SAWW11OTH1508 German Liner Windhuk Bracelet

Complete with 3^rd Reich and Woermann liner flags in enamel

Windhuk is the  name of a liner built between 1936 and 1937 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The construction of the ship and her sister Pretoria was an initiative of the Nazi regime. The ships were to attract international passengers and provide the German economy with foreign currency.  Windhuk went to the Woermann Line. It was a German company, serving the line around the African continent. The Windhuk went on her maiden voyage to South Africa in April 1937 and had a successful career until the start of World War II. At that point, the ship was moored at Lobito, Angola. The ship waited there until December 1939. Then, superficially disguised as a Japanese ship, she crossed the South Atlantic to search a safe harbor in Santos, Brazil. Many German merchant ships had moored in Santos at the time, due to the good relations Brazil had with Germany. But those diplomatic ties deteriorated quickly and broke in August 1942. Brazil then took possession of the Windhuk. But, before that happened, her crew severely sabotaged the ship, destroying most of her systems and the engines beyond repair. Brazil sold the ship to the US Navy. She was towed to Río de Janeiro in early 1943 where she was repaired and a new diesel engine installed. In March of that year the ship was seaworthy and sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, to be transformed in a troopship and become USS Lejeune. From June 1944 to the end of the war, she made 10 Atlantic round-trips to support the war effort in Europe. In the aftermath of the war, she made 9 round-trips more as part of the Operation Magic Carpet. Between 1946 and 1947 she did four round-trips of the Pacific. In February 1948 she joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet in Tacoma, Washington. After having transported over 100.000 troops in her career, the Lejeune was struck from the Naval Register in 1957 and finally scrapped in 1966.

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