I have been there ... so I just had to buy the book!

Having only just returned from our fourth cruise to the Baltic, when I saw that Seaforth Publishing had just brought out a book entitled THE NAVAL WAR IN THE BALTIC 1939 – 1945, I just had to buy a copy!

The book has been written by Poul Grooss, a retired Captain in the Royal Danish Navy who teaches at the Royal Danish Naval Academy and who is Chairman of the Naval History Society of the Royal Danish Naval Museum.

The book (ISBN 978 1 5267 0000 1) has eleven chapters:

1. The Baltic: Geography and History
2. Political Manoeuvring Between the Wars
3. Naval Developments Between the Wars
4. The Attack on Poland
5. The Baltic Region After the Polish campaign: October 1939 – June 1941
6. Attack on the Soviet Union: 22 June 1941 – Spring 1942
7. The War Between Spring 1942 and Spring 1944
8. Towards the End: Spring 1944 – New Year 1944/1945
9. New Year 1944/1945 to the End of the War – Month by Month
10. The End of the War: Aftermath and Retrospect
11. Postscript

I am already about half way through the book, and it has certainly been very interesting and thrown considerable light on this relatively unknown aspect of the Second World War.

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At the same time as I bought this book, I also ordered a copy of HITLER'S FORGOTTEN FLOTILLAS: KRIEGSMARINE SECURITY FORCES.

It has also been published by Seaforth Publishing (ISBN 978 1 4738 8239 3) and was written by Lawrence Paterson. The book has ten chapters entitled:

1. Development of Naval Mine Warfare and Auxiliary Ships in the Kaiser's Navy
2. Defending Germany's Coasts: Minesweepers, Vorpostenboote and, U-Jäger of the Kriegsmarine, 1939 – 1940
3. Expanding Horizons: German Pyrrhic Victory in Norway and the Fall of France, 1940
4. Establishing the Security Divisions, 1941
5. Sun and Steel: The Security Forces move into North Africa and the Soviet Union, 1941 – 1942
6. War in the North and West: The Security Forces in Western Europe, the Baltic and Norway, 1942 – 1943
7. War in Southern Russia: The Security Forces in the Black Sea, July 1942 – 1944
8. The 'Inland Seas': The Security Forces in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Tyrrhenian Seas, June 1942 – December 1943
9. The Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean, January 1944 – May 1945
10. Elimination: Allied Forces mount Operations against the Security Forces, 1944 – 1945

This looks as if it will be a useful adjunct to certain aspects of Poul Grooss' book as well as increasing my understanding of the role played by the Kriegsmarine's patrol boats, minesweepers, submarine hunters, barrage breakers, landing craft, minelayers, and riverine vessels.