9th January 1940
SS 'Bremen'

SS Bremen

From Wikipedia:

On 26th August 1939, in anticipation of the invasion of Poland, the Kriegsmarine high command ordered all German merchant ships to head to German ports immediately.

Bremen was on a westbound crossing and two days from New York when she received the order. Bremen's captain decided to continue to New York to disembark her 1,770 passengers. She left New York without passengers on 30th August 1939 and on 1st September, coincident with the start of the Second World War, she was ordered to make for the Russian port of Murmansk. Underway, her crew painted the ship grey for camouflage. She made use of bad weather and high speed to avoid Royal Navy cruisers, arriving in Murmansk on 6th September 1939.

With the outbreak of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, on 10th December 1939 Bremen made a dash to Bremerhaven, arriving on 13th December. On the way she was sighted and challenged by the S-class submarine HMS Salmon. While challenging Bremen, an escorting Dornier Do 18 seaplane forced Salmon to dive for safety. After diving, Salmon's commander, Lieutenant Commander E. O. Bickford, decided not to torpedo the liner because he believed she was not a legal target. His decision not to fire on Bremen likely delayed the start of unrestricted submarine warfare.

Bremen was used as a barracks ship; there were plans to use her as a transport in Operation Sea Lion, the intended invasion of Great Britain. On 16th March 1941, Bremen was set alight by 14-year-old crew member Walter Schmidt while at her dock in Bremerhaven and completely gutted. A lengthy investigation discovered that the arson resulted from revenge stemming from a ship's officer who had punished him for not completing his assignment, not an act of war. Schmidt was later guillotined for the arson, becoming one of the youngest people to be judicially executed by the regime at age 15.

Starting in 1942 she was dismantled to the waterline so the steel could be used for munitions. In 1946 her remains were towed up the River Weser, beached on a sandbar off Blexen, Nordenham and destroyed by explosives, though some parts of the double hull remain visible to this day.

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