armed merchant cruisers

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | 700+ words | Copyright

armed merchant cruisers, British and Dominion liners, varying in size from 6,267 tons to 22,575 tons, which were requisitioned and armed by the Admiralty for blockade purposes, or as escorts for convoys during the battle of the Atlantic. In these operations 56 were used, and they soon proved no match for the German surface raiders they encountered: Rawalpindi was sunk by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in November 1939; Jervis Bay fell victim to Admiral Scheer in November 1940; and of the ships which engaged the German auxiliary cruiser Thor at different times during her first cruise, two were outfought and the third was sunk. Altogether fifteen were lost, ten to U-boats. Churchill thought them ‘an immense expense and also a care and anxiety’, and by October 1941 most had been withdrawn for use as troop transports.

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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "armed merchant cruisers." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "armed merchant cruisers." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-armedmerchantcruisers.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "armed merchant cruisers." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-armedmerchantcruisers.html

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