Gents;

Hitler seemed to put his faith in technology and mechanization on one hand, and propaganda and bravado on the other. Not surprisingly under the circumstances, he valued loyalty above leadership ability. He did have shrewd leaders to rely on such as Donitz perhaps, but he also trusted yes men who were rather poor leaders, such as Goering. The Graf Spee was a classic sucker punch in which the Brits were able get the German mariners to defeat themselves. Indeed the u boats were probably the greatest theat to Britain. Fortunately for the Brits, intelligence and unwavering dedication (The RCN was a huge asset in thr Atlantic) outpaced them in the end.

I have just finished watching a documentary on the sinking of U864, it was submerged when it was torpedoed by the British sub HMS Venturer, also submerged. The British Captain was a brilliant mathematician and pursued for nearly an hour, calculating in his head all the while the predicted postion of the disection of the torpedoes with the zig zagging sub from the asdic readings. He hit the U864 dead centre on th 4th shot. Sad loss of life.