pulmosan:enrique262:German auxiliary cruiser PinguinThe most successful commerce raider of World War
pulmosan:enrique262:German auxiliary cruiser PinguinThe most successful commerce raider of World War Two, sinking or capturing 28 ships, with a further 4 ships sunk by mines laid by her, for a grand total of 154,710 gross register tons.She was also Germany’s first commerce raider sunk during the war, sailing on 15 June 1940 and getting sunk by the British heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall off the coast of East Africa on 8 May 1941, having spend 357 days at sea during her fateful career.Of the 401 Germans aboard Pinguin only three officers, one prize officer and 57 petty officers and men survived. Of the 238 prisoners onboard only nine officers and 15 seamen survived. 214 prisoners and 341 of her crew were killed.However, she’s usually overshadowed by her less successful sister, the Kormoran, which attained fame after sinking against all odds the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney.The age of the German commerce raider during WW2 was a brief but brutal affair, involving 11 ships in total and accounting for 810,000 tons of allied shipping, a figure eclipsed by the success of the U-boat fleet during the remainder of the war. I’ve just realized I have incredibly conflicting feelings about Commerce Raiders -- source link