This is a compendium of seven Naval Staff Histories which deals with operations by major German surface units as follows: the destruction of the pocket battleship Graf Spee, by three Royal Navy light cruisers off the River Plate; the hunt for the Bismark; the Battle of the North Cape when Scharnhorst was sunk by HMS Duke of York in a snowy, night action; the escape of the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst up the English Channel through British defences in the "Channel Dash"; the series of attacks on Tirpitz by aircraft carriers; long-range bombers and midget submarines in her Norwegian lair; and the predations of disguised merchant raiders such as the notorious Pinguin.