MS Tannenfels (1938)

Tannenfels in 1938
History
Germany
Name:	Tannenfels
Owner:	DDG Hansa
Port of registry:	Bremen, Germany
Launched:	9 April 1938
Commissioned:	11 June 1938
Fate:	Scuttled in 1944 as a blockship in La Gironde
General characteristics
Tonnage:	7,840 GRT 4,833 NRT 10,663 DWT
Length:	155.47 m LOA
Beam:	18.69 m
Draught:	8.26 m
Installed power:	7,600 hp (5,590 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × 6-cylinder double-acting diesel engines
Speed:	16 knots
Crew:	45
Armament:	37mm and 20mm machine guns;1 15 cm SK C/28
Notes:	Fought with the Stier in her last battle battle, lightly damaged

MS Tannenfels was a German cargo ship owned by DDG Hansa, put into service in 1938. She served as a blockade runner during World War II.^[1]

The war broke out when Tannenfels was moored at Kismayo, in Italian Somaliland, from where she departed towards France in January 1941. She was a successful blockade runner, bringing supplies to multiple German merchant raiders, although eventually all were lost. Not fully seaworthy after being damaged in December 1942 by limpet mines planted by British commandos at Bordeaux during Operation Frankton, the ship was eventually scuttled as a blockship in La Gironde in 1944.

Commissioning

After the second world war broke out, she was fitted with multiple machine guns, and became a blockade runner seeing extensive service in the navy.^[2]

References

1. "M/S Tannenfels". DDGHansa-ShipsPhotos.de. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
2. Miller (2011), p. 40

• Miller, Steve (2011) First Sailing of the S.S. Smith Thompson. Lulu.com, p. 40