Posted on 10/25/2009 6:21:34 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
* The Norwegians have now decided it was the cruiser Emden which seized the City of Flint.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/oct39/f25oct39.htm
First flight for Halifax bomber
Wednesday, October 25, 1939 www.onwar.com
In Britain... The Handley Page Halifax bomber makes its maiden flight.
From Germany... Three U-boats are dispatched to the Mediterranean; only U-26 arrives and has no success.
On the Western Front... French troops reportedly repulse a German detachment in the region close to the Moselle. As a whole, conditions on are reported to be quiet.
In Mexico... In Mexico City, Leon Trotsky is reported to have said that “Stalin is afraid of Hitler, and is right to be so.”
German Light Cruiser Emden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_Emden
The German light cruiser Emden was the only ship of its class. The third cruiser to bear the name Emden was the first new warship built in Germany after World War I.
Ordered in 1921, construction was delayed first by Allied objections to the design and then by the German hyperinflation in 1923. The original design envisaged the eight 6-inch (152 mm) guns being installed in four twin-turrets and would have made Emden one of the most advanced cruisers of her time. But the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany the development of new weapons, including new turrets. Like most navies, the German navy had never before used twin-turrets for such small guns. All previous designs were for 8 inch or larger guns and were too heavy for a 6000-ton cruiser as allowed by the Treaty. This forced a redesign of the ship with the guns placed in 8 less effective single-gun turrets, making Emden look very similar to her WWI predecessors.
The ship was finally launched on 6 January 1925 and commissioned on 15 October 1925.
Used primarily as a training vessel, Emden made several cruises into the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean between 1926 and 1939. For a time, until his promotion to Captain and transfer to the 1st U-boat flotilla in 1935, Emden was commanded by Karl Dönitz, who recalled the cruises in his autobiography, Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days.
On 4 September 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, the ship was damaged in a British air raid on Wilhelmshaven: a Bristol Blenheim bomber was hit by AA-fire and crashed into the foreship of Emden, killing 9 of the crew. By a strange coincidence the British pilot’s name was Flying Officer H. L. Emden. [1]
After repairs Emden participated in laying minefields in the North Sea for much of 1939. During the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung) Emden was part of the ill-fated Kriegsschiffgruppe 5, tasked with taking Oslo. The group’s flagship, the heavy cruiser Blücher, was sunk by the Oscarsborg coastal fortress inside Oslofjord and the heavy cruiser Lützow (ex pocket battleship Deutschland) was severely damaged by a torpedo hit from a British submarine off the Danish coast on her way back to Germany.
Emden spent the rest of the war in the Baltic Sea, mostly on training cruises. From January 1945 on she helped evacuate German troops and civilians from East Prussia to northern Germany and Denmark. On one of these trips, she also brought back the coffins of former German President Paul von Hindenburg and his wife.
In the night from 9 April to 10 April 1945 Emden was severely damaged in an air attack at Kiel. She was towed with a 15° list into the Heikendorfer Bucht and beached there on 14 April. The ship was decommissioned on 26 April 1945, scuttled on 3 May and scrapped after the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engine heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing. The Halifax was also operated by squadrons of the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Royal Pakistan Air Force and Polish Air Force.
"SS City of Flint, a freighter of the United States Merchant Marine, was the first American ship captured by the Germans during World War II. Under the command of Captain Joseph H. Gainard, City of Flint first became involved in the war when she rescued 200 survivors of the torpedoed British passenger liner SS Athenia on 3 September 1939. The Athenia was torpedoed by the German submarine U-30 that afternoon, and sent out a distress signal. Several ships responded.
"The Captain of HMS Electra, LCDR Sammy A. Buss, was Senior Officer Present, so he took charge. He sent the destroyer HMS Fame on an anti-submarine sweep of the area, while Electra, another destroyer HMS Escort, the Swedish yacht Southern Cross, the Norwegian cargo ship Knute Nelson, and the City of Flint rescued the survivors. Between the ships, about 980 passengers and crew were rescued; only 112 people were lost, and Athenia sank the next morning.
"On 9 October 1939, City of Flint was carrying 4000 tons of lubricating oil from New York to Britain while marked as a neutral ship. The pocket battleship Deutschland seized her some 1200 miles out from New York, declaring her cargo to be contraband and the ship a prize of war. A fifteen strong German prize crew painted out all US insignia and hoisted the German ensign."
German pocket battleship Detuschland -- soon to be renamed Lützow because Hitler didn't want the possibility of a ship named "Deutschland" being sunk.
Deutschland was 16,000 tons with six 11 inch guns. By comparison the British Edinborough class light cruisers were 13,000 tons, with 12 six inch guns.
"She was scuttled on 4 May 1945 at Swinemunde after suffering heavy damage from near misses from 'Tallboy' bombs dropped by the RAF. The wreck of the ship was broken up in the 1960s."
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