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Karl Dönitz

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1939

September

24
- Dönitz intensifies the U-boat warOn 24 September 1939, at Dönitz's request, U-boats were allowed to sink ships using their radio and to attack French ones – a first step away from prize rules.

1940

August

01
- The Italian submarine base at BordeauxIn summer 1940 the Regia Marina set up the BETASOM base at Bordeaux. Italian submarines joined the Battle of the Atlantic under Dönitz’s operational control.

September

22
- The attack on convoy HX 72On 20–22 September 1940 the U-boats of Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke sank 11 ships of convoy HX 72 from Halifax without losing a single boat.

October

19
- The slaughter of convoys SC 7 and HX 79On 16–20 October 1940 U-boats sank 20 of the 35 ships of slow convoy SC 7 and 12 of the 49 ships of convoy HX 79 without losing a single boat.

1941

February

24
- Attacks on convoys OB 288 and OB 290In the last week of February 1941 U-boats and Fw 200 Condors shattered three convoys sailing from Liverpool to America, sinking more than 20 ships.

March

17
- The end of the U-boat acesOn the night of 16–17 March 1941, at convoy HX 112, Joachim Schepke was killed and Otto Kretschmer captured. Ten days earlier Prien had gone missing.

April

04
- The attack on convoy SC 26From 2 to 5 April 1941 a wolf pack south of Iceland sank 10 of the 22–23 ships of convoy SC 26 and torpedoed its sole escort. Some 150 men were killed.

1942

January

13
- Operation Drumbeat (Paukenschlag)On 13 January 1942 German U-boats began attacking shipping off the US East Coast. An unprepared America gave them their “second happy time”.

April

01
- The Bucket BrigadeFrom 1 April 1942 ships off the US east coast sailed only by day, from anchorage to anchorage. Dönitz then moved his U-boats further south.

July

19
- U-boats withdrawn from the US coastOn 19 July 1942 Dönitz recalled the last two U-boats from off Cape Hatteras. Convoys and air patrols had ended the “second happy time” off the US coast.

September

12
- Key eventThe sinking of the LaconiaOn 12 September 1942 U-156 sank the troopship Laconia with 1,800 Italian POWs aboard. The rescue that followed ended in Dönitz's Laconia Order.

October

14
- The sinking of the CaribouOn 14 October 1942 U-69 sank the ferry Caribou, bound from Sydney to Newfoundland, in the Cabot Strait. 136 or 137 people died, children among them.

1945

April

30
- Key eventHitler's suicideOn 30 April 1945 Hitler and Eva Braun, whom he had married the day before, killed themselves in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery in encircled Berlin.

May