Editing Erich Raeder (section)

=== World War I ===
Raeder served as Hipper's Chief of Staff during World War I as well as in combat posts, taking part in the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915 and the Battle of Jutland
<nowiki> </nowiki>in 1916. Raeder later described Hipper as an admiral who "hated 
paperwork", and as such, Hipper delegated considerable power to Raeder, 
who thus enjoyed more power than what his position as chief of staff 
would suggest.<sup>[8]</sup>
During and after World War I, the German navy had been divided into two factions. One faction, led by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, were avid followers of the teachings of the American historian Alfred Thayer Mahan and believed in building a "balanced fleet" centred around the battleship that would, if war came, seek out and win a decisive battle of annihilation (''Entscheidungsschlacht'') against the Royal Navy.<sup>[9]</sup> Another faction, led by Commander Wolfgang Wegener,
<nowiki> </nowiki>argued that because of superior British shipbuilding capacity Germany 
could never hope to build a "balanced fleet" capable of winning the ''Entscheidungsschlacht'', and so the best use of German naval strength was to build a fleet of cruisers and submarines that would wage a ''guerre de course''.<sup>[10]</sup>
After reading all three of Wegener's papers setting out his ideas,
Admiral Hipper decided to submit them to the Admiralty in Berlin, but 
changed his mind after reading a paper by Raeder attacking the "Wegener 
thesis" as flawed.<sup>[11]</sup>
This marked the beginning of a long feud between Raeder and Wegener
with Wegener claiming that his former friend Raeder was jealous of what 
Wegener insisted were his superior ideas.<sup>[12]</sup>

In May 1916, Raeder played a major role planning a raid by Hipper's 
battlecruisers that was intended to lure out the British battlecruiser 
force which would then be destroyed by the main High Seas Fleet.<sup>[13]</sup> This raid became the Battle of Jutland. Raeder played a prominent role and was forced midway through the battle to transfer from the SMS ''Lützow'' to the SMS ''Moltke'' as a result of damage to Hipper's flagship.

As Chief of Staff to Admiral Hipper, he was closely involved in a 
plan of Hipper's for a German battlecruiser squadron to sail across the 
Atlantic and sweep through the waters off Canada down to the West Indies
<nowiki> </nowiki>and on to South America to sink the British cruisers operating in those
<nowiki> </nowiki>waters, and thereby force the British to redeploy a substantial part of
<nowiki> </nowiki>the Home Fleet to the New World.<sup>[14]</sup> Though Hipper's plans were rejected as far too risky, it was a major influence on Raeder's later thinking.<sup>[15]</sup>

On 14 October 1918, Raeder received a major promotion when he was appointed deputy to Admiral Paul Behncke, the Naval State Secretary.<sup>[16]</sup>
Raeder had doubts about submarines but he spent the last weeks of the
war working to achieve the Scheer Programme of building 450 U-boats.

On 28 October 1918 the fleet mutinied.<sup>[17]</sup> Raeder played a major role in attempting to crush the mutiny.