THE ENEMY SHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1941, Page 10

THE ENEMY SHIP

POWERFUL RAIDER

CAREER DESCRIBED

(Rec. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, December 2. The armed merchant raider which the Sydney brought to action and destroyed is known to have been the Steiermark, of 9400 tons This vessel has been known for some time as "Raider No. 41" and has been sailing under the name of the Kormoran Like other raiders, she indulged from time to time in various disguises, and bore the flag of any nationality her captain deemed at the time to suit his purpose. DESIGNED FOR RAIDING. The Steiermark was built at Hamburg in 1938 for the Ham burg-Amerika Line, and she was designed with a view to employment as an armed merchant raider in wartime. Before leaving Germany towards the end of 1940, alterations were carried! out to convert her into a powerful raider. It is known that she carried at least six 5.9-inch guns and two aircraft and wa. fitted with underwater torpedo tub°s in addition to those on She had a speed of 18 knots and her complement was 400 officers and men. "Raider No 41" started operations m, the area of the Cape Verde Islands, sinking the Greek ship Antonis. 3729 tons, and two British ships, the British Union, 6987 tons, and the Africa Star. 11,900 tons. She then operated in company with another merchant raider, and together they sank one other ship, the Eurylochus, before the end of January, RENDEZVOUS WITH TANKER. She then went south to meet the i

' tanker Nordmark, to refuel and transfer her prisoners. The raider then operated in the South Atlantic, and her next victims were the Afmta, 3561 tons, and the Craftsman, 8022 tons, which were sunk some time between the last week of March and the second week of April. In the next two and a naif months she i attempted only . one attack, and this intended victim escaped. It was not until June 26 that the raider again operated. She than ■ sank the Velebit, 4153 tons, and the Mareeba, 3472 tons, between Ceylon and Sumatra, having left the South Atlantic for the Indian Ocean in May. After these sinkings, the raider made no attempts on ships for three months. She dared no 1 go on the main trade routes disguised, for she realised that the sinking of the Velebit and Mareeba mus: have given away her position. ** TWO MONTHS' PURSUIT. It was not until September 26 that "Raider No. 41" made any further attack. She then sank the Greek ship Stamatios G. Embiricos, 3941 tons. Again her position was given away by this one success, and she spent two months trying to elude the naval patrols which finally secured her destruction. It is a remarkable tribute to the hunting power of the heavily-employed British naval forces that this powerful ship should have been so driven from pillar to post and that she was unable to do far greater damage than she did during her period at sea.—B.O.W.