MS Tannenfels (1938)

MS Tannenfels was a German cargo ship owned by DDG Hansa, put into service in 1938. She served as a blockade runner during World War II.[1]

Tannenfels in 1938
History
Germany
Name:	Tannenfels
Owner:	DDG Hansa
Port of registry:	Bremen, Germany
Launched:	9 April 1938
Commissioned:	11 June 1938
Fate:	Scuttled in 1944 as a blockship in La Gironde
General characteristics
Tonnage:	7,840 GRT 4,833 NRT 10,663 DWT
Length:	155.47 m LOA
Beam:	18.69 m
Draught:	8.26 m
Installed power:	7,600 hp (5,590 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × 6-cylinder double-acting diesel engines
Speed:	16 knots
Crew:	45
Armament:	37mm and 20mm machine guns;1 15 cm SK C/28
Notes:	Fought with Stier in her last battle, lightly damaged

When the war broke out in 1939, Tannenfels was at Kismayo, in Italian Somaliland. She remained there until January 1941, when British troops entered Italian Somaliland. She then sailed for Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, eventually reaching German-occupied France.

She was taken over by the Kriegsmarine and commissioned as an auxiliary naval vessel. She was fitted with machine guns and some larger naval guns for self-defense. During the next year and a half, she was employed as a blockade runner, slipping past British patrols to deliver supplies to German armed merchant cruisers at sea.[2] In December 1942 at Bordeaux, she was damaged by limpet mines placed by British commandos (Operation Frankton), and was no longer seaworthy. She was eventually scuttled as a blockship in the Gironde River in 1944.