German Navy Handbook 1939 1945

Synonymous with such infamous battleships as the Bismarck, Scharnhorst and Tirpitz, the German Navy (or Reichsmarine) was renamed the Kriegsmarine in 1935, shortly after the emergence of the Nazi State, and went through a major re-organization in 1939. During World War II, it became a much-feared adversary both on and beneath the high seas, with its marauding U-boat wolf packs coming close to defeating Britain in the Battle of the Atlantic. The author of this text examines the different roles of the Fleet, and its organization and training activities during the war years. Incidents and operations are described, together with technical data for ships, U-boats and their weaponry. A guide to German Navy uniforms and insignia is included, together with full details of rank structure and specialist trades.

Synonymous with such infamous battleships as the 'Bismarck', 'Scharnhorst' and 'Tirpitz', the German Navy (or Reichsmarine) was renamed the Kriegsmarine in 1935, shortly after the emergence of the Nazi State, and went through a major re-organization in 1939. During the Second World War, it became a much-feared adversary both on and beneath the high seas, with its marauding U-boat 'wolf packs' coming close to defeating Britain in the Battle of the Atlantic. Jak Showell examines the different roles of the Fleet, and its organization and training activities during the war years. Incidents and operations are described, together with technical data for ships, U-boats and their weaponry. A guide to German Navy uniforms and insignia is included, together with full details of rank structure and specialist trades.

This volume covers not only the wartime story of the German Navy, but also shows how it stealthily built up in the 20s and 30s, in defiance of the treaty of Versailles. The famous pocket battleships are examined, as well as U-boats, minesweepers and one-man torpedoes.

Overstretched from the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Royal Navy acquired First World War surplus destroyers from the United States Navy and embarked on a massive programme of construction, building and buying aircraft carriers, escort carriers and frigates and corvettes, building up a powerful submarine arm and, almost from scratch, re-creating the naval air arm taken from it in 1918. The service had to learn fast. It soon became clear that the Germans would not provide an opportunity for a major battleship to battleship fleet action along the lines of Jutland, but that submarine warfare and surface raiders were to be just as effective at undermining the British war effort. The Royal Navy was expected to be active in the North Atlantic and in British waters, and then after the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, it had to protect the Arctic convoys. Meanwhile, it also had to keep control of the Mediterranean, alone after the fall of France, supporting ground forces in North Africa and then in Greece, send convoys to Malta and disrupt the Axis supply lines both in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Norway, and then it had to face the Japanese in the Far East. By the war's end the Royal Navy had grown from its pre-war strength of 129,000 to 863,000 men. Its fleet had also grown from 12 to 61 battleships and cruisers, seven to 59 aircraft carriers, and 100 to 846 destroyers, by 1945.

Defeat at Sea, first published in the United States in 1955, is a former German naval officer's account of the successes and failures of the German naval fleet during World War Two. The book was originally published in Germany as Kampf und Untergang der Kriegsmarine and in England as Swastika at Sea. Included are chapters on the decisive battles involving the Bismark, Graf Spee, Tirpitz, and Scharnhorst, among others, plus the role of German U boats (submarines), and raiders. The book concludes near the end of the war with the massive naval rescue effort of German citizens from the Baltic region in the face of the Russian advance. Included are 16 pages of photographs.