9/22/1939 Central Atlantic □ 5556 DF 30°52’N, 39°25’W 42ndday at sea
Ship 77 crossed 40°N late on the 11th and come under command of the SKL. The first radio message came in for the raider to meet the tanker NORDMARK in □ 5556 DF. Ship 77 arrived on the 13th and Kapitan.z.S Hartmann boarded the tanker for a conference with FKpt.d.R Grau discussions resulted in a solid plan for commerce warfare in the Central Atlantic. The Seekriegslietung informed Hartmann that the pocket battleship Deutschland was operating in the North Atlantic as far as Bermuda and The Admiral Graf Spee operating in the area of the Pernambuco area and will work its way south towards the Indian Ocean. Hartmann was given freedom to operate from 30°-10°N, 90°-10°W. Hartmann also plans to raid in the Caribbean Sea. Ship 77 took on 300 tons of diesel fuel and topped off provisions. Ship 77 parted ways with the NORDMARK at 15:00 hrs. Hartmann plans to operate along the West Indies routes. At 17:25 hrs. the NORDMARK was out of sight.
For Ship 77 and her crew their hour had arrived and the raids for which they would gain undying fame were about to begin................
