In 1940, the Germanmerchant raiderAtlantis shelled and captured her; took her crew prisoner; and scuttled her. The shelling killed at least two of City of Bagdad's crew, and wounded a number of others. The remainder were held as prisoners of war for at least eight months: three months aboard Atlantis, one month aboard the prize shipDurmitor, and four months in a PoW camp in Italian Somaliland. A number of City of Bagdad's crew died in captivity, either aboard Atlantis, or in Italian Somaliland. British or Empire troops liberated them in March or April 1941, when they invaded Italian Somaliland.
Geierfels was the third of a series of seven sister ships that Joh. C. Tecklenborg of Geestemünde in Bremerhaven built for DDG Hansa between 1915 and 1921. The others were Altenfels (later renamed Stolzenfels) launched in 1915; Treuenfels launched in 1916; Frauenfels launched in 1919; and Bärenfels, Marienfels, and Ockenfels launched in 1921.[1][2]
This was the first of two ships built for DDG Hansa that were named Geierfels. The second was a heavy-lift ship that was launched in 1930, completed in 1931, and sunk in 1940.[3][4]
Geierfels
Tecklenborg built the ship as yard number 277. She was launched on 8 November 1918 as Geierfels, and completed on 29 April 1920.[2] Her registered length was 470.3ft (143.3m), her beam was 58.2ft (17.7m), and her depth was 32.3ft (9.8m).[5] Her tonnages were 7,490GRT, 4,698NRT, and 11,400DWT. She had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine that was rated at 3,600 ihp[2] or 347 NHP,[6] and gave her a speed of 12 knots (22km/h). She was designed for a crew of 55. DDG Hansa registeredGeierfels at Bremen. Her code letters were QLCS.[2]
By 1930 City of Bagdad had been fitted with a Bauer-Wach exhaust steam turbine, which was driven by steam from the low-pressure cylinder of her piston engine. The turbine drove the same shaft as the piston engine, via double-reduction gearing and a Föttingerfluid coupling.[5] It increased her total power to 4,800 ihp,[10] or 819 NHP.[5] Also by 1930, her call sign was GDKQ,[11] and by 1934 this had superseded her code letters. By 1935 she was equipped with wireless direction finding.[12] By 1936, Ellerman Lines had become her owners,[13][14] as Montgomerie and Workman had withdrawn from ship-owning.[9]
On 8 December 1939, City of Bagdad left Calcutta. She called at Colombo in Ceylon; Lourenço Marques; Cape Town; and Saint John, New Brunswick; and on 3 February 1940 reached Boston. She called at New York; Philadelphia; and Baltimore; and on 1 March reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she joined her first convoy, HX 26, which left Halifax on 9 March. HX 26 was bound for Liverpool, but City of Bagdad detached and continued to Portland, where she arrived on 26 March. From there she sailed via Southend, where she joined Convoy FN 123. This was a North Sea northbound convoy to Methil in Scotland, but City of Bagdad detached for Hull, where she arrived on 31 March.[15]
On 28 April 1940, City of Bagdad left either Hull or Immingham, and by 20 May she was leaving Middlesbrough to join Convoy FS 174. This was a North Sea southbound convoy coming from the River Tyne, which she joined to reach Southend. There she transferred to outbound convoy OA 153GF, which left Southend on 22 May, and became Convoy OG 31F on 25 May. She called at Dakar in Senegal on 26 June; and Lourenço Marques on 26–28 June 1940;[15] and was bound for Hong Kong.[16]
On the morning of 11 July, City of Bagdad was about 400 nautical miles (740km) west of Addu Atoll[9][17] when she sighted what appeared to be a Dutch cargo ship, at a range of about 3+1⁄2 nautical miles (6.5km). It was Atlantis in disguise, which closed on City of Bagdad, and then raised the German war ensign; raised signal flags ordering City of Bagdad to stop; and fired two warning shots. The British ship's Master, Captain J Armstrong White, disregarded the instruction, and ordered his wireless telegraphist to transmit the distress signal "QQQQ", meaning "A Q-ship is attacking me".[18]
Atlantis started transmitting with her more powerful radio, which jammed the latter part of City of Bagdad's distress signal. She also opened fire again. Her first salvo felled City of Bagdad's foremast, and with it her radio aerial. The second destroyed her radio room, wounding her wireless telegraphist.[19] Two lascars were killed.[20][21] Captain White gave the order to heave to and abandon ship. He also gathered City of Bagdad's confidential documents, to be destroyed or thrown overboard to prevent their capture. Atlantis ceased fire, and signalled City of Bagdad's crew to remain aboard their ship. In fear, the lascar crew disregarded the German order. Captain White interrupted dealing with the confidential documents in order to try to calm the crew, who continued to lower the lifeboats and abandon ship.[22]
A US Liberty ship, the Prudential Steamship Corporation's Eastern Guide, received City of Bagdad's incomplete signal. Her wireless telegraphist replied "Who shelled by?" Atlantis' wireless operator replied that all was well, but Eastern Guide's wireless telegraphist recognised that the reply was from a different transmitter. He told Atlantis to stop transmitting, and repeated the question. However, a shore-based radio station then interrupted, and ordered Eastern Guide to stop transmitting.[22]
City of Bagdad's crew were imprisoned aboard Atlantis for more than three months, and were joined by the crews and passengers of other ships that she captured and sank. City of Bagdad's cook died aboard Atlantis on 6 August.[26] On 22 October, Atlantis captured the neutralYugoslav cargo ship Durmitor, and kept her as a prize ship.[27] Four days later, the Germans transferred 250 Allied prisoners of war to the prize ship.[28] A prize crew of 12 German ratings, commanded by a Lieutenant Dehnel, sailed Durmitor to Italian Somaliland. She was low on coal, so it was not until 22 November that she reached Warsheikh.[29]
The crews were held in a prisoner of war camp in Italian Somaliland, where the Fifth Engineer died on 31 December 1940, and the Fourth Engineer died on 1 January 1941.[30][31] In March 1941, British, South African, and Somali troops invaded Italian Somaliland, liberated Allied prisoners of war held there, and evacuated them to Kenya.[32]
Related Research Articles
The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer, or merchant or commerce raider of the Kriegsmarine, which, in World War II, travelled more than 161,000 km (100,000 mi) in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships with a combined tonnage of 144,384. Atlantis was commanded by Kapitän zur See Bernhard Rogge, who received the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. She was sunk on 22 November 1941 by the British cruiser HMS Devonshire.
USS Wabash (ID-1824) was a cargo steamship. She was launched in Germany in 1900 for DDG „Hansa“ as Wartburg. In 1905 Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) bought her and renamed her Tübingen. In 1917 the United States seized her and renamed her Seneca. In 1918 she was commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Wabash. She was scrapped in Italy in 1924.
USS Pequot (ID-2998) was a cargo steamship that was built in 1910 for DDG Hansa of Germany as Ockenfels. She was the second of three DDG Hansa ships to be named after Ockenfels in the Rhineland-Palatinate.
SS Uhenfels was a German-built heavy-lift ship that was launched in 1931 for DDG Hansa. She was captured by the Royal Navy in 1939, two months after the start of the Second World War. The UK Ministry of Shipping renamed her Empire Ability and contracted Elder Dempster Lines to operate her. In 1941 a German U-boat sank her by torpedo.
HMS Port Quebec was a British motor ship that was designed and launched in 1939 to be the refrigerated cargo ship Port Quebec, but completed in 1940 as an auxuiliary minelayer. In 1944 she was converted into an aircraft component repair ship and renamed HMS Deer Sound. In 1947 she was returned to her owner, Port Line, and completed as a cargo ship. She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1968.
USS Howick Hall (ID-1303) was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1910 and served in the merchant fleets of the United Kingdom, United States, Italy and Panama. She served in the United States Army in 1917–18 and then the United States Navy in 1918–19. The United States Maritime Commission bought her in 1941, and a German air attack sank her in 1942.
USS Charlton Hall (ID-1359) was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1907 and served in the merchant fleets of the United Kingdom, United States and Greece. She served in the United States Navy in 1918. She was renamed Atlantis and then Anastasis in 1930. She was scrapped in China in 1934.
USS Santa Rosalia (ID-1503) was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1910 and served in the merchant fleets of the United Kingdom, United States and Greece. She served in the United States Navy in 1918–19. She was renamed Stefanos Costomenis in 1929 and sank in the North Atlantic in 1936.
SS Polar Chief was a merchant steamship that was built in England in 1897 and scrapped in Scotland in 1952. In her 55-year career she had previously been called Montcalm, RFA Crenella, Crenella, Rey Alfonso, Anglo-Norse and Empire Chief. Early in the First World War she spent eight months pretending to be the battleship HMS Audacious.
SS Hatarana was a cargo steamship that was built as part of an emergency shipbuilding programme during the First World War, and sunk without loss of life in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. She was built as War Sailor, one of a batch of cargo ships that the United Kingdom ordered from Japanese shipyards. She was renamed Hatarana in 1919 when she changed owners.
SS Themistocles was a UK steam ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1910 in Ireland and scrapped in 1947 in Scotland. She was built for Aberdeen Line, White Star Line managed her for a few years, and she spent the latter part of her career with Shaw, Savill & Albion Line.
SS Lichtenfels was an early example of a modern heavy-lift ship. She was launched in 1929 in Germany for DDG Hansa. She was equipped with a 120 t boom crane capable of lifting fully assembled railway locomotives, which were shipped to India.
SS St Petersburg was a North Sea passenger ferry that was built in Scotland in 1908 for the Great Eastern Railway (GER). In the 1923 railway grouping she passed to the new London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). She was sunk by enemy action in 1941.
Bristol City was a British cargo steamship that was launched in 1919 and sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1943. She was the third of five ships of that name owned by Bristol City Line.
Wentworth was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1919 as War Phlox. The UK Shipping Controller ordered her, and she was built to War Standard design Type A. The Dalgliesh Shipping Company of Newcastle upon Tyne bought her when new, renamed her Wentworth, and owned her throughout her working life. She was sunk in the North Atlantic in 1943 during the Battle of the Atlantic, with the loss of five of her 47 crew.
SS City of Bradford was a British passenger and cargo steamship that was built in Yorkshire in 1903, renamed Donau in 1916, reverted to City of Bradford in 1919 and became Hanne in 1936.
SS Benlomond was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1922 as Cynthiana, changed owners and names a number of times, and was sunk by a U-boat in 1942, with the loss of all but one of her 53 ship's company. The sole survivor, Poon Lim, drifted on a raft for 133 days before being rescued.
SS Sagaing was a British passenger and cargo steamship that was launched in Scotland in 1924. Her peacetime route was a scheduled service between Glasgow or Liverpool, and Rangoon. In 1942, Japanese aircraft damaged her in Trincomalee Harbour in the Easter Sunday Raid on Ceylon. In 1943 she was scuttled to form a pier. In 2018 her wreck was raised, removed from the harbour, and scuttled in deeper water.
SS Bärenfels was a German steam cargo liner that was launched in 1921 for DDG Hansa. In 1940, she took part in the German invasion of Norway and was sunk by Fleet Air Arm dive bombers. Her wreck was raised, and in 1941, she was returned to service. In 1944, a Royal Navy midget submarine sank her, killing 11 of her complement. In 1947, her wreck was raised to be scrapped, but while under tow she sank a third time. The wreck is now a recreational wreck diving site.
MV Deucalion was a Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo ship that was built in England in 1930 and sunk in the Second World War in 1942. She survived being damaged in the Liverpool Blitz in December 1940 and took part in two Malta convoys to relieve the Siege of Malta. She survived air attacks during the first of these, Operation Substance, in July 1941 but was lost on her second Malta Convoy, Operation Pedestal, in August 1942. This was the third of five Blue Funnel ships to be named after Deucalion, a mythological king of Thessaly in Ancient Greece.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships over 300 tons. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1935 – via Southampton City Council.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships over 300 tons. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1936 – via Southampton City Council.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
