Beware raiders! German Surface Raiders in the Second World War

Beware Raiders! is the story of two very different German surface raiders and the havoc they caused amongst Allied shipping in the Second World War. One was the 8-inch gun cruiser Admiral Hipper, fast, powerful and Navy-manned; the other a converted merchantman, Hansa Line's Kandelfels armed with a few 5.9s, crewed largely by reservists, and sailing under the nom de guerre of Pinguin. Contrary to all expectations, the amateur man-of-war reaped a rich harvest and went out in a blaze of glory. Her purpose-built sister, on the other hand, was hard-pressed to make her mark on the war and ended her days in ignominy. There was also a striking contrast between the conduct of Ernst Kruder, captain of the Pinguin, whose concern it was to cause as little loss of life as possible, and the indifferent Captain Meisel of the Admiral Hipper, who had scant regard for the crews of his victims. The Author describes in detail Kruder's most audacious coup, namely the capture, rather than the sinking, of the entire Norwegian Whaling Fleet, which he calls 'a disaster of major proportions'.