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Rolf Carls

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Rolf Carls
Birth nameRolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls
Born(1885-05-29)29 May 1885
Rostock,Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,German Empire
Died24 April 1945(1945-04-24)(aged 59)
Bad Oldesloe,Schleswig-Holstein,Nazi Germany
AllegianceGerman Empire(to 1919)
Ottoman Empire(1914 to 1917)
Weimar Republic(to 1933)
Nazi Germany
BranchImperial German Navy
Ottoman Navy
Reichsmarine
Kriegsmarine
Years of service1903–43
RankGeneraladmiral
UnitSMSStein
SMSMars
SMSFürst Bismarck
SMSBreslau
Commands heldSMU-124
Hessen
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
AwardsKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Rolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls(29 May 1885 – 24 April 1945) was a high-ranking German admiral duringWorld War II.He was a recipient of theKnight's Cross of the Iron CrossofNazi Germany.

Carls served asFlottenchef(Fleet Commander), the highest ranking administrative officer of theKriegsmarineand member of theOberkommando der Marine(High Command of the Navy). Carls was instrumental in planning German naval operations duringOperation Weserübung,the invasion of Denmark and Norway. When Grand AdmiralErich Raederresigned as commander-in-chief of theKriegsmarinein early 1943, he suggested Carls as a potential candidate to succeed him. After AdmiralKarl Donitzsucceeded Raeder instead, Carls was discharged from the navy. Carls was killed in a British air raid on the town ofBad Oldesloeon 24 April 1945.

Early life and career[edit]

KapitänleutnantCarls (right) at a naval artillery observation post in theDardanelles,1915

Rolf Carls was the son of Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm Anton Carls and his wife Martha Victoria Wilhelmine Anna Sophie, née Pogge. He was baptized on 18 July 1885 in the Rostock garrison church. Carls joined theImperial German Navyas a sea cadet on 1 April 1903 and received his shipboard training on the corvette,SMSStein.In 1905 he was assigned to theEast Asia Squadron,where he was promoted to lieutenant on 28 September 1906. He served until 1907 on the large cruiserSMSFürst Bismarckand afterwards the torpedo boatTaku.After his return to Germany in October 1907, he was deployed on various ships before being assigned to theMediterranean Divisionin 1914.

At the outbreak of theFirst World War,Carls served as a captain lieutenant on the cruiserSMSBreslau.On 4 August 1914 the Mediterranean Division, consisting ofBreslaualong with the battlecruiserSMSGoeben,waspursued by Royal Navy forcesbut avoided capture after they passed through theDardanellesto the friendlyOttoman Empireon 7 August 1914. After theBreslauwas handed over to theOttoman Navy,Carls remained on board the cruiser, which was renamedMidilli,serving as First Artillery Officer. For his service with the Ottoman Navy in theBlack Seaagainst theRussian Empire,Carls was awarded both classes of theIron Cross,theGallipoli Star,theImtiaz Medalin Silver with Saber, and theOrder of OsmaniehIV Class.[1]

In mid-January 1917 he was transferred back to Germany and completed his training as a submarine commander on 15 April 1917. He received the first command of his own ship, theU-9on 31 March 1918, before taking over theU-124on 21 July 1918, which he commanded until the end of the war.

Interwar period[edit]

Carls with Polish generalTadeusz Kutrzebaoboard the heavy cruiserDeutschland,Kiel, 1935

After the war, Carls joined thefreikorpsdivision Marine-Brigade von Loewenfeld, serving as a company commander and battalion commander. In 1922, Carls was transferred to theReichsmarineof the newly establishedWeimar Republic.From 18 March 1927 onwards Carls served in various positions in the Naval Administration. On 1 October 1930 Carls served as Chief of Staff of the Naval Command, where he became one of AdmiralErich Raeder's closest aides. Carls was appointed as commander of the pre-dreadnought battleshipHessenon 27 September 1932. On 3 October 1933 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Fleet. On 29 September 1934 Carls was appointed as Commander of theLinienschiff,he retained this position after his command was renamed to Commander of thePanzerschiffeuntil 24 November 1936.

Carls acted as commander of the German naval forces off Spain during theSpanish Civil Waruntil September 1936. On 2 August 1936, the cruiserDeutschlandand the torpedo boatLuchsunder the command of Carls visited theNationalist-held port ofCeuta.There, Carls had long secret meetings withFrancisco Francoand other Nationalist military chiefs in which procedures for furtherGerman military aidwere coordinated.[2]On 19 August 1936, under the leadership of British Rear AdmiralJames Somerville,British, Italian, and German warships formed a single squadron to evacuate from the harbour ofPalma de MallorcaafterRepublicanauthorities announced an imminent naval bombardment of that port. The experience prompted Carls to signal to Somerville that "it would be much better if the nations of Europe could cooperate with each other much as their ships have sailed together here." Somerville's reply affirmed that hope.[3]

At the end of December 1936, he was appointed asFlottenchef(Fleet Commander). On 1 November 1936 Carls took over command of theBaltic Sea Naval Station.As Fleet Commander, the highest ranking administrative officer of theKriegsmarineand member of theOberkommando der Marine,Carls was instrumental in drafting Germany's pre-war naval war plans. In a top-secret appraisal ofAdolf Hitler's aggressive foreign policy in the summer of 1938, Carls envisaged German hegemony over Europe, the reestablishment of acolonial empirein Africa, and the securing of the major Atlantic sea lanes. Specifically, Carls argued, that such a national policy would entail war with France and the Soviet Union as well as with "a large number of overseas states; in other words, perhaps with 1/2 or 2/3 of the entire world."[4]Carls emphasised that this kind of undertaking would be possible only if the military could make a guarantee of strategic success to the politicians.[5]Admiral Erich Raeder viewed Great Britain and the United States as oneAnglo-Saxonethnic and economic bloc, wherein Great Britain was the "junior" partner. As a result, Raeder and hisNaval War Stafffrom the start anticipated that any conflict between Berlin and London would once more bring the United States in on the side of Britain.[4]Following war games by the Navy High Command in 1938, Carls expressed scepticism about operations in the depths of Soviet territory. He had the following assessment on a possible conflict with the Soviet Union: "...neither Germany nor Russia is in a position to undertake operations of a decisive scale against the other. German operations into Russia will peter out in the vastness of its territory, while Russian operations against Germany, which I do not consider the Russians presently capable of mounting, would shatter on Germany’s defences."[5]

World War II[edit]

Carls and Rear AdmiralTheodor Burchardivisiting a port on the Eastern Front, May 1942
Carls withU-boatcommandersSiegfried Strelow(right) andHerbert Schultze(2nd left), November 1942

On 1 October 1939 Carls advised Admiral Raeder of Norway's value to the German navy. A few days later, on 10 October, Raeder met with Hitler and convinced him of the danger of a possible British occupation of Norway.[6]Carls succeeded Vice AdmiralConrad Albrechtas Commander-in-Chief of Marine Group Command East on 31 October 1939. This command was headquartered inKielbut was moved toWilhelmshavenand renamed Naval Group Command North. As part ofOperation Weserübung,the invasion of Denmark and Norway, Carls was responsible for preparing the naval operations off Denmark and Norway. For this, he was awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Crosson 14 June 1940. In August 1940 he was also entrusted with the operational command of the German naval forces in theGerman Bight,Denmark and Norway. In the autumn of 1941, the units under his command took part in theBaltic Sea campaignsand the conquest of Soviet-held Baltic islands at the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa,the invasion of the Soviet Union.

When the commander-in-chief of theKriegsmarine,GroßadmiralErich Raeder,resigned in early 1943 after clashes with Hitler, he suggested Carls and the Commander of the Submarines, AdmiralKarl Dönitz,as candidates to succeed him.[7]Hitler opted for the younger and in his view, more vigorous Dönitz, who became the Supreme Commander of the Navy in January 1943. Possibly to prevent friction among the naval leadership, Carls was honourably discharged from active service on 31 May 1943.[7]

Death[edit]

Admiral Carls was killed in an air raid of theRoyal Air Forceon the spa town ofBad Oldesloeon 24 April 1945, two weeks before the end of the war.[Notes 1]Carls together with 49 other people[10]were killed in the cellar of theVocational school(Präparandeum) in the Königstraße.[11]Bad Oldesloe was nearly destroyed, and between 700 and 1000 Germans died, mainly women and children.[12]

Promotions[edit]

Awards[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Some sources claim that he was killed on 15 April 1945 while another source indicates that the aerial attack on Bad Oldesloe was on 24 April 1945.[8][9]
  2. ^According to Scherzer ascommander-in-chiefof Marinegruppenkommando Ost.[9]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^Wolf, Klaus (2008).Gallipoli 1915: das deutsch-türkische Militärbündnis im Ersten Weltkrieg.Sulzbach/Ts.: Report Verlag. p. 238.ISBN978-3-932385-29-2.OCLC310425394.
  2. ^Frank, Willard C. Jr. (1996)."Multinational Naval Cooperation in the Spanish Civil War, 1936".Naval War College Review.47(2 (SPRING 1994)): 90.JSTOR44642663.
  3. ^Frank 1996,p. 85-86.
  4. ^abHerwig, Holger H. (1986)."Miscalculated Risks: The German Declaration of War against the United States, 1917 and 1941".Naval War College Review.39(4 (Autumn 1986)): 90.JSTOR44637729.
  5. ^abMüller, Rolf-Dieter (2015).Enemy in the East: Hitler's secret plans to invade the Soviet Union.Alexander Starritt. London. pp. 86–87.ISBN978-1-78076-829-8.OCLC898330127.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^Greene, Jack; Massignani, Alessandro (2020).Hitler Strikes North: the Nazi invasion of Norway & Denmark, April 9, 1940.Frontline Books.ISBN978-1-5267-8184-0.OCLC1190859459.
  7. ^abSalewski, Michael (1998).Die Deutschen und die See [Teil 1].Stuttgart. pp. 310–318.ISBN978-3-515-07319-6.OCLC833321020.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^"60 Jahre nach dem Feuersturm auf Hamburg: Kreisarchiv Stormarn erhält einmaligen Fotofund".Kreis Stormarn(in German).Retrieved14 January2011.
  9. ^abScherzer 2007, p. 257.
  10. ^"Zeitreise in die Jahre des Schreckens"[Time Travel to the Horror Years].Stormarner Tageblatt(in German).sh:z.23 April 2015.
  11. ^Hitler's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation of the Kriegsmarine 1935 - 1945
  12. ^24. April 1945 – Oldesloes schwarzer Tag,LN Online, 10 September 2014
  13. ^abcdDörr 1995, p. 119.
  14. ^abDörr 1995, p. 120.
  15. ^Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 72.
  16. ^Fellgiebel 2000, p. 152.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Dörr, Manfred (1995).Die Ritterkreuzträger der Überwasserstreitkräfte der Kriegsmarine—Band 1: A–K[The Knight's Cross Bearers of the Surface Forces of the Navy—Volume 1: A–K] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag.ISBN978-3-7648-2453-2.
  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer(2000) [1986].Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile[The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas.ISBN978-3-7909-0284-6.
  • Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001).Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II[The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall.ISBN978-3-931533-45-8.
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007).Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives[The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag.ISBN978-3-938845-17-2.
Military offices
Preceded by Fleet commander of theKriegsmarine
21 December 1936 – 31 October 1938 		Succeeded by
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