Reeman, Douglas A Ship Must Die

Set in 1944, this Indian Ocean tale looks at the Allied pursuit of what British and Australian sources believe to a German sea raider which had been attacking and sinking merchant ships both in and out of convoy. Author Reeman tips the reader off long before his fictitious Allied naval brass figure out that the sea raider is not one but two raiders (the SALAMANDER and WÖLFCHEN) acting in concert. And, while one of the vessels (the SALAMANDER, under Kapitän zur See Kurt Rietz) honorably plucks survivors of the ships that she has sunk out of the sea for internment, the other ship (the aptly named WÖLFCHEN) plays “bad cop,” massacring all eyewitnesses to her actions. A great many ships – merchant and naval – “die” before Reeman brings the reader to a thrilling climax in which a British / soon-to-be Australian light cruiser named ANDROMEDA tracks down and sinks both raiders.