German attacks in Nauru – Wikipedia

The German attacks in Nauru They took place in December 1940, when two auxiliary cruisers of the German Kriegsmarine ( Orion It is Comet ) bombarded the industrial installations for the extraction of phosphates on the small island of Nauru, Australian possession in the Pacific Ocean, as well as sinking five merchants present in his vicinity.

Nauru’s bombing represented the greatest action made by German corsa ships in the Pacific Ocean during the Second World War.

Already German colony then occupied by the Australians during the First World War, Nauru was, together with the nearby Ocean island, an important source of phosphates for the production of fertilizers, playing a pre -eminent role in the agricultural industry of Australia and New Zealand at the time of the second World War. Based on the terms of an agreement signed in 1919 between Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom the British Phosphate Commission (BPC), based in Melbourne, held the monopoly on the extraction and export of the phosphates from the two islands, dominating every aspect of the life of Nauru; During 1940 the BPC exported about a million tons of phosphates from Nauru and another half million from Ocean, using their private fleet (Cargo ships Triadic , Triaster , A third It is Trienza ) in addition to other merchantles hired ^[first] . Since the islands did not have a port or a protected anchoring, the merchants had to stop in deep waters and were loaded through cantilevered bridges that extended from the coast; During periods of south-western wind, common from November to March, these load operations were not possible and the ships of the BPC remained off the island waiting for improvements of the time, often proceeding to the drift to save fuel ^[2] .

In spite of their considerable importance for the economy of Australia and New Zealand, both Nauru and Ocean were rather at the bottom of the military priorities of the two nations, and in December 1940 they were totally defenseless; The only precaution to the outbreak of hostilities was the storage of large foundes of phosphates in Australia, in order to cope with a possible damage by the enemy of the extractive structures in the two islands ^[3] .

In late October 1940 the German cruiser Orion , sailed from Germany on April 6th to the orders of the captain of Corvetta Kurt Weyher and arrived in the Pacific from the east after having passed Capo Horn, he reunited in the Lamotrek Atoll, in the Caroline Islands, with the refueling ship Kulmerland and the cruiser Comet of captain Robert Eyssen, who arrived in the Pacific from the north via the Arctic and Strait Glaciale of Bering after sailing on 3 July 1940; Eyssen, higher degree officer, assumed the command of the two units ^[4] . Starting from early November, the two units operated off the eastern coast of New Zealand, sinking the mercantile Holmwood (November 25) and the passenger ship Rangitane (November 27) without being identified by the scarce New Zealand naval forces ^[5] ; On November 29, the two cruisers met with the Kulmerland At the Kermadec Islands to transfer the prisoners of the two ships sunk on the referent: the three ships then proceeded to Nauru, where Eyssen considered the presence of a large concentration of enemy merchants probably ^[4] .

On December 6, 1940 the German units came into contact with the dispersed merchant of the BPC when they intercepted the A third To the north-east of the Solomon Islands, sinking it with a torpedo after a short clash and prisoners the 68 members of the surviving crew ^[4] . Eyssen intended to land in Nauru a small strength of raids and proceeding to the bombing of the installations on the ground at the dawn of December 8, but the bad weather made it desist from this plan and resume the hunt for the allied merchanters off the island; On the afternoon of December 7 the Comet , disguised as a Japanese cargo (then still neutral), met the Norwegian merchant To take , sinking it about 14 km south of Nauru: the cruiser was sighted from the ground, but his camouflage worked and no alarm was launched ^[6] . The two cruisers presented themselves off Nauru at the first light of December 8, attacking and sinking the merchants Triadic It is Triaster ; the Comet , shortly after, intercepted the British steamship Comma , also sinking. Time continued to keep bad and prevent the German landing operation, and therefore Eyssen decided to retire: the Comet and the Kulmerland they broke for the Ailinglaplap atoll in order to refuel, leaving the Orion to operate north-west of Nauru ^[6] .

The two German cruisers returned to meet the following December 15, but time continued to remain bad and made any attempted landing impossible; intercepted radio messages indicated that the allied merchantles in the area had received order to disperse to avoid other attacks, and the German ships therefore broke for the island of Emirau in order to land the 675 prisoners they had on board, collected by the sinked cargo previously ^[7] : the prisoners were welcomed by the population of Emirau and then recovered by the steamer In on 29 December following. The three German ships left Emirau on December 21, proceeding separately: the Orion directed for Lamutrik and Maug, in the Caroline Islands, to review the engines and the Kulmerland He broke for Japan, leaving the only one Comet to continue the operations in the Pacific of the South.

On December 21 there Comet He tried to extend a mined field off Rabaul, but he had to give up because of problems for the spear engines used for this ^[6] . The cruiser then broke for Nauru, presenting himself in front of the island at 05:45 on December 27: after warning the local authorities not to use the radio and that his action was directed only against industrial plants, the Comet opened the fire at 06:40; The bombing lasted for about an hour, leading to the destruction or serious damage to the load poniles, the fuel tanks, the boats present in Rada and the mooring buoys, as well as damage to other constructions. There Comet He then quickly moved away from the island while the first news on the raid reached Australia ^[6] ; This was the last action in the waters of the Pacific of the Incruiter, who immediately moved to the Indian Ocean ^[8] .

The German attacks in Nauru had a considerable impact on the economy of Australia and New Zealand and represented the greatest success of the Kriegsmarine corsairs in the Pacific area ^[9] . Ten weeks needed to repair the damage to the plants, and this, together with the loss of ships, caused a significant lowering of the level of exports: as a consequence of this, since July 1941 in New Zealand the rationing for the sale of fertilizers was introduced; The reduction of exports also affected phosphates matches directed to Japan, so much so that the Japanese government protested with Berlin for the action ^[9] . The success of the attacks advanced accusations about the help provided to the Germans by traitors on the island, but subsequent investigations denied these reconstructions ^[8] .

As a consequence of the raid, the Commonwealth forces were mobilized to prevent further attacks. The Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force increased patrol flights near the main ports of the region ^[ten] ; In addition, the Australian authorities requested permission from the British admiralized to recall unity of the Royal Australian Navy in the waters of the house for the hunt for German corsairs: the request was accepted, and the HMAS light cruiser Sydney , together with the HMAS auxiliaryunger Kanimbla , were called back to Australia. In the months following the raid, Australian and New Zealand naval units patrolled the waters around Nauru and Ocean, and two cannons were positioned on both islands; The attack then pushed the authorities to organize a system of naval convoys also in the Pacific waters, which significantly reduced the losses caused by the German corsairs ^[11] .

• Robert Forczyk, German Commerce Raider vs British Cruiser : The Atlantic & The Pacific, 1941 , Oxford, Osprey, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84603-918-8.
• G. Hermon Gill, Royal Australian Navy 1939–1942 , Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1957. URL consulted on April 29, 2019 (archived by URL Original September 21, 2013) .
• Richard Jackson, Maritime Power in the 20th Century: The Australian Experience , Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1998, ISBN 1-86448-736-4.
• Sydney David Waters, The Royal New Zealand Navy , Wellington, Historical Publications Branch, 1956.