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The Beginning of the End - Part 1

© William Waller

By the end of 1943 Goering and Goebbels, on separate occasions, were able to broach the idea to Hitler of negotiating for peace, an unthinkable proposition only months before, and which would possibly have led to the deaths of both men. 1943, however, was the year of defeat, after which it was only a matter of time before Germany was forced to surrender.

Not only had the Axis forces been thrown out of North Africa, not only were the Russians ready to continue their push west which, by November 1943, had already brought them to a north south position roughly on a line from Leningrad to Odessa (although they would not regain the latter city until April 1944), but also Germany was itself suffering sustained bombing, while it was in 1943 that they finally lost the Battle of the Atlantic. All in all, suing for peace seemed to be a sensible idea but, although Hitler discussed it with Goering and Goebbels, it was never a serious possibility; Hitler always persuaded himself that he would win in the end or that Germany and the Third Reich would cease to exist in some sort of Gotterdamerung, orchestrated by him.

In May,1943, Admiral Doenitz, chief of the German Navy, withdrew all his submarines from the Atlantic. Hitler was extremely angry but he could not get Doenitz to reactivate the U-boat warfare until November, much against Doenitz better judgement for he knew exactly what he was up against. During 1942, the Allies had lost over 6 million tons of shipping due to submarine action, and in the first 3 months this destruction continued. But the Allies were becoming much better organized in supporting the convoys, with long-range fighter bombers operating from aircraft carriers and, most significantly, every cargo and naval vessel was now equipped with a very shortwave radar. The U-boats could not detect this but it enabled the Allies to pinpoint every attacking submarine from far away; from January to April, U-boat losses were 50 boats but in May alone the losses were 37. When the boats returned to duty in September, in the last 4 months of the year they sank only 67 ships against losses of 64 boats. The battle to supply the armies in Italy and the Mediterranean had been won. In addition, unknown to Hitler, during 1943 the enormous stockpiles of armaments and supplies were built up in Britain and elsewhere in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944.

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