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German auxiliary cruiserOrion

Coordinates:53°57′N14°17′E/ 53.950°N 14.283°E/53.950; 14.283
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History
Germany
NameKurmark
NamesakeKurmark
OwnerHAPAG
OperatorHAPAG
Laid down1930 byBlohm & Voss,Hamburg
Launched1930
Commissioned1930
FateRequisitioned byKriegsmarine,1939
Nazi Germany
NameOrion
NamesakeOrion
OperatorKriegsmarine
Yard number1
AcquiredRequisitioned 1939
Commissioned9 December 1939
Renamed
  • Orion(1939)
  • Hektor(1944)
  • Orion(1945)
ReclassifiedAuxiliary cruiserOrion,9 December 1939
Nickname(s)
  • HSK-1
  • Schiff-36
  • Raider A
FateSunk by air raid, 4 May 1945
General characteristics
Tonnage7,021GRT,3,540NRT
Displacement15,700 tons
Length148 m (486 ft)
Beam18.6 m (61 ft)
Draught8.2 m (27 ft)
Propulsion4 ×steam turbines,1 × shaft, 4 × boilers, 6,200 shp (4.6 MW)
Speed14.8 knots (27.4 km/h)
Range18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km)
Complement356 (varying)
Armament
Aircraft carried1 xArado Ar 196A-1 1 xNakajima E8N
TheHAPAGfreighterNordmark

Orion(HSK-1) was anauxiliary cruiserofNazi Germany'sKriegsmarinewhich operated as amerchant raiderinWorld War II.[1]Blohm & Vossbuilt her inHamburgin 1930–31 as thecargo shipKurmark.The navy requisitioned her at the start of World War II, had her converted into the auxiliary cruiserOrion,and commissioned her on 9 December 1939. Known to the Kriegsmarine asSchiff 36,herRoyal Navydesignation wasRaider A.She was named after the constellationOrion.

Construction and conversion[edit]

Blohm & Voss in Hamburg built the ship as a freighter for theHamburg America Line(HAPAG). To save money,steam turbinesfrom the linerNew Yorkwere re-used. That proved a poor decision, since theOrionwas plagued for her entire life by engine problems.

After the war began the GermanSeekriegsleitung(Naval Operations Command) was ill-prepared for raider warfare. The operations of the German auxiliary cruisers ofWorld War Iwere evaluated by German military planners and considered a great success, having disrupted British merchant shipping around the world. However the overall effect on the war was evaluated as having been rather minor and so only a small program of converting merchant ships into auxiliary cruisers was initiated on 5 September 1939.

The first two ships being requisitioned were theKurmark(Orion) and theNeumark(German auxiliary cruiserWidder), and conversion started immediately.

Raider voyage[edit]

One of Germany's first auxiliary cruisers in World War II,Orionleft Germany on 6 April 1940, under the command ofKorvettenkapitän(laterFregattenkapitän)Kurt Weyher.Disguised as a neutral ship she passed south through theAtlantic Ocean,where she attacked and sankHaxby,a 5,207GRTfreighter.

In May 1940OrionroundedCape Hornand entered thePacific Ocean.She enteredNew Zealand watersin June 1940 and laid mines offAucklandduring the night of 13–14 June 1940, one of which sank theocean linerRMSNiagarafive days later. Two other ships struck mines fromOrion,as did two trawlers and an auxiliary minesweeper.

Orionthen raided across theIndianand Pacific Oceans attacking four more ships. One ship, the Norwegian freighterTropic Sea,was captured without a fight and sent tooccupied Franceas a prize, though she was scuttled in theBay of Biscayafter encounteringHMSTruant.The other ships encountered byOrionwere sunk.

On 20 October 1940 she rendezvoused with theGerman auxiliary cruiserKometand supply shipKulmerland.Operating together, they sank another seven ships, including the linerRangitane[2]andfive ships off Nauru,before going their separate ways in the new year.

The Germannaval attachéto Japan, Vice-AdmiralPaul Wenneker,bought aNakajima E8Nfloat plane early in 1941. It was dispatched on board the supply shipMünsterlandto rendezvous withOrionat theMaug Islandsin the Northern Marianas. They met on 1 February 1941, andOrionthus became the only German naval ship of World War II to use a Japanese float plane.

Another six months cruising in the Indian Ocean yielded nothing, though she did encounter and capture her final victim,Chaucer,in July 1941, in the South Atlantic whenOrionwas on her way home.

Orionreturned toBordeauxin occupied France on 23 August 1941. After 510 days and 127,337 nautical miles (235,828 km) at sea she had sunk ten ships with a combined tonnage of 62,915gross register tons(GRT), plus two more (totalling 21,125GRT) in cooperation withKomet.

The German freighterAnneliese Essberger,disguised as the Norwegian freighterHerstein,was meant to meet theOrionon 30 Aug. 1941. The planned rendezvous was Point Corona at 28 degrees N, 43 degrees W. But the freighter failed to see theOrion,and continued north.[3]

Later history[edit]

De-commissioned as a commerce raider, the ship was renamedHektorin 1944 and was used as artillery training ship. In January 1945 she was again renamedOrionand was used to take refugees from Germany's eastern provinces across theBaltic Seato ports in northern Germany and occupied Denmark. On her way toCopenhagenon 4 May 1945, after she had picked up the crew of the old battleshipSchlesien,Orionwas hit by two bombs dropped by aircraft of the Soviet 51st Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment offSwinemünde.The crew managed to beach the fiercely burning ship on a sandbank, but more than 150 passengers and crew were killed.[1]The hulk was scrapped in 1952.[4]

Raiding history[edit]

Sunk byOrion[edit]

  • 1940-04-24Haxby5,207GRT
  • 1940-06-19Tropic Sea8,750GRT
  • 1940-08-16Notou2,489GRT
  • 1940-08-20Turakina9,691GRT
  • 1940-10-14Ringwood7,203GRT
  • 1941-07-29Chaucer5,792GRT

Sunk by mines laid byOrion[edit]

(The claims by several sources that the freightersPort BowenandBaltannicwere also victims of the Orion's mines, seem, on examination of the records now available, to be unsubstantiated)

Map of the South Pacific showing the routes taken by the German ships and locations where Allied ships were sunk as described in the article
Movements of the three German ships in December 1940 and January 1941

In concert withKomet[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ab"Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser) Orion".Archived fromthe originalon 10 August 2014.Retrieved5 December2013.
  2. ^"Holmwood and Rangitane Sunk NZETC".nzetc.victoria.ac.nz.Retrieved2023-11-13.
  3. ^Giese, O (1994).Shooting the War.Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. pp. 89–99.ISBN1557503079.
  4. ^"Orion (HSK-1) (+1945)".Wrecksite.Retrieved5 December2013.
  5. ^"MV Rangitane (+1940)".Wrecksite.Retrieved5 December2013.
  6. ^"MV Triadic (+1940)".Wrecksite.Retrieved5 December2013.
  7. ^"MV Triaster (+1940)".Wrecksite.Retrieved5 December2013.

References[edit]

  • August K Muggenthaler (1981).Das waren die deutschen Hilfskreuzer 1939–1945. Bewaffnete Handelsschiffe im Einsatz(in German). Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag.ISBN3-87943-261-9.
  • August Karl Muggenthaler (1977).German Raiders of World War II.Prentice: Englewood Cliffs.ISBN978-0709166832.
  • Paul Schmalenbach (1979).German Raiders: The Story of the German Navy's Auxiliary Cruisers, 1895–1945.Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.ISBN978-0850593518.
  • Stephen Roskill (1954).The War at Sea 1939–1945.Vol. I. London: HMSO.
  • "Orion(ship) ".New Zealand Official War History.Victoria University of Wellington.

External links[edit]

53°57′N14°17′E/ 53.950°N 14.283°E/53.950; 14.283

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