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The EU's First Combat Deployment

German Navy Mission Encounters More than Pirates

By Walter Mayr

"Operation Atalanta" is the name of the EU's first combat mission against pirates. At a naval base in Djibouti, the German frigate Karlsruhe is standing ready to join the fight.

It's 10:17 a.m. on Monday. A herd of weak-kneed cattle is being driven through Djibouti's harbor on its way to boarding ships headed to the slaughterhouses of the Persian Gulf sheikdoms. Suddenly, shots ring out over on Pier 9.

German military police quickly hustle onlookers behind the pier wall, and five of them form a human cordon at the pier's edge. An officer in tropical fatigues with a patch of the German flag speaks into his mobile phone and informs his superiors back home about what's going on. But what's happening?

The German navy frigate Karlsruhe had opened fire immediately after being moored on the Horn of Africa -- but only to return the salute of the Djibouti harbor authorities. That was, of course, not a combat engagement; but spectators were still not welcome.

The nerves onboard the German ship tied to Pier 9 are tense. The Karlsruhe will soon set off on a delicate mission, and the soldiers are tight-lipped, citing "orders from Berlin." This was just days before the German parliament voted on Friday to approve the armed forces' Operation Atalanta, the first joint combat deployment in EU history.

Nor, the sailors say, does Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung want to see the "show stolen" from him before he arrives in Djibouti for a visit late on the Monday after Christmas. Only then will the minister give the signal in person that Germany will participate in a mission that has already drawn criticism from many corners -- as if Rommel's Afrikakorps were somehow preparing a major counteroffensive in 1940s North Africa.

The Karlsruhe was dispatched from the Fourth Frigate Squadron based in the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven. It is 3,680 tons of gray-painted German steel, and its armaments include guided missile launchers midship, a 76-mm cannon at the bow and two steel-helmeted men on the machine-gun platform. Red Christmas decorations hang in the windows and glitter in the African sun.

The vessel is the flagship of the fight against international piracy being waged by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. But the question remains: Can a single German warship -- supported by just five other frigates and reconnaissance aircraft drawn from Great Britain, Greece, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain -- really manage to accomplish much of anything in the region?

The territory covered by Atalanta encompasses some 3 million square kilometers (1.16 million square miles) -- or roughly the surface area of Western Europe. It stretches from the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean through the Red Sea, to the Somali coast and out to the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. "The area is so large (that) we could have hundreds of ships and still there would be gaps in our surveillance," warns Admiral Philip Jones, the rear admiral in the Royal Navy who has been put in charge of the joint EU operation.

These days, if you're standing where the German ship is moored in Djibouti, it's easy to make out the freighters making their way through the so-called "Gate of Tears," the narrow straight separating Djibouti and Yemen, Africa and Asia. Nearly one-tenth of the entire world's oil that is traded passes through these waters.

The heavily laden ships attract pirates like elephants draw flies. In 2008 alone, pirates have attacked nearly 100 ships. The most recent incident involved a Turkish freighter seized lasst week whose captors reportedly demanded $120 million (€86 million) in ransom. Last Tuesday, under pressure from the US, the UN Security Council approved its strongest resolution yet, which will permit military action on the Somali mainland itself, where the pirates take refuge.

Germany 's Return to the Military Map

The official mission of Operation Atalanta is to protect UN shipments of humanitarian aid to starving Somalis -- the fellow countrymen of the very pirates who embark from the shores of the war-ravaged country to wreak havoc on seaborne trade. But, unofficially, there is much more at stake.

Civilian sea traffic needs to be protected, too. Take, for example, the passengers on cruise ships traveling through the Gulf of Aden. They did not pay €16,000 ($22,600) for a double cabin and three weeks of adventure only to end up as hostages somewhere out in the bush of the Somali province of Puntland.

Preventing such kidnappings is why the Karlsruhe is standing at the ready with all flags flying and all the fuel and supplies it needs. On Christmas Eve, when the candles are lit around the tree in the officers' mess, the ship will already be receiving its orders from Britain's Northwood naval command, where the EU military operation is based.

The Bundestag, Germany' federal parliament, must give its permission before all German military actions, and -- after much dispute -- it delivered a mandate to the Karlsruhe on Friday. The ship's crew now has the green light to pursue, detain and, when needed, even fly pirates out to stand trial before a court of law. Likewise, the crew has even been granted with permission to sink the pirates' ships or -- in the words of the government mandate -- to use the force it needs "to deter, prevent and enforce a cessation" of pirate activity.