Leaving the office behind, Donitz sat in silence as the staff car carried him away.
Admiral Raeder was riding with him, but neither man seemed sure where to begin.
“…Aircraft and submarines, huh.”
To Donitz’s surprise, it was Raeder who finally broke the silence.
“…I always thought the Fuhrer was fond of battleships.”
“…So did I.”
Everyone in the Reich knew the Fuhrer’s tastes.
He loved things that were big, powerful, and grand—deliberately excessive in every sense.
One only had to look at the monumental buildings designed by Speer and the other architects he favored to understand that.
“He wasn’t asking for a submersible warship,” Donitz murmured.
“He wants a true submarine.”
The next-generation U-boat the Fuhrer had described rested on several essential principles.
The first was a complete redesign of the hull.
The traditional hull, optimized for surface cruising, was to be abandoned in favor of one built specifically for underwater performance.
As a temporary measure, the Navy was to continue producing an extended version of the Type VII with additional fuel capacity—but only until twenty boats had been completed.
The design bureau is going to hate this…
He couldn’t help feeling sorry for the engineers who had spent countless hours testing scale models of the Type VII in towing tanks, measuring wave resistance and refining its surface performance.
The second requirement was a massive increase in battery capacity, coupled with far more powerful electric motors.
Combined with a streamlined hull designed for underwater travel, the goal was to maximize submerged speed.
The initial target was a submerged speed of at least thirteen knots, with an ultimate objective of twenty.
Submerged endurance was also to be increased dramatically, with a target underwater cruising range of roughly four hundred kilometers.
Compared to existing submarines, the improvement in underwater capability was almost unimaginable.
The electrical manufacturers are going to curse this…
Then again, so will the naval architects.
To achieve that level of underwater performance, the boats would need enormous battery banks and electrical systems capable of handling extremely high voltages and currents.
Packing all of that into the cramped interior of a submarine would be a nightmare for electrical engineers.
At the same time, batteries were incredibly heavy.
Their weight would fundamentally alter the vessel’s balance, forcing naval architects to rethink submarine design from the ground up.
The third requirement was the incorporation of several entirely new systems.
Most of them didn’t exist yet, so the first production boats would simply reserve space for future installation.
There were three systems in particular.
The first was a snorkel.
A device that would allow the submarine to recharge its batteries and refresh the air supply while remaining at periscope depth.
With it, the boat’s most vulnerable moment—surfacing to recharge its batteries—would become far less dangerous.
Even in waters controlled by the enemy, submarines would be able to operate with far less risk of detection.
The second was radar.
Specifically, air-search radar, surface-search radar…
…and a radar warning receiver.
According to the Fuhrer, onboard radar was desirable if it could be developed.
The radar warning receiver, however, was non-negotiable.
That much, even I understand.
If both sides relied only on visual observation, the outcome depended largely on the skill of their lookouts.
In fact, the smaller silhouette of a submarine often gave it the advantage.
But once enemy ships began carrying radar, they could detect submarines in darkness or foul weather—conditions where visual spotting was nearly impossible.
Without a warning receiver, a submarine might never even realize it had been detected until the attack had already begun.
For a weapon whose greatest strength was stealth…
…to lose that stealth without even knowing it…
…that was a nightmare.
Whatever happens, we absolutely must fit those warning receivers.
The third feature was an automatic torpedo loading system.
The Fuhrer hadn’t insisted on it nearly as strongly as the others.
It was more of a desirable addition than an absolute requirement.
After several minutes of silence, Raeder glanced around the car before speaking again.
“Donitz…
what did you think of the Fuhrer today?”
“I think…”
Donitz chose his words with care.
“…we saw a very different Fuhrer from the one we’ve known.”
Lately, rumors had been circulating that the Fuhrer had tightened his grip over the police apparatus while rapidly expanding the SS intelligence service, giving him access to an enormous flow of information.
Only the two admirals and the driver were inside the car, yet Donitz instinctively lowered his voice.
“Even so, the concepts he presented were remarkably convincing.
I know this contradicts your own views, Admiral Raeder, but I find it difficult to believe the Reich could build a fleet capable of challenging the Royal Navy head-on anytime soon.
If that’s the reality, then making submarines the Navy’s primary striking force is the correct strategy.”
Some of the Fuhrer’s ideas still sounded almost unbelievable.
The claim that aircraft would eventually render battleships obsolete, for example, still felt difficult to accept.
But the basic principle—placing submarines at the heart of the fleet—was remarkably close to the strategy Donitz himself had advocated for years.
That’s why I can accept it.
For Admiral Raeder…
it’s another matter entirely.
Raeder had always dreamed of restoring Germany’s great Atlantic battle fleet.
Everything the Fuhrer had outlined today flew directly in the face of that vision.
Keeping his officers on board won’t be easy…
At the time, Donitz misunderstood what Raeder meant.
He assumed the admiral was struggling to accept the new direction of the Navy.
He was wrong.
“What the Fuhrer said sounded completely reasonable,” Raeder said quietly.
“The more I listened, the more convinced I became that submarines truly should be the Navy’s main arm.”
He looked around once more before continuing.
“But that’s exactly what troubles me, Donitz.”
“I’ve spent my entire career believing in a completely different navy.
Yet his arguments were persuasive enough to make even me reconsider.”
“Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
“There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his voice.”
“He didn’t sound like a man who merely believed this was the correct path.”
“He sounded like a man who already knew.”
“This wasn’t prediction.”
“It wasn’t even an educated assumption.”
“He spoke with absolute certainty that events would unfold exactly as he described.”
“Where does that certainty come from?”
“That’s what I can’t stop thinking about.”
“…Could it be because of the intelligence network the Fuhrer has been building?” Donitz asked.
“I don’t know.”
Raeder stared out the window.
“But today…”
“…I realized just how frightening the Fuhrer truly is.”
Donitz silently replayed the day’s meeting in his mind.
He’s right.
There was an undeniable certainty behind every order the Fuhrer gave.
And yet…
“Whatever the reason,” Donitz said at last, “his orders must be carried out.
And to be honest, I believe this is the right direction for the Navy.”
“…Indeed.”
Raeder said nothing more.
The rest of the journey passed in silence.
“Does the Fuhrer truly intend to fight the British Empire once again…?”
Back in his office at the Naval Ministry, Dönitz whispered the question to himself.
There was one thing a battleship could do that a submarine never could.
One role submarines could never fulfill.
Deterrence.
A powerful battle fleet could discourage war simply by existing.
But the Fuhrer was willing to abandon that deterrent entirely in exchange for raw fighting power.
That was not the mindset of peacetime.
It was the mindset of a nation preparing for war.
Perhaps the Fuhrer has already made up his mind.
And perhaps he isn’t preparing for a limited conflict…
but for total war.
With that uneasy thought lingering in his mind, Donitz summoned the unfortunate naval officer who had drawn the short straw—the man who would have to travel to Hamburg and inform the shipbuilders that their contracts had been canceled.