John Keegan in The Sunday Times, 26.2. 1984
Peter Padfield's theme is greatly and in places brilliantly elaborated...in essence his is a story of national disparities ferociously resented by the weaker party and played out over 40 years through the medium of intense and cruel competition at sea. The story of such rivalries is an ancient one...But he gives a savage twist to it by suggesting that the German U-boat arm, of which Dönitz became chief, and the Nazi state, of which he was the last president, were complementary manifestations of a landlocked people's frustrated will to world empire...
His compellingly readable book conveys a flavour of Nazi leadership unmatched by anything outside the memoirs of Albert Speer. It is difficult to frame higher praise.
Admiral Ian McGeoch in The Times, 1.3.1984
Peter Padfield, sea-officer turned naval historian has dropped a pattern of depth charges plumb on top of the legendary image of Dönitz, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, Grand Admiral and Hitler's appointed heir to the last-ditch leadership of the Third Reich. That public knowledge of so significant a figure should have depended, for almost 40 years, upon cosmetic conspiracy reinforced by autobiography is astonishing. One can only say that the markedly different story now unfolded has the ring of truth and must affect not only the verdict of history upon the character and propensities of Karl Dönitz himself, but upon the causes, the conduct, and even the consequences of the Second World War...
It is evident from this fully documented and well-written book that Dönitz, if not the worst of the knaves, was certainly not the least of the fools.
Lloyd's List, 2.6.1984
...Peter Padfield's meticulously researched and documented biography shows Dönitz totally identified with the Nazi state...The tortured psychological process by which inherently decent people move from knowing of evil to accepting it, condoning it, and finally supporting it unconditionally - as Dönitz did - is implicitly conveyed by the book's detailed tracing of Dönitz's early upbringing, early career , U-boat service, and finally his unavoidable adherence to 'total war' as the Grand Admiral responsible for the conduct of the U-boat war at sea.
This biography and analysis of the life and mind of an exceptionally capable naval officer and leader distorted by the evil of Nazism, is a major work of scholarship by a writer whose thinking is not locked into the rigid limits of establishment or service loyalty.
Leonard Schwarz in The Birmingham Post, 6.2.1984
Peter Padfield, the distinguished naval historian, has researched his subject diligently and has written about Dönitz with his usual verve. It is a good book to read; the style does not tire, the story keeps going, the research is quite considerable but sits lightly. It is also a very critical book, stripping the whitewash off the officer and gentleman that Dönitz claimed to be at Nuremberg...
The corruption of Dönitz - the ambitious front-line leader rising to his inefficiency level while letting his soul be flooded with the poison of the Third Reich - was typical of the Germans of his class and background...
Gordon Brook-Shepherd in Sunday Telegraph, 22.4.1984
...deeply researched and well-written...
E.J.Grove in The Mariner's Mirror, May 1984
This is an important book, perhaps the best its author has written...
No one who has read this book will be able to look at the Kriegsmarine in quite the same way again. The author is familiar with much of the recent work on German social, political and cultural history, and the light it has shed on the internal factors that propelled the country and its elite in such a disastrous direction...
Padfield tells the story of his subject clearly, and as sympathetically as he can, after noting the fundamental differences in culture between himself and the German admiral. The psychological quirks and complexities of a man of obvious emotional sensitivity starved of affection and forced into an authoritarian mould are well brought out. The story is told with imagination, perhaps a little too much of the latter commodity for some critical readers. Yet, an author starved of documentary material at vital points in his account or faced with discrepancies in the record must make some assumptions based on his 'feel' for the subject. In the opinion of this reviewer , Padfield's own attempts to fill in gaps in his source material and interpret the conflicting evidence are rarely other than sound and justifiable...
...It is highly recommended.
U.S.Publishers' Weekly, 30.3.1984
...this exceptionally fine biography...
Norman Polmar in New York Times, 23.9.1984
...well-written biography...we are shown Dönitz's genius as well as his shortcomings...
Reid Beddow in The Washington Post, 8.7.1984
...a grimly fascinating biography...
Rick Smith in Dallas Times Herald, 26.8.1984
...an outstanding assessment of the U-boat war...
John Harbron in The Times (Ontario), 4.3.1985
...a superb book...
Alexander Rost in Die Zeit, 5.10.1984
Dönitz...war ein Hauptverantwortlicher und Hauptantreiber in einem Staat, der das grösste Verbrechen in und an der deutschen Geschichte beging; und von den KZ-Grueltaten hatte er mehr als nur eine Ahnung. Seine Karriere war alles andere als ein Zufall. Er war eben nicht der Nur-Soldat, wie er sich in Nürnberg dem Gericht präsentierte, einer der hohen Militärs, die zur Melodie von 'Politisch Lied, garstig Lied' ihre Skrupel verdrängten, sondern hat sich mit der 'politischen Führung' in einer Weise identifiziert, die jedes Gerede von Pflicht und Gehorsam und Schicksal zur Faselei macht. Für diesen Karl Dönitz gibt es keinen Tauchretter, der ihn in irgendein Traditionslicht herauftragen könnte.
Was bleibt, ist die 'Lektion Dönitz', wie sie in dieser Biographie erteilt wird. Vielleicht schafft sie auch in den letzten Köpfen, durch die noch ein Dönitz-Mythos wabert, endlich Klarheit.
Claude Michel Cluny in L'Express (Paris), 4.7.1986
Le magnifique travail de l'historien anglais Peter Padfield analyse le personnage ambigu, tenace et habile que fut Dönitz, par rapport aux nouvelles lois de la guerre qu'imposaient les progrès techniques, et aux aberrations morales du régime nazi...Mais le plus remarquable dans ce portrait sans haine et sans concession d'un homme devenu, comme par osmose au contact de Hitler une sort de mannequin fanatique, c'est l'immense arrière-plan historique mis crument au jour, chaos né de l'amateurisme et de la corruption...Ce Dönitz est véritablement exemplaire.