Osorno (ship, 1938)
 The sister ship Huascaran
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The Osorno was a German station wagon that became known as a multiple blockade breaker during World War II .
Construction and technical data
In 1937, the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg received the building order from Hapag for two combination ships with diesel-electric propulsion , the sister ships Osorno and Huascaran , which were to be used in the west coast service to South America . The ships were named after the mountain Huascarán in Peru and the volcano Osorno in Chile .
The Osorno ran on September 7, 1938 by Stack and was delivered on 21 December 1938th The ship was 149.32 m long and 18.4 m wide, had a draft of 6.7 m and was measured at 6951 GRT . The machine position consisted of three generator sets with eight-cylinder MAN - marine diesel engines , the one SSW dined -Fahrmotor which the ship a max. Speed of 16 knots made possible. The Osorno had well-equipped cabins for a total of 33 passengers (+ child / sofa beds), exclusively in first class.
Mission history
The Osorno left Hamburg on January 6, 1939, on her maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, the route that she then traveled regularly several times until August 1939.
1941: Chile - Japan
The outbreak of World War II took the ship by surprise in South America, and it was laid up in Talcahuano , Chile , in September 1939 . In the spring of 1941, the Osorno took over a load of ore, wool, pig bristles and the like from the Hapag combi ships Tacoma (8268 BRT, 1930) and Portland (7132 BRT, 1928) also lying there . a. m., with which she then attempted the breakout to Japan in May . She suffered machine damage on June 18 in the Pacific and was unable to maneuver. The Bogota of the NDL (1230 BRT, 1937) , which set sail from Coquimbo , Chile, also to Japan on May 18, received the radio call for help from the Osorno , found the ship and towed it over a distance of 1800 nautical miles to Yokohama . The Bogota took over fuel from the Osorno twice , and Yokohama was reached on July 3, 1941.
1941/42: Japan - Bordeaux
After the machinery was repaired, the Osorno was loaded with essential warfare goods and prepared for the journey as a blockade breaker. She left Japan on December 23, 1941 after her crew changed the appearance of the ship with the help of plywood, tarpaulin , paint, etc. to mislead the curious. The ship crossed the Pacific, circled Cape Horn and then sailed through the Atlantic to Bordeaux in southern France, where it arrived on February 19, 1942. A few days earlier, on January 27, the Italian Cortelazzo had also arrived from Japan, and soon after that the Italian Pietro Orseolo (6,344 GRT) also reached Bordeaux.
1943: Bordeaux - Jakarta
On March 23, 1943, the Osorno departed from Bordeaux for another blockade voyage. The destination was Japan, with a stopover in Jakarta ( Indonesia ). Although the British radio reconnaissance reported on March 27 that several German cargo ships escorted from the Gironde with destroyers , the submarines that had been summoned came too late to intercept the Osorno and the Portland . On May 8, the Osorno reached Jakarta. From there she went on to Japan.
1943: Japan - Bordeaux
The Osorno left Kobe - the first of five ships - on October 2, 1943, with a cargo of 3944 t of rubber , 1826 t of tin and 180 t of tungsten ore , with the destination Bordeaux. On board were the 47 men of the former German crew of U 511 , which had been handed over to Japan. For its own protection, the ship was armed with a 10.5 cm gun, two 37 mm Flak , four 2 cm Flak 38 , four 7.92 mm MG 34 and four launchers for 8.6 mm. cm wire rope rockets (DSR). In Singapore , where the Osorno arrived on October 10, the submarine men disembarked; They traveled on to Penang , where they formed the trunk of the German base for the monsoon boats , which from 1943 mainly operated in the Indian Ocean , but also in the Pacific.
The Cape of Good Hope was circled on November 15th. On December 8, the ship was from a Liberator of the US Navy spotted that on Ascension was stationed. The following search by British units was unsuccessful and the Osorno , disguised as the British Prome , escaped through the chains of the patrolling ships in the Natal - Freetown Narrows. Then the Allied Operation Stonewall started : the light cruisers Gambia and Glasgow moved from Plymouth to Horta ( Azores ) and carried out search patrols from there, while the air squadrons of the RAF Coastal Command and the US Navy operating in the North Atlantic and Bay of Biscay were put on alert. Nevertheless, the Osorno managed not only to evade these patrols, but also undetected the North Atlantic convoy routes USA - Gibraltar (on December 16/17) and USA - Great Britain (on December 19) , which were used by Allied convoys in close succession to cross.
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On 21/22 On December 1st, the Osorno was north of the Azores and changed course eastwards towards Biscay. In doing so, she crossed the routes of two other convoys less than a day's march apart, again without being spotted. On December 23, however, she was discovered by an aircraft belonging to escort carrier Card . As a result, on December 24th, 25th and 26th, there were violent clashes between German submarines, which had been ordered to cover the route of the Osorno and the other blockade breakers, and two anti-submarine combat groups (task groups) the two escort carriers Card and Core as well as the escort of another convoy around the escort carrier Striker . The destroyers Leary and Hurricane and the German submarine U 645 were sunk.
The Osorno , meanwhile , continued towards the Gironde estuary. She was on the morning of December 25 permanently by British, Canadian and Australian Sunderland - flying boats shadowed, from which they shot down one. At noon on December 25th she was picked up by the 8th destroyer flotilla and the 4th torpedo boat flotilla, which had left the Gironde for this purpose ( Operation Bernau ) the day before , and escorted into the Gironde. Air attacks were repulsed by Ju 88 long-range fighters and the ships' flak.
The Gironde was unharmed achieved, but arriving in the Gironde on 26 December, the crack Osorno at the wreck of the barrier breaker 21 the fuselage and had a 12 m long crack on the beach are set to at least save the valuable cargo. This was then reloaded onto a barge and brought to Bordeaux. A British attempt on December 31st to prevent this with a bomber attack and to destroy the ship completely failed due to poor visibility.
The Osorno was the last overwater blockade breaker to reach its destination. 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.
Award
For the successful trips to Japan and the two supply trips from Japan to Bordeaux, the captain of the Osorno , Paul Hellmann (1889–1964), was awarded both levels of the Iron Cross (2nd and 1st class) on December 31, 1943 . Only six days later, on January 6, 1944, he was the only member of the merchant navy to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . The award ceremony with Grand Admiral Dönitz on April 28, 1944 was shown in Deutsche Wochenschau No. 714 in May 1944.
The End
The wreck of the Osorno was blown up by German soldiers in the Gironde when they surrendered Bordeaux on August 25, 1944.
literature
- Hellmuth Henke: The last blockade breaker: The secret mission of the MS "Osorno" 1941-1944. Frieling, 2000, ISBN 3-82800-978-6
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. V An era comes to an end from 1930 to 1990 , writings of the German Maritime Museum, volume 22
Web links
- Blockade breakers 1941–1943, under the direction of the Marine Special Service on the route between Japan and Europe
- Osorno, with photo
- Advance of the blockade breaker Osorno on the "Anton" route in December 1943
- Captain Paul Hellmann with the Knight's Cross
Footnotes
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. V, p. 70
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.combinedfleet.com/Bogota_t.htm
- ↑ Part of the cargo from the Osorno , like the Bogota , the Ramses , the Quito and the Rhakotis , was later reloaded in Yokohama to the blockade breaker Odenwald (5098 GRT) ( archive link ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ), Who then started the journey from Yokohama around Cape Horn to Germany on August 21, 1941 , but on August 6 , 1941 November 1941 was seized by the US light cruiser Omaha in the South Atlantic off the Brazilian coast and captured despite attempted self- sinking.
- ^ Blockade breakers 1941–1943, under the direction of the Marine Special Service on the route between Japan and Europe
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-01.htm
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-02.htm
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-03.htm
- ↑ http://www.u-boot-archiv.de/dieboote/u0511.php
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-12.htm
- ↑ Captain Hans Erdmenger with Z 27 , Z 23 , Z 24 , Z 32 , Z 37 and ZH 1 . Only three days later, on December 28, 1943, Z 27 was sunk by the British cruisers Glasgow and Enterprise ; Erdmenger was among the fallen.
- ^ Korvettenkapitän Kohlauf with T 22 , T 23 , T 24 , T 25 , T 26 and T 27 .
- ↑ 303rd BG (H) Combat Mission No. 94, 31 December 1943, Target: Blockade Runner Ship "Orsono," at Bordeaux (PDF; 1.4 MB)
- ^ Blockade breakers 1941 - 1943, under the direction of the special marine service on the route between Japan and Europe
- ↑ http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/F01972 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
