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James P. Duffy
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Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet: The Deadliest Ships of World War II First Edition

by James P. Duffy (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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They were the deadliest ships of World War II--nine German commerce raiders disguised as peaceful cargo ships, flying the flags of neutral and allied nations. In reality, these heavily armed warships roamed the world's oceans at will, like 20th-century pirates. They struck unsuspecting freighters and tankers out of the darkness of night or from behind a curtain of fog and mist. For almost three years they led the Royal Navy on a deadly chase from sea to sea, seeding Allied ports with hundreds of mines and, on one occasion, even bombarding a shore installation.

Masquerading as unarmed merchantmen, the raiders carried an awesome array of weapons cleverly hidden behind false structures and concealed inside empty packing crates on their decks. Seaplanes and motorboats helped them seek out their victims on the vast seas. They then fed off of these unsuspecting targets, pumping fuel from their prey into their own tanks and taking food from captured pantries to feed their own crews and the thousands of prisoners that they picked up along the way. These secret ships also acted as supply ships for U-boats, helping their fellow hunters remain at large for longer periods. At sea for months--or even years--those raider sailors lucky enough to survive were hailed as heroes when they returned home.

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  1. ISBN-10
    0275966852
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0275966850
  3. Edition
    First Edition
  4. Publisher
    Praeger
  5. Publication date
    September 15, 2001
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 0.69 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    248 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating account of a little-known facet of the German Navy of World War II--the fleet of nine warships that cruised the seven seas disguised as merchantmen, and sank or captured more than a million tons of allied shipping. Their stories are exciting reading and form a significant part of the naval history of World War II. Author Duffy tells them well, in these high tension accounts of adventure on the high seas. A valuable addition to any WW II collection."-Edwin P. Hoyt author of 199 Days: The Battle for Stalingrad

About the Author

JAMES P. DUFFY is a writer specializing in military history. He is the author of 12 books, including Hitler Slept Late and other Blunders that Cost Him the War (Praeger, 1991), The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Complete Book of Facts with Vincent L. Ricci (1992), Target Hitler: The Plots to Kill Adolf Hitler with Vincent L. Ricci (Praeger, 1992), Czars: Russias Rulers for Over One Thousand Years with Vincent L. Ricci (1995), and Lincolns Admiral: The Civil War Campaigns of David Farragut (1997). is a writer specializing in military history. He is the author of 12 books, including two on World War II and one on the American Civil War.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Praeger; First Edition (September 15, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0275966852
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0275966850
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1220L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.69 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

About the author

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James P. Duffy

James P. Duffy

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James P. Duffy is the author of over a dozen previous books, most on military history. His World War II titles include The Sinking of the Laconia and the U-Boat War, Target America, and Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet. He has also written on the American Civil War and the rulers of Imperial Russia. He resides with his family in New Jersey.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mayo M
5.0 out of 5 stars Hitlers Secret Fleet
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2011
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This is a very good book about a little known part of World War two. It explores the difference between wearing an enemy uniform ( which the Germans were shot for during the Battle of the Bulge ) and a legitimate ruse de guerre to fool your enemy.It also shows the brotherhood of sailors regardless of nationality. The lack of brutality and attempts to limit the loss of life that was absent in other parts of this conflict. A very good book for any one interested in naval history.
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Dr. Frank Stech
4.0 out of 5 stars Secret pirate fleet manned by chivalrous corsairs
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2003
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From 1940 to 1943 nine German surface raiders (Atlantis, Orion, Widder, Thor, Pinguin, Komet, Kormoran, Michel, and Stier) 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. Duffy's "Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet: The Deadliest Ships of World War II" is well titled; 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.
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. 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 could successfully imitate 26 other vessels. 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 tanker 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. For example, the Kormoran, disguised as a Dutch freighter, played an elaborate cat-and-mouse game with HMAS Sydney, hoisting tangled signal flags, garbling identification messages, playing dumb to Sidney's challenges, until Kormoran closed to within a kilometer of Sydney. The Kormoran then ran up the swastika, dropped its camouflage screens and destroyed Sydney's bridge and two forward gun turrets in 30 seconds. Sydney eventually sank with all hands, the worst naval loss in Australian history.
The German raiders' war was (for the Kriesmarine) relatively long; by May 1943 the Michel was Germany's last warship on the high seas. On the night of September 29, 1943, she accidentally but successfully sailed through the middle of an entire U.S. Navy Task Force. In October 1943, Michel's stealth and deception tricks finally failed her. The USS Tarpon torpedoed the last German commerce raider outside Tokyo Bay. But while Nazi Germany's grandiose pocket battleships and battleships were swiftly dispatched (Graf Spee, Bismarck) or bottled up (Tirpitz, Scharnehorst, Prince Eugen), her inexpensive commerce raiders effectively prowled the sea lanes for years. Deception trumped firepower, until bested by counter-deception.
Duffy provides detailed accounts of each raider, every engagement, even the various animals captured from the raiders' prizes. In the tradition of Jean Laffite, 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 uniformly well treated, sharing the quarters, rations, and entertainments of their German capturers. These tales of raiders' and their crews are well told; Duffy paints richly colored portraits of Hitler's secret pirate fleet and these chivalrous corsairs.
12 people found this helpful
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Michael Herndon
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read & different!
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2016
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Great read! As an avid reader of military history, especially of the World Wars, it was nice to read about an aspect of Hitlers naval war that's not just about the U Boat war. This book covers a history of all German Auxiliary cruisers. Highly recommended!
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R. Forczyk
4.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a Rehash but Still Quite Good
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2009
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There have been a number of books written since the 1950s concerning Germany's disguised commerce raiders - known as Hilfkreuzer - and James Duffy's Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet draws heavily upon earlier books by David Woodward, Bernhard Rogge and Karl Muggenthaler. Nevertheless, Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet is a well-written and updated account that provides a fresh look at these raiders. On the plus side, the book flows very well and is written at a level that should satisfy both specialist and general readers. On the other hand, there is no fresh research underlying this work and the author doesn't even refer to strategic factors such as ENIGMA that may have eventually helped to neutralize this threat. As such, this book represents an interesting introduction to the subject, but not much more.

The book is divided into nine chapters, each of which covers the wartime career of one of the Kriegsmarine's disguised commerce raiders. At the start of each chapter, there is a crude sketch map that depicts where each of that particular raider's victims were sunk or captured, but the raider's actual route is not depicted. The book has five appendices (identities of the raiders, technical data, armament data, war records of the raiders, the Sydney Controversy) and a bibliography, but no footnotes. There are also ten B/W photos included.

Chapter one begins with the cruise of the Atlantis, the first raider to sail in 1940 and proceeds through the exploits of each raider. Certainly the best chapter is the one involving the fight between the radar Stier and the American Liberty Ship Stephen Hopkins. One thing that the book sorely lacks is an overview chapter that provides some strategic context, as well as a bit more on British reactions to the raiders and an assessment of their commerce-raiding on the war. Although the author provides a table which tallies up what each raider sank, there is no effort to assess the significance of these losses. Many of these chapters are similar to the chapters in Muggenthaler's earlier book and when you compare the two, it is apparent that Duffy has synthesized some of the material and even manages to leave out a few pertinent facts here and there. Despite this `rehashed' flavor to the book, Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet is never dull and most readers should find that it covers a little-known aspect of the Second World War at sea in a most interesting fashion.
3 people found this helpful
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Michael McCartin
5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2012
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This was an interesting addition to my naval history collection. It filled in a lot of information on this subject. The book arrived in excellent condition and on time. Thanks for the wonderful service.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars very good account of the involvement of German pirate fleet
Reviewed in Canada on December 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
couldn't put it down a great book of sea warfare the US and ENGLAND also had pirate fleets but not as exciting encounters as the GERMANS
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Phil
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2015
Verified Purchase
Good read with plenty of facts
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Amazon-Kunde
2.0 out of 5 stars Good Textbook, unsatisfactory Pictures
Reviewed in Germany on December 18, 2001
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This book was somewhat of a disappointment for me. While the text is good to read and informative, the maps and the quality of the pictures are questionable. The source of all pictures is a book from 1955! My whole impression was, the autor took some out of print books, compiled the content and presented a new one. So while it gives a good overview on these ships and their destiny you don't have the feeling of really getting information out of new research. So', if in a new edition the book would be improved by better pictures and better maps I would recommend it.
2 people found this helpful
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Ove Hermansen
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2015
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fine
One person found this helpful
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