{"id":4762,"date":"2013-11-07T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=4762"},"modified":"2013-11-07T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T17:54:00","slug":"this-week-in-the-war-3-9-november-1941-german-blockade-runner-odenwald-captured-by-us-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=4762","title":{"rendered":"This week in the War, 3–9 November 1941: German blockade runner Odenwald captured by US Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crew<\/a>

Crew members of the USS Omaha pose on board the captured German blockade runner Odenwald in the South Atlantic, November 1941 [Public domain, wiki]<\/p><\/div>This week in the war, when the United States of America was still neutral, the US Navy challenged and captured the German blockade runner Odenwald<\/em>. On 6 November 1941, the American light cruiser USS Omaha<\/em> and the American destroyer USS Somers<\/em> were sailing in the mid-Atlantic when they encountered a suspicious freighter claiming American registration under the name Wilmoto<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"German<\/a>

German blockade runner Odenwald (left) and United States cruiser USS Omaha, South Atlantic, November 1941 [Public domain, wiki]<\/p><\/div>Britain’s naval blockade of Nazi-occupied Europe had been slowly starving Germany of materials essential for its war effort.<\/p>\n

When the freighter took evasive action, the Americans challenged her and boarded her. They discovered that the American registration was a ruse and that the freighter was the German merchant vessel Odenwald<\/em>, a blockade runner en route to German-friendly territory in Europe with a cargo of rubber.<\/p>\n

The Odenwald<\/em> was escorted to Puerto Rico and legally confiscated. Prize money was awarded to all of the crew members of the Omaha<\/em> and Somers<\/em>. The top photograph shows some of them posing for the camera on board the ill-fated Odenwald<\/em>\/Wilmoto<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week in the war, when the United States of America was still neutral, the US Navy challenged and captured the German blockade runner Odenwald. On 6 November 1941, the American light cruiser USS Omaha and the American destroyer USS … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[587,588,583,584,585,586],"class_list":["post-4762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-war-ii","tag-blockade","tag-blockade-runner","tag-odenwald","tag-uss-omaha","tag-uss-somers","tag-wilmoto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4762"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4767,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762\/revisions\/4767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}