Interesting show about Germany's "raiders" on TV last night. Armed[disguised]ships such as the "Penquin" were responsible for 50% of merchant ships sunk.While the 2 capital ships Bismark and Priz Eugen had none. And for the most part,they let the crews abandon ship before sinking them. POW's but better than floundering around in the ocean waiting for help.
There were a number of these merchant cruisers that successfully operated as raiders early in the war. Officially, they were classified as 'Auxiliary Cruisers.' The following list provides basics on them: Orion: 15,000t, 14 kts. 6 x 5.9", 1 x 7.5cm, 4 x 3.7 cm flak, 4 x 2cm flak 6 21" torpedo tubes, 228 mines. Fate: Sunk 4/5/45 by Soviet aircraft at Swinemunde. Atlantis, Pinguin: 17,000t, 16 kts. 6 x 5.9", 1 x 7.5cm, 2 x 3.7cm flak, 2 x 2cm flak, 4 21" TT, 420 mines 2 aircraft. Fates: Atlantis: Sunk 23/11/41 by HMS Devonshire off Ascension Is. in Atlantic. Pinguin: Sunk by gunfire 8/5/41 by HMS Cornwall off Seychelles in Indian Ocean. Widder: 16,000t, 14kts. 6 5.9", 1 x 7.5cm, 4 3.7cm flak, 2 2cm flak 4 21" TT, 60 mines, 2 aircraft. Fate: Returned to merchant service 1945 as Ulysses later renamed Fechenheim in 1953 Thor: 10,000t, 18kts. 6 5.9", 1 x 6cm, 2 x 3.7cm flak, 2 x 2cm flak, 2 21" TT, 300 mines, 2 aircraft. Fate: Sank in Yokohama harbor after fire on board 30/11/42. Stier: 11,000t, 14kts. 6 x 5.9", 1 x 3.7cm flak, 4 x 2cm flak, 2 21" TT, 35 mines, 2 aircraft. Fate: Sunk by armed auxiliary cruiser Stephen Hopkins of Bahia 27/9/42. Komet: 7,500t, 16kts. 6 5.9", 1 x 6cm, 1 x 3.7cm flak, 2 x 2cm flak, 6 21" TT (two submerged), 25 mines, 2 aircraft, 1 S-boat. 2 x 3.7 cm added in 1942. Fate: Sunk RN MTB 236 off Cape de la Hague 14/11/42. Kormoran: 19,000t, 18kts. 6 x 5.9", 4 x 3.7cm flak, 4 x 2cm flak, 4 x 21" TT, 420 mines, 2 aircraft, 1 S-boat. Fate: Sunk by HMAS Sydney off Sharks Bay 19/11/41. Michel: 11,000t, 16kts. 6 x 5.9", 1 x 4.1" flak, 4 x 3.7cm flak, 4 x 2cm flak, 4 x 21" TT, 50 mines, 2 aircraft, 1 S-boat. Fate: Torpedoed by USS Tarpon south of Yokohama 17/10/43 sunk. Coronel: 11,000t, 16kts. 6 x 5.9", 6 x 4cm flak, 8 x 2cm flak, 2 x 21" TT, mines, 4 aircraft. Fate: Conversion never completed. Renamed Togo 1944 converted to fighter direction ship. Renamed Svalbard 1947 returned to merchant service. Hansa: 10,000t, 18kts. 8 x 5.9", 1 x 7.5cm, 3 x 4cm flak, 4 x 21" TT (2 submerged), 150 mines, 2 aircraft. Fate: Conversion not completed. Became training ship 1943, returned to merchant service 1945 as Empire Humber. Renamed Glengarry 1946.
Makes you wonder why on earth Germany did not have 5-10 of these ready in mid late 39?!!! These were sucessful in ww1, would cost less to fit out than real warships cost to build. A major missed opportunity.
An account on merchant raiders: Captain Ernst Thienemann had been working for four years in Berlin, for the OKM ship-construction department. He had supervised since the beginning of the war the refitting of innocent merchant ships into auxiliar cruisers. He had seen sadly how his officers went to the highseas, while he stayed behind his desk in Berlin. He saw all this: Captain Rogge was the first to depart in the Atlantis in 1940. The journey lasted 662 days and he sank 140.000 tons of shipping, before the ship was sunk by the cruiser H.M.S. Devonshire in November 1941, just before the Atlantis headed back home. All the crew was rescued by U-boats and returned safely to Germany. On May 8th 1941, captain Kreuder's Pinguin had been sunk by the cruiser H.M.S. Cornwall in the Indian Ocean. Kreuder had sunk 120.000 tons of shipping and sent 50.000 of their supplies to Germany, including whale oil, wheat, etc., which were scarce in Germany. Kreuder's succes could be compared with that of the auxiliar cruisers Emden and Moewe in the First World War. The auxiliar cruiser Kormoran of captain Detmers attacked and sunk the cruiser H.M.A.S. Sydney, but had to scuttled due to the severe damages it took in the battle because of the Komoran's lack of armour. There were also the Orion of captain Weyher, the Thor of captain Kaehler and captain Gumprich on her second vogage. The Komet of captain Eyssen, the Widder and Michel under captain Von Ruckteschell. And finally, the Stier of captain Gerlach, which was the last auxiliar cruiser to scape from the "European fortress". In 1943 things were very different, the Royal Navy had been improving its radars and recoinassence aeroplanes, so it became tremendously difficult for these ships to sneak unseen into the Atlantic. One morning of 1943, an officer came into captain Thienemann's office and said: 'I am here to replace you. They will give you a ship'. The ship put under his command was the 5.600-ton and single-screw auxiliar cruiser Togo, 5.600 tons, which had belonged to the German Africa Line. She could made 17 knots with her MAN machine. Her ofitial name was Boot 14. She had six 6-inches guns, six ainti-aircraft 4-centimmetres guns, several machine guns and Vierlinger of four cannons of 2-centimmetres. She had three hydro-planes on board, perhaps Ar-196, one ready for action on deck and two other below decks. She looked as an entirely innocent merchant ship; her disguise was very well designed. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, C.-in-C. of the German Navy told Thienemann: 'This is the last try we do of auxiliar cruisers, perhaps, if there is luck and everything goes well, it will be the penultimate. Whilst this method is successfull, we should try, regardless of their [i.e. the Allies'] air reconnaissence'. Then Thienemann started realising how dangerous his mission was. He had not thought about it at the beginning because he was so happy and excited, but now he thought that he must take his ship down the Channel. The battleships had been sucessful a year earlier, but could his slow merchant ship do it? 'The posibilties of success are one in a hundred', said Raeder, 'But if you succeed, you will not come back to Germany, you will go to Japan'. On January 31st 1943, captain Thienemann and 350 men departed from Ruegen. They named their ship Coronel after the victorious scene of Admiral Graf von Spee in South America during WWI. He took his ship to Christiansaand in Norway, where he lost 24 hours for an order sent from Kiel that stated: 'Do not depart, there is bad weather'. Indeed, there was bad weather, in Kiel! The sun shone ferouscely in Christiansaand... The Coronel headed North, to the Arctic Circle, then she turned 180 degrees and headed South, to confuse the Norweigan informers. At Heligoland there was a storm which dragged a lot of mines and made the way too dangerous, so the ship went to Sylt. Finally, on February 7th, the Coronel tried a last push. They saw a minesweeper hit a mine, which hardly made it back to Rotterdam. But in that season of the year, the mine-free part of the Channel was not very deep and the Coronel was too heavy. The crew yelled: 'Four fathoms... three and three quarters —then they yelled louder— three and a half, three, two and a half, two...' 'Stop the engines! Full a-stern!' yelled Thienemann, but it was too late. A terrible noise was heard and the ship shook violently; they had struck a sand bank... Forty-five minutes later, with all the power of the engine they managed to realease the ship. Then, when she was near Dunkirk, she ran aground again, but this time more seriuosly. There would have to pass eight-hours for the high-tide to come. Inmediately, four entire mobile anti-aircraft units were stationed in the coast. Fortunately, there were snow, rain and fog. The next night, the Coronel was realeased and went on with her trip, but as she could not reach Dover before sunrise, she went to Dunkirk. There, a Luftwaffe officer boarded the ship; he was an expert in Channel-operations and a radar-operator of the Luftwaffe too. The ship departed with an escort of 12 minesweepers and headed towards Calais. 'Sir, we are now in the range of Dover's radars', announced the pilot. Seconds later, flashes were seen in the coast. Dover's 16-inches-batteries opened fire. Seventy seconds later eight enormous water-columns three hundred-feet-high splashed near the ship. For forty minutes the mini-fleet was shot, but the British guns did not hit it even once. 'We have had too much luck' thought Thienemann. He was right, the British intelligence had already realised that the Togo had spent too much time in Swinemünde's shipyards. Therefore, the British had several cruisers, a battleship and several destroyers already waiting for her. Five days later, a smooth moon-light allowed RAF bombers to hit the ship in the bows with a bomb. Then she took her wounded-men to Boulogne and went to Dunkirk to be fixed. There, the RAF kept attacking her and finally achieved to pierce the deck amid-ship; but it did not explote. It was not the end of the Togo, but it was the end of auxiliar cruisers. She went back to Germany were she became Nachtjagdleitschiff Togo, a floating-communication-centre for night fighters. A little bit later, Boot 5, a more modern auxiliar cruiser was prepared, but never left port like the Coronel. Now the Coronel can be seen as the merchant ship Topeka. The Topeka [ 07. June 2004, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]
A new book about Raider Atlantis is out. Has more data on Rogge. He joined navy at age 15. The author got his log books.
The Pinguin etc. took the victims' crew on board before sinking them,right?Wonder if the Brits knew this before hunting the raiders down?
the Atlantis book is through the Naval Institute press correct ? you will also find that every Raider has been covered in the German language from years gone by. I've got a copy of Rogge's book from 1956 and it is a classic but would like to update.... E ~
little addition. the pic that Fried posted is of the nachjagdschiffe Togo with the Würzburg Riese and other radar equipm. An excellent read is by Fregattenkapitän a. D. Kurt Petsch who served on the Togo. 211 pages photos and maps. Samll format at 6 x 8 1/2 inches. "Nachtjagdleitschiff Togo" sweet little book....in Deutsch
Yes, but am still awaiting the translation. The old school German letter-type is too hard to read. Do you still have Ulrich's email address by any chance, Erich? I will write him again. I lost mine in the pc crash. No word on Mr. Zillich either. BTW the TOGO was preceded by the NJL KRETA, sunk by HMS UNSEEN off the NE coast of Corsica in 1943.
Another Raider was sunk off coast of Yugoslavia as I recall. Wonder if any thought was given to sending prizes to the German U boat base in Java. Prizes taken in Indian ocean for example.
What ever gave you the idea that SS Stephen Hopkins was an auxiliary cruiser. Stephen Hopkins was a straight forward Liberty ship. Note "SS" not "USS" - a merchant vessel. From Office of the Chief of Information, US Navy http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/wwii/facts/armguard.txt "On Sunday morning, Sept. 27, 1942, the Liberty ship Stephen Hopkins was on her first voyage, sailing alone in the south Atlantic bound from Cape Town to Dutch Guiana. "The ship and her armed guard crew of naval reservists were intercepted by the heavily armed German raider, Steir, which was accompanying the blockade runner, Tannenfels. Steir, with far superior firepower, considered the Hopkins an easy target and her crew prisoners waiting to be taken. "At 1,000 yards the battle began. After 15 minutes of intense firing, only the single 4-inch gun remained in action as the Liberty ship was splintered by shells. The lopsided battle continued for three hours until the sinking Liberty ship was abandoned. Forty-two men died. The survivors sailed in an open lifeboat for 28 days to a tiny Brazilian coastal village. "Steir, hit repeatedly by fire from the armed guard crew, was heavily damaged. On fire, Steir exploded and went to the bottom." For more detailed information see http://www.aed-guard.com/hoppy.html Regards, Rich
this might be of interest........one of several excellent sites to add to what Fried has already listed in his text. http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2833/kriegsmarine/raider/raider.html E~
