Altmark (ship)
 The Altmark in early 1940 in the Norwegian Jøssingfjord
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The Altmark was a German tanker and supply ship, which in the first months of the Second World War was used as a supply ship for the navy to supply the armored ship Admiral Graf Spee in the North and South Atlantic. It was named after the Altmark cultural landscape .
Since it was customary in the German Reich and Kriegsmarine that the ships to be built were not named until they were christened, the Altmark was named "Supply Ship A" as the third unit of a planned class of nine ships, the later Dithmarschen - Great, built. Her keel was laid under construction number 750 on June 15, 1936 at Howaldtswerke AG in Kiel .
It was launched on November 13, 1937 and entered service a year later, on November 14, 1938. The captain was the 65-year-old Heinrich Dau.
Altmark incident
The ship gained some importance in the run-up to the German invasion of Norway due to the " Altmark incident" named after him . The Altmark , which was on board with 299 captured British seamen on their way back from the South Atlantic to Germany, was seized by the British destroyer Cossack on February 16, 1940 in the territorial waters of neutral Norway . British seamen were freed, with eight German seamen killed in a shootout.
Further use
The Altmark returned to Germany after its release and was renamed Uckermark .
On September 12, 1940, the ship was hit by a mine on Karmsund on its way to the North Atlantic to supply Admiral Scheer and then returned to Kiel.
From January 18 to March 23, 1941, the Uckermark provided supplies for the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during Operation Berlin . On March 22, 1941, the Uckermark returned to La Pallice, an outer port of La Rochelle, with 200 rescued shipwrecked people .
On September 9, 1942, the Uckermark ran out of France and supplied the auxiliary cruiser Michel on its journey to Japan on September 24 . On November 10th it reached Shonanto and from there transported 5500 tons of gasoline to Yokohama , where it arrived on November 24th. On November 30, 1942, the ship was anchored there, next to the auxiliary cruiser Thor , the former Australian passenger ship Nankin , which had landed the Thor in March and was renamed Leuthen , and the Japanese steamer Unkai Maru No. 3 , which acts as an auxiliary supply ship . The crew was having lunch when a huge explosion tore the ship apart. All four ships sank. The reason for the explosion was probably a spark that had been caused during repair work near the cargo tanks (the ship had previously carried a partial load of petrol). 53 people were killed in the explosion.
