Shadow over the Atlantic

The Luftwaffe and the U-boats: 1943–45

Shadow over the Atlantic cover

Description

A unique insight into the U-boat war in World War II, focusing on FAGr 5, the Luftwaffe's only long-range maritime reconnaissance and U-boat cooperation unit.

German U-boats were the scourge of Allied merchant and military shipping in the Atlantic during World War II, threatening to isolate and then starve the UK out of the War. As Germany's war against the Allied convoys intensified in late 1943, German Admiral Karl Dönitz called upon the Luftwaffe to provide a long-range spotting and shadowing unit to act as 'eyes' for his U-boats.

Equipped with big, four-engined Junkers Ju 290s fitted out with advanced search radar and other maritime 'ELINT' (electronic intelligence) devices, Fernaufklärungsgruppe (FAGr) 5 'Atlantik' undertook a distant, isolated campaign far out into the Atlantic and thousands of miles away from its home base in western France. The information generated and reported back to Dönitz's headquarters was vital to the efforts of the U-boats, and FAGr 5's 'shadowing' missions were assigned priority in terms of skilled crews, supplies and equipment.

Shadow over the Atlantic book tells for the first time the fascinating story of the formation and operations of FAGr 5 'Atlantik', drawing on never-before-published historical records of the unit that accounted for the reporting and destruction of thousands of tons of Allied shipping.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements
Author's Note
Glossary
Map

1. Dark Waters
2. Junkers' Colossus: the Ju 290
3. Eyes over the Eastern Front
4. Formation
5. 'Now it's serious'
6. The Kommandeur's Report
7. A Burning Question
8. To see, or not to see
9. Black February
10. Fading Shadows
11. Fight and Flight
12. 4./FAGr 5, by Nick Beale
13. Return to the Reich
14. 'Special Tasks'
15. 'Divide and Fall'
16. 'Genieße den Krieg, der Friede wird furchtbar!'

Appendices
Endnotes
Bibliography and Sources
Index

Product details

Published Jul 27 2017
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 312
ISBN 9781472820464
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations 30 b/w; 40 col
Series General Military
Short code GNM
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Robert Forsyth

Robert Forsyth is an author, editor and publisher,…

Illustrator

Jim Laurier

Jim Laurier is a native of New England and lives i…

Resources

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