German Raider Atlantis

by Wolfgang Frank, Bernhard Rogge

CLEAN COPY WITH NO WRITING OR MARKS ON PAGES. MINOR READING CREASE ON EDGE OF COVER BY SPINE.

Genres: History, World War II, Nautical, Germany, Nonfiction, Military History

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Eric]

Captain Bernhard Rogge's account takes you on board the the World War 2 German Raider, "Atlantis". Hope you don't mind potatoes and rice, because the sailors rarely had better over 600+ days of harrassing enemy shipping over the seven seas.

As expected, Rogge describes in detail his many successful conquests, including 22 ships sunk and captured. I was intrigued by the attitude of the German seamen towards their many prisoners, often characterized as less than civilized. The captain supports the stereotype of captured "colored prisoners who "disliked loud noises" and "panic at the sound of gunfire," while he segregated asians and indians in separate quarters. His latent racism is ironic in light of his 1/4 jewish ancestry. Otherwise, he treated prisoners with respect and earned the admiration of his enemies.

[Patrick Gaebelein]

Should be made into an epic movie. The story of the German Raider Atlantis is incredible. You have a professional naval officer, Berhard Rogge, who not only ran a tight ship, he fought a good war. He conduct was such that the prisoners of the ship he sunk or captured typically had nothing but kind words to say about him and his crew. Rogge would bristle at the thought of unnecessary violence of action, and treated all in his care humanely. As a testament to his conduct he was never arrested at the end of the war, few officers of his rank were treated by the victors as such, he was respected by friend and enemy alike. The book reads like a novel, is entertaining, engrossing, and informative. The type of book you will never forget.

[Peter Jowers]

I have had a personal interest in this story as in December 1949 I was a cadet on the maiden voyage of the M.V. Wanstead and saw Captain Rogge came aboard to visit my Captain A E Woodcock. He had been a prisoner on the Atlantis. Another good read is a book with the title Atlantis by Mohr, the executive officer of the Atlantis. Noteworthy is the fact that Rogge held Divine Services attended by the British prisoners and German crew. There was no Nazi political officer on the ship. Woodcock’s ship Tottenham sunk by Rogge was an identical sister ship of Twickenham which I did a 12 month voyage on.

[Costantino]

The story of the raider is very interesting to read. I appreciated the seriousness of the commander and the crew during the war, also confirmed by some press release done at the time and reported in the book.
Particularly fascinating is the relationship of the crew with the press. The captain openly criticise nazi press for mocking the enemy and endangering his rider and crew. On the other hand, the book mentions fake news from the Americans during the war on the number of sunken raiders till Autumn 1941. The author criticise this number and a short fact checking on internet seems to agree with the German version.
It is not the first time that an author from a defeated nation expose this type of behaviour by the American press during world war 2 (Saburo Sakai - Samurai).
I would definitely reccomend this to people who love non fiction!

[Robher]

Los cruceros auxiliares alemanes siempre me han llamado la atención, así que cuando se publicó este libro en español no dudé en comprarlo. Bajo diez banderas es una lectura apasionante para los lectores amantes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y sobre todo para los amantes de las aventuras en el mar.

Las misiones del crucero ligero Atlantis fueron de una dificultad extrema, camuflado como un barco mercante no sabían en ningún momento si el enemigo los descubriría a pocas millas de su barco, o peor aún, podían ser atacados por fuego amigo.

El autor del libro y capitán a la vez del Atlantis nos relata todos sus combates y su amargo final. Unas memorias donde viviréis de primera mano las dificultades de estar solos en el mar, del miedo a ser descubiertos, donde la astucia de cada capitán es lo que les otorga poder vivir un día más.

Libro más que recomendado.

[Francisco]

Para amantes de la segunda guerra mundial

[Iain]

An engrossing account of a fascinating journey.

Recommended for anyone interested in this very rare form of warfare, or naval exploits in general.

[Veronica Sutter-Handy]

This was really hard for me to get into. I wanted a little more background about the Captain himself.