SHIPS HIT GERMANY 21* - BLOCKADEBRECHER
12)HALLE (SCUTTLED)
https://www.naval-history.net/Maps1939-08RNStations.GIF
Photo Statki III Rzeszy: SS HALLE (1921), frachtowiec (graptolite.net)
Built: 1921
Tonnage: 5,889 / 9,621 tons
Cargo: N/A
Dead: 0
Survivors: 40 made POW at Senegal.
Scuttled by her crew 16 OCT 39 some 200 miles SW off Dakar on position 11º 00”N 20º 00”W to avoid capture by French Cruiser Duguay Trouin.
Halle had sailed from Bolama, Portuguese Guinea on 12th October and Bissao on 14th for Las Palmas Canary Islands. The German freighter s/s HALLE, owned by Hamburg-Amerika Linie, sailed on the Hamburg-Australia route in the 1920s and 1930s. The outbreak of World War II found him in the South Atlantic on his way back to his homeland. To avoid interception by French or British ships, he took refuge in the African port of Bissau (then in Portuguese Guinea). In the first half of October 1939, the ship's captain decided to continue the cruise, planning to stop in the Canary Islands, belonging to the Neutral Spain, in the first stage.
A French intelligence agent residing in Bissau immediately passed the news of HALLE's departure to sea to the base command French naval station near Dakar (Senegal). On October 15, two French destroyers, LE FANTASQUE and LE TERRIBLE, they set out to look for the German ship, however, she unexpectedly encountered another French ship, the light cruiser DUGUAY-TROUIN, on a routine patrol off the coast of Senegal. It happened about 200 miles southwest of Dakar. The Germans, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, sank their ship just as a prize crew was being sent from the cruiser towards them. The only thing that was left for the disappointed French to do was pull the German crew from the water, who soon found themselves in a prisoner of war camp in Senegal.
The survivors were rescued by Le Fantasque which landed them at Dakar. Around ten days later the crew of merchant Santa Fe also arrived. From there they were transported to the Sebikhotane prison camp some 45 km East of Dakar. A little later after the armistice, the prisoners were released and transported by plane to Germany being the last flight arrived on Aug. 18 1940.
