Auxiliary cruiser
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Auxiliary cruisers were merchant ships taken over for conversion into a vessel armed with cruiser-size guns, and employed either for convoy protection against true cruisers, or for commerce-raiding missions, where its appearance was used to trick merchant ships into approaching. There were two main types - large passenger liners (known as armed merchant cruisers, or AMCs), and smaller merchant ships, which were armed with hidden guns and torpedo-tubes and equipped with floatplanes for scouting. In both world wars, these ships were found to be vulnerable to attack, and were withdrawn before the war ended.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 armour. The most famous AMCs in World War I were the British Carmania and the German Cap Trafalgar and Wilhelm der Grosse. In one incident in World War II the German Kormoran (ex-merchant Steiermark) managed to surprise and sink the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, which approached too close. In most cases auxiliary cruiser raiders tried to avoid detection. Whilst the British used armed passenger liner as auxiliary cruisers and used them to protect convoys, the Germans used normal freighters provided with hidden weapons as commerce raiders.
(Compare to the Q-ship)
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Allied merchant cruisers of World War I
Allied merchant cruisers of World War II
- Alaunia
- Alcantara
- Andania (lost on 16 June 1940)
- Antenor
- Antonia
- Arawa
- Ascania
- Asturias
- Aurania
- Ausonia
- Bulolo
- California
- Canton
- Carinthia (lost on 6 June 1940)
- Carnavon 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)
- 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
Germany
The German auxiliary cruiser - Hilfskreuzer or Handels-Stör-Kreuzer (HSK) - approached its target under a false flag with its guns concealed and its appearance altered with fake funnels and masts. The victim was thus engaged at point-blank range and had no chance to evade.
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.
Unlike 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 5.9 inch guns, between two and six torpedo tubes, and an assortment of 40mm, 37mm, and 20mm automatic weapons. Most raiders carried a Arado 196 scouting airplane. 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.
German auxiliary cruiser raiders of World War II
- 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)
de:Hilfskreuzer pl:Krążownik pomocniczy
External link
- Hilfskreuzer page (http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/hilfskreuzer_menu.html)