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In 1940 the raiders Orion, Komet, Pinguin and Kormoran left Germany and waged a & pirate war' in the South Seas - part of Germany's strategy to attack the British Empire's maritime trade on a global scale. Their extraordinary voyages spanned the globe and are maritime sagas in the finest tradition of seafaring.
The four raiders voyaged across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans as well as the Arctic and Antarctic. They sank or captured 62 ships in a forgotten naval war that is now being told in its entirety for the first time. The Orion and Komet terrorised the South Pacific and New Zealand waters before Pearl Harbor when the war was supposed to be far away. The Pinguin sank numerous Allied merchant ships in the Indian Ocean before mining the approaches to Australian ports and capturing the Norwegian whaling fleet in Antarctica. The Kormoran raided the Atlantic but will always be remembered for sinking the Australian cruiser Sydney off Western Australia, killing all 645 sailors on board in tragic circumstances.
False Flags is also the story of the Allied sailors who encountered these raiders and fought suicidal battles against a superior foe as well as the men, women and children who endured captivity on board the raiders as prisoners of the Third Reich.
-Military Books Australia
"Deception, violence and waste are the ingredients of war...Stephen Robinson’s handsome, well documented book is full of events that illustrate this... Raiders were fighting ships disguised as merchantmen, crewed by trained naval seaman deeply committed to serving the German war effort. Like Caribbean pirates from the days of sail in some Boy’s Own world, they masked their evil intent by sailing under assumed flags... before hoisting aloft the German Navy flag, like a modern day Skull and Cross Bones, and savaging an unwary prey." - Outstanding 2 page review Click here to read the review.
- The White Ensign - The Journal of the Naval Association of Australia.
"Stephen Robinson undertook extensive research for this book in the German, British, Australian and NZ naval records. He uncovered never-before-accessed eyewitness accounts and declassified intelligence reports. Many of the crews and passengers of the ships targeted by the raiders ended up as prisoners of war, while others were set adrift in life rafts."
- Australian Defence Magazine
"A meticulously researched and fascinating history of a now largely forgotten aspect of World War II."
- Australian National Maritime Associantion Newsletter
"anyone with an interest in naval history will find this book well worth a read."
- Navy New
Introduction
- The raiders prepare
- The Orion’s Atlantic war
- The Hauraki Gulf operation
- The Pinguin’s first victories
- The Northeast Passage
- The Tasman Raider
- The Far East Squadron
- The Australian minefields
- The Indian Ocean pursuit
- Nauru and the phosphate ships
- Hilfskreuzer Kormoran
- The castaways of Emirau Island
- Von Luckner, spies and the fifth column
- Return to Nauru and intrigue in Japan
- The raider war in Antarctica
- The Kormoran in the Atlantic
- Remote encounters and the islands of despair
- Tanker hunt in the Arabian Sea
- A new operational area
- The voyage of the Adjutant
- Destination Bordeaux
- The Galapagos Islands raider
- Encounter off Shark Bay
- The Kormoran–Sydney battle
- The fleet of lifeboats
Epilogue
Appendixes: the raiders
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index