Dear Mr Gregory,
Please put a Pom out of his misery (even if we did win......).
Some years ago I read a book about a German armed mechant ship which made a voyage from the Far East back to a French port. The captain of the ship was a merchant seaman who held an auxiliary German Navy commission and he 'converted' his ship to a war footing before beginning the voyage.
A couple of years later I discussed the book (which was fact not fiction {I've always believed; it was in the factual section of the library}) with two German naval officers but couldn't remember the name of the ship.
I've tried several sources without a succesful result and have now today found your excellent web-site. However, none of the raiders you mention appear to have carried out the one distinctive action which I recall "my" ship taking. They destroyed radio masts on St Helena.
I would be most grateful if you could solve my puzzle. Many thanks.
Sincerely
Derek Read
Derek,
Thank you for your message, not withstanding your Rugby World Cup success!!
Your kind words about Ahoy are appreciated, the site results from a combined effort of my Web Master, Terry Kearns in Atlanta, Georgia who keeps the site ticking over, whilst I cope with the research and the writing thereon.
I am totally unaware of any German Armed Merchant travelling from the Far East to France in WW2 that attacked the radio masts at St Helena, nor can I find an iota about such an operation.
Perhaps it was carried out by one of the 12 German Blockade Runners which, between about April of 1941, and May of 1942 made a voyage from Japan to Bordeaux, carrying scarce rubber, wolfram etc.
In 1942, when I served in HMAS Adelaide, we came across the Blockade Runner Ramses in the Indian Ocean, on her way home to Germany, a combination of our Gunnery, and her laid demolition charges despatched her to a watery end.
But her main armament was what turned out to be a large wooden dummy gun on her stern, it floated off nicely as the ship sank. I have asked the Archivist at St Helena Island if there is any record of the incident you have read about, and will get back to you when I get some sort of response from that source.
Sorry, I am not not able as yet to solve your puzzle, nor may I be able to assist you here.
Best regards,
Mac. Gregory.
Dear Mac,
Thank you for your speedy response to my e-mail. You have immediately shown up one error in my own attempts to solve my riddle. I have been looking for an armed mechantman when, as you suggest, she was almost certainly a blockade runner.
You will have to excuse my nautical mistake because, unlike yourself, I am not ex-Royal Australian Navy, but ex- Royal Air Force. (Although I had a full career I was clever enough to be born too late to serve whilst people were shooting seriously at us!!).
My initial trawl through web-sites about blockade runners has not so far revealed the desired answer but I shall keep trying.
Meanwhile I live in hope that your approach to the archevist at St Helena may produce a result and look forward to your next e-mail.
Sincerely,
Derek
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