The Kriegsmarine or "War Navy" was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi reign. The 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
Grossadmiral (Grandadmiral)		Admiral of the Fleet
Generaladmiral				(none)
Admiral                                 Admiral
Vizeadmiral				Vice Admiral
Konteradmiral				Rear Admiral
Kommodore				Commodore
Kapitaen zur See			Captain
Fregattenkapitaen			Captain (Junior)
Korvettenkapitaen			Commander
Kapitaenleutnant			Lt. Commander
Oberleutnant zur See			Lieutenant (Senior)
Leutnant zur See			Lieutenant (Jg.)(Junior)
Oberfahnrich zur See			Ensign/Sub-Lieutenant
Fahnrich zur See			Cadet/Midshipman

• SUBMARINES (U-boote)WWII

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

Hitler and Regent Horthy of Hungary observing Kriegsmarine U-Boat maneuvers in 1938

See also

• Erich Raeder
• Karl Dönitz
• List of ships of the German navies

de:Kriegsmarine