Sea Raider Atlantis

New York City: Pinnacle Books, 1974. First Pinnacle printing [stated]. Mass market paperback. 278, [1] pages. Illustrations. Note by Admiral Bernhard Rogge. Foreword by Armstrong White. Cover has some wear, soiling, tears and creases. An interesting first-person account of WWII naval action from the perspective of a German Captain's adjutant. Staying away from port for over 600 days then the crew's survival of sinking twice and rescue by U boat is an epic. What makes the story interesting is that the Atlantis was an "auxiliary merchant cruiser" or "commerce raider" whose role was to sink or capture enemy shipping, something like a latter-day privateer. In one of the best chosen epilogues of any war book, the captain of the Royal Navy ship responsible for the second sinking of the Atlantis' crew (himself a Victoria Cross winner) points out that what the ship was involved in is fundamentally unfair. This book is a great read its insight into the minds of leaders as they prosecute the dirty business of war. 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. Atlantis had the highest score of all German raiders. She was a Phantom Raider, one 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. Many of those interviewed had ungrudging admiration for the Germany officers and crew who captured them. Here is a fascinating story of the war when Germany was the hunter, and of a ship whose exploits might never have been known but for the tenacious probing of A. V. Sellwood, and the willingness of the Atlantis ADC, Ulrich Mohr, to recall those incredible 622 days at sea. Condition: Good.

Keywords: Bernard Rogge, Armstrong White, Raider Atlantis, Naval Operations, Ship Sixteen, HMS Devonshire, Ghost Fleet, Phantom Raider, Commerce Raider

ISBN: 0523003137

[Book #77865]

Price: $18.50

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