Eric,
Thanks for forwarding this interesting information about these German ships in India during WW 2. Some trivia-- these ships were owned by Hansa Lines whose vessels were regular visitors to Calcutta --they were competitors to the company I worked for -- “American Export Lines,” based in New York. I had attended parties on board the Drachenfels and Ehrenfels during the sixties and was intrigued to learn that Hansa Lines, formed on in 1881 kept giving the same names to their vessels over the years as each of the were scrapped/retired. So the ships I had boarded were the 4th version of the Drachenfels and the 6th Ehrenfels-- both built in 1953 and eventually sold off to Greek owners in 1973. At that time I had no idea that their “predecessors” had been used in this nefarious manner. Zarir | | | | | | | | | | 16 Oct: Warfare History Network. On this night of March 9, 1943, an unlikely group of British raiders had come to raise unmitigated hell in Marmagoa, harbor of Portuguese Goa. With Portugal being neutral, any violation of this tiny Portuguese enclave ran the horrible risk of offending the Portuguese government. But risky or not, something had to be done about Marmagoa, or rather about the German freighter Ehrenfels, interned in Goa since the early days of the war. She lay at anchor with her sister ships Drachenfels and Braunfels and the Italian merchantman Anfora. But Ehrenfels posed a far greater danger, for concealed aboard was a powerful radio transmitter. She used it regularly, for she was the control for German U-boats ravaging Allied shipping all across the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean… 4096 words click here Coincidentally, on UK TV, ITV4 Channel, Sun. 18th Oct. 14:30 to 16:00. Film: The Sea Wolves. The German Navy use three Goa-based vessels to attack Allied shipping, and their British counterparts cannot retaliate as they are moored in neutral waters. A group of retired officers living in India unofficially returns to duty to deal with the threat. Fact-based Second World War adventure, starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, David Niven, Trevor Howard. To watch the film online, free, click here | | | | | | | | | |
