Ten Years and Twenty Days: The Memoirs of Karl Doenitz. By Karl Doenitz. Frontline Books, Barnsley, re-published 2019.
Reviewed by Darren Puttock
The Battle of the Atlantic was the only campaign that began with the first day of World War II and ended with the surrender of Germany. Fortunes altered from one side to the other, as new technologies and tactics would see both Germany and the Allies dominate the battlefield and inflict devastating losses on the enemy. Karl Doenitz, who was the head of the German Unterseebootwaffe (U-Boat force), was arguably the most prominent personality and played a critical role throughout the conflict. In addition to Commanding the U-Boats throughout the war, he succeeded Adolf Hitler and arranged the surrender of Germany to the Allies. He was adored by his men, admired by his peers, and respected by his adversaries. Not without controversy, especially due to his admiration of Hitler and reported anti-Semite beliefs, he nevertheless played a massively important part of the war and his memoirs are a crucial piece of history.
The title of Admiral Doenitz’s memoirs refers to the ten-year prison sentence he received as a result of the Nuremburg Trials and the twenty days he served as the head of Germany.
Doenitz writes in detail of his experience in World War 2, covering the Battle of the Atlantic from the German side in extraordinary detail. He writes of the interwar period and the U-Boat building programme to tactics and equipment to strategy successes and failures. If the reader is looking for a reflective look and apology for a military career in service of the Third Reich, it will not be found. From early on Doenitz is clear he views his sentence as unjust punishment handed out from the winning side, and he steadfastly believes he behaved in the most correct manner throughout the war and did nothing wrong. This thread is woven throughout the memoirs, and offers a detailed and insightful look into the mind of a prominent German leader during the war. Indeed, many Allied military leaders defended Doenitz’s actions during the war, as Allies utilised the same unrestricted warfare against merchant shipping. Readers will appreciate this caused some bitterness with Doenitz, and that can be gleaned from the pages of his book.
Ten Years and Twenty Days is a hefty read and, as Doenitz is writing as a military man and not an author, it can be quite dry and methodical in some sections. This should not dissuade any reader, though, as this book is a vital contribution to the understanding of the Battle of the Atlantic. The book is written in a timeline that follows the war, but throughout Doenitz will reflect forward to the Nuremberg Trial or backward to his youth, offering an interesting narrative as he goes into great detail to describe the history of the U-Boats. Interestingly, when the book was first written in 1958 the world was unaware that the Allies had broken the Enigma code and could intercept and decrypt German U-Boat message traffic. This secret, commonly known as Ultra, was not revealed until 1974. Doenitz had no awareness that Allied successes were greatly enabled by Ultra and his centralised control of his U-Boats as Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU, Commander of U-Boats) through Enigma transmissions. Though this crucial piece of understanding is missing in this treatise of the Battle of the Atlantic, it does not take away from the experiences of Doenitz as this is fundamentally what this book offers the historical record.
Ten Years and Twenty Days is a fascinating read and should appeal to both serious and casual student of the war. Doenitz’s narrative on duty to country in times of war is fascinating, as is his description of the tenets of Nazism and his relationship with Hitler. I strongly recommend Ten Years and Twenty Days and believe it deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the war at sea.
