Крейсер-рейдер "Комет": История немецкого военного корабля времён Второй мировой войны.

German commerce raider

Komet (German for comet) (HSK 7) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine in the Second World War, intended for service as a commerce raider. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 45, to the Royal Navy she was named Raider B. After completing one successful raid in the South Pacific, she was sunk by a British motor torpedo boat in October 1942 whilst attempting to break out into the Atlantic on another.

Launched on 16 January 1937 as the merchant ship Ems at Deschimag A. G. Weser shipyard in Bremen for Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), she was requisitioned at the start of the Second World War in 1939, converted into an auxiliary cruiser at Howaldtswerke in Hamburg, and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 2 June 1940. The ship was 115.5 m long and 15.3 m wide, had a draught of 6.5 m, and registered She was powered by two diesel engines that gave her a speed of up to 16 knots (30 km/h). As a commerce raider, Komet was armed with six 15 cm guns, one 7.5 cm gun, one 3.7 cm and four 2 cm AA guns, as well as six torpedo tubes. She also carried a small 15 ton fast boat ("Meteorit", of the "LS2" class) intended to lay mines and an Arado 196 A1 seaplane.

After a long period of negotiations between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the Soviets agreed to provide Germany with access to the Northern Sea Route through which Germany could access the Pacific Ocean. Although the two countries had signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (with secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe) and an undisclosed commercial agreement (extensive military and civilian aid pact), the Soviet Union still wished to maintain the veneer of being neutral, and secrecy thus was required. Prior to being sent on the Northern Sea Route, the Komet was equipped with a specially strengthened bow and a propeller suitable for navigating through ice. Under the command of Kapitän zur See (later Konteradmiral) Robert Eyssen, HSK7 departed for her first raiding voyage from Gotenhafen (now Gdynia in Poland), on 3 July 1940 with a crew of 270. Then she started again her route towards the Arctic Ocean. With the consent of the then supposedly neutral Soviet Union, Komet initially made her way along the Norwegian coast disguised as the Soviet icebreaker Semyon Dezhnev. She also later received help from the Joseph Stalin. Once in the Pacific, Eyssen sailed down to the Japanese island of Lamutrik and met the Orion and Kulmerland in mid October. After a conference on strategy, the three captains decided to work together, concentrating on the New Zealand to Panama passage taken by most of the Allied merchant ships. They decided on Japanese disguises – Komet and Kulmerland had the names Manyo Maru and Tokio Maru painted on their hulls.

In early November, Komet resupplied and refueled in Japan, disguised as the Japanese merchantman Manio Maru. She operated with the Orion, disguised as Mayebashi Maru and the supply ship Kulmerland, posing as the Tokio Maru. Together with the other two ships, on 25 November she sank the coaster Holmwood By that time, Komet had already been at sea for 140 days and Eyssen admitted in his war diary that he had become depressed and frustrated at not having encountered the enemy. During December, Komet and Orion casually met in the waters surrounding Nauru Island and proceeded to sink five Allied merchant ships, with a combined tonnage of about 41,000 tons, that had been waiting off the island to load phosphate. Three of these ships Triona, Vinni and Komata—were sunk between 6 and 7 December by Komet, which took more than 500 prisoners; the prisoners were landed a few days later on Emirau Island.

At the end of December Eyssen planned to lay a minefield at the entrance of the Rabaul's harbour. He was forced to abandon his plan due to an engine failure on the Meteorit boat that was designed for the mission. The action also led to the promotion of Eyssen to Konteradmiral on 1 January 1941. After the Nauru attack (probably the major German success in the Pacific operational area during the war) the Komet received the order to set a new course towards south, crossing the Indian Ocean and scouting the presence of Allied whalers. After a few months with no success, the ship reached the shores of Antarctica on 16 February 1941; later on 6 March she had a stop on the French Kerguelen Islands and had there a brief meeting with the other German auxiliary ship Pinguin.

The hunt for allied ships in the Indian Ocean had no success; after some months, Eyssen sailed towards the Panama Canal, hoping to find more convoys in the Pan American Security Zone, recently opened to military actions from the Kriegsmarine high command. From 14 July 1941 until 25 July the Komet was resupplied by the German freighter Anneliese Essberger near the Tuamotu Archipelago. At this time, the Komet was disguised as the Osaka Shosen Kaisha line Ryoku Maru. On 14 August the ship met near the Galápagos Islands the British freighter Australind and sunk it. Three days later the German cruiser met the Dutch 7,300 ton freighter Kota Nopan, loading more than 2,000 tons of tin and manganese. Due to her precious load, the supply ship was spared from sinking and captured. On 19 August Komet met the freighter Devon and sank it.

The wreck of HK Komet was discovered by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney off Cap de la Hague in July 2006 and was surveyed by a team led by him in 2007. She is in two halves and upside down, with a large part of the center section blown away by the explosion that sank her. She lies in of water.