Reviewer: Dr. Frank Stech (Glenndale, MD USA) - See all my reviews
From 1940 to 1943 nine German surface raiders 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 The Kriegsmarine's surface commerce raiders of WW II were elaborations of the raiders of the Great War (such as Emden).... Far more effective were the deceptive commerce raiders, converted from fast banana boats of 3,000 to 9,000 tons, masquerading as merchant or passenger ships, and luring other surface vessels into gun or torpedo range for capture or sinking. While the Royal Navy kept the German battlewagons bottled up, the commerce raiders consistently slipped the British blockade. Once loose, they proved deadlier than U-boats.