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"Pinguin," and her smaller auxiliary, continued to co operate- and four days later, as evening approached, the seaplane, found a ship, off raced the Raider, and after 5 hours another vessel came into sight, she needed to be chased all night, before Pinguin," could bring her under fire at first light, quickly destroying her radio, and steering gear, at a range of 5,000 yards.

The ship stopped, was abandoned, the 110 people aboard "Clan Buchanan," all saved, she had been carrying Army and Airforce equipment, from the US for Madras. Scuttling was carried out, and valuable intelligence gathered - floating in the water was a container which had failed to sink.It had cyphers, the war diary of H.M. S."Hawkins,"- plus details of ships lost to mines off Newcastle, from the field layed by Pinguin."

"Adjutant," was sent ahead to the rendezvous in area Siberia, as the Raider wanted to get hold of a Tanker to use for minelaying. She made for the Persian Gulf, and, on the 7th. of May, found the Tanker, "British Emperor." She was not able to be taken intact, and although enveloped with flames, continued to churn out distress signals until she finally sank. Roskill, in Volume 1 of his Official British History, "The War at Sea." made this comment:- "For the first time, one of the many Raider reports wirelessed by attacked Merchant vessels at imminent peril to themselves was to bring the retribution for which they called."

H.M.S. "Cornwall," the British County class 8 inch gun Cruiser, read "British Emperor's" distress signals- her Captain, quickly assessed the best place to look for this attacker, and her seaplane was soon catapulted to search the area. Before long it found "Pinguin." It was the 8th. of May, 1941, and "Pinguin" was trying to be mistaken for the Norwegian "Tamerlane," "Cornwall's" Captain Mainwaring, shared doubts, like his counterpart Captain Oliver in "Devonshire" did, on sighting "Atlantis'- both unsure that the ship in their gun sights was friendly, or an enemy Raider.

"Pinguin" kept up the charade, sending out her own Raider reports, claiming them to emanate from "Tamerlane." All day, "Cornwall" and her seaplane remained in touch, and, at 1715 ( 5.1 5PM ) the Cruiser ran in close to "Pinguin"- for Kruder, he knew: - "It was now time to fight."

Without delay, he opened fire with his 5.9 inch guns, one round hit the Cruiser, putting her steering gear temporarily out of action, but soon "Cornwall's" fire power fell on his target, and at 1726 ( 5.26PM) the Raider blew up, 22 British or Indian prisoners, and 60 Germans survived. The method used by "Cornwall" drew adverse comment from the British Admiralty. This time it was pertinent comment, as "Sydney" found to her detriment when engaging "Kormoran" later that same year.

Surely, Captain Farncomb's prudence was vindicated, but it seems a Cruiser Captain was damned if he closed a suspect ship to closely investigate its identity, and again damned if he stood off in safety, "how very easy for any shore authority, to sit in judgement, from a great distance, and of course in complete safety."

Kruder had proved to be an efficient, most innovative Captain, but he went down with his ship, in company with most of his crew.


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