The young captain on the bridge of Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern had ambitions to match those of his master: both wanted to bust the bully-bold British Navy. In World War I Hamburg-born Erich Raeder, promoted to chief of staff in the Kaiser's brand-new cruiser squadrons, had a brief taste of glory in the battles of Doggerbank and Jutland (in which the British were powerfully mauled), but at war's end the barnacled fleet had to scuttle itself to avoid capture. Returning from Versailles. Raeder said: "Just wait 25 years. We'll be back." In...
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