The German Navy, or Kriegsmarine, fought a valiant campaign in World War II. Though her surface fleet was small, German ships such as the Graf Spee, Bismarck and Tirpitz tied down a substantial amount of Allied naval resources for much of the war, and the U-boat fleet almost starved Britain into surrender. Kriegsmarine is a pictorial record of Germany's naval forces before and during World War II: from the rebirth of the U-boat fleet and the new pocket battleships; through the early naval campaigns of World War II; to the U-boats initial success before losses mounted dramatically; and finally the small-scale actions that characterised much of the navy's activity later in the war.