Grand Admiral

Rating:
Summary: Not What You First Thought
Review: Everything detailed in this book is an ex post facto defense to Raeder's Nuremberg sentencing. What began as a memoir on his early childhood and his enlistment in the navy quickly becomes what appears to be just an insider's description of the Imperial Navy, the aftermath of WWI and the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, the need for Germany to protect itself against France and Poland, and various other fronts which Raeder tediously presents before the reader. Toward the middle of the book and following to the back cover, Raeder continues to bring up Nuremberg, when you truly get the idea that this book was more an explanation than a history, more a document to counter the Allied perspective than a memoir, and more a tedious legal defense than an engaging history. As the Grand Admiral of the Navy, Raeder's perspective is significant to a comprehensive reading about the war, yet his effort falls in the same barrel as the inept rendition by Patton (War As I Knew It).

Rating:
Summary: An interesting acount
Review: Few remmember much about Germany's WWII Navy. Bismark and submarines come to mind. The fact that Hitler gave his power to Adiral Doenitz upon defeat is usually forgotten accept for WWII buffs and those fascinated by the Nazi elite. THis book delves into something more interesting, the rise and fall of Eric Raeder one time Grand Admiral of the German Fleet. He had served in the High seas fleet and suffered the years of decline during the 20s. Although in some ways a defense for his role in Nazism this book is nevertheless a very interesting look into the German navy, one arm of Nazism that was left to some extent untouched by the horrors of thuggish fascism. An interesting look at another side of WWII, from a branch often forgotten about.



Rating:
Summary: A Noble Defeat
Review: This is perhaps one of the most interesting of the voluminous pantheon of memoirs published in the aftermath of World War II. Raeder was already an old man when WWII started, and a series of strategic and tactical mistakes made by both he and Hitler rendered even the most lethal Kreigsmarine units useless.

I like the "inside story" Adm. Raeder provides -- the petty jealousies of the German military leadership, the personal rivalry with Hermann Goering over the fate of naval aviation.

Perhaps the weakest element of this book is Raeder's biases and constant reassertion of his own honorable status. Still, that seems to be the only thing that drags this otherwise revealing work down. A must read for naval, especially battleship, enthusiasts.

Rating:
Summary: A Noble Defeat
Review: This is perhaps one of the most interesting of the voluminous pantheon of memoirs published in the aftermath of World War II. Raeder was already an old man when WWII started, and a series of strategic and tactical mistakes made by both he and Hitler rendered even the most lethal Kreigsmarine units useless.

I like the "inside story" Adm. Raeder provides -- the petty jealousies of the German military leadership, the personal rivalry with Hermann Goering over the fate of naval aviation.

Perhaps the weakest element of this book is Raeder's biases and constant reassertion of his own honorable status. Still, that seems to be the only thing that drags this otherwise revealing work down. A must read for naval, especially battleship, enthusiasts.