german navy

“NATO Navies Must Get the Balance Right,” by Captain Sascha Rachwitz, German Navy and Commander Mark Baumert, German Navy, Proceedings, December 2022.

The German navy refitted the merchant ship Atlantis with weapons hidden in phony deckhouses and side structures.  Using its disguise as a freighter, the Atlantis stalked the ocean for over 600 days in 1940 and 1941.  She captured or sank 22 ships until cornered and sunk by the British.  Bernhard Rogge was the captain of the Atlantis throughout its service.  This is the story of what he and his crew did. 

In 1942 the British were fighting for control of the Atlantic Ocean.  If they lost this battle they would starve and be put out of the war.  German submarines were pushing the British to their limits and they could ill afford to have the German battleship Tirpitz sortie into the Atlantic and join the fight. To stop this from happening the British determined the best way to neutralize the Tirpitz was to destroy the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast that was large enough to accommodate the battleship should it take damage fighting on the open ocean. The Great Raid of All is the the story of how a small force of British sailors and commandos sailed under the noses of the Germans and destroyed the Normandie dry dock in Saint Nazaire.

Links:

1. In the Shadow of Ultra: A Reappraisal of German Naval Communications Intelligence in 1914-1918

2. Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-1945

3.Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918

4. Germany's First Cryptanalysis on the Western Front: Decrypting British and French Naval Ciphers in World War I

5. Technology, Shipbuilding and Future Combat in Germany, 1880-1914.”

6. Sins of Omission and Commission: A Reassessment of the Role of Intelligence in the Battle of Jutland

7. Ludwig Föppl: A Bavarian Cryptanalyst on the Western Front

8. The Ultra Secret

Link: Clausewitz, Corbett & Corvettes