False Flags

Now available in paperback, False Flags tells the epic story of German raider voyages to the South Seas during the early years of World War II. 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 told here in its entirety.

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.