Armed merchantmen
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Armed Merchantmen were merchant ships taken over by their nation's navies, equipped with guns, and then used for military purposes.
These were used in both World Wars by Germany and the British. Whilst the British used armed passenger liners for protecting their shipping, the German approach was to use them to attack enemy shipping.
[edit] Armed merchant cruisers
The Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC) of the British were employed for convoy protection against enemy warships. They were found to be limited in usefulness since they lacked the armour and ranging systems of a warship and many were converted into troopships.
One famous AMC of World War I was the British RMS Carmania, which after a heated battle which caused heavy damage on both sides, succeeding in sinking the German auxiliary cruiser Cap Trafalgar near Trinidad in 1914.[1]
[edit] Auxiliary cruiser
The German practice was to arm merchantmen with hidden weapons and use them as commerce raiders. An auxiliary cruiser - Hilfskreuzer or Handels-Stör-Kreuzer (HSK) - usually approached her target under a false flag with guns concealed, and sometimes her appearance altered with fake funnels and masts, and often a fake paint job. The victim was thus engaged at point-blank range and had no chance to evade. In the First World War, the Imperial German Navy initially took to using fast passenger ships (such as winners of the Blue Riband for fastest Atlantic crossings), but some of them, although fast, made obvious and easy targets because of their very familiar silhouettes. The Germans moved on to using captured refitted Allied vessels, but principally only modified transport ships. These were slower but less recognizable. In both world wars, these ships were found to be vulnerable to attack, and were withdrawn before the war ended. Many were sunk after being caught by regular warships - an unfair battle since auxiliary cruisers had poor fire control and no armor. There were, however, a few success stories. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Große was a former passenger liner that sank two freighters in 1914 before being caught by HMS Highflyer. And her sister ship the passenger liner Kronprinz Wilhelm had a legendary journey, sinking or capturing a total of 15 ships from 1914-1915, before finally running out of supplies and having to put into port in Virginia, where she was interned by the Americans and eventually converted into a US Navy troop transport (as the renamed USS Von Steuben).
The idea was returned to in the Second World War. In one incident in the German Kormoran (ex-merchantman Steiermark) managed to surprise and sink the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, which approached too close, though she herself was also sunk in the engagement. In most cases auxiliary cruiser raiders tried to avoid detection.
In World War II, the German Navy operated ten very successful auxiliary cruisers which ranged in tonnage from 3,860 - 9,400; typically these vessels were equipped with:
- Floatplanes
- 15 cm guns
- Smaller armaments (typically hidden away behind especially designed and hinged bulwarks, or beneath fake deckhouses and/or skylights)
- Torpedoes
- Mines
To preserve their cover, these ships flew the flags of neutral nations or occasionally Allied nations' flags. They were re-fuelled and provisioned by special supply ships and from Japanese island bases.
To counter the effectiveness of these disguises the Allies had to introduce the check-mate system in 1942 to uniquely identify individual ships on a one-by-one basis with the Admiralty in London.
During World War II German auxiliary cruisers are believed to have either sunk or captured some 800,000 tons of Allied shipping.
Compare to the Q-ship, which was a disguised merchantman for anti-submarine operations.
[edit] Others
The CAM Ship (from catapult armed merchantman) was a British merchantman fitted with a catapult that could launch, but not recover, a single fighter aircraft.
The Merchant aircraft carrier or MAC was a British or Dutch cargo ship with a flight deck that could carry a small number of aircraft.
CAM and MAC ships remained as civilian ships operated by civilian crews, with Fleet Air Arm or Royal Netherlands Navy "air parties".
[edit] Ship lists
[edit] American auxiliary cruisers of the Spanish-American War
- Badger (ex-Yumuri)
- Buffalo (ex-El Cid)
- Dixie (ex-El Rio)
- Harvard (ex-New York, ex-City of New York)
- Panther (ex-Austin)
- Peoria
- Prairie (ex-El Sol)
- Resolute (ex-Yorktown)
- St. Louis
- Saint Paul
- Yale (ex-Paris)
- Yankee (ex-El Norte)
- Yosemite (ex-El Sud)
[edit] Japanese merchant cruisers of the Russo-Japanese War
- America Maru
- Bingo Maru
- Hong Kong Maru
- Kasuga Maru
- Kumano Maru
- Nikkō Maru
- Nippon Maru
- Saikyo Maru
- Shinano Maru
- Taichu Maru
- Tainan Maru
- Yobo (ex-Yobo Maru)
[edit] Russian merchant cruisers of the Russo-Japanese War (incomplete)
- Zabiaka
- Lena
- Ural
[edit] Allied merchant cruisers of World War I (incomplete)
- Alcantara (lost on 29 February 1916)
- Almanzora
- Alsatian
- Ambrose
- Andes
- Arlanza
- Avenger (ex-Aotearoa, lost on 14 June 1917)
- Bayano (lost on 11 March 1915)
- Berrida
- Calgarian (lost on 1 March 1918)
- Calyx (ex-Calypso)
- Caribbean
- Caronia
- Carmania
- Cedric
- Celtic
- Changuinola
- City of London
- Clan MacNaughton (lost on 3 February 1915)
- Columbella
- Digby (to France as Artois on 24 November 1915)
- Ebro
- Edinburgh Castle
- Empress of Asia
- Empress of Britain
- Empress of Japan
- Empress of Russia
- Eskimo
- Gloucestershire
- Hilary (lost on 25 May 1917)
- Hildebrand
- Himalaya
- India (lost on 8 August 1915)
- Kildonan Castle
- Kinfaus Castle
- Laconia
- Laurentic (lost on 23 January 1917)
- Macedonia
- Mantua
- Marmora (lost on 23 July 1918)
- Moldavia (lost on 23 May 1918)
- Morea
- Motagua
- Oceanic (lost on 8 September 1914)
- Ophir
- Orama (lost on 19 October 1917)
- Orbita
- Orcoma
- Oropesa (to France as Champagne on 2 December 1915)
- Orotava
- Orvieto
- Otranto (survived the Battle of Coronel, stranded on Islay after collision with steamship S.S. Kashmir on 6 October 1918)
- Otway (lost on 23 July 1917)
- Patia (lost on 13 June 1918)
- Patnea
- Patuca
- Scotia
- Teutonic
- Victorian
- Viknor (ex-Viking, lost on 13 January 1915)
- Virginian
[edit] German auxiliary cruisers of World War I
- SMS Ayesha
- SMS Berlin
- SMS Cap Trafalgar
- SMS Geier
- SMS Greif
- SMS Iltis
- SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große
- SMS Königin Luise
- SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
- SMS Leopard
- SMS Meteor
- SMS Möwe
- SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich
- SMS Seeadler
- SMS Seelöwe
- SMS Vineta
- SMS Wolf
- SMS Wolf II
[edit] Allied merchant cruisers of World War II
The Armed merchant cruisers were made by requisitioning whatever ships seemed useful and then providing them with guns and other equipment. They ranged from 6,000 tons to 22,000 tons. The armament varied but six 6-inch guns with 3-inch guns as secondary was usual. From 1941 many served as troopships.
- Manoora
- Westralia
- Monowai
- HMCS Prince David
- Prince Henry
- Prince Robert
- Alaunia
- Alcantara
- Andania (lost on 16 June 1940)
- Antenor
- Antonia
- Arawa
- Ascania
- Asturias
- Aurania
- Ausonia
- Bulolo
- California
- Canton
- Carinthia (lost on 6 June 1940)
- Carnarvon Castle
- Carthage
- Cathay
- Cheshire
- Chitral
- Cilicia
- Circassia
- Comorin (lost on 6 April 1941)
- Corfu
- Derbyshire
- Dunnottar Castle
- Dunvegan Castle (lost on 27 August 1940)
- Esperance Bay
- Forfar (lost on 2 December 1940)
- Hector (lost on 5 April 1942 during the Japanese Indian Ocean raid)
- Jervis Bay (lost on 5 November 1940 in an engagement against German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer)
- Kanimbla
- Laconia
- Laurentic (lost on 3 November 1940)
- Letitia
- Maloja
- Montclare
- Mooltan
- Moreton Bay
- Patroclus (lost on 4 November 1940)
- Pretoria Castle (converted to the escort carrier HMS Pretoria Castle)
- Queen of Bermuda
- Rajputana (lost on 13 April 1941)
- Ranchi
- Ranpura
- Rawalpindi (lost on 23 November 1939)
- Salopian (lost on 13 May 1941)
- Scotstoun (lost on 13 June 1940)
- Transylvania (lost on 10 August 1940)
- Voltaire (lost on 4 April 1941)
- Wolfe
- Worcestershire
[edit] German auxiliary cruiser raiders of World War II
At the outbreak of war, the German Admiralty requisitioned a number of fast merchantmen and immediately sent them into naval shipyards. These ships had been built with extra strong decks to facilitate the installation of military equipment, but this was the only difference between them and other merchantmen of the period. Indeed, no precise plans had been drawn up for the conversion of these ships into warships, and consequently the conversion process was painfully long. Compared to the diversity of British auxiliary cruisers, the Hilfskreuzer were standardized in so far as possible. The ships themselves averaged approximately 7,000 tons. Armament usually consisted of six 15cm (5.9") guns, between two and six torpedo tubes, and an assortment of 40mm, 37mm, and 20 mm automatic weapons. Most raiders carried an Arado Ar-196 seaplane for reconnaissance. Kormoran, Komet, and Michel were also equipped with small motor torpedo boats. In addition to armament, increased fuel, water, and coal storage had to be provided for as well. Furthermore, the raiders could not abandon the crews of their captures, so space had to be provided for prisoners. The first Hilfskreuzer got under way in March 1940, shortly before the Norwegian campaign.
- Orion (HSK-1)
- Atlantis (HSK-2)
- Widder (HSK-3)
- Thor (HSK-4)
- Pinguin (HSK-5)
- Stier (HSK-6)
- Komet (HSK-7)
- Kormoran (HSK-8)
- Michel (HSK-9)
- Coronel (HSK-10)
- Hansa (HSK-11)
[edit] Japanese armed merchant cruisers of World War II
- Aikoku Maru
- Akagi Maru
- Asaka Maru
- Awata Maru
- Bangkok Maru
- Gokoku Maru
- Hokoku Maru
- Kinryu Maru
- Kiyozumi Maru
- Kongo Maru
- Noshiro Maru
- Saigon Maru
- Ukishima Maru
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The Oxford Companion to World War II (2005) ISBN 0-19-280670-X
- Alfred Niezychowski, The Cruise of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, 1928, published by Doubleday
