as a Nazi and praised as one of the most brilliant and honorable military leaders of the war. His wolfpack tactics resulted in a handful of U-boats sinking 14.5 million tons and nearly deciding the Battle of the Atlantic. Sentenced to ten years at the Nuremberg Trials, Doenitz wrote his memoirs upon his release. In a clear firm style he discusses the planning and execution of the U-boat campaign; the controversial sinking of the Laconia; America's neutrality before its entry into the war; the Normandy invasion; the July 1944 bomb plot; his encounters with Raeder, Göring, Speer, Himmler, and Hitler; as well as his own brief tenure as the last Führer. Doenitz's invaluable work allows the reader to view the war at sea through the periscope's eye.