German destroyers and a North Sea communications fiasco

The book combines strong plans with operational detail from German sources. Its account of the December 1939 rendezvous shows destroyers, cruisers, aircraft, and shore commands failing to establish a common picture after the British submarine attack. A defective aerial, use of the wrong wireless band, and mistaken interpretation of distant fighting compounded the confusion after Leipzig and Nürnberg were torpedoed. The episode shows that early-war naval operations were often messy even when crews and commanders were trying to follow procedure.