(Continued from #113)

Late in 1940, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder approved the awarding of a BLOCKADE RUNNER War Badge to all officers & men who served on Blockade Runners - - Naval and civilian. Those wearing it - had earned it!

Two days before RIO GRANDE was to enter the Sunda Strait, the SKL ordered Allwörden to tread water. RIO GRANDE was to steam back and forth for six days! On November 28, two Allied cruisers - the Dutch VAN HEEMSKERCK & HMAS ADELAIDE, had intercepted the blockade runner RAMSES, a 7,983 ton motor ship of the HAPAG enroute from Kobe. She had to scuttle not far from RIO GRANDE's position.

After six days, the freighter steamed into the Sunda Strait, now infested with US submarines. One of them had only recently torpedoed the German merchantman REGENSBURG. Captain Allwörden decided to steer zig-zags through these waters and two days later, dropped his hook in the harbor of Djarkarta. Here also lay the German ships BRAKE and IRENE. In the former Batavia, RIO GRANDE took aboard 500 tons of copra for Japan, which she reached on the last day of 1942.

The Japanese displayed an attitude toward their German 'comrades' similar to one Allied seamen working the treacherous Murmansk Run experienced as 'guests' of the Soviets. In fact, RIO GRANDE's crew were only permitted ashore in Hirohito's land if escorted by his Military Police! On one occasion, on the streets of Osaka, the German seamen were threatened by a mob of Japanese citizens because their escort had told the curious mob the Caucasians were American POWs in transit!

On January 28, 1943 the RIO GRANDE, once more jampacked with rubber, sailed from Yokohama. When she was already in the Indian Ocean, she was suddenly recalled by the SKL.

When the ship left Japan for the last time, sailing out of 'Yoko' on October 4 after a nine-month near-dejavu of Rio Grande de Sul, the US Fourth Fleet had set up shop in the very waters she would have to traverse. The American warships were not first-line vessels - older light cruisers of the MARBLEHEAD class and pre-war destroyers; some were World War I 'four pipers'. But Rear Admiral Oliver M. Read had able and willing crews. He also had what amounted to an aerial reconnaissance capability unmatched in the Western Hemisphere - the patrol planes commanded by Captain N. J. Lyon, USN. Admiral Read, as Commander, Cruiser Division TWO (ComCarDiv 2), flew his flag in the cruiser USS OMAHA (Captain Leffler) with the destroyer USS JOUETT in company.

Moreover, the OMAHA was a seasoned hunter of blockade runners. Back in the days when President Roosevelt was daily proclaiming American neutrality, and at the same time making the U.S. an 'arsenal of democracy' for Britain, the cruiser was flagship of TASK GROUP 3.6. As such, she was patrolling the so-called Neutrality Zones in the Central Atlantic when, on November 6 1941, she seized the German blockade runner ODENWALD. The cruiser's Skipper, uncertain as to the legality of his action when the German Captain had protested, declared in his report that he had decided to stop the ship 'because she was suspected of being involved in the slave trade'!

After departing Yokohama, the RIO GRANDE called at Singapore, replenishing her stores and fresh water tanks. She also loaded quantities of opium, jute and wolfram ore. Enroute, she had been sighted by an unidentified submarine which had surfaced and given chase for a brief time before disappearing. No German or Japanese sub was operating in that sea at that time.

From Singapore, Captain Allwörden took his ship to Batavia, which had now become a final jumping-off harbor for what amounted to doomed breakthrough attempts. From Batavia, RIO GRANDE steamed south toward the upper reaches of the Antarctic, where she spent Christmas, there to rendezvous with two other blockade runners - WESERLAND and BURGENLAND. SKL had decided to send the three home in a group.

HARRY's NOTE - they hid in some of the 'U-Platzes' in FEUERLAND. Keep reading the INTELLIGENCE PAGE for many, many more details on the ships and boats that used these hidden harbors during - and after - World War II..

And now, standing on the bridge with his 'First', Captain Allwörden realizes luck has finally deserted them. RIO GRANDE's last hour has struck! Barely visible on the horizon are the tips of masts. Seaman Wolf, the foremast lookout, reports two ships, the largest of them with what appears to be a tripod mast - a warship. Minutes later an aircraft is seen approaching. It is a catapult scout plane. In fact, it belongs to the USS OMAHA. The OS2U circles the RIO GRANDE as Allwörden had the lifeboats prepared and orders below the demolition gang to light the charges. It had to come to this, he thinks. How stupid to have sent us into the mousetrap of the Narrows as a group.

Allwörden now decides to hoist a recognition flag it is believed used by all Allied merchant ships. The flag consists of letter and number combinations. Whether or not he is hoisting the correct code of the day, Allwörden does not know - and it can really make little difference. He does not believe it will fool the pilot of the circling scout plane. In any event, minutes after the banner unfurls, a halyard snaps and it flutters back onto the deck. Another exercise in futility is the constant sending of the ship's false position report over the 600 meter band. And to attempt a shootout with the 'pop' gun would be sheer madness

First Officer Ehrhardt, wishing to explore every possible avenue of escape, suggests they send a message that RIO GRANDE has 105 POWs in her holds. Allwörden rejects this, for when - and perhaps EVEN if - the Americans picked up the lifeboats and find no POWs in them, they might believe the Germans had allowed them to go down with the ship! They could then be charged with murder.

More Rio Grande

Rio Grande (#111)
Rio Grande (#112)
Rio Grande (#113)
Rio Grande (#114)
Rio Grande (#115)