German Raiders of World War II Quiz

Answer: Atlantis

Bernhard Rogge - the highly respected captain of the Atlantis - ended the war as a vice-admiral and joined the newly formed Bundesmarine in 1957, with the rank of rear-admiral. He died at the age of 82, in 1982.

Answer: Pinguin

On May 8 1941 - just as her Captain, Ernst Felix Krüder, gave the order to release the prisoners on board and abandon ship, a well-aimed 8-inch salvo from the British cruiser HMS Cornwall struck the Pinguin's mine storage compartment.

Over 200 prisoners and more than 340 of the raider's crew, including her captain, lost their lives in the resulting explosion.

Answer: HMS Voltaire

Thor's captain, Otto Kähler, seemed to relish the opportunity of pitting his tiny 3,150-ton raider at superior enemy vessels, and so, having severely mauled both the 22,000-ton HMS Alcantara and the 20,000-ton HMS Carnarvon Castle, he sank the 13,200-ton HMS Voltaire on April 4 1941. (Note that until the 1970s, it was commonplace to use the English spelling "Carnarvon" for the place in Wales and hence also for the ship.

The town and castle are now known by their Welsh name, "Caernafon").

Answer: Kormoran

On November 19 1941, off the west coast of Australia, the captain of the 7,100-ton cruiser Sydney - armed with eight 6-inch guns - inexplicably brought his ship to within 1,000 yards of a hitherto unidentified 'freighter' flying the Dutch flag, and had it shot to pieces by a ferocious and sustained barrage of 5.9-inch and light anti-aircraft weapons. Managing to register some hits on her attacker, which ultimately sank her, before drifting away ablaze and wracked by internal explosions, the Sydney was never seen again.
Not one of her 645-man crew survived to tell the tale.

Answer: Hellmuth von Ruckteschell

Having avoided facing charges of over zealousness as a U-Boat commander after World War I - von Ruckteschell was charged with firing on the survivors of one of his victims, firing for too long at two others and with failing to pick up survivors. Highly cultured and religious - von Ruckteschell - a fascinating and complicated man - was found guilty on three of the five charges he faced and sentenced to ten years in prison in 1947. Subsequently acquitted on one of the three, his sentence was reduced to seven years, but he died in prison in 1948.

A British officer who had spent 80 days as his captive said, "War is a systematic way of killing one another ... lawful on both sides ... to us ... at least (von) Ruckteschell was a Christian and a gentleman".

Answer: Günther Gumprich

Having sunk over 99,000 tons of Allied shipping under Hellmuth von Ruckteschell, who had had to stand down due to deteriorating health, Michel, by then the only German warship at sea anywhere, recorded three further successes before being sunk on the night of October 17 1943, off Yokohama, by the American submarine USS Tarpon, with the loss of 263 of the 373 officers and men on board.

Answer: An American 'Liberty Ship'

On September 28 1942, in what must be one of the most extraordinary episodes in the war at sea, Stier, and the very lightly-armed American freighter Stephen Hopkins, engaged in a murderous gun battle that sank both ships.

Answer: Komet

On October 14 1942, having come under fierce and sustained attacks from British destroyers and motor torpedo boats, Komet was struck by a torpedo from MTB 236, blew up, and sank with all hands.

Answer: Coronel

Having endured a violent storm off Heligoland, 'Schiff 14 / Togo' (Coronel) ran aground twice off Dunquerque, came under heavy fire from coastal batteries at Dover, and was badly damaged by a fighter-bomber attack. Compelled to seek refuge in Boulogne, she was heavily bombed there by RAF and USAAF aircraft. Forced to turn back, she was shelled again from Dover, trapped in port at Dunquerque, bombed, and again damaged, by the RAF, run aground twice (again), and was attacked by British MTBs and MGBs, and finally made it back to Cuxhaven on February 28. As the captains of German raiders sometimes waited until they'd got out into their operational area at sea before formally 'naming' their ships, Schiff 14 /'Togo' did not 'officially' become the Hilfskreuzer Coronel due to her failure to make it through the Channel.

Answer: Night Fighter Direction Ship

Temporarily employed as a blockade runner in 1943, she was converted into a Radar and Night Fighter Direction Ship. She retained her old name Togo until the end of the war, helping in the evacuation of beleaguered German troops from Poland and East Prussia, being bombed several times while doing so.

Amazingly, she was still at sea in the 1980s, ending her days run aground, yet again(!), off the coast of Mexico in 1984.