Widder | |
History | |
---|---|
Germany | |
Owner | HAPAG |
Builder | Howaldtswerke, Kiel |
Launched | 1930 |
Christened | Neumark |
Homeport | Kiel |
Fate | Requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine 1939 |
Nazi Germany | |
Namesake | Aries |
Operator | Kriegsmarine |
Builder | Blohm & Voss |
Yard number | 3 |
Acquired | 1939 |
Recommissioned | 9 December 1939 |
Decommissioned | 1941 |
Renamed |
|
Reclassified | Auxiliary cruiser, 1939 |
Homeport | Kiel |
Nickname(s) |
|
Fate | War reparation to the United Kingdom |
United Kingdom | |
Namesake | Ulysses |
Acquired | circa 1945 |
Renamed | Ulysses |
Fate | Sold, 1950 |
Germany | |
Acquired | 1950 |
Renamed | Fechenheim |
Fate | Wrecked near Bergen, 1955 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Merchant vessel |
Tonnage | 7,851 GRT |
Displacement | 16,800 tons |
Length | 152 m (499 ft) |
Beam | 18.2 m (60 ft) |
Draught | 8.3 m (27 ft) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
Range | 34,000 nmi (63,000 km; 39,000 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Endurance | 141 days |
Complement | 364 |
Armament |
|
Aircraft carried | 2 × Heinkel He 114B |
Widder (HSK 3) was an auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that was used as a merchant raider in the Second World War. Her Kriegsmarine designation was Schiff 21, to the Royal Navy she was Raider D. The name Widder (Ram) represents the constellation Aries in German.
Built for HAPAG, the Hamburg America Line, at Howaldtswerke, Kiel, she was launched in 1930 as the freighter Neumark. After an uneventful career she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine for use as a commerce raider. She was converted for this purpose by Blohm & Voss in late 1939, and commissioned as the raider Widder on 9 December of that year. She sailed on her first and only raiding voyage in May 1940.
Widder sailed as part of the Kriegsmarine's first wave of commerce raiders, sailing on 6 May 1940 under the command of Korvettenkapitän (later Fregattenkapitän ) Helmuth von Ruckteschell.
Leaving Germany on 6 May 1940, she made for Bergen, in Norway. On 13 May the Widder confronted the British submarine HMS Clyde on the surface, enjoining an exchange of gunfire which lasted for over an hour, with no hits for either side. After the engagement, the cruiser sought shelter in Sandsfjord. On 14 May she sailed to the open sea, crossing the Arctic Circle the next day. On 21 August 1940, 800 miles west of the Canary Islands, she sank the SS Anglo Saxon, which had been carrying a cargo of coal from Newport, Wales, to Bahía Blanca, Argentina. After refuelling from the auxiliary ship Nordmark, she slipped through the Denmark Strait. Over a 5½ month period she captured and sank ten ships, totalling 58,644 GRT.
The Widder was reported to have machine-gunned the crew of the SS Anglo Saxon in their life-boats; one jolly boat with seven crewmen got away. Over two months later, on 27 October, the last two survivors in the boat landed in the Bahamas after a 2,275 mile voyage. One of the two died when his new ship was torpedoed in 1941, the other survived the war and testified against von Ruckteschell, who was sentenced to 10 years for war crimes. He died in prison in 1948.
Having completed her mission, she returned to occupied France on 31 October 1940.
Deemed unsuitable as a merchant raider due to persistent drive problems, Widder was re-christened Neumark, and used as a repair ship in Norway, playing a major role in repairing the battleship Tirpitz in 1943/1944. After the war she was taken into British service as Ulysses, then sold back to Germany as Fechenheim in 1950 before being wrecked off Bergen in 1955. Her hull was scrapped shortly after.
She was one of only two German auxiliary cruisers to survive the war, after one 1940 cruise. Her captain, Helmuth von Ruckteschell, was one of only two German naval commanders convicted of war crimes at the end of the war.
Date | Ship name | Country | Tonnage | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|
13 June 1940 | British Petrol | United Kingdom | 6,891 GRT | Sunk |
26 June 1940 | Krossfonn | Norway | 9,323 GRT | Captured |
10 July 1940 | Davisian | United Kingdom | 6,433 GRT | Sunk |
13 July 1940 | King John | United Kingdom | 5,228 GRT | Sunk |
4 August 1940 | Beaulieu | Norway | 6,114 GRT | Sunk |
8 August 1940 | Oostplein | Netherlands | 5,059 GRT | Sunk |
10 August 1940 | Killoran | Finland | 1,817 GRT | Sunk |
21 August 1940 | Anglo-Saxon | United Kingdom | 5,596 GRT | Sunk |
1 September 1940 | Cymbeline | United Kingdom | 6,317 GRT | Sunk |
8 September 1940 | Antonios Chandris | Greece | 5,866 GRT | Sunk |
The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.
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.
Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels.
An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in long distance and high value trade.
Komet (HSK-7) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine in the Second World War, intended for service as a commerce raider. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 45, to the Royal Navy she was named Raider B.
Orion (HSK-1) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine which operated as a merchant raider in World War II. Blohm & Voss built her in Hamburg in 1930–31 as the cargo ship Kurmark. The navy requisitioned her at the start of World War II, had her converted into the auxiliary cruiser Orion, and commissioned her on 9 December 1939. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 36, her Royal Navy designation was Raider A. She was named after the constellation Orion.
Thor was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine in World War II, intended for service as a commerce raider. Also known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 10; to the Royal Navy she was Raider E. She was named after the Germanic deity Thor.
Hellmuth von Ruckteschell was a German naval officer during World War II; he was one of the most successful merchant raider commanders of Nazi Germany, serving as the captain of the commerce raiders Widder and Michel. After the war Ruckteschell was convicted of war crimes and died in prison.
MS Togo was a German merchant ship that was launched in 1938. Requisitioned by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine as Schiff 14, in April 1940 she participated in the invasion of Norway; in August 1940 was converted to a minelayer as part of the German plan to invade England; then from June 1941 she began conversion to the armed auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) HSK Coronel.
Michel(HSK-9) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that operated as a merchant raider during World War II. Built by Danziger Werft in Danzig 1938/39 as the freighter Bielsko for the Polish Gdynia-America-Line (GAL), she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine at the outbreak of World War II and converted into the hospital ship Bonn. In the summer of 1941, she was converted into the auxiliary cruiser Michel, and was commissioned on 7 September 1941. Known as Schiff 28, her Royal Navy designation was Raider H. She was the last operative German raider of World War II.
The Hansa was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine used during World War II.
SMS Möwe was a merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy which operated against Allied shipping during World War I.
HMS Clyde was a submarine of the River class. She was built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched on 15 March 1934. Building was completed on 12 April 1935. Initially planned to be part of a class 20 strong, Clyde would be the third and final of the boats to be completed and launched.
Theodor Detmers was a German naval officer and captain of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Detmers commanded the commerce raider Kormoran when it sunk the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in a mutually destructive battle.
German submarine U-46 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She had a highly successful career during the war.
HMHS Gloucester Castle was a steam ship originally built for the Union-Castle Line, but requisitioned for use as a British hospital ship during the First World War. On 30 March 1917 she was torpedoed by German U-boat UB-32. She was, however, salvaged, and returned to civilian service after the war. She was sunk by the German commerce raider Michel in 1942 off Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.
Empire Dawn was a 7,241 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1940 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland, Co Durham, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Entering service in April 1941, she served until 11 September 1942 when she was sunk by the German raider Michel.
The German commerce raiders of World War I were surface vessels used by the Imperial German Navy for its Handelskrieg, a campaign against Allied seaborne trade. The ships comprised warships, principally cruisers, stationed in the German colonial empire before the war began, express liners commissioned as auxiliary cruisers and later, freighters outfitted as merchant raiders. These vessels had a number of successes and had a significant effect on Allied naval strategy, particularly in the early months of the war.
SS Anglo Saxon was a cargo ship carrying coal from Wales to Argentina that was sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser Widder on 21 August 1940. Several of the crew managed to get in a jolly boat, an all purpose small boat that could also be used as a lifeboat. It carried the surviving members of the ship's crew west across the Atlantic Ocean for 70 days, before finally landing in Eleuthera. By the time the jolly boat made landfall, only two of the seven survivors of the attack were still alive.
Ulrich Mohr was a German naval officer and the adjutant on the Kriegsmarine auxiliary cruiser Atlantis during the Second World War, where one of his functions was to board captured ships and search for secret papers that might be of use to the German war effort.