The German Raider Pinguin meets HMS Cornwall

[The Sailor]

Armed with six 6inch guns, Pinguin was one of the first wave of raiders sent out by the German navy, sailing on the 15 June 1940 under the command of Ernst-Felix Kruder.

Slipping through the Denmark Straits, Pinguin made for her patrol area in the Southern Ocean.

In 10 ½ months at sea she accounted for 28 ships, totalling 136,000 tons.

Her most successful coup was the capture, on 14 January 1941, of the Norwegian whaling fleet in Antarctica, totalling three factory ships and 11 whalers. These were sent back as prizes to Europe, arriving in Bordeaux, occupied France, in March 1941. One of the whalers was retained as an auxiliary raider, being re-named Adjutant.

On 8 May 1941, Pinguin was sunk by HMS Cornwall. She was the first auxiliary cruiser of the German Navy to be sunk. 532 persons, among them 200 prisoners, were lost with the ship. HMS Cornwall managed to rescue 60 crew members and 22 prisoners who were originally the crew of the 32 merchant ships the raider had either sunk or captured.

[NASAAN101]

guys,
that what get me, she was only one ship, and if the ships scardded she'd have no way of getting all of them!
Nikki

[Blaydon]

The whalers themselves tended to rely on the factory ships for fuel if the german captures the factory ship the whalers dont have the fuel to reach anywhere they would be signing their own death warrants Besides you don't want to mess about running the risk of being sunk in the mighty cold water of the antarctic. Plus these guys are civilians they didnt sign up to be shot at and the raiders guns probably have an 8 mile range and one hit is enough.

[NASAAN101]

Guys,
why did she think she could take on cornwell!
Nikki

[Blaydon]

She didn't in all probability but she would have known she could not get away from a cruiser so the choice is surrender or fight and most naval captains in that position will fight.

[NASAAN101]

Pinguin was on the small side right, as far as the german raider gose? But she was also one of the first to go out!
Nikki

[CGRET]

Nikki,

According to reference material the Pinquin was not the smallest, it would have been the Komet.

Regards
Charles

[Blaydon]

Komet was 7500t
Thor 9200t
Michel 10900t
Stier 11000t
Coronel 12700t
Orion 15700t
Widder 16800t
Atlantis and Pinguin 17600t
Kormoran 19900t

[CGRET]

Kev,

Thanks, my error i did not add tonnage.

Regards
Charles

[NASAAN101]

ok,guys
this my sound stubid but are Atlantis and Pinguin twin sister or are they just sister?
NIKKI

[Blaydon]

They were not built at the same yard and there were differences but they were both about the same size and built for the same shipping company.

[NASAAN101]

thanks Kev.
they were never together as a team right? and if they were it was never more then a few hours..
NIKKI

[Commodore Armiger]

In case you haven't come a cross it, here is a link to a site specifically about WW2 surface raiders:

http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/MaraudersoftheSea2GermanA.html

There's a link to a site about WW1 raiders too.

[NASAAN101]

Armiger, question, She and Atlantis r sister ships, right or not? Nikki

[astraltrader]

They were sort of sister ships Nikki as they were about the same size and as Armiger said they were built for the same company.
However they were built at different shipyards so maybe they were step-sisters?;)

[NASAAN101]

ok terry, thanks. i wasnt sure!
Nikki

[RichyB]

Here are a set of drawings from 1939 of Surface Raider Pinquin.

http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/plans/KM_Pinguin_1939/

[Hank]

Hello- Does anyone know of a location where color images of the Heinkel 114 C-2 aircraft that were used from the Pinguin might be located? Only four versions of the C-2 model were built, this for the equipment of the commerce raiders. Regards

[Rob Stuart]

There is an account of the Cornwall-Pinguin engagement in Robert Forczyk's 2010 80-page Osprey book German Commerce Raider vs British Cruiser: The Atlantic & The Pacific 1941. Forczyk criticizes Cornwall's CO for approaching within range of Pinguin's guns and torpedoes, which allowed its 5.9-inch guns to score two hits. He also notes electrical power failures on Cornwall which forced the main armament to fire under local control.

FWIW,

Rob

[ludsie]

The surface raiders were pretty potent ships, especially if one come upon them unprepared

unfortunately HMAS Sydney found this out the hard way