Atlantic Convoys And Nazi Raiders

Author : Bruce A. Watson
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2005-12-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780313055645

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Atlantic Convoys and Nazi Raiders by Bruce A. Watson Pdf

In November of 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked British Convoy HX-84. The merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, a converted passenger liner that was the convoy's only escort—armed only with antique 6-inch guns—charged the Nazi raider. While the Jervis Bay did not stand a chance of surviving the battle, her crew's fatalistic bravery inspired awe in all who witnessed the fight. Watson recounts how the Scheer's 11-inch guns turned the ship into a burning hulk in twenty-two minutes, but most of the convoy escaped. In November of 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked British Convoy HX-84. The Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, the only escort and mounting antique 6-inch guns, charged the Nazi raider. While the Jervis Bay did not stand a chance of surviving the battle, her crew's fatalistic bravery inspired awe in all who witnessed the fight. Watson describes how the Scheer's 11-inch guns turned the converted passenger liner into a burning hulk in twenty-two minutes, but most of the convoy escaped. How did this confrontation come to pass? Both the necessity of arming a passenger liner and pretending it was a warship, and the building of the Admiral Scheer and her sister ships for the express purpose of commerce raiding, find their roots in the events, political decisions, re-armament polices, war plans, naval traditions, and blunders that arose in pre-war Britain and Germany. But this event holds a significance beyond the battle itself. The sinking of the Jervis Bay symbolizes the end of an era in naval warfare. The Armed Merchant Cruisers of the Second World War inherited a long, sometimes noble and sometimes ignoble history. Long employed in blockade or patrol duty, armed merchant cruisers ventured out for the first time to escort convoys, a defensive duty for which they were eminently unsuited, and for which the Jervis Bay paid a fearful price.

Author : Angus Konstam
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 81 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2021-08-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9781472845979

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Big Guns in the Atlantic by Angus Konstam Pdf

At the outbreak of World War II the German Kriegsmarine still had a relatively small U-boat arm. To reach Britain's convoy routes in the North Atlantic, these boats had to pass around the top of the British Isles - a long and dangerous voyage to their "hunting grounds". Germany's larger surface warships were much better suited to this kind of long-range operation. So, during late 1939 the armoured cruiser Deutschland, and later the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were used as commerce raiders, to strike at Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. These sorties met with mixed results, but for Germany's naval high command they showed that this kind of operation had potential. Then, the fall of France, Denmark and Norway in early 1940 dramatically altered the strategic situation. The Atlantic was now far easier to reach, and to escape from. During 1940, further moderately successful sorties were made by the cruisers Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper. By the end of the year, with British mercantile losses mounting to surface raiders and U-Boats, plans were developed for a much larger raid, first using both cruisers, and then the two battlecruisers. The climax of this was Operation Berlin, the Kriegsmarine's largest and most wide-ranging North Atlantic sortie so far. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau remained at sea for two months, destroying 22 Allied merchant ships, and severely disrupting Britain's lifeline convoys. So, when the operation ended, the German commander, Admiral Lütjens was ordered to repeat his success - this time with the brand new battleship Bismarck. The rest, as they say, is history. These earlier Atlantic raids demonstrated that German surface ships could be highly effective commerce raiders. For those willing to see though, they also demonstrated just how risky this strategy could be. Covering a fascinating and detailed analysis of the Kriegsmarine's Atlantic raids between 1939 and 1941, this book will appeal to readers interested in World War II and in particular in Germany's naval operations.

Author : John Bruning
Publisher : Zenith Press
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2013-06-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781610588072

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Battle for the North Atlantic by John Bruning Pdf

The Battle of the North Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of World War II, running from 1939 until the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, though it reached its peak from mid-1940 through the end of 1943. The Battle of the North Atlantic pitted German U-boats and other warships of the German navy against Allied merchant shipping. Initially, convoys of merchant ships were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. Starting in the early fall of 1941, before Pearl Harbor, these forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States. The Battle for the North Atlantic began on the first day of the European war and lasted for six years, involving thousands of ships and stretching over hundreds of miles of the vast ocean and seas in a succession of more than a hundred convoy battles and as many as a thousand single-ship encounters. Tactical advantage switched back and forth over the six years as new weapons, tactics, and countermeasures were developed by both sides. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, driving the German surface raiders from the ocean by the end of 1942 and decisively defeating the U-boats in a series of convoy battles between March and May 1943.

Author : Jürgen Rohwer
Publisher : Stackpole Books
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2015-11-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780811716550

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Critical Convoy Battles of WWII by Jürgen Rohwer Pdf

"Remarkable...a feat of historical reconstruction."—Paul Kennedy, New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous campaign of World War II, climaxed in 1943, when Germany came closest to interrupting Allied supply lines and perhaps winning the war. In March of that year, German U-boats scored their last great triumph, destroying nearly 150,000 tons of supplies and fuel. • Blow-by-blow account of the largest convoy battle of the war • Analyzes the tactics, technology, and intelligence of both sides

Author : David Woodward
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1955
Category : Armed merchant ships
ISBN : UOM:39015019348427

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The Secret Raiders by David Woodward Pdf

Author : Robert Forczyk
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 82 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2012-12-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781849082846

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German Commerce Raider vs British Cruiser by Robert Forczyk Pdf

During World War II, the Kriegsmarine armed a number of merchant vessels with concealed guns and torpedo tubes for surprise attacks against Allied shipping. To counter this deadly threat, the Royal Navy employed cruisers and their intelligence-gathering apparatus to find and destroy the disguised German commerce raiders. This Duel title covers the deadly game of cat and mouse, fought by these surface vessels during World War II.

Author : Peter Duffy
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9781541762329

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The Agitator by Peter Duffy Pdf

This story of an anti-fascist's dramatic and remarkable victory against Nazism in 1935 is an inspiration to anyone compelled to resist when signs of oppression are on the horizon By 1935, Hitler had suppressed all internal opposition and established himself as Germany's unchallenged dictator. Yet many Americans remained largely indifferent as he turned his dangerous ambitions abroad. Not William Bailey. Just days after violent anti-Semitic riots had broken out in Berlin, the SS Bremen, the flagship of Hitler's commercial armada, was welcomed into New York Harbor. Bailey led a small group that slipped past security and cut down the Nazi flag from the boat in the middle of a lavish party. A brawl ensued, followed by a media circus and a trial, in which Bailey and his team were stunningly acquitted. The political victory ultimately exposed Hitler's narcissism and violent aggression for all of America to see. The Agitator is the captivating story of Bailey's courage and vision in the Bremen incident, the pinnacle of a life spent battling against fascism. Bailey's story is full of drama and heart--and it's an inspiration to anyone who seeks to resist tyranny.

Author : Michael FitzGerald
Publisher : Arcturus Publishing
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2020-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781839403873

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Hitler's War Beneath the Waves by Michael FitzGerald Pdf

At the beginning of World War II, the devastating impact of German submarines on both the Royal Navy and merchant shipping saw Britain on the brink of starvation and defeat. The enemy was formidable. U-boat crews saw themselves as an elite and they preferred to scuttle their vessels at the end of the war rather than surrender. They suffered the heaviest losses of any branch of the German services: out of 40,900 men, 28,000 were killed and 5,000 taken prisoner; by 1945, the average age was 19 and the survival rate was only three missions. This is the story of how the Allies redressed the balance of power, focusing in particular on the role of the wolfpacks of U-boats in the Atlantic, whose stealthy presence beneath the waves ensured that British ships diced with death every time they put to sea.

Author : David Syrett
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : History
ISBN : 0872499847

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The Defeat of the German U-boats by David Syrett Pdf

The largest, most complex naval battle and its impact on World War II's outcome.

Author : Director Institute of Experimental Pathology Ulrich Mohr,Ulrich Mohr,A.V. Sellwood
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2005-06
Category : Pirates
ISBN : 1841450286

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Phantom Raider by Director Institute of Experimental Pathology Ulrich Mohr,Ulrich Mohr,A.V. Sellwood Pdf

The two year cruise of Atlantis was to be the longest in the history of the Second World War, but after her destruction in the South Atlantic, shattered by the guns of HMS Devonshire, naval records simply referred to her as Ship Sixteen. However, Atlantis had the highest score of all German raiders – twice as much tonnage as the famed Graf Spee. She was a Phantom Raider, on of the Ghost Fleet, which terrorized merchant shipping in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Twenty-one ships were sunk by her hidden guns yet the survivors she picked up had no hatred for their captors. Instead many of those interviewed had ungrudging admiration for the Germany officers and crew who captured them. Here is a fascinating story of the war at sea when Germany was the hunter, and of a ship whose exploits might never have been known but for the tenacious probing of the author, A. V. Sellwood, and the willingness of the Atlantis captain’s ADC, Ulrich Mohr, to recall those incredible 622 days at sea.

Author : Steven H. Gittelman
Publisher : University Press of America
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : History
ISBN : 9780761858492

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J.P. Morgan and the Transportation Kings by Steven H. Gittelman Pdf

Vanderbilt, Hill, Morgan, and Harriman were America's industrial princes, planning to link American railroads and a shipping cartel with a railroad line through China and Russia, then into Europe, and create: the Transportation Kings. Poised for great accomplishment, their story ends in the sinking of the Titanic and bitter failure.

Author : Timothy J Runyan,Jan M Copes
Publisher : Westview Press
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1994-06-13
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015032522024

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To Die Gallantly by Timothy J Runyan,Jan M Copes Pdf

The Battle of the Atlantic was the single most important campaign of the war. Allied success in Europe depended on massive movements of ships, men and materiel across the Atlantic from the Americas. In spite of an unprecedented Allied shipbuilding effort, German U-boats were causing severe damage to this vital supply line. In order to defeat Nazi Germany, the Allies had to eliminate the deadly U-boat threat. In this volume commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the campaign, historians from both sides of the ocean offer new insights into Germany's Atlantic offensive and the Allied victory over it.

Author : Eric Grove
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Battleships
ISBN : 0714652083

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German Capital Ships and Raiders in World War II: From Graf Spee to Bismarck, 1931-1941 by Eric Grove Pdf

Author : Klaus Schmider
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 615 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2021-01-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108834919

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Hitler's Fatal Miscalculation by Klaus Schmider Pdf

Challenges long-held assumptions regarding the German declaration of war on the United States in December 1941.

Author : Christopher Vasey
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2016-06-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781476663531

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Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories by Christopher Vasey Pdf

Drawing heavily on recently declassified sources, this examination of German wartime intelligence services traces the logistical and strategic expansion of the Third Reich's foreign covert operations in World War II. Beginning with the changes introduced to counteract institutional neglect, the author describes attempts to penetrate both neutral and adversarial nations outside territories occupied by the Wehrmacht. The Nazis created covert teams for counterintelligence and penetrating border defenses. Strategies were formed for assembling saboteur divisions in North and South America, while data were gathered on industrial installations to target. American fascist movements of the 1930s are discussed, along with Nazi sabotage missions in the United States and intelligence penetrations and domestic collusion in Latin America.