For behind the aggressively confident, tight-lipped façade of an incorruptible sailor, possessed of what former superiors had reported on as ‘iron will-power, goal-oriented certainty and unwearying toughness … inner enthusiasm for his profession … and absolute reliability’[29] Dönitz was basically insecure and as emotionally dependent as Himmler on a martial creed to adhere to and a war father to venerate.
