Late in 1940, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder approved the awarding of a blockade runner war badge to all officers and men who had served aboard blockade runners -- naval and civilian. Those wearing it had earned it!

Dawn on January 4, 1944 found the German blockade runner RIO GRANDE steaming in the Atlantic Narrows, where the continents of South America and Africa bulge out into the steel blue rollers of the South Atlantic. When the alarm bells clanged just after first light, the ship was approximately 650 miles off Cape san Rocque. The crew had just set down to breakfast. Within seconds, Kapitän von Allwörden had joined his First Officer, Wilhelm Ehrhardt, on the bridge. Together they scanned the horizon for the first sight of the mast tips which would almost certainly be those of a warship. The day before, the SKL, or Seekriegsleitung (naval operations staff) had reported the scuttling of another blockade runner, the WESERLAND, after she had been chased and fired upon by the American destroyer USS SOMERS. That had been less than 150 miles from their present position. And now it appeared the day of reckoning had dawned for the old RIO GRANDE - - after more than four years of being hunted over a million miles of ocean!

There was nothing extraordinary about the RIO GRANDE. She was a typical modern motor ship of her day; Hamburg-built in the mid-30's, of 6,026 Register Tons. Her appearance however, would instantly identify her as a German to a veteran seaman's eye; the single funnel just abaft the midship line, the Maier bow and cruiser stern for instance. She also profiled the usual short forecastle and raised poopdeck, and two masts with no rake. Her 'tools of the trade' consisted of a Samson post with derricks between foremast and bridges, and two abaft the funnel. Each of these masts 'stowed' three tall derricks vertically, and one of 80-ton capacity in the horizontal position. In fact, just such a description of the ship had been radioed by the Royal Navy's Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic, to his patrolling cruisers.

This message - - "Oxford to GBMS: 0754/1" - - was picked up by the German auxiliary cruiser THOR (Ship 10), under Kapitän zur See Otto Kähler on November 1, 1940. After the ships had rendezvoused in mid-ocean, Kähler showed the intercept to a stunned Captain Heins.

Before the war RIO GRANDE and her sister, BELGRANO, sailed under the house flag of the HSDG, the Hamburg-South America Steamship Co. She was therefore no stranger to the Brazilian port of Rio Grande de Sul where the war found her - and kept her. There, British eyes and ears were constantly alert to any activity on or near the ship. For a year, RIO GRANDE's crewmen were followed everywhere they went, even to their local haunts and especially there where they were approached with enticements to divulge and/or defect. None did.

Almost daily, Captain J. Heins & his officers watched the arrival & departure of British merchantmen from Rio Grande de Sul while barnacles found a long-term home on the hull of his ship. Many of the 'Tommies' were old acquaintances; the fraternity of merchant mariners is a close one, where the only real enemy is the sea.

Unlike their British contemporaries, the officers of the German Merchant Navy did not hold automatic naval reserve commissions. Philosophically, as well as professionally, the Handlesmarine kept itself apart from der grauen Dampferkompanie (the grey steamer firm) as the Navy was referred to in 'the club'. In wartime, of course, the mercantile marine came under Kriegsmarine authority and their ships were 'chartered' to the government the duration.

The Merchant Navy however, remained in civvies as it were. Officers raised in the tradition-ridden Christliche Seefahrt (Christian seafaring) were on occasion commissioned as temporary 'special' officers in the Navy, as for instance, the rank of Lieutenant Commander (S); the "S" signifying Sonderführer or special officer.

In the first two years of the war. most German surface raiders sailed with a number of merchant skippers and mates who were to take command of any prizes seized. They would then, as special naval officers - - often with the captured crews still aboard - - sail the ships home which was usually a western French port like Bordeaux. Nevertheless, the German Merchant Navy insisted on selecting their own crews right up to the end of the war which, considering the many draconic measures taken by the Third Reich, is quite surprising! When RIO GRANDE finally met her end, she had served as a second home for most of her crew for eight years!

Fortunately for the Germans, they had friends in Rio Grande de Sul as well as enemies; some of them in high places. One such was Captinao de Reis of the Brazilian Army who commanded the military air base there. He and RIO GRANDE's then second officer, Ehrhardt, had struck up a close friendship bound by their common love of horses. There had even been a race around a row of warehouses. Ehrhardt would make the most of this friendship for, in early October 1940, Captain Heins had at last received (via the German consul) the order to break out.

Captain de Reis had under his command, a flight of long-range FOCKE-WULF reconnaissance aircraft, and he offered the services of these machines to Ehrhardt. Attempts to install a more powerful radio transmitter-receiver in the ship had succeeded only in making a vigilant harbor police even more suspicious of the Germans. As a vessel belonging to a belligerent nation in a neutral harbor, RIO GRANDE was forbidden to use her short wave radio. British ships however, found the ban somewhat easier to circumvent: the Royal Navy after all, ruled the seas. And out in the South Atlantic, British cruisers were waiting for the likes of RIO GRANDE. In fact, British agents had already alerted the Royal Navy to what appeared to them, to be preparation by the Germans to sail. If and when she did, they would get her!

Captain de Reis' aircrews however, could spot those cruisers and report their exact location to his German friends. It was agreed that upon transmission of the code word 'INGEBORG' - - the name of Ehrhardt's fiancee - - RIO GRANDE could safely put to sea. Late in the afternoon of October 31, a Brazilian fist tapped out:

"I - N - G - E - B - O - R - G"

That night, without a harbor pilot to guide her, RIO GRANDE left to begin her career as the premier blockade runner of the German Merchant Navy.

During the first two winters of the war, the RIO GRANDE was just one of a considerable number of German Merchant ships to successfully evade the blockade. Most of them reached home from neutral ports, some with cargoes.

The SKL's original plan had been to send 12 ships to Japan each winter to load raw materials for the armament industry, principally natural rubber - - indispensable for mixing with home-produced synthetic rubber. A few thousand tons would suffice for several months production. Other requirements were molybdenum and wolfram for making high grade steel. Mica, for instance, was urgently needed by the Navy for boiler gauge glass. Other vital cargoes consisted of Jute, medical and chemical supplies.

It soon became clear however, that the planned annual wartime imports of 50,000 tons proved too optimistic. Nevertheless, as idea of how valuable a single 'Asian' cargo was for Germany can be gauged by a 1942 manifest of the blockade runner ELSA ESSBERGER. She brought to Bordeaux the following cargo:

Natural rubber 4,059 tons
Shellac 52 tons
Auto tires 266 tons
Tin 56 tons
Zinc 30 tons
Wolfram 48 tons
Assorted mineral oils 408 tons
Peanuts 990 tons
Raw leather 58 tons
Leather goods 86 tons
Cowhides 14 tons
Tallow 169 tons
Nutmeg 8 tons
Coffee 24 tons
Tea 107 tons

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