Class and type Auxiliary cruiser Operator Gdynia-America-Line Name Michel Displacement 9.888 million kg Beam 17 m | Name Bielsko Launched April 1939 Length 132 m Draft 7.4 m Builder Kaiserliche Werft Danzig | |
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Fate Requisitioned by Kriegsmarine, 1939 | ||
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.
Contents
Construction and conversion
When the AMC Widder returned from her cruise to Germany, her engines were almost worn out. The hospital ship Bonn was converted into an AMC and mounted the weapons used by the Widder.
First raiding voyage
Although Michel 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 the English Channel to a port in occupied France. She set off on her cruise sailed on 20 March 1942,commanded by FK (later KzS) Helmuth von Ruckteschell, the former commander of HSK 3, the raider Widder).
Michel grounded on her first attempt to run through the Channel and had to return to port. She managed to reach the Atlantic 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 tanker Patelle (7,469 gross register tons (GRT)) on 19 April. On 22 April her small torpedo boat sank the American tanker Connecticut (8,684 GRT), but an attack on the faster British freighter Menelaus failed on 1 May. The Royal Navy now sent the cruiser HMS Shropshire and two AMCs to track her down. Nevertheless, Michel sank the Norse freighter Kattegat (4,245 GRT) on 20 May.
LS 4 Esau discovered the struggling US Liberty ship SS George Clymer (6,800 GRT) and scored two torpedo hits, though the freighter did not sink. The nearby British AMC Alcantara 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 presumed the George Clymer had been torpedoed by a submarine.
Other successes followed as Michel crossed in 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 off loaded the rescued allied sailors at Singapore.
During her 346 days at sea, Michel had encountered and sunk 15 allied merchant ships, for a total of 99,000 tons (GRT).
Second raiding voyage
After a refit, Michel sailed from Yokohama on her second cruise on 21 May 1943, now under the command of KzS Günther Gumprich, who had previously commanded the Thor.
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 fate of her last victim, the Norwegian tanker India, 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. On 29 August, Michel's lookouts had sighted what they identified as a Pensacola-class cruiser. Gumprich ordered a northern course to avoid the powerful enemy warship. The log of the American light cruiser USS Trenton shows that she had a radar contact which lasted for 15 minutes on the previous day. Trenton was patrolling between 22°05′S 172°46′W and 20°16′S 174°56′W. Had the American cruiser investigated, the India might have been saved.
Fate
Almost within sight of Japan and only 50 miles (80 km) out from port, Michel was spotted by the US submarine Tarpon on 20 October 1943. In one of the few instances of American submarines attacking a German ship during World War II, Tarpon fired a total of eight torpedoes in four successive strikes, of which four torpedoes struck home and also detonated - the Mark 14 torpedo still had reliability problems. 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 the 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. The loss of the Michel marked the end of the cruises of German auxiliary commerce raiders.
Raiding career
First cruise:
Second cruise: