We start with some film footage of the Atlantis, taken by a doctor called Karl Höffkes who worked aboard the raider. I’m not sure, but the brief glimpse of vehicles that appears at 0:13 might well have been taken aboard the Tirranna:
According to Captain Gundersen (interviewed for the maritime hearings in Oslo in December 1940), “it turned out that” five people died in the 10th June 1940 attack by the Atlantis, as transcribed here.
– 4th engineer Einar Christensen,
– Electrician Otto Kristensen,
– Matros [?] Hilmar Engelsen,
– Machine Boy James Andersen,
– Passenger Charles Mikkelsen
On its own, this would be strong evidence that Mikkelsen died. However, we can further cross-reference this with a number of other accounts, and confirm that exactly five people died on the 10th June 1940…
Graeme Cubbin
John Richardson’s excellent ebook “Victims of Atlantis” includes many details taken from the diary of 16-year-old cadet Graeme Cubbin (who was on the SS Scientist, a ship captured by the Atlantis a few weeks before the Tirranna), including the following quotations:
When Captain Gundersen met up with Rogge he complained bitterly, saying that Norway had capitulated and made peace with Germany just a few hours earlier on that very day, and that he had quite unnecessarily killed five of his men and badly injured a dozen more. (p.51)
Also:
Quite a number of [the Norwegian crew of the Tirranna] were working their passage home from Australia. They did so in order to join up and help put a spoke in the wheel of the Nazi War machine; several had lost their families in the German bombing raids. Five of their comrades had been killed by the German gunners, another died later in the hospital of Atlantis and several lay wounded and helpless in the care of the German doctors. (pp.53-54)
Ulrich Mohr
According to Atlantis’ First Officer Ulrich Mohr (in his book “Ship 16: The Story of a German Surface Raider”):
When I climbed aboard [the Tirranna] I found her decks were literally covered in blood; it lay in pools wherever one trod. Five men were dead, but there were many wounded.
Kapitan Rogge – Atlantis Ship’s Log
Personally, I found reading Volume 1 of Captain Rogge’s Ship’s Log for the Atlantis (thankfully in English) to be shocking and humbling: it taught me more about the real nature of sea warfare than any other book I’ve read. The Kapitan’s behaviour was a model of precision, insight, care and yet cunning: he even used the Tirranna as a sighting target at night to see which one of the different sets of binoculars on board was most effective at picking out ships in the dark.
From Rogge’s log, it is amply clear that he was fully aware of the five deaths on 10th June 1940. Note that the next death wasn’t on the 11th (as reported by Captain Gundersen) – in fact, the Tirranna’s carpenter Johan Johansen had a leg amputated plus an emergency appendectomy (!) on the 11th, but died on the 15th. All in all, the Atlantis’s log seems to be an extremely reliable source document to be working with.
The account of the taking of the Tirranna starts on about page 93 and continues for many pages. After capturing the Tirranna, the Atlantis was in close contact with its prize ship for a good amount of time, so there are numerous mentions of the Tirranna throughout the log.
(p.97)
12:44 — Picket boat sent off with search party under the command of Lt.Cdr. Kamenz. They established the following:-
Motor ship “Tirranna” (built in 1938 by Schichau in Danzig) 7230 tons, carrying 3,000 tons of wheat, 72,000 sacks of flour for British Ministry of Food, 6,015 bales of wool for the British Government, 178 military vehicles and a cargo of canteen goods for the A.I.F. (Australian troops in Palestine) sailing
(p.98)
under orders from the Admiralty from Melbourne to Mombasa. The crew had not yet left the ship, as the boats were partly destroyed. The upper
deck of the ship showed signs of the long spell under fire. There was hardly a spot on the whole ship which had not been riddled with splinters. The upper bridge had been especially hard hit, likewise the boat deck, where the sandbagged radio cabin and the mess below it had been destroyed by a direct hit. Numerous casualties, dead and wounded, lay about the ship. She requested a doctor to look after the wounded and Surgeon Lt. (j.g.) Sprung went aboard shortly afterwards. He certified the death of 5 men and saw to the transport of 3 severe casualties. The crew were made to pack up their private gear and then took to the boats under the supervision of Lt. (j .£•) Breuers • To ease the boat traffic, the motor boat from the “Europa” was sent out and proved invaluable. I must say, however, that the crew has had to toil for weeks to get this boat, which came from one of Germany’s first passenger ships, fit for use at sea and in a decent condition. Boatswain’s mate Ross maneuvered very well with this rather unmanageable boat.Under weather conditions to date the naval pinnace has proved itself invaluable for all tasks. The boat has been handled very carefully and with extremely fine seamanship by the regular steersman Boatswain’s Mate Stierle.
Surgeon Lt. Cdr. Reil and Surg. Lt. (j.g.) Sprung, the sick bay attendants and the stretcher bearers gave most excellent and devoted care to the severely wounded casualties. As the surgeon, Lt. (j.g.) Sprung had to perform difficult operations – an amputation and a brain operation. Lt . (s.g.) Strecker assisted at the operations. In all six severely wounded casualties had to receive treatment.
[…]
(p.99)
11 June — A statement made by the captain gave us the Tuesday following information:- “Tirranna” left Oslo on 18 Feb, 1940, proceeded through the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Suez Canal to Ras Hafun, took in salt there, proceeded on 19 March to Miri (Borneo) where she took in oil (29 March) to Hakodate (Japan) on 6 April. There the ship heard news of the outbreak of war between Germany and Norway. On 17 April 1940 while he was in Hakodate the captain received orders from the Norwegian consul in Tokyo to proceed in ballast to Sydney and take in cargo there for British customers, and await further instructions. The ship stayed in Sydney from 1 till 14 May, 1940, in Melbourne from 16 to 29 May. During her stay in Melbourne the ship was fitted out with a 4.7 inch gun, (quick firer 4.7 inch, 45 cal. K.1917 Kure P.V.) (built in Japan under an English license no. 338 Sept. 1932) base, magazine, smoke floats, gun communication telephone, 1 machine gun and 3 rifles, together with ammunition, steel helmets, etc. all to the account D.E.M.S. No. 91 (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships ).
(p.100)
According to the captain the “Tirranna” is the first armed Norwegian merchant ship to sail for the Department of Defense, Commonwealth of Australia.He took on the main part of the cargo in Sydney, the remainder of the lorries in Melbourne. From there the ship was despatched on 30 May to Mombasa. The captain went on to state that he received his course instructions for Mombasa in Melbourne. He had destroyed them on meeting, the auxiliary cruiser i.e. he had torn them up and put the fragments in the waste paper basket. After the waste paper basket had been emptied carefully, we were able to piece the instructions perfectly together again (see appendix). Also the Naval Control Officer in Melbourne had
assured him he could go to sleep quite happily until he reached Mombasa, there were no German warships in the Indian Ocean, However, there were mines off Cape Agulhas, which had been laid by the “Graf Spee”.
[…]
(p.101)
The captain thought that he might be shot on board the auxiliary cruiser. He bitterly reproached himself for his conduct and its consequences – above all for the five dead.
So, All That Is Missing Is…
Naturally, there’s one last thing we don’t have, because the list of the names of the Tirranna’s crew and passengers is in an appendix in the original (German) Atlantis ship’s log, which (unfortunately for us) the American translators apparently thought not to include.
So… can anyone help find the original Kriegsmarine document (presumably Volume 2)? I couldn’t find any reference to it, but given that it was translated, it must be somewhere out there, surely?
Alternatively, the crew list and the list of the five dead might be included in Rogge’s own book (which went through at least ten editions in German, and was translated into English). The bibliographic reference given on the German Wikipedia page is:
Wolfgang Frank, Bernhard Rogge: “Schiff 16. Tatsachenbericht. Die Kaperfahrten des schweren Hilfskreuzers Atlantis auf den 7 Weltmeeren.” Genehmigte Taschenbuchausgabe. 10. Auflage. Heyne, München 1982, ISBN 3-453-00039-0, 251 S
Does anyone have a copy of this? Alternatively, the English translation was published as “Ship 16: The Story of a German Surface Raider” (which sadly doesn’t have as gloriously pedantic a title as the German original) [and yes, I’ve ordered myself a copy of this too, *sigh*].
So it would seem one way or another we need rather a lot of tinfoil to believe Mikikelsen is our man….
It’s possible in the confusion somebody saw opportunity to switch identities with a deceased person (switch a wallet to steal some money, and in so doing switch an identity). A passport photo is potentially useless after a violent death, and it’s possible (though perhaps unlikely after significant time on board) that noone really knew the pax…this seems unlikely, but so far any scenario anyone’s come up with (Mikkelsen or no Mikkelsen) has a certain amount of unlikeliness.
It’s also possible (although perhaps far less likely) that there were multiple Charles Mikkelsens on board…and that’s without even exploring the possibility of alien abductions….
It’s a shame – it was a very promising lead,
The “professional” investigator is pointing out we’re all second class hacks (actually, he says ‘muppets’) :
quote begins…..
What you are seeing here is not some conspiracy theory as is often muttered by the ‘muppets’ on blogs that somehow consider themselves as experts even though they have no direct experience, knowledge, skill or exposure. In fact, it has now been recognised that the original post-autopsy images had been altered as was suggested in an Advertiser article on December 3rd. 1948, the question is, to what degree? Here on this blog, the posts are devoted to the hard evidence that remains and as such it is where real Police work can be examined and experienced without hype and sweeping generalities.
quote ends….
What I find a touch ironic, is that Mr Meticulous has the wrong newspaper listed (or wrong day, perhaps)….unless the reference to an altered photo was in microcode. I didn’t actually check that…..
milongal: ah, he’s using one of those semantically irregular nouns. I am an expert, you are a gifted but deluded amateur, he/she is a muppet, etc.
Also: why settle for a muppet conspiracy when you have a microcode conspiracy? Nothing else compares.
When reading the summary of this post in my RSS reader, I missed out the “the” from we start with some footage from Atlantis and got quite excited 🙂
Hi,
Just saw this now, so a very late reply. But I have some more confirmations, I can send them to you if you want. I have investigated Mikkelsen in this case quite a lot, and I am confident that 1) it was not SM and 2) he couldnt be, because he died on Tirranna.
First of all, I have the entry for Mikkelsen from the norwegian consulate in Adelaide, where it is a handwritten note in the bottom : ”
“Died on board Tirranna (information from Haugen)”
I have also a copy of the “statement of passage money” for the transport of 9 norwegians who was to sail with Tirranna. Charles Mikkelsen is on that list.
In addition I have the passenger/crew list for Tirranna. This have Charles Mikkelsen listed as “død” (dead). The only curious thing is that the version I have (which is from a book, but I am not sure which book, as I got the copy from a museum – but it is a copy of the maritime hearing), is that his death date is not there. It’s there on the others. But this is the list you are looking for.
Lastly I have a “registration card” where “Any special information” says “20-6-40 – Tirranna – Killed”.
Hi Vegard: you have found some excellent archival resources there, so thank you very much indeed for your kind offer! I’ll email you separately. 🙂
Incidentally, do you know who “Haugen” was?
There was a Thor Haugen on board who I *think* is rightmost, second row in
http://warsailors.com/norships/coloba.jpg
Actually, forget the picture, I may have misunderstood something online
You are right that Thor Haugen was on board 🙂 I guess this is the man providing the information, but it just says “Haugen”, so I can not be sure.
He was one of 9 passengers that was on their way back to Norway (via London, I think). Charles Mikkelsen was one of the others.
The passenger list says that Haugen was repatriated to Norway.
I was told by a relative of Charles Mikkelsen that Charles’ mother received a small amount of money as compensation for his death (just enough money to buy a coat) from the shipping line that owned the Tirranna.
Does anyone know the legal position of a civilian who fires on a belligerent during war time? I am referring to Charles Mikkelsen, who does not appear to have been a member of the official gun crew. I assume that the gun crew would have been protected by appropriate rules and regulations, but Charles, as a passenger, may not have had such legal protection. People were shot for far less. And why would Captain Gundersen allow Charles to put himself at hazard? If Charles did not have legal protection then I am sure Captain Gundersen would also have been in deep trouble, not just with the Germans, but also with the Norwegian Government and with the owners of the Tirranna.
What I am getting at is, could this be a reason for an identity substitution? I think so.
From memory the deck gun crew were all killed by a direct hit from the Atlantis’ 150 mm guns on the deck gun manned by Mikkelsen. Judging from my research of a similar occurrence most, if not all of the bodies of the crew of the deck gun would have been blown overboard. I have researched the death of my partner’s father, LS Frank Robert Salamon SN 21447, who was KIA on board HMAS Canberra during the Battle of Savo Island. Frank was manning the 4” deck gun when it was hit by a six or eight inch shell. Eye witnesses reported that the crew “just disappeared”.
Although I want to agree with Nick’s assessment that we seem to have pretty conclusive evidence that Mikkelsen couldn’t be SM, I can’t help but think he did seem to be a master of appearing and disappearing and I wish there were a way to categorically confirm that all records of the the Tiranna are definitely correct (I think I can even imagine situations where the captain wasn’t complicit – eg for whatever reason an identity switch had already occurred, and the man who later died was known to the captain as CM even though it wasn’t the real one – of course his death is then one hell of a coincidence (assuming we don’t go too conspiratorial about an identity switch then a covered up murder – which still requires its own coincidences to run into the gunboat too), but coincidence seems to plague any explanation we can come up with – with or without Mikkelsen….
Byron: I seem to recall from an earlier post that the lady from Cheltenham’s information to Detective Leane was somewhat confusing. Sir John Brookman, whom Charles Mikkelsen was said to have been working for circa.1930 does not seem to have existed. Sir George Brookman was indeed a real entity and he lived at Ivanhoe Manor in the Adelaide suburb of Gilberton, some distance from where Mikkelsen was said to have his Somerton digs. We could say that she got his first name wrong, but that wouldn’t work out, for Sir George was a very well known man, until his death in 1927. And of course that would compound the problem of that great man’s association with Charles the gardener in the early thirties even moreso, would it not?.
John,
Charles jumped ship in Adelaide in 1924 so he could have worked as a gardener for Sir George Brookman anytime between 1924 and Sir George’s death in 1927. 1930 was the date when Charles re-entered Australia and went to work at Jensen’s guest house on Kangaroo Island. And it was there that the “Cheltenhan” woman met Charles. I assume Charles mentioned to her that he had worked as a gardener for Sir George and when she talked to the press/police in 1953 and she mis-remembered Sir George’s name as being John, twenty six years after Sir George’s death. The “Cheltenham” witness said that Charles was last heard from when he was at a boarding house in Somerton and that would have been after 1932. Sir George died in 1927 as you say so there is no discrepancy with the dates. Charles worked for Sir George sometime in the period 1924-1927 and then lived at Somerton some time after 1932.
For me the story of Charles’ life in Australia is fishy. So fishy that I can only think that Charles was working as a protected informant, probably for Commonwealth intel rather than State police. In the 1920s and up until fairly recently (1990s perhaps) the maritime unions in Australia were essentially under the control of the KGB/GRU. Given the importance of maritime matters (in trade, economy, war, drug smuggling, people smuggling and just about everything of importance for a country) I can’t believe that the Authorities did not plant informers in the maritime system.
Yes, there is a problem with the exact shape of Charles’ ear but as I have said before there can be differences in the shape of the right and left ears. We only have a photo of Charles left ear and SM’s right ear. It would be worthwhile to see if the ears of the plaster bust show any differences in shape and if the right ear of the bust corresponds in shape with SM’s ear in the autopsy photos or if the left ear on the bust corresponds with Charles’ left ear. See, after 70 years there is still simple stuff that has never been done. Makes you think doesn’t it? Charles’ 1930 passport photo shows faint scars around the bridge of his nose and on the side of his face below his left eye. SM’s autopsy photo shows traces of these scars as well. Charles’ passport photo appears to show an irregular edge edge on the pupil of his left eye. SM’s pupils were described in the autopsy report as being small and irregular in shape. This irregularity is a fairly rare condition (about 1 in 2,500) called iris coloboma.
And what is the explanation for the piece of paper (?) stuck on the bridge of SM’s nose? This is another anomaly that nobody has commented on. Paul Lawson did recently say that there was a cut on the side of SM’s nose and presumably the cut was covered up with a piece of paper for the autopsy photo. This cut can be seen on the plaster bust. But why was it covered? Was it to cover up recent surgical stitches? I note that it was mentioned in a newspaper report (1949) that the police asked one witness who thought they knew the identity of SM if that person had any facial scars.
Charles could not have been manning the deck gun on the Tirranna as he was a civilian and not a member of the Tirranna crew. And he would not have been on deck so it is unlikely that was in a position to be killed during the shelling of the Tirranna. Charles was a passenger and even if he had been drafted to work as crew his occupation was that of oiler (ie. In the engine room). The damage to the Tirranna did not affect her engines and the damage seems to have been limited to the decks.
Regarding the cut on the bridge of SM’s nose, I wonder if it was from a very recent operation?Maybe Charles was in town to have an angioma (the examining doctor in 1938 mentioned that Charles had an angioma below his left eye and he could have developed further angiomas between 1938 and 1948) removed from the bridge of his nose and had this relatively minor operation carried out at some private hospital in Glenelg. This operation was usually carried out in a doctor’s surgery in the 1940s. Charles was discharged and goes down to the beach (probably known to him from the time he lived in a boarding house at Somerton as mentioned by the “Cheltenham” witness) to wait for somebody he knew to come back home (Jessie? Prosper?) but he dies from an adverse reaction to the drugs used in the operation. Or maybe he died during the operation and his body was dumped on the beach?
There are other similarities and coincidences between SM and Charles.
Physical description
Charles lived in a boarding house at Somerton for a while
Charles often quoted the last line of the ROK “Tamam shud”
Charles worked as a gardener, as a painter and as a crewman on a ship carrying lead concentrates. These occupations could explain the high levels of lead in SM’s hair.
SM’s mitochondrial DNA haplogroup (H4a1a1a) is fairly rare and mostly found in Scandinavia.
A family that knew Charles on Kangaroo Island came over to identify SM’s body on more than one occasion. Sounds pretty convincing to me. A journey from Kangaroo Island wasn’t a ten minute bus trip.
Byron: I did track my old ‘Lady from Celtenham’ post down with the Mangnoson stuff. In it I advised you to contact Guinea Airways. and the Kingaroo Island Courier history web sites in order to advance inquiries on that family from American river. They were said to have been flown to Adelaide to make the SM identification with the Leane team, of their Russian ballet dancer/boot maker aka Mikkelsen. I don’t recall seeing any follow-up details as a consequence of my suggestion.
Byron: I can agree that Charles received quite a deal of unusual attention by Customs and their affilliates, mostly during the late thirties and he seems to have been a man quite up to date in worldly affairs, to the extent of having expections of a coming war as early as 1937. Whether he was some sort of clandestine operative, we may surmise that he had good cover in his liking for travel. That period you mention when he went to America river, recalls a time in the early 30s when Kangaroo Island was newly fitted out with some serious LF kit, a receiving station and trained ears. I might note that J.B. Cleland conducted a deal of flora fauna field research on the island during the thirties and forties. I wonder did he get a memory jolt when he spotted SM on the Mortuary slab in Adelaide in ‘48.
Thor Haugen was a passenger like Charles Mikkelsen.
https://issuu.com/timbrunsden/docs/victims_of_atlantis