The Cruise of the German Raider Atlantis

Rating:
Summary: Raider Atlantis
Review: A good book and an interesting story. The British had "Q" ships designed to catch these raiders and they were fairly ineffective. This is story of a different kind of war and a different view into the Nazi regime. The kriegsmarine of WWII has always been considered the least committed to national socialism. The crew and the captain faced enormous challenges being at sea and away from port for almost two years. The real story is how Captain Rogge held his crew together and maintained effectiveness over the long cruise. Considered a great success by the kriegsmarine, the story of atlantis is little known outside of military circles but it is well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Pirates of Integrity, albeit Nazi influenced
Review: An intriguing and informative account of (at least for me) a beforehand unknown type of naval warrior. Capt. Slavick portrays the intregrity, honor and sterling seamanship of the German sailors in a well paced account of their arduous and eventful journey. The book is effuse with personal anecdotes of the crew and Slavick does an especially good job of portaying the exceptional character and ability of Kapitan-zur-See Bernard Rogge. This account compares with "South" by Shakleton in intrigue but is a more juicy and livlier book.

Rating:
Summary: Under 10 flags, revisited
Review: As a child, I watched the Dino de Laurentis film "Under 10 Flags" The story of Atlantis, the German raider. I was quite impressed by the movie, and now I am thoroughly awed by the book.
From comissioning to the final outcome of the war, this is the story of the ship's captain, and of its crew.
In an era of scientific and mechanized war, here is a ship, whose best detection device was, most of the time, the Mark I eyeball, and that, during almost two years at sea, plied havoc with allied shipping, in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
As I read the book, I could imagine Jno Aubrey (of Patrick O'Brian fame) reading along, thrilling to the chase.
WWII was obviously brutal, bloody and terrible; but the story of the Atlantis hearkens to another era; an era of personal honor, bravery, and gallantry, that alas, is now absent from the annals of history.
An outstanding book, for the sea enthusiast, naval buff, or anybody who enjoys a good yarn.

Rating:
Summary: Under 10 flags, revisited
Review: As a child, I watched the Dino de Laurentis film "Under 10 Flags" The story of Atlantis, the German raider. I was quite impressed by the movie, and now I am thoroughly awed by the book.
From comissioning to the final outcome of the war, this is the story of the ship's captain, and of its crew.
In an era of scientific and mechanized war, here is a ship, whose best detection device was, most of the time, the Mark I eyeball, and that, during almost two years at sea, plied havoc with allied shipping, in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
As I read the book, I could imagine Jno Aubrey (of Patrick O'Brian fame) reading along, thrilling to the chase.
WWII was obviously brutal, bloody and terrible; but the story of the Atlantis hearkens to another era; an era of personal honor, bravery, and gallantry, that alas, is now absent from the annals of history.
An outstanding book, for the sea enthusiast, naval buff, or anybody who enjoys a good yarn.

Rating:
Summary: Flagship of Hitler's Deceptive Sea Raiders
Review: From 1940 to 1943 nine German surface raiders effectively used deception against both merchantmen and warships. These disguised auxiliary cruisers sank or captured 140 ships (including the cruiser HMAS Sydney), totaling over one million tons, and greatly disrupted British and American shipping in the South Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Only the exploits of the Emden in World War I come close to challenging the derring-do of the flagship of Hitler's raiders, the famous Atlantis.

The Kriegsmarine's surface commerce raiders of WW II were elaborations of the raiders of the Great War (such as Emden); both deceptive commerce ships and specially engineered high-speed warships were designed for surface raiding. Germany's battleships and pocket battleships were effective surface raiders if they were able to break out to the sea, but for most of the war, they were swiftly sunk or bottled up by the Royal Navy.

Far more effective were the deceptive commerce raiders, converted from fast banana boats of 3,000 to 9,000 tons, masquerading as merchant or passenger ships, and luring other surface vessels into gun or torpedo range for capture or sinking. While the Royal Navy kept the German battlewagons bottled up, the commerce raiders consistently slipped the British blockade. Once loose, they proved deadlier than U-boats.

The German raiders were far more lethal than the average U-boat and about half as effective as Germany's top twenty U-boats and best submarine aces. From June 1940 to May 1941, seven German commerce raiders sank one fifth of all British tonnage lost.

The German raiders were well armed: all carried half a dozen 5.9 inch guns, 1-2 seaplanes, 5-8 anti-aircraft guns, torpedo tubes, and mines. Clever screens, false deck cargos, fake funnels, even elevators concealed their armaments and gave the raiders the capability to commence firing in seconds with the appearance of innocent, unarmed merchantmen. Raider crews tested the resolution of the binoculars of enemy merchant and naval services to estimate the maximum effective distances their camouflage schemes would remain undetected. Some of the raiders were designed to cross-pump ballast so their sides, bow, or stern could be exposed and re-painted at sea.

Crews were handpicked for their cleverness and compatibility. Raider crews would re-configure their ship's appearance on the run, giving hunters the slip, seemingly turning into another vessel.

Deceptive tactics were standard procedure: false flags, deceptive signals, radio jamming (to smother warning and distress broadcasts), stealthy stalking, smoke and false fires, crewmen dressed as women pushing baby carriages.

Every week or two the raiders would alter their identities; Atlantis, the most famous of the raiders, could successfully imitate 26 other vessels. The raiders used every ruse de guerre in the history books and invented several new ones (e.g., launching a torpedo motor boat to out-flank an opponent and simulate a second raider). The raiders stayed at sea for months (Atlantis for 622 days, five of the nine for over a year; in contrast a long U-boat deployment was 200 days), rendezvousing with supply ships and U-boats, and sending prize crews and prisoners to Axis ports on captured ships.

Early Allied mistakes aided the raiders. Since raiders jammed the distress calls of their victims, the British Admiralty instructed all merchantmen hearing a distress call being jammed to send their own position and the bearing to the jammed transmission. This located all the merchantmen in a raider's vicinity. The raiders soon sent fake distress calls, jammed them, and then waited for the merchantmen in the vicinity to send their positions and bearings to the supposed distress call. Raiders would cover each other by sending multiple false distress calls to hide a real one.

The raiders' deceptive tricks (and the inattention of their opponents) yielded some stunning victories. But eventually Americans and British ships developed effective counter-deception tactics: blowing off steam and then making a run for it, convoying, triangulating distress calls, using photos taken by captured and repatriated crewmen to identify the raiders, hopping distress calls over multiple frequencies (to defeat the raiders' powerful jammers), challenging incorrect identification signals, noting tiny mis-matched details of uniforms and equipment, searching the empty areas of the oceans (where raiders would hide or re-supply), even suspecting the misspellings of the raiders' signalmen.

As more merchantmen were armed, tactics became more effective, not just to escape the raiders, but also to combat them. The German raiders' war was brief; by May 1943 the Michel was Germany's last warship on the high seas. In October 1943 USS Tarpon torpedoed the last German commerce raider outside Tokyo Bay. But while Nazi Germany's grandiose pocket battleships and battle cruisers were swiftly dispatched (Graf Spee, Bismarck) or bottled up (Tirpitz, Scharnehorst, Prince Eugen), her inexpensive commerce raiders effectively prowled the sea lanes for nearly four years. Deception trumped firepower, until bested by counter-deception.

In the tradition of Jean Laffite, most raider captains and crews displayed an almost 18th Century gallantry, the stuff of adventure films (after the war De Laurentiis produced Under Ten Flags, based on the exploits of the raider Atlantis). Captured crewmen and passengers were typically well treated, sharing the quarters, rations, and entertainments of their German capturers. Atlantis was the epitome of this chivalrous band of deadly sea raiders.

Rating:
Summary: Great Raid!
Review: On a recommendation, I ordered this book as I am interested in history. Upon receipt, I honestly thought it would be like many historical accounts I've read: dry, long, a battle to read through. How absolutely wrong I turned out to be!!!! This book was amazing and I couldn't put it down. I completed the book in one sitting...

In fact, Capt Slavick's writing style and story telling was so captivating, I FOUND MYSELF ROOTING FOR THE GERMAN RAIDERS against the Allies!!!

This is a story of perseverence, leadership, integrity, dedication-to-duty, experience, job knowledge, "can-do" attitudes and yes, even discipline. The crew of the Atlantis displayed all of these time-honored words that the military holds so dear. The terms themselves may be cliche to some, but to the military, they mean "mission accomplished." When one reads this book, one will have a better understanding of what these words truly mean.

Capt Slavick also captures the essence of WWII naval warfare for the reader. He brings the reader onto the ship and deftly includes us into the nuances of inaction and wildly takes us along during the explosive interruption of combat and chaos...

Read this book, you won't be disappointed!

Rating:
Summary: More details please
Review: Slavick's work is a welcome addition to the works on the exploits of the German merchant raiders and the detailed source references are a bonus. However, a detailed map of the raider's cruise, a chronology of the raider's victims, and more photos and more biography on what Rogge is required. What made him tick? How did such an honourable man (was his first wife Jewish?) serve the Third Reich? Until these omissions are rectified, the books by Rogge and Mohir & Selwood, remain the best sources.

Rating:
Summary: You won?t want to put the book down once you start it.
Review: This is an excellent true account of the German raider Atlantis. It is very well researched and contains considerable information not available elsewhere like for example, the details of the amazing career of Bernhard Rogge (captain of the Atlantis). Among other things he was accepted into the German navy as an officer cadet in 1915 at the age of 15! The story of Bernhard Rogge and the Atlantis (code name - Ship 16) is compelling. You won't want to put the book down once you start reading it. It depicts little known events of WWII with precision and depth. Imagine being at sea for well over 600 days hunting merchant ships while being hunted by the whole Allied navy every second of the time. It must have been quite an adventure to live it because it is certainly an adventure to read about it.