German auxiliary cruiser Widder
![]() Widder's sister ship Nordmark | |
History | |
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Name | Neumark |
Namesake | Neumark |
Owner | HAPAG |
Port of registry | Hamburg |
Builder | Howaldtswerke, Kiel |
Yard number | 695 |
Launched | 21 December 1929 |
Completed | 1930 |
Fate | Requisitioned 1939 |
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Namesake | Aries |
Operator | Kriegsmarine |
Builder | Blohm+Voss |
Yard number | 3 |
Acquired | 1939 |
Commissioned | 9 December 1939 |
Decommissioned | 1941 |
Renamed |
|
Reclassified | Auxiliary cruiser, 1939 |
Homeport | Kiel |
Identification |
|
Fate | War reparation to the UK |
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Namesake | Ulysses |
Port of registry | London |
Acquired | circa 1945 |
Renamed | Ulysses |
Identification | UK official number 10773 |
Fate | Sold 1951 |
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Namesake | Fechenheim |
Port of registry | Bremen |
Acquired | 1951 |
Renamed | Fechenheim |
Fate | Wrecked near Bergen, 1955 |
General characteristics | |
Type | cargo ship |
Tonnage | 7,851 GRT, 4,168 NRT |
Displacement | 16,800 tons |
Length |
|
Beam | 63.1 ft (19.2 m) |
Draught | 27 ft (8.3 m) |
Depth | 28.3 ft (8.6 m) |
Decks | 2 |
Installed power | 6,200 hp (4,600 kW) |
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 |
Sensors and processing systems | wireless direction finding |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 2 × Heinkel He 114B |
- v
- t
- e
- Americas
- Northern Barrage
- Blockade of Germany
- Gibraltar
1939
1940
1941
- SC 19
- SC 20
- Berlin
- HG 53
- OB 293
- HX 112
- 4 April
- OB 318
- HX 126
- Rheinübung
- Denmark Strait
- Bismarck
- HX 133
- OG 69
- OG 71
- SC 42
- HG 73
- SC 48
- HX 156
- HG 76
1942
- Postmaster
- 2nd Happy Time
- Torpedo Alley
- SC 67
- Neuland
- ON 67
- 27 March
- OG 82
- Connecticut
- ON 92
- 6 June
- HG 84
- SL 78
- QS 15
- ON 113
- ON 115
- SC 94
- ON 122
- Bell Island
- QS 33
- ON 127
- Laconia
- SQ 36
- SC 100
- 27 September
- SG 6/LN 6
- SC 104
- HX 212
- SL 125
- SC 107
- ON 144
- ON 153
- ON 154
1943
- TM 1
- SG 19
- SC 118
- ON 166
- UC 1
- SC 121
- HX 228
- UGS 6
- HX 229/SC 122
- HX 231
- Black May
- Faith
- ONS 18/ON 202
- SC 143
- ONS 20/ON 206
- Sept-Îles
- ON 207
- SL 138/MKS 28
- SL 139/MKS 30
- SL 140/MKS 31
- Stonewall
1944
- Lyme Bay
- 26 April 1944
- Capture of U-505
- HX 300
- WEP 3
- BX 141
1945
- Teardrop
- Point Judith
- 5–6 May 1945
- 7–8 May 1945
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.
Early history
Built at Howaldtswerke, Kiel, she was launched in 1929 as the cargo ship Neumark for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). In 1939 the Kriegsmarine requisitioned her for use as a commerce raider. She was converted 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.
Raider voyage
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 Widder encountered the British submarine HMS Clyde on the surface, exchanging gunfire for more than an hour, with no hits for either side. After the engagement, the cruiser sheltered in Sandsfjord. On 14 May she put to sea, crossing the Arctic Circle the next day. On 21 August 1940, 800 miles west of the Canary Islands, she sank Anglo Saxon, which had been carrying 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.
Widder was reported to have machine-gunned the crew of Anglo Saxon in their lifeboats. One jolly boat with seven crewmen survived. 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 was killed when his next ship was torpedoed in 1941. The other survived the war and testified against von Ruckteschell, who was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for war crimes. He died in prison in 1948.
Having completed her mission, she returned to occupied France on 31 October 1940.
Later history
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 1943–44. After the war she was taken into British merchant service as Ulysses, then sold back to Germany as Fechenheim in 1951. She was converted into a motor ship in 1954. She was wrecked off Bergen in 1955, and 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.
Raiding career
Date | Ship name | Country | Tonnage | Fate |
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13 June 1940 | British Petrol | ![]() | 6,891 GRT | Sunk |
26 June 1940 | Krossfonn | ![]() | 9,323 GRT | Captured |
10 July 1940 | Davisian | ![]() | 6,433 GRT | Sunk |
13 July 1940 | King John | ![]() | 5,228 GRT | Sunk |
4 August 1940 | Beaulieu | ![]() | 6,114 GRT | Sunk |
8 August 1940 | Oostplein | ![]() | 5,059 GRT | Sunk |
10 August 1940 | Killoran | ![]() | 1,817 GRT | Sunk |
21 August 1940 | Anglo Saxon | ![]() | 5,596 GRT | Sunk |
1 September 1940 | Cymbeline | ![]() | 6,317 GRT | Sunk |
8 September 1940 | Antonios Chandris | ![]() | 5,866 GRT | Sunk |
References
- Muggenthaler, August Karl (1977). German Raiders of World War II. ISBN 0-7091-6683-4.
- Roskill, Stephen (1954). The War at Sea 1939–1945. Vol. I.
- Schmalenbach, Paul (1977). German Raiders 1895–1945. ISBN 0-85059-351-4.
External links
- Hilfskreuzer Widder