The Poor Relation
Lawrence Paterson, Kriegsmarine Southern Command 1941-45 (Osprey, 2026)
World War II naval history tends towards the big battles between the big ships. There is nothing wrong with that, but the war was full of action along all the belligerents’ coastlines fought by small and sometimes ad-hoc fleets. In Kriegsmarine Southern Command, Lawrence Paterson surveys a smaller German naval command that was put in place as the war expanded into the Balkans and the Soviet Union. The purpose of the new German command was to cooperate with other Axis fleets in the Balkans region, including the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. The Germans would provide the umbrella while the other fleets mostly provided the muscle.
Paterson begins with the establishment of the fleet to meet the growing Allied threat after 1940. The ships in this new command included a single German destroyer, some German E-boats and minesweepers, a few submarines, and converted trawlers. The Italians, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Croatians also deployed ships in the region. Paterson examines the command structure in the Black Sea, Aegean, and Adriatic, and he considers the thorny problem of moving ships from Germany into the theatre. He then embarks on a detailed narrative of the fleet’s operations from 1940 through the deteriorating conditions on the eastern front, ending in 1944. In his analysis of this fleet, Paterson argues that Hitler’s failure to grasp the importance of naval operations undermined the fleet’s capacity to make a difference. That was not helped by persistent logistical problems and lack of supply. Nevertheless, Paterson concludes, the Axis forces still punched above their weight against the Soviets.
Kriegsmarine Southern Command is an interesting survey on a little known fleet operating in a theatre that does not get much attention. Patterson’s narrative sections are well written, though he could have joined the dots a bit better on his descriptions of the fleet’s components and command. The illustrations and maps that accompany the text are very useful for following the action. World War II naval history enthusiasts will enjoy this diversion into something of a backwater.
