Rolf Carls


Rolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls was a German admiral during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.

Career

At the start of the World War I, Carls was a member of the crew of the cruiser Breslau. He later served on the battleship König and then commanded two u-boats, first and then. After the war, Carls was made Chief of the Training Division at the Supreme Naval Command of the resurrected German navy and was then given command of the old battleship. In 1933, Carls was made Chief of Staff of the Fleet Command, and a year later Commander of Liners.
Carls was commander of German naval forces, during the Spanish Civil War, and then became Commanding Admiral for the Baltic. At the same time he held the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Group Command East. Still later he became Chief of the larger Naval Group Command North. Early in 1943, Erich Raeder resigned as the commander of the Kriegsmarine after a dispute with Hitler. Raeder nominated either Carls or Karl Dönitz to succeed him, and Hitler chose Dönitz. Carls later resigned, possibly to prevent friction among the naval leadership.

Death

Admiral Carls was killed in an air raid of the Royal Air Force on Bad Oldesloe on 24 April 1945. Carls together with 49 other people were killed in the cellar of the Vocational school in the Königstraße. Only two weeks before the end of the war Bad Oldesloe was nearly destroyed, between 700 and 1000 Germans lost their lives, mainly women and children.

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