 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Nazi Germany | |
| Name | Bielsko |
| Operator | Gdynia-America-Line |
| Builder | Danziger Werft,Danzig |
| Launched | April 1939 |
| Fate | Requisitioned byKriegsmarine, 1939 |
 Kriegsmarine | |
| Name | Michel |
| Namesake | Deutscher Michel |
| Operator | Kriegsmarine |
| Commissioned | 7 September 1941 |
| Renamed |
|
| Reclassified |
|
| Nickname(s) |
|
| Fate | Sunk on 17 October 1943 east ofYokohama |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 4,740 GRT |
| Displacement | 10,900 tons |
| Length | 132 m (433 ft 1 in) |
| Beam | 16.8 m (55 ft 1 in) |
| Draught | 7.4 m (24 ft 3 in) |
| Propulsion | 2 MAN 8 cyl. diesel, one shaft, 6,650 shp (4,960 kW) |
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Range | 34,000 nautical miles (63,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 395 (incl. 18 officers), 5 prize-officers |
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 2Arado Ar 196 A-2 |
Michel(HSK-9) was anauxiliary cruiser ofNazi Germany'sKriegsmarine that operated as amerchant raider duringWorld War II. Built byDanziger Werft inDanzig 1938/39 as the freighterBielsko for the Polish Gdynia-America-Line (GAL), she was requisitioned by theKriegsmarine at the outbreak ofWorld War II and converted into thehospital shipBonn. In the summer of 1941, she was converted into the auxiliary cruiserMichel, and was commissioned on 7 September 1941. Known asSchiff 28, herRoyal Navy designation wasRaider H.Michel was the last operative German raider of World War II.
When the auxiliary cruiserWidder returned from her cruise to Germany, her engines were almost worn out. The hospital shipBonn was converted into an auxiliary cruiser and mounted the weapons used byWidder.
AlthoughMichel was scheduled to leave at the end of November 1941, she was unable to sail until March 1942 because of reconstruction delays. She then moved under heavy escort through theEnglish Channel to a port in occupied France. She set off on her cruise sailed on 20 March 1942, commanded byFregattenkapitän (laterKapitän zur See)Helmuth von Ruckteschell, the former commander ofHilfskreuzer 3, the raiderWidder).
Michel grounded on her first attempt to run through theEnglish Channel and had to return to port. She managed to reach the Atlantic Ocean on 20 March on her second try. On 14 and 15 March, British forces attacked the cruiser and her escorts, but without success.Michel began her operations in the South Atlantic and sank the British tankerPatelle (7,469 gross register tons (GRT)) on 19 April. On 22 April her lightmotor torpedo boat, LS 4Esau sank the American tankerConnecticut (8,684 GRT), but an attack on the faster British freighterMenelaus failed on 1 May. TheRoyal Navy now sent the heavy cruiserHMS Shropshire and twoarmed merchant cruisers (AMCs) to track her down. Nevertheless,Michel sank the Norse freighterKattegat (4,245 GRT) on 20 May.
LS 4Esau discovered the struggling USLiberty ship SSGeorge Clymer (6,800 GRT) and scored two torpedo hits, though the freighter did not sink. The nearby British AMCAlcantara rescued her crew, but the ship had to be abandoned. The German ship retreated when the British AMCs came in sight and escaped detection. The British mistakenly presumedGeorge Clymer had been torpedoed by asubmarine. On 2 January 1943 she sank the British freighterEmpire March in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Other successes followed asMichel crossed the South Atlantic and entered the Indian Ocean. After a successful cruise of eleven and a half months, she arrived in Japan in March 1943, having offloaded the rescuedAllied sailors atSingapore. During her 346 days at sea,Michel had intercepted and sunk 15 Allied merchant ships, for a total of 98,586 GRT.
After a refit,Michel sailed fromYokohama on her second cruise on 21 May 1943, now under the command of KzSGünther Gumprich, who had previously commanded the raiderThor. She sailed along the west coast of Australia and crossed the Pacific Ocean to the coast of South America.Michel encountered and sank three allied ships over a five-month period, for a total of 27,632 GRT, before making her return to Japan.
The first prey ofMichel was the 7,715 GRT Norwegian freighterHøegh Silverdawn, sunk south-east ofCocos Islands in the early hours of 15 June, whilst on a voyage fromFremantle, Australia, toAbadan, Iran, with ammunition and general cargo. A total of 30 crew and 6 passengers were killed. Three survivors were saved after 11 days on a raft. Another 14 survivors arrived in India after 32 days and 3,100nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) in a damaged lifeboat.[1]
The second merchant ship to be sunk byMichel in her second voyage was also Norwegian, the 9,940 GRT tankerFerncastle, which went down the same day thatHøegh Silverdawn sank. The tanker was first torpedoed byMichel's midget motor torpedo boat LS4Esau, and then shelled by the auxiliary cruiser. A total of 24 sailors died, 18 in the raider's attack and six others aboard one of the tanker'slifeboats before being rescued.[1]
The fate of her last victim, the 9,977 GRT Norwegian tankerIndia, sunk in the southern Pacific on 11 September 1943 with a loss of all hands, would not be known until after the war's end.[1] On 29 August,Michel's lookouts had sighted what they identified as aPensacola-class cruiser. Gumprich ordered a northern course to avoid the powerful enemy warship.[2] The log of the American light cruiserUSS Trenton shows that she had a radar contact which lasted for 15 minutes on the previous day.Trenton was patrolling between22°05′S172°46′W / 22.083°S 172.767°W /-22.083; -172.767 and20°16′S174°56′W / 20.267°S 174.933°W /-20.267; -174.933. Had the American cruiser investigated, the crew ofIndia might have been saved.[1]
Almost within sight of Japan and only 50 miles (80 km) out from port,[3]Michel was spotted by the USsubmarineTarpon on 17 October 1943.[4] In one of the few instances of American submarines attacking a German ship during World War II,Tarpon fired a total of eighttorpedoes in four successive strikes, of which four torpedoes struck home and detonated[4] - theMark 14 torpedo having reliability problems.[5]Michel sank, taking down 290 of her crew, including the captain. The 116 survivors reached safety in Japan after a three-day journey in open boats. Scores of others had been left on rafts and floating wreckage, but theImperial Japanese Navy search aircraft reported they had seen nothing. This caused some friction with the German Navy officers in Japan, who felt the Japanese seemed unconcerned about rescuing possible German survivors.[6] The loss of theMichel marked the end of the cruises of German auxiliary commerce raiders.
Some of the survivors were sent home with the German submarineUIT-23, which leftPenang on 15 February 1944. Three days later theUIT-23 was torpedoed by the British submarineHMS Tally-Ho.[7]
First cruise:
Second cruise:
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1943 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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33°42′0″N140°08′0″E / 33.70000°N 140.13333°E /33.70000; 140.13333
