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(詳細はnaval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of ''Großadmiral'' (Grand Admiral) — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz. Raeder led the ''Kriegsmarine'' (German War Navy) for the first half of the war; he resigned in 1943 and was replaced by Karl Dönitz. He was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg Trials, but was released early due to failing health. Raeder is also well known for dismissing Reinhard Heydrich from the Reichsmarine in April 1931 for "conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman". ==Resignation and retirement== A series of failed operations after that point, particularly the Battle of the Barents Sea—combined with the outstanding success of the U-boat fleet under the command of Karl Dönitz—led to his eventual demotion to the rank of Admiral Inspector of the ''Kriegsmarine'' in January 1943. The office of Admiral Inspector was only a ceremonial position with no power.〔Thomas p. 218.〕 After the Battle of the Barents Sea on 31 December 1942, Raeder, who had received confusing, misleading and incomplete reports from Admiral Oskar Kummetz, had at first reported to Hitler a great victory had been won above the Arctic Circle.〔Thomas p. 216.〕 Kummetz mentioned in his report that the sky was red – a reference to the Aurora Borealis – and Raeder misunderstood this as meaning that the sky was red because the British ships were all on fire. Later on the evening of 31 December 1942, Raeder called Admiral Theodor Krancke at the Wolf's Lair to explain the misunderstanding, but there was a New Year's party going on, and Krancke decided not to ruin the party by reporting the misunderstanding.〔Thomas pp. 216-217.〕 Hitler during his New Year's Address delivered on the radio later that night mentioned the victory that the ''Kriegsmarine'' had won on the last day of 1942 with an entire British convoy said to had been destroyed.〔 Only in the late afternoon on 1 January 1943 did Hitler learn that the ''Kriegsmarine'' had in fact been defeated in the Barents Sea, which put Hitler into a huge rage against the Navy in general and Raeder in particular.〔Thomas p. 217.〕 As a result, Raeder was ordered to leave Berlin for the Wolf's Lair to explain to Hitler personally just why he reported the defeat in the Barents Sea as a victory – a trip that Raeder was not keen to make as he waited until 6 January 1943 before reporting at the Wolf's Lair.〔 At a meeting on 6 January 1943 Hitler savaged Raeder, complaining that he had spent millions of ''Reichsmarks'' in the 1930s building a fleet that proved useless when war came, instead of spending the money on building U-boats, which had proven far more useful in the war. Hitler went on to castigate the Navy, saying that Navy had done nothing in the wars of unification, that the High Seas Fleet "played no important role in the World War" and lacked "... men of action who were determined to fight with or without the Kaiser", that the Navy were a nest of traitors whose only contribution to World War I was the High Seas Fleet mutiny of 1918, and that given this history, it was no surprise that the Navy's record in World War II with the notable exception of the U-boats was one of failure after failure.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' p. 202.〕 Raeder, who had always taken great pride in the history of the Navy, was very hurt by Hitler's account of German naval history, which was almost certainly Hitler's intention.〔 Hitler offered up the recent Battle of the Barents Sea as just one more example of how the Navy except for the U-boats failed him time after time.〔 Hitler went on to accuse naval officers of being cowards not fully committed to victory, and offered a contrast with the Army, which Hitler claimed was run by brave men unafraid of death in their quest for total victory.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' pp. 202-203.〕 Finally, Hitler announced that since Germany's capital ships had proven so useless, he was planning to scrap all of the capital ships and use their guns for coastal defence.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' p. 203.〕 The gun crews would be assigned to coastal defence, while the rest of their crews would be redeployed to the U-boats and the E-boats or re-trained and sent to the Eastern Front as infantry.〔〔Weinberg ''A World at Arms'' p. 368.〕 Raeder left the meeting of 6 January very depressed, especially over the prospect of seeing his beloved capital ships scrapped and of Hitler's criticism of his leadership.〔 Raeder told Hitler on 14 January 1943 that he could not preside over the scrapping of the capital ships, and informed the Führer of his wish to resign as of 30 January 1943 rather than carry out a policy that he did not believe in.〔 Raeder offered his resignation rather than accept the scrapping of the capital ships and formally resigned from the ''Kriegsmarine'' in May 1943. Dönitz succeeded him in the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy on 30 January 1943. By this point, Raeder completely detested Dönitz, and as such Raeder advised Hitler against appointing Dönitz as his successor, claiming that Dönitz was not qualified to run the Navy and advised that his deputy Admiral Rolf Carls be his successor.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' pp. 203-204.〕 Dönitz talked Hitler out of the plan to scrap the capital ships after taking over as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, arguing successfully to Hitler that a fleet-in-being in Norway tied down British warships which could be used in the Battle of the Atlantic or against Japan.〔Weinberg ''A World at Arms'' pp. 368-369.〕 Raeder's last speech occurred as Commander-in-Chief occurred on 30 January 1943 before the ''Reichstag'', where he asserted that he had brought the Navy "smoothly and completely" into the service of the Führer in 1933.〔Thomas p. 225.〕 Raeder argued that: "This was possible only because, despite all outside efforts to influence it, the training of the Navy (the Weimar Republic ) derived from an inner attitude that was itself truly National Socialist. For this reason, we did not have to change, but could become followers of the Führer with open hearts. I find it particularly satisfying that the Führer has always attributed this to me, and I would like to ask all of you to see to it that the Navy remains a strong and reliable support of the Führer in this regard".〔Though Hitler had cordial relations with Raeder, the two had never been close, and there was nothing like the mutual admiration that Hitler and Dönitz shared.〔Thomas p. 228.〕 After the 20 July plot, Raeder's first reaction was to go immediately to Rastenburg to personally assure Hitler of his loyalty.〔Wheeler-Bennett p. 696.〕 Raeder took a great deal of pleasure in criticising Hitler's SS security because he had taken a loaded handgun with him during his lunch with Hitler, but was not searched; after the lunch, Raeder produced the handgun, and then subjected Hitler's SS bodyguards to a lengthy lecture about their incompetence.〔 Hitler was pleased to see Raeder.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' p. 211.〕 After Raeder had left, Hitler called him a man of "great stature" and "unwavering loyalty" who had so mercilessly stamped out "treason" in the Navy that "not a single one of these criminals (men involved in July 20 ''putsch'' ) belongs to the Navy. Today it has no Reichpietsch in it" (Max Reichpietsch was one of the co-leaders of the 1917 High Seas Fleet mutiny).〔 Raeder claimed in his 1957 memoirs ''Mein Leben'' that he had first learned that the regime in which he served so long was a criminal regime in March 1945 when he visited his old colleague, the former Defence Minister Otto Gessler in a hospital when he was recovering from the torture he received in a concentration camp.〔 Shocked at Gessler's appearance, Raeder decided to protest against the Nazi regime by not wearing the Nazi Golden Party Badge that he had worn until then.〔 The British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett mocked Raeder for taking until March 1945 to discover that the Nazi regime was a criminal regime, and called his protest via not wearing his Golden Party Badge pathetic.〔 When Raeder learned that Hitler planned to stay in Berlin rather than flee the Red Army, Raeder sent Hitler a message saying that he too would stay in Berlin to inspire Germans to resist to the bitter end.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' p. 212.〕 Hitler never acknowledged the message, but Raeder remained in Berlin and survived the ensuing Battle of Berlin.〔 In May 1945, Raeder was arrested by the Soviet forces and taken to Moscow.〔 Raeder was treated more as a guest than as a prisoner during his time in Moscow, receiving good food, lodgings and medical treatment.〔 Raeder offered his services to the Soviet government as a naval adviser, believing that his "lessons learned" from World War II would be invaluable to the Soviet Union in the post-war world, and wrote several historical tracts for the Soviet benefit about the naval aspects of World War II.〔 Raeder was later to be deeply embarrassed when his writings in Moscow praising German-Soviet friendship and his offer to teach the Red Navy how to fight the British and Americans were made public by the Soviet government, which led several former ''Kriegsmarine'' officers led by his arch-rival Dönitz to accuse him of "collaboration" with the Russians.〔Bird ''Erich Raeder'' p. 213.〕 Raeder was very unpleasantly surprised in October 1945 when he learned that he had been indicted as a war criminal, instead of staying in Moscow as more or less a guest of the Soviet regime.〔 The Soviet delegation at the International Military Tribunal voted against indicting Raeder, but at the insistence of the American and French delegations, Raeder was indicted.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Erich Raeder resignation and later」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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