Category: Kriegsmarine: The Raiders

Records a little known but very gallant action.

FORCZYK, Robert. German Commerce Raider vs British Cruiser: The Atlantic & The Pacific 1941. 80p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2010. ISBN: 9781846039188.

A brief and routine but competent account of the careers of the German raiders.

MOHR, Ulrich. Atlantis: The Story of a German Surface Raider, as told to A. V. Sellwood. xx, 246p., illus. London: Laurie, 1955; New York: John Day, 1956.

A popular account by one of her crew of the successful career of one of the active fleet of German surface raiders, up to the time of her sinking. US title: Ship 16: The Story of the German Raider Atlantis. Reissued in the UK in 1972 by Hutchinson and in the US by Pinnacle in 1974 as Sea Raider Atlantis, then by Cerberus in 2005 as Phantom Raider: Nazi Germany's Most Successful Surface Raider, ISBN: 1841450286.

ROBINSON, Stephen. False Flags: Disguised German Raiders of World War II.  359p., bibliog., illus., index. Wollombi, NSW: Exisle Publishing, 2016. ISBN: 9781925335606.

Tells the stories of the raiders Komet, Orion, Pinguin and Kormoran and their raids in the South Seas.

GREAT BRITAIN. Admiralty. German Capital Ships and Raiders in World War II. 2 vols., bibliog., illus., index. London: Frank Cass, 2002.

A compilation of battle reports prepared by the Admiralty in the 1940’s for internal use. Reprinted with an introduction by Eric Grove, these volumes include Battle Summaries 5, 11, 13, 24, 26, 27, 29., q.v.  ISBN: 0714652083 (Vol.1); 0714652830 (Vol. 2). They cover the Graf Spee and Bismarck actions, attacks on the Tirpitz, the sinking of the Scharnhorst and actions against armed merchant raiders.   

SANDBACH, Betsy, & EDGE, Geraldine. Prison Life on a Pacific Raider: The Adventures of Betsy Sandbach and Geraldine Edge, Nurse Escorts to the First Five Hundred Children Evacuated to Australia. 223p., illus. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1941.

The nurses sailed out on Batory but were captured on the way home when the Rangitane was sunk by the raiders Komet and Orion. Compare the account of Barley.

BARLEY, Geoffrey Alan. Caught by a Nazi Raider. 77p., frontis. London: New Zealand Shipping Company, 1941.

The Engineer Officer of the Rangitane tells of her sinking and his capture on 27 November 1940, in the Pacific. The prisoners were eventually landed on Emirau Island, from which they were rescued. Compare the account of Sandbach.

BENNETT, G.H. Hitler’s Ghost Ships: Graf Spee, Scharnhorst and Disguised German Raiders (Britannia Naval Histories of World War II). 216p., illus. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781841023076.

Combines three of the British official battle summaries: The destruction of the Graf Spee at the River Plate (Battle Summary 26); the sinking of the Scharnhorst at the Battle of the North Cape (Battle Summary 24); and some eight actions with German raiders in 1940-41(Battle Summary 13). The whole is linked with a good introduction.

A comprehensive review.

The remarkable story of the cruise of the raider Orion over 17 months in 1940–41.

A heavily illustrated pamphlet. Reprinted by Merriam Press in 2000 and again in 2008.

Jones was a cook on the Mareeba, taken in the Bay of Bengal.

An excellent, thorough and perhaps definitive account.

A fully illustrated account of the ships, how they were operated, their equipment, and fate.

Rogge captained Atlantis during her short but successful career. US title: The German Raider Atlantis.

Tells all that was known of the Atlantis at that time. Creagh was on the Commissaire Ramel when she was sunk. He was eventually landed in Italian Somaliland, from which he was rescued by the British advance into the area.

Stories from 1700 to 1941, but mainly from the two world wars. From WWII there are good routine accounts of the cruises of the German raiders Atlantis, Pinguin, Kormoran,and Graf Spee.

The rather slight memoir of one of Komet's crew, who served in the galley during this successful cruise.

A good account of the very successful converted merchantmen, which preyed on the shipping lanes.

A lurid, passionate and sometimes difficult to follow study of the converted merchant raiders in general and of Widder's sinking of the s.s. Anglo-Saxon in particular. Such sinkings are seen as atrocities.

A history of the main German high seas raiders of both world wars. The second half of the book covers the story of everything from the Graf Spee to the Togo.

Although Nordmark had the more interesting wartime service, she was less famous than her notorious sister ship Altmark. The class was so successful that the survivors were taken over by the Allies in 1945.

The cruise of the raider Atlantis, seen from the viewpoint of Captain Rogge, who is shown as a romantic and chivalrous hero. Republished by Avon Books in 1988.

The story of Fritz Kuert, sole survivor of the sinking in error by U 43 of the blockade-runner Doggerbank.

The British tramp Speybank was captured by the raider Atlantis, and then began her next career as the German disguised minelayer Doggerbank. In March 1942 she was sunk in error by U 43 while attempting to reach Bordeaux.

An expansion of his earlier work, The Ship with Five Names, covering the career of the British tramp Speybank which was captured by the raider Atlantis, and then began her next career as the German disguised minelayer Doggerbank.

In fact a retelling of the career of the Admiral Hipper as a commerce raider and of the cruise of the Pinguin in 1940-41.

A ship by ship retelling of the cruises of the nine commerce raiders.

The author was Captain of the raider Kormoran, one of the raiders used successfully by the Kriegsmarine. She was sunk by the Australian cruiser Sydney.

Pinguin was the most successful of the German raiders, until she was caught by Cornwall in the Indian Ocean. US title: Cruise of the Raider HK 33.