Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels.
Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels.
Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I (1914–1918), and again early in World War II (1939–1945). The captain of a German merchant raider, Felix von Luckner, used the sailing ship SMS Seeadler for his voyage (1916–1917). The Germans used a sailing ship at this stage of the war because coal-fired ships had limited access to fuel outside of territories held by the Central Powers due to international regulations concerning refueling of combat ships in neutral countries. [1]
Germany sent out two waves of six surface raiders each during World War II. Most of these vessels were in the 8,000–10,000 long tons (8,100–10,200 t) range. Many of these vessels had originally been refrigerator ships, used to transport fresh food from the tropics. These vessels were faster than regular merchant vessels, which was important for a warship. They were armed with six 15 cm (5.9 inch) naval guns, some smaller guns, torpedoes, reconnaissance seaplanes and some were equipped for minelaying. Several captains demonstrated great creativity in disguising their vessels to masquerade as allied or as neutral merchants.
The Kormoran fought the Australian light cruiser Sydney in a mutually destructive battle in November 1941.
Italy intended to outfit four refrigerated banana boats as merchant raiders during World War II ( Ramb I , Ramb II , Ramb III and Ramb IV ). Only Ramb I and Ramb II served as merchant raiders and neither ship sank enemy vessels due to naval presence in the Red Sea. The New Zealand cruiser Leander sank Ramb I off the Maldives (February 1941) while it tried to make for Japan; Ramb II did reach the Far East, where the Japanese prevented her from raiding, ultimately took her over and converted her to an auxiliary transport ship. (Ramb III served as a convoy escort until torpedoed and ended up as a German minelayer, and Ramb IV was converted for the Italian Royal Navy to a hospital ship.)
These commerce raiders carried no armour because their purpose was to attack merchantmen, not to engage warships—it would also be difficult to fit armour to a civilian vessel. Eventually most were sunk or transferred to other duties.
The British deployed Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC) in World War I and in World War II. Generally adapted from passenger liners, they were larger than the German merchant raiders, were used as convoy escorts and did not disguise themselves. The British AMC Carmania sank the German SMS Cap Trafalgar which had been altered to look more like the Carmania.
During World War I, the British Royal Navy deployed Q-ships to combat German U-boats. Q-ships were warships posing as merchant ships so as to lure U-boats to attack them; their mission of destroying enemy warships differed significantly from the raider objective of disrupting enemy trade.
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them. The use of Q-ships contributed to the abandonment of cruiser rules restricting attacks on unarmed merchant ships and to the shift to unrestricted submarine warfare in the 20th century.
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.
Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules that call for warships to search merchantmen and place crews in "a place of safety" before sinking them, unless the ship shows "persistent refusal to stop ... or active resistance to visit or search". To follow the rules a submarine must surface, defeating the purpose of submarines and putting itself in danger of attack.
Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them.
Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I consisted of various military engagements that took place on the Asian continent and on Pacific islands. They include naval battles, the Allied conquest of German colonial possessions in the Pacific Ocean and China, and an anti-Russian rebellion in Russian Turkestan and an Ottoman-supported rebellion in British Malaya. The most significant military action was the careful and well-executed Siege of Qingdao in China, but smaller actions were also fought at Bita Paka and Toma in German New Guinea.
SS Cap Trafalgar was a German ocean liner launched in 1913 for the Hamburg Süd line. In 1914, she was converted for use as an auxiliary cruiser during World War I. She was the first armed merchant cruiser sunk by a ship of the same class; she was destroyed by HMS Carmania, also a converted ocean liner, in a furious action in the South Atlantic on 14 September 1914. It was the world's first battle between former ocean liners.
The Italian ship Ramb I was a pre-war "banana boat" converted to an auxiliary cruiser in World War II. Ramb I operated as an armed merchant in the Red Sea and was ordered to sail to Japan after the fall of Massawa to the Allies. She was sunk in the Indian Ocean before she could reach her intended destination.
SMS Möwe was a merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy which operated against Allied shipping during World War I.
The Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb III was built at Genoa by Ansaldo in 1938.
Ramb IV was an Italian hospital ship, built at Monfalcone by the United Yards of the Adriatic in 1938.
The Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb II was a pre-war banana boat built at Monfalcone by the CRDA in 1937. She briefly served as an auxiliary cruiser with Regia Marina early in World War II before becoming an auxiliary transport with the Imperial Japanese Navy later in her career.
The Action of 16 March 1917 was a naval engagement in which the British armed boarding steamer SS Dundee and HMS Achilles, a Warrior-class armoured cruiser, fought the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Leopard, which sank with the loss of all 319 hands and six men of a British boarding party.
The action of 27 February 1941 was a single ship action between the British cruiser HMS Leander and the Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb I. It began when Leander ordered an un-flagged freighter to stop for an inspection. The freighter raised the Italian colours and engaged Leander which sank Ramb I shortly after. Most of the Italian crew were rescued and taken to Addu Atoll, thence to Ceylon. Leander patrolled southwards to investigate more reports of commerce raiders.
The action of 29 February 1916 was a naval engagement fought during the First World War between the United Kingdom and the German Empire. SMS Greif, a German commerce raider, broke out into the North Sea and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe dispatched Royal Navy warships to intercept the raider. Four British vessels intercepted the commerce raider Greif. The armed merchant cruiser RMS Alcantara and Greif fought a brief engagement before British reinforcements arrived when both were severely damaged, both being sunk.
The Scuttling of SMS Cormoran off Guam on April 7, 1917 was the result of the United States entry into World War I and the internment of the German merchant raider SMS Cormoran. The incident was the only hostile encounter between United States and German military forces during the Pacific Ocean campaign of the war.
SMS Leopard was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1912 as Yarrowdale, captured in 1916 by the Imperial German Navy, converted into a commerce raider in Germany, and sunk with all hands by the Royal Navy in 1917.
The action of 4 April 1941 was a naval engagement fought during the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. A German commerce raider, Thor, encountered the British armed merchant cruiser HMS Voltaire and sank her after a short engagement. The German crew rescued the British survivors, some of whom were repatriated and gave an account to the Admiralty. It was accepted that German commerce raiders were too well armed for converted ocean liners equipped with obsolete guns but nothing else was available to the Royal Navy until later in the war.
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.