At 05:46 PM 1/23/2001 -0500, twojohnsons@home.com wrote:
>You are VERY wrong as to the success achieved by the German armed merchant
>raiders during WW2. May I recommend "The Secret Raiders" by David
Woodward, which
>traces the successes of ten such raiders.
There is a world of difference between "Q" ships and Hilfkreuzern.
Radically different vessels.
The Q ships were a WWI BRITISH development to lure U-Boats to their demise.
They had a brief flurry of success around 1916 but were soon supplanted as
the German skippers became more wiley.
Hilfkreuzern, or merchant raiders, were actively employed in large numbers
by the Germans in both World Wars. The most successful in the First War
was the Mowe, which made two epic journies into the Indian Ocean, complete
with a spotting aircraft. In the Second War, another German HK, the
Kormorant, managed to sink the Australian cruiser Sydney with all hands.
Marc
msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
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