Builder: Richardson Duck & Co Ltd, Stockton on Tees
Yard No: 649
Official No: 139200
Launched: 26th October 1916
Length: 380 feet
Beam: 50.9 feet
Draught: 32.4 feet
Machinery: Triple expansion engine by Blair and Co Ltd, Stockton on Tees
RFA Beechleaf
Builder: Richardson Duck & Co Ltd, Stockton on Tees
Yard No: 649
Official No: 139200
Launched: 26th October 1916
Length: 380 feet
Beam: 50.9 feet
Draught: 32.4 feet
Machinery: Triple expansion engine by Blair and Co Ltd, Stockton on Tees
Acquired on completion in 1917 by the Admiralty as the tanker RFA Olmos, she was re-named Beechleaf and entered service as Oiler Transport No 154, based at Devonport. The ship was launched on the 26 October 1916 as the Beechleaf; in November 1917 the management of this tanker was transferred to Lane and McAndrew, London.
On the 9 February 1918 it was decided that all tankers under commercial management, were to be controlled by the Director of Transports and Beechleaf was transferred from the Shipping Controller to this new department.
On the 23 May 1919 Beechleaf was off the Ambrose Light, in tow of the US Army Transport “West Haven”, after suffering a catastrophic fire in her engine room, the ship had been on passage from Baton Rouge to Lough Swilly, Ireland with a cargo of fuel oil when the fire broke out.
The crippled ship was towed in to Port by US Army tugs, where the body of one of the firemen, aged 22 years, who was killed in the blaze was removed and the badly burned Third Engineer was removed to hospital.
In 1921 the ship was sold to Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co Ltd, and re-named Limicana.
She was sold in 1927 to Naptha Industrie Tankanlagen AG, and renamed again CH N Katan.
In 1937 she was sold to Stanhope Steam Ship Co ltd and re-named Stanbridge.
In 1938 she was sold for the last time to Europlische Tankreederei GMBH and renamed Eurofeld.
On the 4 November 1939 the Eurofeld was taken over as a unit of the Kriegsmarine. With the start of World War 2 the German navy’s Heavy Cruiser ‘Admiral Scheer’ was at Wilhelmshaven under going a major refit after service off Spain, during that country’s Civil war. By 1940 the Kriegsmarine were planning more commercial raiders roving the seas sinking or capturing allied merchant vessels and the Admiral Scheer was to play an important part in this strategy. In addition Armed Merchant Raiders prepared for action. These Armed Merchant Raiders changed their names repeatedly to confuse Allied Intelligence. These ships numbers and names used from now on in this story are those they were using on the date they sailed.
On the 11th March 1940 Ship 16 (Atlantis) sailed and on the 7th April of that year Ship 36 (Orion) slipped her ropes and springs and sailed from Germany. They laid low and only revealed themselves in late April and early May in the North and South Atlantic, when they both captured prizes. In May and June, Ship 21 (Widder), Ship 33 (Pinguin), and Ship 10 (Thor) sailed from Germany on raiding cruises. Between them, these five ships claimed nearly 300,000 tons of shipping between June and September, and more importantly, caused the Royal Navy considerable strain as it took extensive countermeasures in every ocean.
On the 3 September 1940 the Eurofeld sailed from Santa Cruz de Tenerife where she had been hiding. On the 16 September she refuelled at sea Ship 21 (Widder).
Admiral Scheer’s refit, and post-refit working up period, lasted until September, when the ship was declared ready for service. She sailed to Norway, ready to start a raiding cruise, but whilst still in Norwegian waters her engines developed a minor problem, and the ship returned for repairs. Under the command of Kapitan Theodor Kranke, she finally departed Gotenhafen on the 23 October 1940, to wage commerce war against the British Empire.
Like before, there were a number of supply ships in the Atlantic to re-supply Admiral Scheer, though thanks to the efforts of the Royal Navy not as many as previously. Scheer hugged the Norwegian coast and then cut across the Arctic, slipping through the Denmark Straits on October 31 without being detected by the British.
After attacking convoy HX. 87 and sinking six ships (including the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Jervis Bay), and damaging three, the Admiral Scheer headed South to her chosen hunting grounds along the shipping lanes between the Azores and West Indies, on the 12 November 1940, the Eurofeld rendezvoused with the Admiral Scheer and the German Naval Oiler Nordmark to refuel the naval vessels and undertake some repairs.
Further sinking’s followed and on the 26 December 1940 the Scheer met up with the Eurofeld again at a rendezvous point codenamed ‘Andalusien’ located at 15 S 18 W, together with Ship 33 (Pinguin), and Ship 10 (Thor) and all three ships were refuelled by the tanker.
Eurofeld was by this time running short of fuel, so on the 10 January 1941 she was replenished by the Nordmark. At roughly the same time she started to be used as a prison ship with the crews of the ships sunk by the raiders, who sent the prisoners over to her for accommodation and transportation back to Germany.
By February 1941 the Eurofeld was ordered home and set sail for St Nazaire, France where she arrived, without being detected by Allied Forces on the 2 March.
The ship was scuttled off St Nazaire on the 11 September 1944, by German troops to avoid capture by Allied Forces. She was raised in 1950 and sold for breaking up.
Footnote: whilst in RFA Service this ship was known as Oiler Transport No 154, and her home port was Devonport, even though she was under commercial management, which enabled her to trade across the Atlantic under the Red Ensign, getting around the American Neutrality Act.
The call sign for this ship, whilst in Admiralty Service was JNVT, her call sign whilst a member of the Kriegsmarine was DKAF.