German auxiliary cruiser Hansa
| Career (Denmark) |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Merchant vessel |
| Name: | Glengarry |
| Builder: | Burmester & Wain, Copenhagen |
| Fate: | Requisitioned by Kriegsmarine |
| Notes: | Under construction when Denmark was occupied by Germany |
| Career (Nazi Germany) |  |
| Class and type: | Auxiliary cruiser (1943), Training Ship (1944) |
| Name: | Hansa |
| Builder: | Wilton, Rotterdam Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Yard number: | 5 |
| Acquired: | 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 12 February 1944 |
| Renamed: | Zielschiff Meersburg, Hansa |
| Nickname: | HSK-5 (II) Schiff 5[1] |
| Fate: | Interned, 1945 |
| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
| Class and type: | Merchant vessel |
| Acquired: | 1945 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1971 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | unclassed auxiliary cruiser |
| Displacement: | 19,200 tons (9,138 gross register tons (GRT)) |
| Length: | 153 m (502 ft) |
| Beam: | 20.1 m (66 ft) |
| Draft: | 8.7 m (29 ft) |
| Speed: | 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h) |
| Range: | 65,000 nautical miles (120,000 km; 75,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Complement: | 400 men (plus 400 cadets as a cadet training ship) |
| Armament: | 8× 150 mm guns (8x1)[2] 1× 105mm/45 caliber[2] gun 6×37mm[2] AA guns 36×20 mm AA guns (2x4, 28x1)[2] |
| Aircraft carried: | One |
The Hansa was a German auxiliary cruiser of the Kriegsmarine used during World War II.
She was known to the KM as HSK 5(II) (i.e., the second of that designation; the first was Pinguin), or also as Schiff 5. She was not given a raider letter by the Royal Navy as she did not enter active service as a commerce raider. The last German vessel to be converted into an auxiliary cruiser, the Hansa was named after the Hanseatic League.
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[edit] History
Hansa was originally conceived as the cargo ship Glengarry. She was taken over by the Germans during the occupation of Denmark, while under construction at Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen. She was temporary renamed Zielschiff Meersburg and served as a target ship for the 27th U-boat flotilla.
In the winter of 1942/43, she was sent to the Wilton shipyard in Rotterdam, and later to Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, where she was converted into an auxiliary cruiser. She bore the designation HSK 5(II), reflecting the number of the ship yard she was converted in.
De-commissioned as a Hilfskreuzer in February 1944 the ship became a Kadettenschulschiff (cadet training ship).
From September 1944 to May 1945 she participated in the Baltic Sea evacuations, transporting over 12,000 soldiers and civilians at a time. The Hansa was the last ship, which escaped from Hela (pol. Hel).
[edit] Fate
On 20 May 1945 she sailed off to internment to Fehmarn. She was taken over by the British and sailed under different names until 1971 when she was scrapped.
[edit] Commanders
- Kapitän zur See Hans Henigst, from April 1943 to August 1943;
- Kapitän zur See Fritz Schwoerer, from February 1944 to May 1945.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Books
- Paul Schmalenbach (1977). German Raiders 1895–1945. ISBN 0-85059-351-4.
- August Karl Muggenthaler (1977). German Raiders of World War II. ISBN 0 7091 6683 4.
- Stephen Roskill (1956). The War at Sea 1939–1945 Volume II.
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