[ Page 16 ] It was quickiy identified as an Armed Merchant cruiser, probably the "Carnarvon Castle." Kahler had hoped to elude this enemy ship by sneaking away in the fog. He rang up full speed from the bridge, and called the crew to "action stations."
He began to put distance between himself and the A.M.C. but now the enemy had worked up speed and was starting to catch him, and at 0701(7.01 AM) opened fire, "Thor" returned fire, and 2 torpedoes were also fired, but they both missed their target.
The German Raider was now firing salvoes quite rapidly, and scored 5 hits. After an hour's action, "Carnarvon Castle" turned to the North, and made off at reduced speed, having failed to score a single hit on "Thor." In fact the British ship had suffered about 40% casualities to her exposed crew members. Another victory for Kahler, his ship, and her ship's company.
The British A.M.C. made for Montevideo to undertake emergency repairs, patches to her hull used steel plates from the wreck of "Admiral Graf Spee," scuttled in December of 1939.
A few days short of Christmas, Kahler kept a rendezvous with 5 friendly ships including the pocket battleship "Scheer." Some thought was given to working in concert with "Scheer" - but Kahler avoided that proposition. It was resolved that "Scheer" would operate North of the 30th. parallel of latitude, and "Thor" would stay South of it.
One of the 5 ships met was the "Duquesa," which had been captured by the "Scheer" - she was used as a floating store. When seized, she carried 3,500 tons of frozen meat, and an incredible 15 million eggs. If brought to action, what a huge amount of scrambled eggs that would have provided!!
As she had exhausted her fuel, it was the task of the 'Nordmark" to tow her around the South Atlantic, to provide sustenence to the roaming German ships, eventually after supplying another Raider, the "Penguin," she was then scuttled. New Year's day 1941 dawned, and the whole of this month passed without any sightings or action. From the 14th. of February for 2 weeks, supplies, torpedoes, 1000 rounds of 5.9 inch shells were ferried on board from 2 supply ships, a heavy swell making these transfers a hazardous operation.
March was uneventful until the 25th. when on the horizon a cloud of smoke came into view, it was to become the British "Britannia" of 8,799 tons with a passenger list of 300, and a crew of 200. Gunfire forced the abandonment of this ship, and 500 souls took to the ship's boats. Once they had pulled clear, Kahler then proceeded to systematically sink her, scoring 16 hits on her waterline.
Sierra Leone radio station reported that a British Cruiser, 100 miles away was hastening to the rescue, so Kahler left this assembly in their open boats and quickly steamed away.
The same day in the afternoon watch, "Thor" stopped a Swedish ship - "Trolleholm" of just over 5,000 tons. She was under charter to the British Admiralty and carrying coal from England to Port Said. Her crew were removed, and she was quickly sunk using demolition charges.
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