German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
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 Kormoran taking on stores from a supply boat at Kiel, Germany, in late 1940 |
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| Career Germany (Kriegsmarine) |  |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Germaniawerft |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | September 15, 1938 |
| Commissioned: | October 9, 1940 |
| Renamed: | Steiermark (1938-1940) Kormoran (1940-1941) |
| Reclassified: | Merchant ship (1938-1940) Auxiliary cruiser (1940-1941) |
| Status: | Scuttled after sinking HMAS Sydney |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 8,736 tons |
| Length: | 164 m (515 ft) |
| Beam: | 20.2 m (66 ft) |
| Draught: | 8.5 m (30 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shaft Diesel-electric propulsion, 14,400 PS. Electric drive motors 12,740 PS (16,000 hp) |
| Speed: | 19 knots |
| Boats and landing craft carried: | 1 x Leichtes Schnellboot light speedboat |
| Complement: | 397 |
| Armament: | 6 x 5.9 inch (150 mm) guns, 2 x 37 mm anti-tank guns, 5 x 20 mm FlaK anti-aircraft guns, 2 x twin 533 mm (21 inch) torpedo batteries above the waterline; two single tubes below, 390 mines |
| Aircraft carried: | 2 x Arado 196 seaplanes |
| Nickname: | Raider G - British Admirality designation |
The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (HSK-8, Schiff 41, Raider G) was a warship used in World War II. She known best for the sinking of Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in November 1941, during a battle in which 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), she 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, she 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.
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[edit] Final engagement with Sydney
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 Kormoran, the Australian warship was not fully prepared for battle, and her guns were not trained on Kormoran. Sydney was hit about 50 times by the raider's 5.9-inch heavy guns before she returned fire. Over all Sydney received approx. 150 hits of the Kormoran artillerie. The very early recieved Torpedo hit caused massive damage to Sydney. The two heavily damaged ships drifted apart and Sydney was last seen by the crew of Kormoran in flames on the horizon followed by some kind of explosion. Sydney and her 645 crew members disppeared and have never been found. This was the first and only reported victory of an auxiliary cruiser like Kormoran against a regular Battle Ship.
Sydney had inflicted medium damage to Kormoran but one hit caused a fire that could not be contolled. With the engine room damaged, 20 dead and the fire approaching the mine storage deck, Detmers decided to abandon ship, to save as many lives as possible. 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. Kormoran went down by the stern.
Detmers and about 320 of his crew (including 3 Chinese prisoner of war) were rescued from their lifeboats by three ships; Yandra, Koolinda, and Centaur. [1] They 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 first. Later it was seen as truth that Kormoran had damaged Sydney that much that it became a complete loss. At present a private foundation, HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd, is attempting to locate the two wrecks.
[edit] References
- ^ Smith, A.E. [1991] (May 1992). Three Minutes of Time - the torpedoing of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, Second Printing, Miami: Tasman Press. ISBN 0-646-07631-0.
[edit] External links
- Sydney Morning Herald article (February 23, 2005) on expedition by David Mearns to find the wreck of Sydney
- HSK Kormoran page
[edit] Additional Reading
- Detmers, Theodor.The raider Kormoran 2nd ed. London [England]: William Kimber,1959. 158 p.
- Barbara Winter: Duell in front of Australa, ISBN 3-8132-0441-3
- W. A. Jones: Prisoner of the Kormoran, Australasien Publishing CO. PTY. LTD. Sydney
| Nazi German auxiliary cruisers of the Second World War |
| Kriegsmarine |
| Orion | Atlantis | Widder | Thor | Pinguin | Stier | Komet | Kormoran | Michel |
