Product Description

Surprise will be total. It will show the world what we can do. You will do it for Germany!' The crack German heavy cruiser Prinz Luitpold had always been lucky in battle. To the beleaguered army on the Baltic coast she was their one remaining symbol of hope. But it is the summer of 1944, and on every front the war is going badly for Germany. When the roder comes to leave the Baltic to attack and destroy enemy shipping in the Atlantic, Kapitan zur See Dieter Hechler knows that once out in the vast killing ground it will only be a matter of time before the hunter becomes the hunted. The Prinz will need all of her legendary luck to survive. As he faces the challenges of his enormous task, Hechler's problems increase when a ruthless, glory-seeking admiral arrives on board with some mysterious boxes, a floatplane and a beautiful girl pilot ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205988 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Douglas Reeman did convoy duty in the navy in the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the North Sea. He has written over thirty novels under his own name and more than twenty bestselling historical novels featuring Richard Bolitho under the pseudonym Alexander Kent.

Customer Reviews

Interesting variation on the naval adventure story
"In war it is inevitable that only one side can triumph, but honour and self-sacrifice are not the sole attributes of the victors". Douglas Reeman's words, from the prefatory blurb, put this novel accurately in context. Surprisingly and most effectively, its hero is not a Royal Navy skipper or even an American sailor, but the captain of a German cruiser. In 1944, when many Germans can already see the writing on the wall, Kapitaen zur See Dieter Hechler takes Prinz Luitpold, a Hipper class 8-inch cruiser, on a last daring commerce raid across the Atlantic.

The Hippers, formidable on paper, did not live up to their promise - partly due to unreliable machinery, and even more to inconsistent, vacillating official policy. This book suggests how much better they could have done in the hands of resolute and independent commanders. Even Hechler finds himself under the thumb of an unpleasant Nazi admiral with a fraction of his talent (a recurrent theme in Reeman's books), possibly a fatal handicap when it comes to the inevitable confrontation with the individually weaker but more numerous British warships.

As usual Douglas Reeman's expertise shows through every page. His description of life in Nazi Germany after four years of total war is no less deft and convincing. This is a splendid yarn of war at sea, but it also has a powerful human dimension. Sacrifice, cruelty, compassion, forgiveness... all the emotions of human beings pushed to, and beyond, their limits. Regardless of who they are, or which country's flag is fluttering from the mast.

A German Navy Raider
I liked this story because it's well written, feels accurate and has interesting characters. The story describes the journey of a German WWII cruiser as it tries to knock out allied shipping in the Atlantic.