Free Hitler's Spy Chief by Richard Bassett Page A

not without their moments of pleasure. Though obsolete as a fighting ship, the Schlesien could at least show the flag and this it proceeded to do, in the best tradition of the old German navy, in a number of cruises around the Mediterranean. On one of these, a gala ball was given in Corfu by wealthy Greeks, who were so charmed by the officer with the Greek name that they gave him a picture of the Greek hero Admiral Canaris, which had pride of place in the Canaris household. The Schlesien also visited England, though tantalisingly there are no accounts of meetings between Canaris and his Royal Naval hosts.
    By all accounts Canaris was a capable executive officer and his crew and officers found him to be a demanding but fair superior. Unsurprisingly, therefore, on 1 December 1932, Canaris was appointed captain of the Schlesien . The world of intelligence, secret deals and clandestine rearmament which had given Canaris so many opportunities for his unique talents must have appeared very remote. But then two months later, together with the rest of the Schlesien ’s crew, he heard that Germany had a new Chancellor. His name: Adolf Hitler.

CHAPTER FIVE
    SPY CHIEF
    A naval officer and therefore an intelligent man .
    CAPTAIN THOMAS TROUBRIDGE R.N., NAVAL ATTACHÉ BERLIN 1936-39 1
    The German navy was at first sceptical of the little man with the lock of black hair, Chaplin moustache and thuggish supporters dressed in those ‘extraordinary brown uniforms’, as one naval officer called them. The tactics of terror, anti-Jewish attacks and pagan ideology were not obviously appealing to officers brought up, like Canaris, in the imperial navy and monarchist at heart. But at the same time, the anti-Communist rhetoric rang a bell for those who had experienced the trauma of the Kiel mutiny. Moreover, in a stroke of cunning public relations, Hitler visited Wilhelmshaven and addressed an audience that many officers, dressed in mufti, attended. The rhetoric, the dramatic Austrian intonation in the voice, the rolling Rs and histrionic modulations, all played in a strangely convincing way for the north German audience.
    The following day, a naval officer, Captain Schroeder, broke ranks and invited Hitler aboard his cruiser, the Köln . Here Hitler amazed his host by asking questions of such technical detail that it was clear he understood more about the German navy than any previous politician they had encountered. Signing the visitors’ book, he confirmed thegood impression with the words: ‘In the hope that I can help with the reconstruction of a fleet worthy of the Reich.’ 2
    For Canaris, these impressions were positive. Like millions of other Germans he saw in Hitler a saviour and an enemy of the Bolshevism that was his sworn enemy. The extreme anti-Semitism, no doubt given his later acts to save several Jews, would not have appealed to Canaris, – himself a far from Aryan-looking German – but it should be remembered that his worst antagonist in the Reichstag had been deputy Moses and the Communist left was still seen by the officer class in Germany, rightly or wrongly, as the preserve of Bolshevik Jews. Whatever his distance towards Hitler later in his life there can be little doubt that at this stage Canaris was a believer and, as shall be seen, not above playing the Nazis by appealing to their prejudices, anti-Semitism included.
    However, such convictions did not avoid a spectacular gaffe when Goering visited the Schlesien on 23 May 1933. Goering was so frequently and violently seasick that one of Canaris’ officers told him, in a serious voice, as he surfaced pale and ill in the ward room, that he had just heard that the air ace was to be appointed the chief supplier of fish feed for the North Sea and that he would have permission from now on to wear a fishnet over his immaculate white uniform. Unsurprisingly, Goering did not share the joke. He demanded disciplinary action: something Canaris felt