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.

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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 of the most famous AMCs of World War I was the British RMS Carmania (Which was disguised as the Cap Trafalgar) which sank the German auxiliary cruiser Cap Trafalgar (which was disguised as the Carmania) near Trinidad in 1914.

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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. 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 lack of armor. 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 In both world wars, these ships were found to be vulnerable to attack, and were withdrawn before the war ended.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. 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:

  • Float planes
  • 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.

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Others

The CAM Ship (from catapult armed merchantman) (see article) was a British merchantman fitted with a catapult that could launch a single fighter aircraft.

The Merchant aircraft carrier or MAC (see article) was a British or Dutch cargo ship with a fligh deck that could carry a small number of aircraft.

Both the CAM and MAC were operated by civilian crews and did not receive HMS prefixes.

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Ship lists

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Allied merchant cruisers of World War I

Royal Navy

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German auxiliary cruisers of World War I

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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.

Royal Australian Navy

Royal New Zealand Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Navy

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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 5.9 inch guns, between two and six torpedo tubes, and an assortment of 40 mm, 37 mm, and 20 mm automatic weapons. Most raiders carried an Arado 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.

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See also

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References

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External links

pl:Krążownik pomocniczy

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