kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine or "War Navy" was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine. The main war vessels available to the Kriegsmarine were U-boats, pocket battleships, and limited smaller ships such as cruisers, destroyers and E-boats. The main battles the navy fought were the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of the River Plate. Somewhat smaller engagements included the sinkings of the HMS Royal Oak, HMS Glorious, Bismarck, HMS Hood, Scharnhorst and Cap Arcona. The German Navy of today is called Deutsche Marine.

Comparative Ranks (during WWII)

German Navy !! U.S./British Navy
Groadmiral (Grandadmiral)	Fleet Admiral/Admiral of the Fleet
Generaladmiral	(none)
Admiral	Admiral
Vizeadmiral	Vice Admiral
Konteradmiral	Rear Admiral
Kommodore	Commodore
Kapitn zur See	Captain
Fregattenkapitn	Captain (Junior)
Korvettenkapitn	Commander
Kapitnleutnant	Lieutenant Commander
Oberleutnant zur See	Lieutenant (Senior)
Leutnant zur See	Lieutenant (Jg.) (Junior)
Oberfahnrich zur See	Ensign/Sub-Lieutenant
Fahnrich zur See	Cadet/Midshipman

colspan=2\| Top 10 U-Boat Aces WWII
266,629 tons (44 ships sunk)	Otto Kretschmer
225,712 tons (43 ships)	Wolfgang Luth
193,684 tons (34 ships)	Erich Topp
186,064 tons (29 ships)	Karl-Friedrich Mertn
171,164 tons (34 ships)	Victor Schutze
171,122 tons (26 ships)	Herbert Schultze
167,601 tons (28 ships)	Georg Lassen
166,596 tons (22 ships)	Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
162,333 tons (30 ships)	Heinrich Liebe
160,939 tons (28 ships)	Gunther Prien

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