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Auxiliary cruisers were merchant ships taken over for conversion into a vessel armed with cruiser-size guns, and employed either for convoy protection against true cruisers, or for commerce-raiding missions, where its appearance was used to trick merchant ships into approaching. There were two main types - large passenger liners (known as armed merchant cruisers, or AMCs), and smaller merchant ships, which were armed with hidden guns and torpedo-tubes and equipped with floatplanes for scouting. In both world wars, these ships were found to be vulnerable to attack, and were withdrawn before the war ended. Many were sunk after being caught by regular warships - an unfair battle since auxiliary cruisers had poor fire control and no armour. The most famous AMCs in World War I were the British Carmania and the German Cap Trafalgar and Wilhelm der Grosse. In one incident in World War II the German Kormoran (ex-merchant Steiermark) managed to surprise and sink the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, which approached too close. In most cases auxiliary cruiser raiders tried to avoid detection. Whilst the British used armed passenger liner as auxiliary cruisers and used them to protect convoys, the Germans used normal freighters provided with hidden weapons as commerce raiders.
(Compare to the Q-ship)
Allied merchant cruisers of World War I
Royal Navy
Allied merchant cruisers of World War II Royal Australian Navy Royal New Zealand Navy Royal Navy
Germany The German auxiliary cruiser - Hilfskreuzer or Handels-St r-Kreuzer (HSK) - approached its target under a false flag with its guns concealed and its appearance altered with fake funnels and masts. The victim was thus engaged at point-blank range and had no chance to evade.
At the outbreak of war, the German Admiralty requisitioned a number of fast merchantmen and immediately sent them into naval shipyards. These ships had been built with extra strong decks to facilitate the installation of military equipment, but this was the only difference between them and other merchantmen of the period. Indeed, no precise plans had been drawn up for the conversion of these ships into warships, and consequently the conversion process was painfully long.
Unlike the diversity of British auxiliary cruisers, the Hilfskreuzer were standardized in so far as possible. The ships themselves averaged approximately 7,000 tons. Armament usually consisted of six 5.9 inch guns, between two and six torpedo tubes, and an assortment of 40mm, 37mm, and 20mm automatic weapons. Most raiders carried a Arado 196 scouting airplane. Kormoran, Komet, and Michel were also equipped with small motor torpedo boats. In addition to armament, increased fuel, water, and coal, storage had to be provided for as well. Furthermore, the raiders could not abandon the crews of their captures, so space had to be provided for prisoners. The first Hilfskreuzer got under way in March 1940, shortly before the Norwegian campaign.
German auxiliary cruiser raiders of World War II - Orion (HSK-1)
- Atlantis (HSK-2)
- Widder (HSK-3)
- Thor (HSK-4)
- Pinguin (HSK-5)
- Stier (HSK-6)
- Komet (HSK-7)
- Kormoran (HSK-8)
- Michel (HSK-9)
- Coronel (HSK-10)
- Hansa (HSK-11)
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