The auxiliary cruiser Pinguin ( Captain Ernst-Felix Krüder), was originally the freighter Kandelfels, which had been launched in 1936. After conversion to an auxiliary cruiser it became to the Kriegsmarine . Pinguin was armed with six guns, a gun, two anti-aircraft guns, four autocannon, two torpedo tubes, 300 mines and an Arado Ar 196 A-1 floatplane. By 15 January, Pinguin (Raider F to the British) had Norwegian merchant vessels by commerce raiding. It had captured three factory ships and 11 whalers belonging to the same whaling company. The prizes were sent to Occupied France where one was renamed and was used as minelayer for the German raiders in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. In April, Pinguin sank three British merchant ships in the Indian Ocean, close to the Equator. On the afternoon of 7 May, the two aircraft on Cornwall flew reconnaissance sorties for three hours and then altered course to get on the line of the main Vignot search. This was plotted for a mean speed of for an hour after the time of the raider report, assuming that the raider needed an hour to sink British Emperor and then depart at full speed until dark. At Cornwall turned  east-south-east and slowed to search on this line, before the moon set. At dawn, Cornwall sent both aircraft to search an area three knots on either side of the raider's estimated speed and turned east at (steaming away from the raider). At on 8 May, one of the aircraft sighted a ship heading south-west at , about west of Cornwall but did not report the sighting, until landing at about At Cornwall altered course to about west-by-south and increased speed to . The second aircraft was launched again at and at it reported that the unknown ship was steaming at and had hoisted the signal letters of a Norwegian motor-vessel Tamerlane, which the raider resembled but was not on the list of expected ships. Aftermath Analysis The commerce-raiding voyage of the Pinguin had lasted from 22 June 1940 – 8 May 1941 and the ship sank or captured of About of shipping was sent to Germany as prizes. Cornwall returned to Durban for repairs until 10 June; the tactics of the captain of Cornwall in shadowing, attempted to identify and closing with Pinguin was criticised by the Admiralty. The crew of Pinguin had been skilful in disguising the ship and it was difficult to approach a suspicious, yet unidentified ship. A raider had the tactical advantage in deciding when to open fire, before it was unmasked and investigating ships courted danger, if the vessel approached from a direction favourable to a raider's guns and torpedoes. Allied ships were given secret call-signs and a system was devised for the investigating ship to refer to the Admiralty by wireless to verify ship identities. The new methods made ship identification much easier but took months to implement and similar events occurred, when ships were either allowed to sail on and turned out to be raiders or were intercepted and sprang a surprise on the British warship.
The auxiliary cruiser Pinguin ( Ernst-Felix Krüder), was originally the freighter Kandelfels, which had been launched in 1936. After conversion to an auxiliary cruiser it became to the . Pinguin was armed with six guns, a gun, two anti-aircraft guns, four autocannon, two torpedo tubes, 300 mines and an Arado Ar 196 A-1 floatplane. By 15 January, Pinguin (Raider F to the British) had Norwegian merchant vessels by commerce raiding. It had captured three factory ships and eleven whalers belonging to the same whaling company. The prizes were sent to Occupied France where one was renamed and was used as minelayer for the German raiders in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. In April, Pinguin sank three British merchant ships in the Indian Ocean, close to the Equator. On the afternoon of 7 May, the two aircraft on Cornwall flew reconnaissance sorties for three hours and then altered course to get on the line of the main Vignot search. This was plotted for a mean speed of for an hour after the time of the raider report, assuming that the raider needed an hour to sink British Emperor and then depart at full speed until dark. At Cornwall turned onto a bearing of east-south-east and slowed to search on this line, before the moon set. At dawn, Cornwall sent both aircraft to search an area three knots on either side of the raider's estimated speed and turned east at (steaming away from the raider). At on 8 May, one of the aircraft sighted a ship heading south-west at , about west of Cornwall but did not report the sighting, until landing at about At Cornwall altered course to about west-by-south and increased speed to . The second aircraft was launched again at and at it reported that the unknown ship was steaming at and had hoisted the signal letters of a Norwegian motor-vessel Tamerlane, which the raider resembled but was not on the list of expected ships. Aftermath Analysis The commerce-raiding voyage of the Pinguin had lasted from 22 June 1940 – 8 May 1941 and the ship sank or captured of About of shipping was sent to Germany as prizes. Cornwall returned to Durban for repairs until 10 June; the tactics of the captain of Cornwall in shadowing, attempted to identify and closing with Pinguin was criticised by the Admiralty. The crew of Pinguin had been skilful in disguising the ship and it was difficult to approach a suspicious, yet unidentified ship. A raider had the tactical advantage in deciding when to open fire, before it was unmasked and investigating ships courted danger, if the vessel approached from a direction favourable to a raider's guns and torpedoes. Allied ships were given secret call signs and a system was devised for the investigating ship to refer to the Admiralty by wireless to verify ship identities. The new methods made ship identification much easier but took months to implement and similar events occurred, when ships were either allowed to sail on and turned out to be raiders or were intercepted and sprang a surprise on the British warship.
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Captain
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Kriegsmarine
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eleven
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onto a bearing of
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call-signs
call signs