German armed merchant cruiser...

history · 26 September 1940 · 84 years ago

German armed merchant cruiser Thor sank Norwegian whaling factory ship Kosmos 400 miles northwest of Natal, Brazil with her deck gun after imprisoning the crew of 89; Captain Kahler of Thor would later be criticized for not transferring Kosmos' valuable cargo of whale oil aboard before sinking the ship. German submarine U-137 fired three torpedoes at Allied convoy OB-218 10 miles off the Mullet Peninsula, Ireland between 0050 and 0052 hours, sinking British ship Manchester Brigade (44 crew and 8 navy personnel killed, 4 survived) and damaging British ship Ashantian (4 killed). At 0135 hours, U-137 struck again, sinking British ship Stratford of the same convoy; 2 were killed and 32 survived. About 20 minutse later, German submarine U-46 sank British ship Coast Wings 350 miles southwest of Ireland at 0153 hours, killing the entire crew of 16. Further out to sea, at 0234 hours, German submarine U-32 attacked an Allied convoy 400 miles west of Ireland, damaging British ship Corrientes (entire crew of 50 rescued by Swedish ship Kolsnaren), sinking Norwegian ship Tancred (entire crew of 36 survived) at 0811 hours, and sinking British ship Darcoila (entire crew of 31 killed) at 0137 hours. In the evening at 2120 hours, U-64 struck again, sinking Swedish ship Siljan; 9 were killed and 18 survived. 

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