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This ship had a design speed of 17 knots, to be produced from oil fired steam turbines, and at the economical speed of 10 knots, was blessedwith a 40,000 miles cruising capacity. Her main armament was the usual Raider 6 by 5.9 inch guns. plus a 60mm poop gun, carried for defence by most Allied Merchantmen. Four torpedo tubes were fltted, 2 by 37mm weapons, and 4 by 20mm AA guns oompleted the offensive armament. Finally, an Arado aircraft was onboard for scouting purposes.

Otto Kahler was appointed in command in Octoler 1939. He was then 45, and had been a Naval Officer since 1914. "Thor" sailed on the 6th of June in 1940 out of Kiel, posIng as the Russian steamship "Orsk" and managed to slip into the Atlantic assisted by low visibility due to fog and snow.

By the 23rd of June this new raider was South West of the Azores, having avoided four likely enemy ships, as she was making for her South Atlantic sphere of opetations and did not want to alert prying eyes to her intended role; disguise was again changed, now becoming the Yugoslav "Vir" from Split, and sailing ex Liverpool to Pernambuco and Santos.

When nominating to be a specifc ship it was always necessary to have a plausible reason to be sailing in that section of the world's oceans, and the Raider needed to be of a similar tonnage and appearance as her real namesake.

"Thor" was in business on the 1st of July 1940, she quickly found and stopped the Dutch "Kertosono," a single warning shot had done the trick. This vessel of 9,289 tons was loaded with asphalt, timber, petrol, plus agricultural machinery, She had sailed from New orleans then on to Curacao and Freetow in West Africa and was destined for British ports. A crew of 56 were aboard, plus 9 passengers includitig 4 wornen, one of whom had a baby. Kahler was loath to scuttle this shp, and put a prize crew onboard, giving them instructions to sail her to Lorient, and his orders were achieved in I2 days.

In another week, a second ship was sighted just below the eequator, it was chased and stopped after firing a full broadside at a range of 8,000 yards. This victim proved to be the British "Delambre," just over 7,000 tons. full of cotton, hides and cotton seed from South America and bound for Liverpool. She carried an English crew of 44, plus a passenger.

I can't imagine why cotton seed would be shippel to Britain in 1940, the country needed immense quantities of food to survive, but perhaps this commodity was meant to be trans-shipped to assist Russian agriculture, another of the unsolved mysteries of the war.

All of the 45 people were taken aboard "Thor," and "Delambre," and scuttled. Her Captain indicating he had suffered the same indignity during WW1, when captured by the "Mowe."

'"Thor" remained busy; on the 9th. the Belgian "Bruges," who happened to have been a former 5,000 ton German ship captured in 1914, now carrying 6,746 tons of wheat, was stopped and scuttled, yielding a further 44 prisoners. Then in another 5 days, the "Gracefield," a British ship, was stopped off Trinidad. She also had holds bulging with wheat and bran, and was sailing for London. The crew of 36 all joined those previously captured in "Thor," and 2 torpedoes were fired, one ran erratically round in circles, and the Captain needed to use gunfire to finally despatch this ship.

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