From Wikipedia
In connection with the Neutrality Patrol and capture of the German blockade-runner Odenwald.
I have a blog relating to the Civil War Navy and can't help but find the German blockade-running reminding me of Confederate blockade-running during that war.
At the outbreak of the war, the Royal Navy imposed a naval blockade on Germany. The fall of France gave Germany access to the French Atlantic coast. Between 1940 and 1941, many blockade-running trips were made with critical war cargoes, especially crude rubber, through the French port of Bordeaux (where the Odenwald was headed). The Odenwald's cargo was primarily crude rubber.
The trade increased even more with the entry of Japan into the war in December 1941.
Alied attempts to disrupt te trade met with little success, including Operation Frankton (I'll have to look up this one). However, by 1943, Allied air supremacy over the Bay of Biscay rendered blockade-running effectively impossible other than by cargo submarine.
In an attempt to transfer technology to Japan near the end of the war, the U-234 left Germany but the war had ended before it got there. The Japanese submarine I-8 did complete a similar mission.
Running the Blockade. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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