In
Service: December 1942 to August 1945
Ordered: Builder: Bremer
Vulkan, Bremen-Vegesack
Construction No: Laid down:
Launched: 13 August 1938
Commissioned: December 1942
Type: Auxiliary cruiser
Class: Hilfskreuzer (Raider), converted
freighter
Displacement: 12,700 tons
Length: 134 m
Beam: 17.9 m
Draft: 7.9 m
Propulsion: 1 × shaft
1 × 8 cylinder diesel engine, producing up to 5,100 hp
Propellers:
1
Speed: 16 knots
Range: 3,600 nautical miles at 10 knots
Crew: 283 plus 74 radar personal from the
Luftwaffe
Armament: 3 × 105 mm, 4 × 2 × 3.7 cm, 5 × 4 ×
20 mm,
2 × 20 mm, FuMG A1 Freya radar early warning radar
Wurzburg
Riese gun laying radar
Armour Aircraft: 3 but none put on
board
Electronics: Operators: Kriegsmarine
Variants:
Other: Auxiliary cruisers
Articles: In late 1942 the Togo was modified into an auxiliary cruiser. As
raider Coronel, she was recognised by the KM as HSK 10, and designated Schiff
14. To the Royal Navy she was identified as Raider K. From October 1943 the NJL
Togo traversed the Baltic Sea operating under the authority of the Luftwaffe.
In March 1944, after the three great Soviet bombing raids on Helsinki, she pulled
into the Gulf of Finland to give night fighter cover for Tallinn and Helsinki.
She made it through the war and was moved to Britain, but ended in Norway as MS
Svalbard after a short trip to the US. She had a lengthy career as a merchant
vessel, which ended suddenly as MS Topeka on 21 November 1984 when she ran aground
in Mexico. Two men perished.
December 1942 The Coronel is commissioned.
August
1945 The Coronel is seized as a prize of war by the British.
21 November 1984 The Coronel ran aground off the coast of Mexico.
Ernst
Ludwig Thienemann
Takes command on December 1942
Ends command on
German
Warships, 1815-1945: Major Surface Vessels.
ISBN-10: 0851775330
German
Warships, 1815-1945: U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels.
ISBN-10: 155750301X
German warships of the Second World War.
ISBN-10: 0668040378
For a complete list of
sources 
