German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
|
The Kormoran taking on stores from a supply boat at Kiel, Germany, in late 1940, prior to commencing operations against Allied shipping. |
The German
auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (HSK-8,
Schiff 41, Raider G) was a warship used in
World War II. It is perhaps best-known for the sinking of
Australian
light cruiser HMAS Sydney in November 1941, following a battle in which the
Kormoran was also destroyed.
Kormoran was built by
Germaniawerft of
Kiel and originally launched on
September 15, 1938 as the
merchant ship Steiermark of the
Hamburg-America Line. Renamed
Kormoran (
cormorant), it entered service as a
Kriegsmarine auxiliary cruiser on
October 9 1940, commanded by
Fregattenkapitän (Commander)
Theodor Detmers.
When in service,
Kormoran weighed 8,736 tons and had a top speed of 18-19
knots. The ship was a prime example of the relatively successful "disguised freighter" technique used in
commerce raiding by the Kriegsmarine in World War Two. The largest of the German raiders,
Kormoran operated in the
South Atlantic,
Indian Ocean, and the
South Pacific. In common with other auxiliary cruisers, it had substantial (hidden) armament: six 150 mm (5.9 in) guns, torpedoes and seaplanes, but lacked the armour protection, control systems, and speed of a proper warship. Successful raiding depended on surprise and disguise. For 352 days, from
December 3, 1940,
Kormoran sank ten merchant ships, comprising a total of 56,965 tons.
On
November 19, 1941, the
Kormoran encountered HMAS
Sydney in the
Indian Ocean, somewhere off the coast of
Western Australia between
Carnarvon and
Geraldton. The German vessel was posing as a Dutch freighter, the
Straat Malakka at the time.
According to the crew of the
Kormoran, the Australian warship was not fully prepared for battle, and its guns were not trained on
Kormoran.
Sydney was hit 50 times by the raider's 5.9-inch heavy guns before it returned fire. The two heavily damaged ships drifted apart and
Sydney was last seen by the crew of
Kormoran in flames on the horizon.
Sydney and its crew disppeared and have never been found.
However,
Sydney had inflicted enough damage to ensure that
Kormoran could not be saved. With the engine room destroyed, 20 dead and the fire rapidly approaching the mine storage deck, Detmers had little choice but to abandon ship. Explosive charges were placed and the surviving crew took to the boats, with Detmers the last to leave. A further 40 men, mostly wounded, lost their lives when their lifeboat capsized in the rough seas. Shortly after midnight the charges went off, followed 25 minutes later by the mines. The entire stern and midships section was engulfed in a gigantic sheet of flame that shot a thousand feet into the night sky as
Kormoran went down by the stern.
Detmers and about 320 of his crew were rescued and spent the remainder of the war in an Australian
prisoner of war camp, from which they were not released until 1947.
The fact that the only survivors of the battle were German, has allowed the battle between
Sydney and
Kormoran to become the subject of much controversy, speculation and
conspiracy theory. At present a private foundation, HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd, is attempting to locate the two wrecks.
* Length: 164 m (515 ft)
* Beam: 20.2 m (66 ft)
* Draft: 8.5 m (30 ft)
* Displacement: 8,736 tons
* Drive system: Diesel-electric propulsion
* Performance: Diesel 14,400 PS, electric drive motors 12,740 PS
* Speed: 18 knots
* Armament:
** 6 x 5.9 in (150 mm) guns
** 2 x 37 mm anti-tank guns
** 5 x 20 mm
FlaK anti-aircraft guns
** 2 x twin 533 mm (21 in) torpedo batteries above the waterline; two single tubes below
** 390 mines
** 2
Arado 196 seaplanes
** 1
Leichtes Schnellboot light
speedboat* Complement: 397 officers and men
*
Sydney Morning Herald article (February 23, 2005) on expedition by David Mearns to find the wreck of Sydney*
HSK Kormoran page"The Raider Kormoran". Capt. Theodor Detmers, 1959. Availability unknown.
