Blockade breakers

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How our East Africans got ammunition . Illustration of the blockade breaker Marie in the First World War

As a blockade runner is called ships that succeed during a war, a naval blockade to break through to the port of destination or the high seas to reach. Many blockade breakers were armed in order to disrupt the trade of their opponents ( trade disruptors ).

history

The Vitalien Brothers , among them Klaus Störtebeker , began their careers on blockade breakers during the siege of Stockholm .

Sea blockades and attempts to break them were also made on a larger scale, for example the French continental blockade at the time of the Napoleonic Wars or the sea blockade of the Confederation during the American Civil War .

During the First World War , Great Britain set up an extensive sea blockade in the North Sea. Nevertheless, the blockade could be broken by German submarines and occasionally by surface ships, especially auxiliary cruisers and auxiliary ships .

During the Second World War , a small number of German merchant ships, which were surprised by the outbreak of war in distant foreign ports, managed to return to Germany through the initially quite permeable British sea blockade; the best-known example was the passenger steamer Bremen .

For the actual warfare and the supply of Germany with certain raw materials (such as rubber in particular ), however, the blockade breakers deployed from 1941 to the end of 1943 by the special naval service on the Japan- Europe route were of much greater importance. Conversely, chemicals , machine parts and other war-essential goods were shipped from Europe to East Asia. German cargo ships , but also Italian and captured ships, were used in both directions . The last blockade breaker to break through was the Osorno , which reached Gironde in December 1943 . After that, the supply of war-essential raw materials from and to East Asia by surface ships had to cease because of the almost complete enemy surveillance. As early as 1942, this task was therefore also carried out by large German submarines ( monsoon boats ) as well as Italian and Japanese submarines.

During the Second World War, the German side donated a badge for blockade breakers for a successful breakthrough .

Known blockade breakers

Civil War

banshee
  • Alabama - fought two years of privateer war on the southern side (sunk off the French coast)
  • The Banshee was a specially designed blockade breaker to export and import goods into the Confederation.
  • Sumter - broke through the blockade of the northern states at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1861, then waged a trade war for the confederation and was usedas a blockade breaker in the southern states by Liverpoolunder the name Gibraltar (whereabouts unclear)

First World War

  • Germany - broke throughthe North Sea blockade several timesas a merchant submarine in order to transport essential warfare toand from North America (later used as a U-cruiser )
  • Libau - broke through the North Sea blockade to support Irish insurgents (placed prematurely by the enemy and self-sunk)
  • Marie - broke the North Sea and East Africa blockade to supply the German protection force (successful unloading and re-departure)
  • Rubens - broke the North Sea and East Africa blockade to supply the German protection forces (set aground, but cargo recovered)

Second World War

  • Doggerbank - was a pinch of the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis , which was converted into a blockade breaker and mine- layer
  • Dresden - drove successfully to Japan and back to Europe
  • Warmia (from 1941: Weserland ) - drove as the first blockade breaker from Japan to Europe
  • Erlangen - wasself-sunk on July 25, 1941when the British cruiser HMS Newcastle approached
  • Himalaya - Italian blockade breaker, left Eritrea in March 1941 and reached Bordeaux via Brazil on August 30, 1940
  • Odenwald - was on its way from Japan to Europe by the neutrality patrol applied
  • Osorno - was the last German blockade breaker to reach the French coast
  • Ramses - was the approach of an Australian-Dutch fleet association in the Indian Ocean scuttled
  • Rhakotis - was self- sunk when a British cruiser approached in the Atlantic
  • Rio Grande - was sunk on the second return voyage from Japan when an American cruiser approached in the Atlantic
  • Regensburg - wasself-sunkwhen a British cruiser approached in the North Atlantic
  • Spreewald - accidentally fell victim to a German submarine

Others

The topic of breaking through the blockade can also be found in literature, for example in Jules Verne's Die Blockadebrecher , a short adventure story set at the time of the American Civil War.

See also

literature

  • Peter Arndt: German barrier breakers 1914-1945. Constructions, equipment, armament, tasks, use. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-87943-657-6 .
  • Jochen Brennecke : Black ships, wide seas. The fate of the German blockade breakers. 2nd, revised edition. Koehler, Herford 1989, ISBN 3-7822-0481-6 .
  • Martin Brice: Blockade breaker. The breakthrough of merchant ships of the Axis powers through the Allied barrier belt in World War II. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-87943-978-8 .
  • Angus Konstam : Confederate blockade runner 1861–65 (= New Vanguard. 92). Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2004, ISBN 1-84176-636-4 .
  • Otto Mielke : Blockade breaker. The patrols of SM auxiliary cruiser "Möwe" on the seas of the world (= SOS - fates of German ships. 38, ZDB -ID 1468387-8 ). Pabel, Rastatt 1977.
  • Hellmut Mordhorst, Wilhelm Nootbaar: Reluctant Adventure! Blockade breakers reached home at the beginning of World War II. H. Mordhorst, Hamburg 1986.
  • William Watson: The adventures of a blockade runner, or, trade in time of war (= Adventure Series. 13, ZDB -ID 2508996-1 ). T. Fisher Unwin, London 1892, ( Digitized from original edition ; reprinted as: The Civil War adventures of a blockade runner. 1st Texas A & M University Press edition. Texas A & M University Press, College Station TX 2001, ISBN 1-58544 -152-X ).
  • John Wilkinson: The narrative of a blockade-runner. Sheldon & Company, New York NY 1877, ( digitized ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jochen Brennecke: Black ships, wide seas. 4th edition. Heyne, Munich 1975, p. 262 ff.
  2. ^ Blockade breakers 1941–1943 under the direction of the Marine Special Service on the route between Japan and Europe .