Raider vs Cruiser Nov 1941
 

I never heard of this

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23654623/

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...s_cid=rss_news

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Sydney_(1934)

So...they pretty much found everything EXCEPT the Sydney?

I hope they'll find her somewhen in my lifetime...

Never heard of it?? I've always thought of it as a famous story; the only time an actual warship was tricked and sunk by a glorified merchant.

On the other hand, it may be because of my fascination with the previous war's HMAS Sydney, which tracked and sank the infamous German light cruiser SMS Emden.
http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/emden.html

The adventures of SMS Emden and the stolen schooner Ayesha would make an amazing movie.

Germany's U-Boats got most of the glory for sinking shipping, but those German commerce raiders had quite the career. One, the Michel operated out of Yokohama, Japan after a long stint in the Indian Ocean. On her return to Japan after a raid off the coast of Western Australia , just 50 miles out from port, Michel was spotted by US submarine Tarpon, who attacked in one of the few instances of American submarines attacking a German vessel during WWII, hitting her with 3 torpedoes. Michel sank, with 290 of her crew, including her captain. The survivors, 116 in total, were able to reach Japan after a three day journey in open boats.

I'd like to see a mod where you can operate one of these raiders. Btw, weren't these normally referred to as "flaklighters"?

I believe the term the Germans used was Hilfskreuzer---Auxiliary Cruiser.

Also, Handels-Stor-Kreuzer---Raider Cruiser.

I always thought of the Kormoran vs. Sydney battle as a kind of rematch for the Battle of Cocos, where the first HMAS Sydney sank the SMS Emden

The Kormoran and the Atlantis are probably the most famous Hilfskreuzers, but still massively overshadowed by the U-Boats

Let's not forget Graf von Luckner who went commerce-raiding (quite succesfully) in a sailing ship during the dreadnought era : )

Didn't one of them capture an entire whaling fleet in Anartica?

Aye, that would be the Pinguin, also a Hilfskreuzer

Yes...the raider Pinguin. Her most successful coup was the capture of the Norwegian whaling fleet in Antarctica, totalling three factory ships and 11 whalers. These were sent back as prizes to Europe, arriving in Bordeaux, occupied France, in March 1941. One of the whalers was retained as an auxiliary raider, being re-named Adjutant.

I've read a book on the raider Atlantis last year. Fascinating stuff! It's an almost completely-forgotten type of warfare of WWII, but really makes no less interesting type of history than subs do.

It's a shame we don't have more movies about surface raiders, the stories of SMS Emden, Kormoran and Atlantis (And a few more) could've made great movies, right now we only have the Battle of the River Plate (which is a great movie) and Sink the Bismarck (though it's usually forgotten that the Bismarck was supposed to be a merchant raider...)

Yea, I mean just consider the length and breadth of those journeys! They make IXD2 boats look like bathtub toys by comparison :p

And the ingenuity that went into hiding the real purpose and identity of those ships is quite eyebrow-raising at times.

The success of the German raiders in the war weren't lost on the Japanese. In 1941,the Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru, two passenger-cargo vessels built for the Osaka Shipping Line’s South America route, were requisitioned for conversion to Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC). Before and during the Pacific War, Japan converted 14 merchants to Armed Merchant Cruisers.

Although the first two of these ships initially enjoyed some successes, the early sinking of the Hokoku Maru and the pressing need for more transports to support their far-flung Pacific empire resulted in the reconversion of most of Japan’s AMC fleet. By the end of 1943, five of their AMCs had been sunk and seven reconverted. :ping: