During the first and second world wars submarines posed the greatest threat to England’s supply lines. Operating mainly in the Atlantic and Mediterranean they sank over ¾ of allied shipping despite this they had limited range and couldn’t operate independently against England’s global empire, so the Germans developed other ways to sink vessels around the world by using surface warships and disguised commerce raiders to sink over 1,500,000 tons of shipping and above all they tied down allied warships hunting them.
11 merchants in total were converted , 9 made it to sea however, there was a 12th raider her identity never established by Bletchley Park. She was a large, dreaded merchant raider rumored doomed to sail the 7 seas for eternity this is the story of the Merchant Raider “Stortebecker”..................
The raider began her career as a freighter of the DDG Hansa Line’s Ehrenfels Class of motorships, she was the “Weserfels”7,000 grt built at the Deshimag A.G. Weser Werft, Bremen in 1936 she entered commercial service in 1938 and ran the Hansa Line’s East Asia Route from Calcutta to Hamburg. On returning from a voyage from Calcutta the Weserfels docked early at Hamburg and by the afternoon she was in the hands of the Kriegsmarine who intended to use her as supply ship for the raging Spanish Civil War instead the Seekriegslietung had a different fate for the ship she was to be converted into the navy’s first commerce raider but not just any commerce raider for a year and half the vessel was transformed from her peaceful 509ft hull into a heavily armed 660ft raider capable of sustaining operations for over 330 days. The conversion took place at the shipyard that brought her to life, A.G. Weser Werft. During this time the SKL assigned her a captain, FKpt.z.S Hans Felix Hartmann an artillery officer aboard the Pocket Battleship Deutschland. He had just received command of the Minesweeper M-39 three months prior after being injured aboard the Deutschland. With enthusiasm for the new command Hartmann began to pour over the available material from raiders of the Great War and had lengthy conversations with Karl August Nerger commander of the Hilfskreuzer Wolf. After this Hartmann began assembling his crew rejecting the navy’s recommendations and demanding officers, petty officers, and ratings by name by mid-April the crew was assembled in barracks at Bremen awaiting their vessel’s completion.
By early May the conversion was complete and soon HSK-14 was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine as “Schiff Nr.77” all the while retaining her original name “Weserfels”. Schiff 77 proceeded to Kiel from Bremen via Bremerhaven where she took on the tremendous number of provisions, stores, equipment, fuel, coal, water, among other things on arriving to Kiel the raider took aboard her reconnaissance aircraft 5 x Arado Ar 196 A-1 aircraft 2 assembled and 3 in five ton crates.
Another month of training cruises followed by a brief stay in Kiel while Hartmann proceeded to Berlin to receive the final briefing from GAdm Reader himself.
Ship 77 will depart as part of Operation “Fall Weiss”.
