Hitler promised his naval commanders that there would be no war in Europe before 1942. Accordingly, plans were laid for the best naval force in the world. So when Hitler precipitated the Second World War in 1939, only a fraction of the planned naval power was available and Germany did not even possess one aircraft carrier and despite having the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, the Kriegsmarine was always on the back foot, crippled by superior opponents and strangled by bureaucratic neglect at home.
