Editing Kriegsmarine (section)

===Command structure===
{{main|Organization of the Kriegsmarine}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-V00538-3, Karl Dönitz, Adolf Hitler.jpg|thumb|[[Karl Dönitz]] meeting with [[Adolf Hitler]] in 1945]]
Adolf Hitler was the Supreme Commander of all German forces, including the ''Kriegsmarine''. His authority was exercised through the ''[[Oberkommando der Marine]]'' (OKM) with a Commander-in-Chief (''Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine''), a Chief of Naval General Staff (''Chef des Stabes der Seekriegsleitung''), and a Chief of Naval Operations (''Chef der Operationsabteilung'').<ref>{{cite web | last = Pipes | first = Jason | title = Organization of the Kriegsmarine | work = Feldgrau.com | date = 1996–2006 | url = https://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-German-Navy-Kriegsmarine-Organization/ | access-date = 2007-08-31 }}</ref> The first Commander-in-Chief of the OKM was [[Erich Raeder]] who was the Commander-in-Chief of the ''Reichsmarine'' when it was renamed and reorganised in 1935. Raeder held the post until falling out with Hitler after the German failure in the Battle of the Barents Sea. He was replaced by [[Karl Dönitz]] on 30 January 1943 who held the command until he was appointed [[President of Germany (1919–1945)|President of Germany]] upon Hitler's suicide in April 1945. [[Hans-Georg von Friedeburg]] was then Commander-in-Chief of the OKM for the short period of time until Germany surrendered in May 1945.

Subordinate to these were regional, [[Squadron (naval)|squadron]], and temporary [[flotilla]] commands. Regional commands covered significant naval regions and were themselves sub-divided, as necessary. They were commanded by a ''[[General admiral|Generaladmiral]]'' or an [[Admiral (Germany)|Admiral]]. There was a ''Marineoberkommando'' for the Baltic Fleet, ''Nord'', ''Nordsee'', ''Norwegen'', ''Ost/Ostsee'' (formerly Baltic), ''Süd'', and ''West''. The ''Kriegsmarine'' used a form of encoding called ''[[German Naval Grid System|Gradnetzmeldeverfahren]]'' to denote regions on a map.

Each squadron (organised by type of ship) also had a command structure with its own [[Flag officer|Flag Officer]]. The commands were Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines (''[[Führer der Unterseeboote]]''), Torpedo Boats, Minesweepers, Reconnaissance Forces, Naval Security Forces, Big Guns and Hand Guns, and Midget Weapons.

Major naval operations were commanded by a ''Flottenchef''. The ''Flottenchef'' controlled a flotilla and organized its actions during the operation. The commands were, by their nature, temporary.

The ''Kriegsmarine''{{'s}} ship design bureau, known as the ''Marineamt'', was administered by officers with experience in sea duty but not in ship design, while the [[Naval architecture|naval architects]] who did the actual design work had only a theoretical understanding of design requirements. As a result, the German surface fleet was plagued by design flaws throughout the war.<ref>{{cite web| last =Lienau| first =Peter| title =The Working Environment for German Warship design in WWI and WWII| publisher =Naval Weapons of the World| date =22 October 1999| url =http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-044.htm| access-date = 23 December 2012}}</ref>

Communication was undertaken using an eight-rotor system of [[Enigma machine|Enigma]] encoding.