German auxiliary cruiser Orion
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} Germany
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| Class and type: | Merchant vessel |
| Name: | Kurmark |
| Namesake: | Kurmark |
| Laid down: | 1930 by Blohm + Voss, Hamburg |
| Launched: | 1930 |
| Christened: | Kurmark |
| Commissioned: | 1930 |
| Fate: | Requisitioned by Kriegsmarine, 1939 |
 Nazi Germany
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| Class and type: | Auxiliary cruiser |
| Name: | Orion |
| Namesake: | Orion |
| Operator: | Kriegsmarine |
| Yard number: | 1 |
| Acquired: | Requisitioned, 1939 |
| Commissioned: | 9 December 1939 |
| Renamed: |
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| Reclassified: | Auxiliary cruiser Orion, 9 December 1939 |
| Nickname(s): |
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| Fate: | Sunk on 4 May 1945 after hit by several bombs on her way to Copenhagen |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 15,700 tons (7,021 GRT) |
| Length: | 148 m (486 ft) |
| Beam: | 18.6 m (61 ft) |
| Draught: | 8.2 m (27 ft) |
| Propulsion: | steam turbines (Blohm + Voss) (engines earlier used on liner New York), one shaft, 4 boilers, 6,200 shp (4.6 MW) |
| Speed: | 14.8 knots (27.4 km/h) |
| Range: | 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) |
| Complement: | 356 (varying) |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 1 Arado Ar 196 A-1 |
Orion (HSK-1) was an auxiliary cruiser of the German navy which operated as a merchant raider during World War II. Built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg in 1930/31 as the freighter Kurmark, she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine at the outbreak of World War II and converted into the auxiliary cruiser Orion, commissioned on 9 December 1939. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 36, her Royal Navy designation was Raider A. She was named after the constellation Orion.
The Orion was built in 1930 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as a freighter for HAPAG, the Hamburg-America Line. To save money, the engines of the liner New York were reused. That proved a poor decision, since the Orion was plagued for her entire life by engine problems.
After the war broke out the German Seekriegsleitung (Naval Operations Command) was ill prepared for raider warfare. The operations of the German auxiliary cruisers of World War I were evaluated and considered a great success, having disrupted British merchant shipping around the world. However the overall effect on the war was evaluated as having been rather minor and so only a small program of converting merchant vessels into auxiliary cruisers was initiated on 5 September 1939.
The first two ships being requisitioned were the Kurmark (Orion) and the Neumark (German auxiliary cruiser Widder), and conversion started immediately.
One of the first auxiliary cruisers operated by Germany in World War II, Orion left Germany on 6 April 1940, under the command of Korvettenkapitän (later Fregattenkapitän Kurt Weyher. She passed south through the Atlantic disguised as a neutral vessel, where she attacked and sank SS Haxby, a 5,207-ton freighter.
In May 1940 Orion rounded Cape Horn and entered the Pacific. She entered New Zealand waters in June 1940 and laid mines off Auckland during the night of 13/14 June 1940, one of which sank the liner RMS Niagara five days later. Two other ships were caught by mines from Orion, as well as two trawlers and an auxiliary minesweeper.
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Wikipedia