MS Tannenfels was a German cargo ship owned by DDG Hansa, put into service in 1938.

She remained there until January 1941, when British troops entered Italian Somaliland.

She then sailed for Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, eventually reaching German-occupied France.

During the next year and a half, she was employed as a blockade runner, slipping past British patrols to deliver supplies to German armed merchant cruisers at sea.

[2] In December 1942 at Bordeaux, she was damaged by limpet mines placed by British commandos (Operation Frankton), and was no longer seaworthy.