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15)BALZAC (RAIDER ATLANTIS)




Photo. www.photoship.co.uk


 


Built 1920


Tonnage: 5,372 / 8,071 tons


Cargo: 4,200 tons of rice, beeswax and other mixed cargo.


Route: Rangoon - Buenos Aires -Rio de Janeiro - Liverpool


Sunk 22 JUN 41 by raider Atlantis on pos. 12º 00’S 29º 00’W some 400 miles of Maceio 


4 Dead 


47 POW 


On June 22, 1941 the Atlantis followed and made a night attack on what was to be her penultimate victim, closing to within 9,600 metres, at which point the vessel, spotting the raider, radioed RRR, increased speed and began to zigzag, stern-on.


With the German operators jamming her SOS transmissions with the fake signal, “Hope to meet you next Friday … Love and Kisses, Evelyn”, Rogge’s gunners poured forty salvos – 192 150mm and 53 75mm rounds, at the vessel’s retreating stern with only four hits, until two of the raider’s forward 155mm guns, and the No.5 gun overheated, and the recoil systems jammed.


Having already turned his ship to bring the starboard battery into action, Rogge  was on the verge of giving up the chase, when to his surprise, the freighter was seen to stop and lower boats.


The boarding party identified her as the 5,372-ton Lamport and Holt motor-ship Balzac, bound for Liverpool from Rangoon with a cargo of 4,200 tons of rice, ‘vast quantities of beeswax’ (Ulrich Mohr) and other mixed cargo.


Three of her crew of fifty-one had lost their lives during the attack, while another died later on board the Atlantis.

With some bags of mail transferred to the raider and the survivors picked up, the 21-year-old ship was quickly sent to the bottom.


By Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser / Raider) - Atlantis (bismarck-class.dk)


 

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