The German Navy 1935-45: The Kriegsmarine in World War II & Kriegsmarine Atlantic Command 1942-45: Naval Group West’s Surface Menace

64 pages; 80 pages

David Collins

In recent years, Osprey Publishing has published a number of short books on military affairs, which are more like monographs. This pair of books, by different authors, takes slightly different approaches to the subject with the first covering the period of 1935-45, while the second looks specifically at the operational aspects of German surface raiders from 1942-45. While both books are different, and not long at under 80 pages each, they are complementary and provide readers with a good uberblick of the German Navy during the Nazi period.

Dr Thomas’ The German Navy is divided into multiple chapters including Campaigns; Naval Organisation; the German Fleet; Naval Land Forces; Uniforms, Ranks and other insignia; Branch and other insignia.  This volume is replete with illustrations of the various uniforms, etc., worn by various naval personnel from Fleet admiral down to ordinary seaman. Thomas is an ex-lecturer at the University of Northumbria, and one might have looked for more insight as to policy and operations in his volume rather than an in-depth compendium of uniforms, insignia and fleet composition. This information is interesting for those who like the detail but it tells us less about what drove the German Navy and its leaders during the Nazi period than it might have, in my view. It does allude to how the Navy was ill-prepared for World War II and with endless political interference by Hitler, it never rose to the level of achievement it might have, submarine operations notwithstanding.  Overall, the paragraph on operations gives a fair summary of naval activity during the war without being too in-depth. This volume has an index.

Paterson’s (a scuba instructor and student of naval history) Kriegsmarine Atlantic Command provides a more profound review of the Navy’s Atlantic Command from 1939-42, focused largely on surface raiding. There is almost no description of submarine operations which by 1943 were almost neutralised by the Allied dominance in the Atlantic. That said, the number of ships sunk by surface raiders in the Atlantic and Indian oceans is well described.  This book divides into chapters on Purpose of the Fleet; Fleet Fighting Power; How the Fleet operated; and Combat and Analysis, with a full bibliography and an index.  This volume provides more in-depth analysis of how the German Navy developed after the  1922 Washington Naval Treaty limitations  and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 which allowed the Germans to rearm (which they had been doing anyway in violation of their World War 1 obligations),  there is good insight as to how the High Seas Fleet developed consisting of ships such as  Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Bismarck and Tirpitz, along with the Panzerschiffe (pocket battleships).  While these ships had huge success in destroying Allied merchant ships in the early years of the war, their ultimate vulnerability limited their full effectiveness. So, in essence, this volume gives a full view of German naval operations in the Atlantic in the first three years of the war.

In summary, I can recommend both of these volumes for those who want primers on the German Navy in World War II. Both are written using secondary sources  with Kriegsmarine offering a more thoughtful exposé of operations while German Navy offers a well-illustrated understanding of uniform and insignia with a detailed listing of the Navy’s organisation and fleet dispositions. Together, both books give a useful insight into the German Navy during the Nazi period.