German auxiliary cruiser Orion

"Orion" (HSK-1) was an auxiliary cruiser of the German navy which operated as a merchant raider during World War II. Built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg in 1930/31 as the freighter "Kurmark", she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine at the outbreak of World War II and converted into the auxiliary cruiser "Orion", commissioned on 9 December 1939. Known to the KM as Schiff 36, her Royal Navy designation was Raider A.

Construction and conversion

The "Orion" was built in 1930 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as a freighter for HAPAG,the Hamburg-America Line. To save money, the engines of the liner "New York" were reused. That proved a poor decision, since the "Orion" was plagued for her entire life by engine problems.

After the war broke out the German "Seekriegsleitung" (Naval Operations Command) was ill prepared for raider warfare. The operations of the German auxiliary cruisers of World War I were evaluated and considered a great success, having disrupted British merchant shipping around the world. However, the overall effect in the actual war was evaluated as having been rather minor, and so only a small program of converting merchant vessels into auxiliary cruisers was initiated on 5 September 1939.

The first two ships being requisitioned were the "Kurmark"("Orion") and the "Neumark" ("Widder"), and conversion started immediately.

Raider voyage

One of the first auxiliary cruisers operated by Germany in WWII, "Orion" left Germany on 6 April 1940,under the command of "Korvettenkapitän" (KK) (later "Fregattenkapitän" (FK)) Kurt Weyher.She passed south through the Atlantic disguised as a neutral vessel, where she attacked and sank SS "Haxby".

In May 1940 "Orion" rounded Cape Horn and entered the Pacific. She entered New Zealand waters in June 1940 and laid mines off Auckland during the night of 13/14 June 1940, one of which sank the liner "Niagara" five days later.Two other ships were caught by mines from Orion, plus two trawlers and an auxiliary minesweeper.

This done, Orion raided across the Indian and Pacific Oceans attacking another 4 ships. One she sent to occupied France as a prize, the others were sunk.

On 20 October 1940 she made rendezvous with the raider "Komet", and the supply ship "Kulmerland"; operating together they accounted for a further 7 ships, including the liner "Rangitane" and five ships off Nauru, before going their separate ways in the new year.

A further 6 months passed cruising in the Indian Ocean yielded only one further victim, the SS "Chaucer", in July 1941

Orion returned to Bordeaux in occupied France on 23 August 1941.

After 510 days and 127,337 nautical miles at sea she had sunk 10 ships with a combined tonnage of 62,915 t, plus two more (totalling 21,125 t) in cooperation with "Komet".

Later history

De-commissioned as a commerce raider, the ship was renamed "Hektor" in 1944 and used as artillery training ship. In January 1945 it was again renamed "Orion" and used to transport refugees from Germany's eastern provinces across the Baltic Sea to ports in northern Germany and occupied Denmark. On her way to Copenhagen on 4 May 1945 the ship was hit by bombs off Swinemünde and sank. Of the more than 4,000 people on board all but 150 were rescued. The hulk was scrapped in 1952.

Raiding career

Sunk by "Orion":

*1940-04-24 "Haxby" GRT|5,207|metric|first=yes
*1940-06-19 "Tropic Sea" GRT|8,750|metric
*1940-08-16 "Notou" GRT|2,489|metric
*1940-08-20 "Turakina" GRT|9,691|metric
*1940-10-14 "Ringwood" GRT|7,203|metric
*1941-07-29 "Chaucer"

Sunk by mines laid by "Orion":

*1940-06-19 "Niagara" GRT|13,415|metric
* June 1940 "Puriri" GRT|927|metric
* June 1940 "Port Bowen" GRT|8,276|metric
* June 1940 "Britannic" GRT|1,500|metric

In concert with" Komet":
*1940-11-25 "Holmwood" GRT|546|metric
*1940-11-27 "Rangitane" GRT|16,712|metric
*1940-12-06 "Triona" GRT|4,413|metric
*1940-12-07 "Vinni" GRT|5,181|metric
*1940-12-07 "Komata" GRT|3,900|metric
*1940-12-08 "Triadic" GRT|6,378|metric
*1940-12-08 "Triaster" GRT|6,032|metric

References

*
*cite book|author=August Karl Muggenthaler|title=German Raiders of World War II|year=1977|id=ISBN 0 7091 6683 4
*cite book|author=Paul Schmalenbach|title=German Raiders 1895–1945|year=1977|id=ISBN 0 85059 351 4
*cite book|author=Stephen Roskill|title=The War at Sea 1939–1945 Volume I|year=1954
* New Zealand Official War History: [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-110460.html The German raider "Orion"]

External links

* http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/orion.html
* http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/auxcruiser/orion/