RAIDER MICHEL 12 SHIPS SUNK
13)WILLIAM HUMPHREY
Built: 1921
Tonnage 7,983/13,478 dwt
Sunk 16 Jul 42 by Raider Michel on pos 05º
11 Dead
25 POW
11 Survivors
On July 16, having spotted this 7,893-ton American tanker en route from Cape Town to Trinidad with a crew of sixty-four, sailing on a parallel course with Aramis, Ruckteschell decided that he would take them both, simultaneously, the Michel taking one, and the Esau, with her two torpedoes, the other.
While his torpedo-boat attacked the Aramis, Ruckteschell, coming out of the darkness, opened up with all the weapons he could bring to bear, hitting the tanker with sixty 150mm shells in salvos timed at 30 second intervals, as well as hundreds of rounds of 37mm and 20mm, smashing her topsides, her deckhouse and her starboard lifeboats to pieces.
Moments later, while returning fire with her 5-inch gun, the tanker was staggered by a torpedo hit at the stern, which started a fire, quickly followed by two more which sank her.
Michel picked up twenty-nine members of her crew from the port side boats, while another eleven, including her captain, drifting off on rafts, avoided capture.
The next morning, led by their Second Officer, Fritz Borner, they found the empty lifeboats and proceeded to sail 450 miles, in five and a half days, in one of them, before being picked up by the Norwegian freighter Triton, which took them to Freetown.
William Humphrey was sunk some 800 miles off the mouth of Congo River. On 22 Jul survivors were rescued by Norwegian merchant Triton.
By Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser / Raider) - Michel (bismarck-class.dk)
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