Raiding Cruise of the Deutschland

In August, 1939, it became obvious that war was imminent. The Germans prepared their meager fleet to do what it could against the mighty Royal Navy: firstly, to defend the coast of Germany & support German lines of communications in the Baltic and North Sea, and secondly to wage war against merchant shipping.

To this end, in the weeks before the German invasion of Poland, the German pocket battleships Deutschland and Graf Spee prepared to operate in the Atlantic. Two German auxiliary supply ships, the Altmark and the Westerwald, were dispatched to keep the raiders supplied with fuel oil.

Altmark sailed from Germany, passing down the Channel on August 6, bound for the USA. She would fill her holds at Port Arthur, Texas, before taking up station to rendezvous as needed with the Graf Spee.

Westerwald was a purpose-built supply ship, one of a class of five tankers specially designed and built in the mid to late 1930s to support German raiders at sea, an exercise honed to perfection by extended operations off Spain during the Spanish Civil War. They were able to supply warships with fuel, ammunition, supplies and spare parts, in addition they were also equipped with towing equipment to support damaged Kriegsmarine ships. Their payload capacity was 7933 tons fuel, 972 tons ammunition, 790 tons supplies and 100 tons of spare parts.

She took up station in the Arctic Ocean, well outside normal shipping lanes, ready to act as a floating base for her partner, Deutschland.

On August 24, Deutschland slipped her moorings at Wilhelmshaven. Keeping close to the Danish and Norwegian coasts, and taking full advantage of the long hours of darkness, passed north of the Fargo Islands without being seen. She headed north, taking the long way around Iceland, passing through the Denmark Straits on August 28, and took up station just south of Greenland to await the opening of hostilities.

War broke out, as planned, on September 1. Deutschland's commander, Captain August Thiele, know what is expected of him. Admiral Reader wants the raiders to make an immediate impact, so it when Britain and France declare was on September 3, Thiele expects to be turned lose on unsuspecting merchant ships. He is surprised when the order to commence operations is not given, and downright shocked when he receives his orders on September 5: Stay in his waiting area, and avoid all shipping until further orders. Hitler has withheld his permission to start raiding, in the naïve hopes that Britain and France will make peace if he conquers Poland before they can intervene.

The warship remains unseen and inactive, fueling regularly from Westerwald, while her crew fights boredom, fatigue, and the notoriously bad weather of the North Atlantic.

Finally, on September 26, she receives her orders: begin the disruption and destruction of enemy merchant shipping by all possible means. But even then, Hitler insists that the raider is kept on a short leash. Hoping to divide the alliance against him, Hitler will allow attacks only on British ships, not French ones, a restriction not lifted for another three weeks. She is also to avoid any incident that might alienate US opinion, and to operate under the strict guild of International Prize Law, which required ships to be stopped and searched before they could be fired upon. She was not, however, to avoid the US declared 'Pan-American Neutrality Zone' in the Western Atlantic, because France and Britain did not consider it off limits either.

On September 27, Deutschland headed south in search of prey in the North Atlantic shipping lanes. She first encountered the British steamer Stonegate, 5,600 miles east of Bermuda, on October 5. The vessel managed to radio a distress call before it was sunk, so Captain Thiele vacated the area as quickly as possible.

Returning to the shipping lanes, the Germans intercepted another ship on October 9, the American freighter City of Flint, 1200 miles out of New York. The unarmed and clearly marked neutral freighter was stopped and searched, and the Germans discovered that her cargo was bound for England. The cargo included barrels of lubricating oil, which was considered to be a war supply, so the ship was seized. The American crew was locked up, a prize crew put aboard, and the ship was dispatched on a circuitous route to Tromso, Norway.

Deutschland continued to hunt for prizes, but has little success. Finally, on October 14, she sighted another merchant ship, which she sank. This was the freighter Lorenz W. Hansen, of neutral Norwegian registry.

Meanwhile, the City of Flint, flying the German flag under International Prize Law, arrived off Tronso, Norway. The Norwegians, furious that Deutschland had sunk one of their ships, denied her entry. Unwilling to risk the passage to Germany with such a slow vessel, the German prize crew headed for Murmansk, Russia. Upon their arrival there on October 22, they claimed "havarie," the privilege of sanctuary for damage caused at sea, in an effort to circumvent neutrality laws. But the Russians refused entry: if the Germans claimed "havarie," then the Americans could not be prisoners of war, and were thus being held against their will, making the Germans pirates and kidnappers. The prize crew reversed course to try Norway again, but officials at the port of Haugesund denied entry also, agreeing with the Russian interpretation of the law and labeling the Germans as kidnappers. British warships were sighted off the coast, so the Germans put into Haugesund on November 3, preferring to take their chances with the Norwegians rather than the Royal Navy. Norwegian commandos boarded the ship, interned the German crew, and released the City of Flint back to her American crew.

Deutschland was having no further luck a raider, encountering only a hurricane in the central Atlantic. The heavy seas caused cracks in her superstructure, and water flooded down ventilators, damaging the engines. She had spent seven weeks at sea, sinking only one enemy ship. By sinking or capturing two neutral ships, she had done more for the Allied war effort than for the German: not only was neutral sentiment turned against Germany, but in response to the City of Flint incident the US ordered many of its ships registered under foreign flags, so that they could carry supplies to Britain without technically violating US neutrality.

Deutschland met up with her supply ship Westerwald (renamed Nordmark to confuse Allied intelligence) and refueled on October 25, and was ordered to return home to Germany. Keeping to the latitude of Bermuda and away from shipping routes to avoid British warships, she then turned sharply north and transited the Denmark Straits, skirted the Arctic ice cap, and snuck down the coast of Norway to the Skagerrak on the 14th without being spotted by RAF Coastal Command. She entered the Baltic and arrived at Gotenhafen on November 16. Upon her arrival she was renamed Lutzow, and proceeded to a period of refit and repair.

The cruise of the Deutschland was not entirely unprofitable for the Germans though. The Allies did not learn of her return to Germany for over a month, and continued to utilize vast numbers of warships searching for the raider and her support ship until mid December. This kept the Royal Navy stretched thin, and allowed other raiders to be more successful.

Westerwald/ Nordmark survived the war, was taken as a war prize by the British, and served with the Royal Navy as a fleet replenishment oiler, first as the HMS Northmark and then as the HMS Bulwayo, until 1955.

The City of Flint would ply the North Atlantic until falling victim to a German U-boat January 23, 1943.