Wreck of German Auxiliary Cruiser Michel (HSK-9)

 Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, cruiser, auxiliary

The German Auxiliary Cruiser Michel began her life in 1938 at the Danziger Werft Shipyard in Danzig as the commercial cargo vessel Bielsko, built for the Polish Gdynia-America-Line for the North Atlantic Trades. Placed into service in the summer of 1939, the Bielsko’s career with her original owners was cut short at only two Atlantic crossings by the German invasion of and subsequent fall of Poland in September 1939.

Requisitioned into the ownership of the German Kriegsmarine in October 1939, the Bielsko was converted into a Hospital Ship and formally entered service as the Bonn and set about her role of transporting injured soldiers and citizens throughout the Baltic Sea. Moored at Kiel in early 1941 and seeing less and less use in her intended purpose, the Bonn was selected by Kriegsmarine for conversion into an Auxiliary Cruiser to replace the worn-out commerce raider Widder which had recently returned from her first and only cruise with worn-out engines. Shifting to the Blohm & Voss Shipyard for her conversion in the late Spring of 1941, the Hospital Ship Bonn ceased to exist as she shipped the weaponry and concealed gun ports of the Widder and saw much of her internal spaces once filled with operating rooms and patient beds converted to prisoner housing and munitions storage. Formally commissioned into Kriegsmarine service in September 1941 as the Michel (HSK-9), the new raider and her crew put to sea for trials with the codename Schiff 28. Successfully breaking out into the Atlantic in March 1942, the Michel and shaped a course for South American Waters where she began collecting an impressive list of Allied merchant ships sunk by her guns before shifting to the Indian Ocean and Far Eastern waters, arriving at Japan in March 1943. For the efforts of both ship and crew, Michel’s 346-day maiden voyage as a commerce raider had netted her an impressive 15 allied ships sunk, totaling 99,000 tons.

Given an extensive refit and voyage repair period at Yokohama which lasted into the Spring of 1943, Michel and her crew put to sea once again in May and shaped a course for Australia before once more steaming for South America, though this time she operated along the continent’s West coast. Finding poor hunting on her second voyage, Michel’s crews were nonetheless able to sink a further three Allied ships before their fuel and provisions began to run low, necessitating a return to Japan. Successfully crossing the enemy-filled waters of the central Pacific without incident, Michel arrived in the waters off the Japanese Home Islands late on October 16th and set her course for the Japanese Naval Dockyards at Yokohama. Steaming unescorted and not engaged in typical anti-submarine zigzag maneuvers as she closed to within 50 miles of her destination, Michel’s crew were likely preparing their ship for its upcoming port call when she crossed paths with the patrolling American Submarine USS Tarpon (SS-175).

Alert lookouts aboard the Tarpon quickly identified the outline of Michel as a possible Japanese Navy Auxiliary Vessel, and her Captain wasted no time in ordering his topside crew below and both his fore and aft torpedo tubes loaded. Closing in on her still-unaware target, the Tarpon sent four torpedoes at her target, at least one of which struck the ship on her Starboard side and stopped her dead in the water. Diving beneath the enemy vessel as she sheared into her path, the Tarpon returned to periscope depth off the ships Port side and sent three more torpedoes into her, with only one seen to explode. Aboard Michel, the sudden explosion of the first torpedo caught many of her crew by surprise and caused much of her boiler room to flood, leaving the ship dead in the water. Gun crews quickly took to their stations in an attempt to drive off the enemy attacker, however many were still scanning the seas to Port when Tarpon’s second torpedo impacted the Michel on her Starboard side aft, destroying her propeller shaft and further disabling the ship. Dispatching a distress report to the Imperial Japanese Navy as his ship began to list heavily to Port, the Michel’ s Captain ordered all crew to prepare to abandon ship shortly before a third torpedo from the Tarpon found its mark on the Michel’s hull, slamming into her exposed keel plating beneath her forward magazines and causing a detonation which split the ship in two and promptly sank her at this location on October 17th, 1943. Of her 395 crew aboard at the time of the attack, only 116 survived her sinking and subsequent three-day journey to Japan in lifeboats. The loss of the Michel and the lackluster rescue effort of the Imperial Japanese Navy caused the Kriegsmarine to abandon all Commerce Raiding efforts, making the Michel’s final voyage the last of the German auxiliary commerce raiders.

www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/michel.html