The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis (HSK 2), known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German or merchant or commerce raider of the Kriegsmarine, which, in World War II, travelled more than in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships with a combined tonnage of 144,384. Atlantis was commanded by Kapitän zur See Bernhard Rogge, who received the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. She was sunk on 22 November 1941 by the British cruiser .
Commerce raiders do not seek to engage warships, but rather attack enemy merchant shipping; the measures of success are tonnage destroyed (or captured) and time spent at large. Atlantis was second only to in tonnage destroyed, and had the longest raiding career of any German commerce raider in either world war. She captured highly secret documents from . A version of the story of Atlantis is told in the film Under Ten Flags with Van Heflin appearing as Captain Rogge.
Early history
Built by Bremer Vulkan in 1937, she began her career as the cargo ship Goldenfels, owned and operated by DDG Hansa, Bremen. In late 1939 she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine and converted into a warship by DeSchiMAG, Bremen. In December 1939, she was commissioned as the commerce raider Atlantis.
Design
Atlantis was long and displaced . She had a single funnel amidships. She had a crew of 349 (21 officers and 328 enlisted sailors) and a Scottish terrier, Ferry, as mascot. The cruiser carried a dummy funnel and variable-height masts. A stock of paint, canvas, and materials was carried to alter her appearance, including costumes for the crew and flags. Atlantis was capable of being modified to twenty-six different silhouettes.
Weapons and aircraft
The ship was equipped with six guns, one gun on the bow, two twin-37 mm anti-aircraft guns and four 20 mm automatic cannons; all of these were hidden, mostly behind pivotable false deck or side structures. A phony crane and deckhouse on the aft section hid two of the guns; the other four guns were concealed via flaps in the side that were raised when action was imminent. Atlantis also had four waterline torpedo tubes, and a 92-mine compartment. This gave her the firepower and more importantly the fire control, of a light cruiser. The ship also carried two Heinkel He-114C seaplanes in one of its holds, one of these was fully assembled and the other one was packed away in crates. The Heinkel was later replaced at sea with the smaller Arado Ar 196.
Engines
Atlantis had two 6-cylinder diesel engines, which powered a single propeller. Top speed was and a range of at . Diesel engines allowed her to drift when convenient to conserve fuel and, unlike steam machinery, instantly restart her powerplant.
Service history
thumb|Atlantis disguised as Tamesis, 1940.
Journey to the South Atlantic
In 1939, she became the command of Kapitän Bernhard Rogge. Commissioned in mid-December, she was the first of nine or ten merchant ships armed by Nazi Germany for the purposes of seeking out and engaging enemy cargo vessels. Atlantis was delayed by ice until 31 March 1940, when the former battleship was sent to act as an icebreaker, clearing the way for Atlantis, Orion, and Widder.. Weather information was supplied to Atlantis by the weather ships , and .
Atlantis headed past the North Sea minefields, between Norway and Britain, across the Arctic Circle, between Iceland and Greenland, and headed south. By this time, Atlantis was pretending to be a Soviet vessel named Kim by flying the Soviet naval ensign, displaying a hammer and sickle on the bridge, and having Russian and English warnings on the stern, "Keep clear of propellers". The Soviet Union was neutral at the time.
After crossing the equator, on 24–25 April, she took the guise of the Japanese vessel Kasii Maru. The ship now displayed a large K upon a red-topped funnel, identification of the K Line transportation company. She also had rising sun symbols on the gun flaps and Japanese characters (copied from a magazine) on the aft hull.
City of Exeter
On 2 May, she met the British passenger liner . Rogge, unwilling to cause non-combatant casualties, declined to attack. Once the ships had parted, Exeters Master radioed his suspicions about the "Japanese" ship to the Royal Navy.
Scientist
On 3 May, Atlantis met a British cargo ship, Scientist, which was carrying ore and jute. The Germans raised their battle ensign and displayed signal pennants stating, "Stop or I fire! Don't use your radio!" The gun fired a warning shot. The British immediately began transmitting their alarm signal, "QQQQ...QQQQ...Unidentified merchantman has ordered me to stop", and the Germans began transmitting so as to jam the signals.
Scientist turned to flee, but on the second salvo from Atlantis flames exploded from the ship, followed by a cloud of dust and then white steam from the boilers. A British sailor was killed and the remaining 77 were taken as prisoners of war. After failing to sink the ship with demolition charges, Atlantis used guns and a torpedo to finish off Scientist.
Cape Agulhas
Continuing to sail south, Atlantis passed the Cape of Good Hope, reaching Cape Agulhas on 10 May. Here she set up a minefield with 92 horned contact naval mines, in a way which suggested that a U-boat had laid them. The minefield was successful, but the deception was foiled and the ship's presence revealed by a German propaganda broadcast boasting that "a minefield, sown by a German raider" had sunk no fewer than eight merchant ships, three more were overdue, three minesweepers were involved, and the Royal Navy was not capable of finding "a solitary raider" operating in "its own back yard". Furthermore, a British signal was sent from Ceylon on 20 May and intercepted by Germany, based on the report from City of Exeter, warning shipping of a German raider disguised as a Japanese ship.]]
thumb|City of Bagdad
On 10 June 1940, Atlantis stopped the Norwegian motor ship Tirranna with 30 salvos of fire after a three-hour chase. Lacking sufficient fuel, the Durmitor resorted to sails and, after a "hellish" voyage, made landfall in Warsheikh, north of Mogadishu, on 22 November, five weeks after departure.
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Having left their prisoners in Italian captivity, Lt. Dehnel's prize crew on Durmitor sailed to Kisimayu. -->
In the second week of November, two Norwegian tankers: Teddy and Ole Jacob were seized by Atlantis. On both occasions, Atlantis presented itself as HMS Antenor.
Automedon and her secret cargo
At about 07:00 on 11 November 1940, Atlantis encountered the Blue Funnel Line cargo ship Automedon about northwest of Sumatra. At 08:20, Atlantis fired a warning shot across Automedons bow, and her radio officer at once began transmitting a distress call of "RRRR – Automedon – 0416N" ("RRRR" meant "under attack by armed raider"
At Kerguelen and Africa
In the Christmas period Atlantis was at Kerguelen Island in the Indian Ocean, where she was replenished by the MV Alstertor. There the crewmen did maintenance and replenished their water supplies. The ship's complement suffered its first fatality when a sailor, named Bernhard Herrmann, fell while painting the funnel. He was buried in what is sometimes referred to as "the southernmost of all German war graves".
Zamzam
By April, Atlantis had returned to the Atlantic where, on April 17, Rogge mistook the Egyptian liner for a British liner being used as a troop ship or Q-ship. She was in fact the former Bibby Liner Leicestershire. Atlantis opened fire at a range of . The second salvo hit and the wireless room was destroyed; 202 passengers and about 140 members of the crew were captured. The passengers included missionaries, ambulance drivers, Fortune magazine editor Charles J.V. Murphy, and Life magazine photographer David E. Scherman. The Germans let Scherman take photographs. They seized most of his films when the prisoners returned to Europe aboard the German blockade runner , but he smuggled four rolls back to New York. The photos later helped the Royal Navy to identify and destroy Atlantis. Murphy's account of the incident and Scherman's photos appeared in the 23 June 1941 issue of Life.
Post-Bismarck
After the was sunk, the North Atlantic swarmed with British warships. As a result, Rogge decided to abandon the original plan to go back to Germany and instead returned to the Pacific. initially in French Polynesia between the Tubuai Islands and Tuamotu Archipelago. Without the knowledge of French authorities, the Germans landed on Vanavana Island and traded with the inhabitants. They then hunted Allied shipping in the area between Pitcairn and uninhabited Henderson islands, making a landing on Henderson Island. The seaplane from Atlantis made several fruitless reconnaissance flights. Atlantis headed back to the Atlantic on 19 October, and rounded Cape Horn ten days later.
U-68, U-126, and HMS Devonshire
On 18 October 1941 Rogge was ordered to rendezvous with the submarine
south of St. Helena and refuel her, then to refuel at a location north of Ascension Island. Atlantis rendezvoused with U-68 on 13 November, and on 21 or 22 November with U-126.
Sinking
Atlantis met with U-126 in the early morning on 22 November 1941, and started immediately with refueling and resupplying the U-boat. The captain of U-126, Kapitänleutnant Ernst Bauer, one more of its four officers and six more crewman came aboard Atlantis. Usually Atlantis would fly off her Arado seaplane to cover the operation, but the seaplane was not operational on this day. They were detected by the scouting Walrus seaplane of Devonshire, and the British cruiser surprised the Germans at 08:15. U-126 dived at once without the missing crewmembers and was not able to mount an attack. The Devonshire manoeuvred at high speed in order to avoid possible attacks by the sighted U-boat and kept outside the range of the guns of Atlantis, which she could outrange with her larger ' battery. At 08.37 the British cruiser fired two warning salvoes and in response Atlantis transmitted a raider report posing as the Dutch ship Polyphemus. By 09:34, Devonshire had received confirmation this report was false. She fired 30 salvoes and started scoring hits with her third salvo. At 09:58 the fore magazine exploded and at 10:16 the order was given to scuttle the ship. Seven sailors were killed and two more died of their wounds later. After Devonshire left the area, U-126 resurfaced and picked up 300 German sailors and a wounded American prisoner. U-126 carried or towed rafts towards the still-neutral Brazil ( west). Two days later the German refuelling ship Python arrived and took the survivors aboard.
On 1 December, while Python was replenishing U-126 and , another of the British cruisers seeking the raiders, , appeared. U-126 was in the process of taking on torpedoes and was not operational. The boat could dive but not attack. UA launched five torpedoes but missed the British cruiser. The Dorsetshire fired two warning shots and Pythons crew scuttled her. Dorsetshire departed, leaving the U-boats to recover the survivors. Each submarine took about 100 survivors aboard, half of them below decks and the other half on deck. 200 survivors were put in ten lifeboats which were towed by the submarines. The two other German submarines and which were also operating in the South-Atlantic were ordered to assist the rescue operation. U-129 arrived on 3 December and U-124 arrived two days later. These two U-boats took the people from the lifeboats on board. Then the Germans turned to the Italians for assistance since they also operated submarines in the Atlantic. Between 14 and 18 December in the Cap Verde region the four big Italian submarines , , and took 260 Germans aboard so that all survivors had a place below decks and the U-boats were able to dive again. All eight submarines managed to return safely to St Nazaire, the last one arriving on 29 December.
Raiding career
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|+ Ships sunk or captured by Atlantis