few days after on Emirau Island. Attack on Nauru At the end of December Eyssen planned to lay a minefield at the entrance of the Rabaul's harbour. He was forced to abandon his plan due to an engine failure on the Meteorit boat that was designed for the mission. He, therefore, decided to set course towards Nauru, wanting to land his troops and occupy the phosphate processing and loading facilities on the island. The bad weather though convinced Eyssen to change his plans into a direct attack to the island infrastructures. On 27 December 1940 the Komet sent a warning to the island and announced that the attack was about to begin. She shelled and heavily damaged the loading plants and mooring buoys of the port. The bombardment lasted an hour, and it caused the loss of 13,000 tons of oil. The Nauru phosphate extraction facilities did not resume their pre-war output levels until the end of the conflict. The action also led to the promotion of Eyssen to Konteradmiral on 1 January 1941. After the Nauru attack (probably the major German success in the Pacific operational area during the war) the Komet received the order to set a new course towards south, crossing the Indian Ocean and scouting the presence of Allied whalers. After a few months with no success, the ship reached the shores of Antarctica on 16 February 1941; later on 6 March she had a stop on the French Kerguelen Islands and had there a brief meeting with the other German auxiliary ship Pinguin. Operations in the Atlantic Ocean and Galapagos Islands The hunt for allied ships in the Indian Ocean had no success; after some months, Eyssen sailed towards the Panama Canal, hoping to find more convoys in the Pan-American Security Zone, recently opened to military actions from the Kriegsmarine high command. From 14 July 1941 until 25 July the Komet was resupplied by the German freighter Anneliese Essberger near the Tuamotu Archipelago. At this time, the Komet was disguised as the Osaka Shosen Kaisha line Ryoku Maru. On 14 August the ship met near the Galápagos Islands the British freighter Australind and sunk it. Three days later the German cruiser met the Dutch 7,300 ton freighter Kota Nopan, loading more than 2,000 tons of tin and manganese. Due to her precious load, the supply ship was spared from sinking and captured. On 19 August