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Shadow over the Atlantic: The Luftwaffe and the U-boats: 1943–45 Hardcover – July 18, 2017

by Robert Forsyth (Author), Jim Laurier (Illustrator)

4.2 45 ratings

Part of: General Military (111 books)

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German U-boats were the scourge of Allied merchant and military shipping in the Atlantic during World War II, threatening to isolate and then starve the UK out of the war. As Germany's war against the Allied convoys intensified in late 1943, German Admiral Karl Dönitz called upon the Luftwaffe to provide a long-range spotting and shadowing unit to act as 'eyes' for his U-boats. Equipped with big, four-engined Junkers Ju 290s fitted out with advanced search radar and other maritime 'ELINT' (electronic intelligence) devices, Fernaufklärungsgruppe (FAGr) 5 'Atlantic' undertook a distant, isolated campaign far out into the Atlantic and thousands of miles away from its home base in western France. The information generated and reported back to Dönitz's headquarters was vital to the efforts of the U-boats, and FAGr 5's 'shadowing' missions were assigned priority in terms of skilled crews, supplies and equipment.

This book tells for the first time the fascinating story of the formation and operations of FAGr 5 'Atlantik', drawing on never-before-published historical records of the unit that accounted for the reporting and destruction of thousands of tons of Allied shipping.

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“[Shadow over the Atlantic] is significant in telling the story of [the Battle of the Atlantic] from the point of view of the German maritime reconnaissance flyer, whose story has never before been told outside the official records. The history through to the war's end is thoroughly covered, appealing to both naval and aviation enthusiasts alike.” ―WWII History Magazine

“This is a story never told in such detail, enhanced by a folio of interesting photos, as well as several color profiles of these unusual planes.” ―The Hook Magazine, Journal of Carrier Aviation

“. . . bridges a significant gap in late-war aviation. The story has never been told in such detail. The book contains a folio of interesting photos, as well as several profiles of these unusual German aircraft and the men who flew them.” ―Peter Mersky, Naval Aviation News

About the Author

Robert Forsyth is an author, editor and publisher, specializing in military aviation and military history. He is the author of over 30 titles for Osprey Publishing on the aircraft, units and operations of the Luftwaffe, an interest he has held since boyhood. He has written articles for The Aviation Historian, Aerojournal, Aeroplane Monthly, Aviation News, Combat Aircraft, and FlyPast and he is a member of the Editorial Board of The Aviation Historian.

Jim Laurier is a native of New England and lives in New Hampshire. He attended Paier School of Art in Hamden, Connecticut, from 1974–78, and since graduating with Honours, he has been working professionally in the field of Fine Art and Illustration. He has been commissioned to paint for the US Air Force and has aviation paintings on permanent display at the Pentagon.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Osprey Publishing; First Edition (July 18, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1472820452
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1472820457
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.07 x 0.95 x 7.79 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #776,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #242 in History of Military Vehicles
- #1,265 in Military Aviation History (Books)
- #1,591 in Naval Military History

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4.2 45 ratings

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Robert Forsyth is an author, editor and publisher specialising in historic military aviation. Having worked in the shipping business, he set up his own publishing company in 1994 to publish his first book and since then has gone on to write more than thirty titles on the aircraft, campaigns and units of the Luftwaffe, an interest he has held since boyhood. His books have appeared in French, German and Japanese language editions and he has written for several aviation magazines. He has also been consulted for television on the subject and can be heard on specialist podcasts. He is a member of the editorial board of 'The Aviation Historian'.

Aside from aviation, he is a great fan of the blues in all its forms and has written and published a two-volume history of the British blues-rock group, the Climax Blues Band.

As an editor and publisher, he has worked with more than 100 authors around the world, as well as on behalf of publisher clients, to produce around 300 acclaimed books on military history, aviation, motor sport, wildlife and biography.

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Jim Carone--Capt.

Always love the books on Luftwaffe Kriegsmarine ops.

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2018

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HB w DJ//flat manila pages//312 pages//64 bw photos//2 maps//2 color drawings//4 color side profiles//charts scattered throughout the book//Lots of photos on the JU 290// looks like a very interesting book and I look forward to reading it. ...jim

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Amazon Customer

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2017

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not what i expected.

my fault

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Jonathan Mattson

Not 100% what i expected

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2019

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I guess I should have realized with the qualifiers of the title - 1943-45 that it may not exactly be the book I was hoping for. Of course by this point the Allied forces have pretty well control over the Atlantic ocean - including escort carriers.

So this history will not include the Condors and their limited success earlier in the battle of the atlantic. instead you get the focus on one unit of the war with JU290s and pretty much them trying to do reconnaissance to find the convoys for attacks by U-Boats which are struggling to survive themselves.

Not a bad read, and a great point by point of the activities but of course the sad thing is with the period covered by the book, not really much exiting happens. Its such a low strength unit, the uboats are such low strength, that even when they find a convoy, not much happens.

7 people found this helpful

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Maxwell Edison

Eagle Eyes

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2019

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Outstanding operational history of neglected Luftwaffe efforts, mostly failed, to locate Allied convoys sought by the U-boats. Brave men fighting for a bad cause

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John C.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2017

interesting book

Historical Accuracy and a Note in Defence of the Author

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2017

First, as a WWII history buff, I have a major problem with Amazon's synopsis -- it's not accurate, for it draws a conclusion that's not substantiated by what's in the book, casts a bit of a pall over what I found to be a very good work by Mr. Forsyth. Here's the offending passage, and it makes me wonder if Amazon if proofing this stuff: "As Germany's war against the Allied convoys intensified in late 1943, German Admiral Karl Dönitz called upon the Luftwaffe to provide a long-range spotting and shadowing unit to act as 'eyes' for his U-boats." As any student of the Battle of the Atlantic knows, 1941-43 was the most critical time when the U-Boats threatened to choke off Britain's shipping completely, and aircraft such as the Fw 200 Condor were definitely in use over the Atlantic during that period. By late 1943, the time identified in the synopsis, with systematic use of sonar and improved tactics and weaponry, the Allies had the U-Boats on the defensive, and it's fair to say the hunters had become the hunted. May of 1943 was the turning point, when Allied shipping losses declined from the previous month for the first time during the war, a trend that continued and made D-Day possible just over a year later. Donitz would therefore have geared up the fight against the convoys in late 1940, or at the latest, late 1941. This is a synopsis of a history book, so somebody ought to be paying attention to the DATES.

While the first chapter states that the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine by late 1943 devised what they jointly hought was a recipe for success in the North Atlantic, by then it was too late. Later in the same chapter, the following passage appears: "In very early 1943 [note the year] following instructions from the General der Aufklarungsflieger, Oberst Karl-Henning von Barsewisch, ordered the establishment [of a unit] with "four-engined aircraft for reconnaissance over the Atlantic specifically to assist the U-Boats..." This was likely the result of a decision by Donitz in late 1942 or even earlier. Again, by December 1943 the game was up for the Germans.

Second, in defense of the author in light of a previous critique by another reviewer, anyone who is familiar with Robert Forsyth's previous aviation books on specific aircraft, knows that that's his thing. He is highly skilled at researching and educating the reader who wants to know about specific airplanes. Naturally the book focuses on specific aircraft, how they were used, and with what success. In short, Forsyth gives you the trees, that's what he does, and he's quite good at it. If you want the forest, go to another author. Having read his previous works and thoroughly enjoyed them, this particular complaint did not resonate with me. Mr. Forsyth's works are a treasure trove for aviation history buffs and aviation modelers -- so that comment seemed a bit odd, akin to such a complaint against Len Deighton's highly informative book on the Battle of Britain, Fighter, which provides detailed information on the aircraft, but also on leaders on both sides whose personalities and priorities helped shape the battle -- that too in my opinion was a "trees" book, albeit of slightly grander scope, one that I'm glad I read.

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Amazon Customer

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2018

Just OK.

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2017

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Detailed to the max about individual aircraft and Luftwaffe groups, but still interesting.

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simon k

A very well written and researched book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2024

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This is another great book from Robert Forsyth, the photos alone are amazing and the detail in mr forsyth’s research and story telling is brilliant, sadly this unit had some of the worst success in the luftwaffe and after reading I can only think the men and machines would have been better used elsewhere

R. Stewart

A really good read on a much neglected subject

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2017

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A really good read on a much neglected subject , I was surprised to see some material I had researched and put on line being used by the author, which I did not mind .
The book itself is well written it draws on multiple sources and is well illustrated and looks at the later years of the Battle of the Atlantic and the lack of resoucres and the up hill struggle which the Luftwaffe and U boat arm were engaged in.
The FW200's and Ju290's were vulnerable to exposure to escort fighters losses in highly trained aircrew and expensive aircraft which could not be afforded.
If you are interested in the Atlantic and this largely unknown aspect of it this book is well worth the cover cost , in terms of a research project it was a long terms one and the author has done a great job.

2 people found this helpful

Paul Anthony Marks

Superb research on a fraught Luftwaffe recce unit

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2020

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A good book that fills a gap in the history of this period. It is not a list of bombings and sinkings and because of that it will likely not be a huge seller despite the clear tension experienced by the crews. However if you are interested in the German attempts at the crucial role of maritime reconnaissance with the primary purpose of guiding U-boats to Allied Atlantic convoys at this time this is the book to get. Forsyth’s research using German primary sources is outstanding and there cannot be much more to uncover viewed from the position of the particular German unit it centres around.

You have to be careful with the book title. Arguably the prominent sub-title of “The Luftwaffe and the U-boats: 1943-45” is misleading. It is limited to the exploits of Fernaufklaerungsgruppe 5 “Atlantik”, not the broader Luftwaffe. This means the Arctic and the Med are largely excluded however these are covered in Lawrence Paterson’s broader account “Eagles over the Sea 1943-1945”.

The air detail is ever-present with the various unit designations, individual aircraft designations and crew-lists. Proof-reading must have been fun. The bravery of the crews is very obvious. Flying aircraft that had not been through thorough rigorous peace-time design and development on lengthy oceanic flights was fraught with danger. Engine problems and radar malfunctions are constant issues impacting on their ability to find convoys and provide locations for U-boats to head for.

It is written very much from the German view. It does lack a picture of what the Allies were doing. The source list only has 4 of the myriad books on the Atlantic Campaign (Roskill, Blair, Gannon and Terraine) and the primary sources only has two Admiralty files from The National Archives – both air-related. Forsyth is an experienced aviation writer but he is weaker on the naval side of the conflict. For example on P28 he talks on convoys zigzagging every 3-15 minutes whereas it was only the escorts that did that while the convoy sailed on a steady course for the bulk of the time. He is good on the Allied aviation including shipborne planes.

Goering, Doenitz and Hitler all appear as you would expect often using the Fuhrer Conferences book. I do feel that a bit more depth must exist on the maritime recce debate at the top level. Even down at the operational level I did not get much a view on how (if?) they interfaced with both the U-boat front-line and the U-boat command (BdU). BdU did pass requests/instructions on geographic areas to search based on BdU’s tracking and forecasting of convoys and the convoys found were reported by the aircraft the other way. What was the route of communication, was it efficient, what feedback took place? What liaison was there at the operational level between the airfield and, for example the close-by U-boat base at Bordeaux? Did aircrew go on U-boats and U-boat crew fly in the Ju290’s as was often done with the RN and Coastal Command for example.

After withdrawing from its French base the unit goes on a different adventure in getting back to Germany in the air and on the ground. It then undertook varied and ever-changing duties as the Third Reich crumbled around it. While not relevant to the Atlantic it makes for a very good tale and I was glad it was included.

A thorough account based of primary German sources and the definitive account of FAGr 5.

3 people found this helpful

bothered

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2018

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something that's never historically addressed and is well written

Stig Jarlevik

Again I was happily surprised to see that Robert Forsyth has managed to ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2017

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Again I was happily surprised to see that Robert Forsyth has managed to produce a good book.
Rather surprising he has chosen to publish it under the Osprey flag and not his normal Classic one. Perhaps it did not quite fit in.
After his two previous disappointments, the He 111 and Ju 52, it is nice to see that he is still capable of writing a book which at least to me bring a lot of unknown details. Since I don't have much of the published German books on either Fliegerführer Atlantik or the Ju 290 I cannot say how much he relies on already known facts, but I liked it.
The main drawback is its rather limited subject, but if you are interested in the Atlantic Ocean war late 1943-1945 this is something which will complement your understanding of it, since it is written from the aerial point of view.
Stig Jarlevik

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Shadow over the Atlantic: The Luftwaffe and the U-boats: 1943–45 Hardcover – July 18, 2017

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