Crebin, Edward Horace. "Raider."

As with Crebbin's "In Mid-Channel" (listed earlier),there is some question as to whether this short story is set during the First or Second World War. However, since the tale appeared his 1942 short story collection Six Bells, "Raider" is included in this bibliography of World War 2 works. As it title implies, the work is about a German sea raider. It opens in a café in an unnamed South American seaport with several shady German nationals concluding a deal with a local ship broker to purchase the neutral-registry "intermediate liner" SANTA MARIA. Reader and shipbroker alike know instinctively that the ship is destined to become, after rapid conversion, a disguised German warship. Crebbin's Germans are arrogant and over-confident - and pay no attention whatsoever to a seedy little man taking coffee in a nearby table. The man, of course, is a highly successful British intelligence officer and he soon relays information regarding the sea raider to Royal Navy sources. In due time the disguised German warship emerges, callously destroys several neutral ships (ah, German duplicity!) but shortly thereafter is tempted by a Royal Navy Q-Ship into another unprovoked attack - and is promptly blown out of the water by the British warship.