Raider ATLANTIS -- Great book!
If you are at all interested in the German auxiliary cruisers (Hilfskreuzer) of World War Two -- or if you are just interested in a fascinating book -- then you should read The Cruise of the German Raider Atlantis, by Joseph P. Slavick (Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-55750-537-3).
This entertaining, thoroughly researched, and excellently written book includes new and exclusive information gleaned from various national records archives, wartime dispatches, diaries, and interviews with a dozen surviving Atlantis crew members. All of this material has been expertly utilized to present a definitive chronicle of the most famous of the German Hilfskreuzer of World War Two.
Auxiliary cruisers were civilian ships which were converted into warships. Equipped with hidden armaments and disguised as merchant vessels, their job was to sail the seven seas under the awareness of the enemy and sink and capture Allied ships. They were also assigned to wreak havoc on the enemy's maritime-based war efforts by such actions as mine laying and by diverting its naval resources away from other tasks such as convoy escort duty.
Atlantis, under the very able command of Kapitan zur See Bernhard Rogge, was perhaps the most famous of the German auxiliary cruisers. The ship had completed a record-breaking 655-mile cruise to almost every corner of the globe, resulting in the sinking of 16 Allied ships totalling 145,697 tons and the capture of six others, before it was sunk by HMS Devonshire on November 22, 1941. The story of that voyage is one of the most remarkable sagas of the Second World War.
Joe Slavick is a member of this Forum. "I just find the stories of the Hilfskreuzer fleet so fascinating," he says. "The whole premise of raider operations has a certain mystique for me."
Joe has well succeeded in transferring his fascination with and sentiments about the auxiliary cruisers and the men who served on them into a superb book. I highly recommend it to everyone.
(Badge not included!
)
This entertaining, thoroughly researched, and excellently written book includes new and exclusive information gleaned from various national records archives, wartime dispatches, diaries, and interviews with a dozen surviving Atlantis crew members. All of this material has been expertly utilized to present a definitive chronicle of the most famous of the German Hilfskreuzer of World War Two.
Auxiliary cruisers were civilian ships which were converted into warships. Equipped with hidden armaments and disguised as merchant vessels, their job was to sail the seven seas under the awareness of the enemy and sink and capture Allied ships. They were also assigned to wreak havoc on the enemy's maritime-based war efforts by such actions as mine laying and by diverting its naval resources away from other tasks such as convoy escort duty.
Atlantis, under the very able command of Kapitan zur See Bernhard Rogge, was perhaps the most famous of the German auxiliary cruisers. The ship had completed a record-breaking 655-mile cruise to almost every corner of the globe, resulting in the sinking of 16 Allied ships totalling 145,697 tons and the capture of six others, before it was sunk by HMS Devonshire on November 22, 1941. The story of that voyage is one of the most remarkable sagas of the Second World War.
Joe Slavick is a member of this Forum. "I just find the stories of the Hilfskreuzer fleet so fascinating," he says. "The whole premise of raider operations has a certain mystique for me."
Joe has well succeeded in transferring his fascination with and sentiments about the auxiliary cruisers and the men who served on them into a superb book. I highly recommend it to everyone.
(Badge not included!
)
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