Erich Raeder

Execute the operation by whatever means proved feasible, as long as he achieved a link up with the Finns and reduced Leningrad to rubble.

Remarkably, only one senior officer voiced any objection to the planned annihilation of the city, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, and even he was motivated chiefly by a desire to preserve the port naval structure for German use rather than humanitarian concern.

For his own offensive, Mertzkov had assembled an imposing concentration of force.

Across the 15-kilometer sector chosen for the attack, he enjoyed a 4-to-1 advantage in manpower, backed by roughly 100 artillery pieces and 9 tanks for every kilometer of the front.

The Führer has decided, due to the slowing down of the Russian campaign, to turn our attentions to the Mediterranean.

Admiral Raeder has placed before the Führer a plan consequent upon the defeat of Russia, which envisages the conquest of the Middle East, the overthrow of India, culminating in a junction of the Italo-German forces, forming a giant pincer movement with our allies, the Japanese.

The Führer has called this plan the Great Plan.

There is one vital condition, however, for the success of this enterprise, and that is the complete defeat of the British base at Malta.

At the start of the Second World War in 1939, Norway, like all of Scandinavia, gained new strategic importance for Germany.

The head of the German Navy from 1939 to 1943, Erich Raeder, was concerned about maintaining German naval access to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean via bases along the Norwegian coastline.

In December 1939, first Raeder, then Hitler, met with Vidkun Quisling, the leader of the Norwegian fascists, who warned that the British were planning to move into Norway for their own strategic purposes.

Alarmed by this possibility, Germany began preparing Operation Weserübung, the code name for the invasion of both Denmark and Norway.

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On May 22nd, 1941, as the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen were making their run for the Denmark Strait, a very important conversation was happening because Raeder was in a meeting with Hitler at Obersalzberg, and during that meeting, he would inform Hitler of the ongoing operation.

In the run-up to and at the start of the operation of the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen, Hitler had no idea what was happening.

Raeder had complete control over the operational orders of the Kriegsmarine, and he simply did not want Hitler's feedback on the operation until it was already underway.

Hitler expressed some concern, and the word "agitated" gets thrown around a bit for his reaction.

Raeder did have on his side that Operation Berlin with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had gone quite well, with the ships having returned after achieving their goal of sinking merchant ships.

But Hitler was unconvinced and even required that the Bismarck be recalled.

But Raeder refused to issue such an order, stating that the operation was far too far along to be canceled, and it would have a lasting impact on the morale of the German Navy, and so the operation must continue.