Shado Voyage The Extraordinary Wartime Escape of the Legendary SS Bremen [Hardcover]

A fast-paced, little-known story of danger at sea on the eve of World War II

On the sweltering evening of August 30, 1939, the German luxury liner S.S. Bremen slipped her moorings on Manhattan's west side, abandoned all caution (including foghorns, radar, and running lights), and sailed out of New York Harbor, commencing a dramatic escape run that would challenge the rules for unrestricted warfare at sea. Written by naval historian Peter Huchthausen, Shadow Voyage tells the epic adventure of the Bremen's extraordinary flight to Germany, which became a life-and-death race with British warships and submarines intent on intercepting her. Revealing new details from naval archives, Huchthausen's riveting narrative captures the great courage and magnanimity of the Royal Navy, the cunning and intricate planning of the Germans, and the tension and ambiguity that preceded the outbreak of World War II.

Captain Peter Huchthausen, U.S. Navy, Retired (Hiram, ME), has had a distinguished career, serving at sea and on land as a Soviet naval analyst and as a naval attach? in Yugoslavia, Romania, and the Soviet Union. He is now a consultant and writer, author of the bestselling Hostile Waters and October Fury (0-471-41534-0).

* On August 30, 1939, the 52,000-ton Nazi passenger ship Bremen stole out of New York harbor, cleared Sandy Hook, shut out its lights, and veered north toward Greenland, using bad weather as a shield against what would become many pursuers. For the British to gain the Bremen would be a propaganda victory, but, more important, its seizure would also provide the Royal Navy with a much-needed troop transport ship, the eventual use the Kriegsmarine put it to. The Bremen therefore steered an elaborate evasive course that took it far into arctic waters and to Murmansk, Russia, a friendly port by virtue of the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact. From there it steamed to Germany, evading a British vessel that did not fire upon her, it appears, l£0