German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
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Kormoran taking on stores from a supply boat at Kiel, Germany, in late 1940
Career (Germany)
Operator:	Hamburg-America Line
Builder:	Krupp-Germaniawerft, Kiel, Germany
Launched:	15 September 1938
Christened:	Steiermark (1938-1940)
Commissioned:	9 October 1940
Fate:	Requisitioned by Kriegsmarine, 1940
Career (Germany (Kriegsmarine))
Namesake:	Cormorant
Operator:	Kriegsmarine
Yard number:	8
Renamed:	Kormoran (1940-1941)
Reclassified:	Auxiliary cruiser (1940-1941)
Nickname:	Raider G (British Admiralty designation) Schiff 41 HSK 8
Fate:	Scuttled, after being damaged by HMAS Sydney
Notes:	Disguises included a second funnel and additional masts.[1]
General characteristics
Class and type:	Merchant ship (1938-1940)
Displacement:	8736 tons (19,900 GRT)
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 (35 km/h)
Endurance:	84,500 nautical miles (156,500 km)
Boats and landing craft carried:	1x Leichtes Schnellboot (light torpedo boat)[2]
Complement:	397
Armament:	6x 150 millimetres (5.9 in) guns (hidden behind counter-balanced covers[2]), 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

The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (HSK-8) was a Kriegsmarine (German Navy) merchant raider of World War II. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 41, to the Allied navies she was Raider G. Kormoran is known best for the sinking of Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney with all hands (645 souls) in November 1941, during a battle off Western Australia, in which Kormoran was also destroyed. Following many years of speculation and searches, on March 16, 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Kormoran had been found. The wreck is reported to be 150 kilometres west of Shark Bay.^[3]

The abbreviation HSK comes from Handelsstörkreuzer; the German for "commerce disruption cruiser". The ship is sometimes referred to as DKM Kormoran, where DKM stands for Deutsche Kriegsmarine, but the Germans themselves did not use this prefix.

Early history

Kormoran was built by Germaniawerft of Kiel and launched on 15 September 1938 as the merchant ship Steiermark of HAPAG, the Hamburg-America Line. Renamed Kormoran ( German for "Cormorant"), she entered service as a Kriegsmarine auxiliary cruiser on 9 October 1940, commanded by Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) Theodor Detmers.

When in service, Kormoran displaced 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, torpedo tubes and seaplanes, but lacked the armour protection, fire control systems and speed of a proper warship. Successful raiding depended on surprise and disguise.

Raiding voyage

The first of the German Navy's "second wave" of commerce raiders, Kormoran departed from Germany via the Denmark Strait on December 3, 1940 under the command of KK (later FK) Theodor Detmers for operations in the South Atlantic. In four months, she accounted for eight Allied ships, one of which was sent as a prize to occupied France, while the rest were sunk.

Kormoran then moved to a new operational area in the Indian Ocean; this was less profitable, and saw only three ships sunk between April and November 1941.

In November, she was cruising off the west coast of Australia, prior to a planned move to a new area in the South Pacific. However, her career came to an end on 19 November 1941, when she destroyed, and was herself destroyed by, HMAS Sydney.

In a cruise lasting for 352 days, from 3 December 1940 to 19 November 1941, Kormoran sank ten merchant ships, comprising a total of 56,965 tons, in addition to the one sent to France.

Final engagement with Sydney

Main article: Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran

Survivors from Kormoran being rescued by the merchant vessel Centaur

On 19 November 1941 the Kormoran encountered HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean at 26°9′50″S 111°4′25″E / -26.16389, 111.07361, off the coast of Western Australia between Carnarvon and Geraldton. At the time, the German raider was flying a false flag while posing as the Dutch freighter, the Straat Malakka, with a black hull and black funnel.^[1] Captain Detmers hoped to pass by undetected, but Sydney closed in to investigate. The German ship maintained its deception until range was about 1,500 metres (1,600 yd), which gave it a better chance of attacking the superior Australian warship.

According to the surviving crewmen of Kormoran, the Australian warship was not expecting battle nor fully prepared for it as her secondary guns were unmanned and therefore not trained on Kormoran.^[5] Taken by surprise, Sydney was hit about 50 times by the raider's 5.9-inch (150 mm) heavy guns before she managed to return fire. Overall, Sydney received approximately 150 hits. A torpedo hit, scored relatively early in the engagement, caused massive damage to the bow of 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 had inflicted medium damage to Kormoran, but one hit caused a fire that could not be controlled due to the fire fighting equipment being out of order. With 20 dead and the fire in engine room approaching the mine storage deck, Detmers decided at 18:25^[6] to abandon ship to save as many lives as possible. Explosive charges were placed to scuttle the ship 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 were set - at 00:35, the mines exploded and Kormoran went down rapidly by the stern.^[7]

Kormoran lifeboat at Carnarvon, Western Australia. The plaque incorrectly says "52 Germans survived in this lifeboat".

Kormoran's 15 cm gun in the forward hold pointing to starboard and aft of the beam.

Detmers and about 320 of his crew (including 3 Chinese prisoners of war) were rescued from their lifeboats and liferafts by five ships: Aquitania, Trocas, Koolinda, Centaur and Yandra. A further two lifeboats came ashore just north of Carnarvon at 17 Mile Well. ^[8] Nearly all spent the remainder of the war in an Australian prisoner of war camp, from which they would not be released until January 1947.

The fact that the only survivors of the battle were from the Kormoran has allowed the battle between Sydney and Kormoran to become the subject of much controversy, speculation and conspiracy theory. Eventually, it was realised that Kormoran had inflicted sufficient damage on Sydney for the Australian warship to be lost without survivors.

Discovery

Main article: Search for HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran

Kormoran

Approximate location of the Kormoran wreckage

The wreck of the Kormoran was discovered by the Finding Sydney Foundation, led by search director David Mearns — a prominent American shipwreck hunter — on 12 March 2008 at 26°05′49.4″S 111°04′27.5″E / -26.097056, 111.074306Coordinates: 26°05′49.4″S 111°04′27.5″E / -26.097056, 111.074306, approximately 112 nautical miles (207 km) off Steep Point at depth of 2,560 metres (8,400 ft).^[9] The probable scene of the engagement between the Kormoran and HMAS Sydney was also identified by the search team as being approximately 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) south of the wreck of the Kormoran.^[9]

Following further analysis of sonar search results to confirm the identity of the wreck, a formal announcement of the discovery was made on 16 March 2008 by the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.^[10] The following day, 17 March 2008, Rudd announced that the wreck of the HMAS Sydney had been discovered 22 kilometres (12 nmi) from the Kormoran. ^[11]

The wreckage of the Kormoran was provisionally declared to be a historic shipwreck under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 on 17 March 2008.^[12]

References

Additional reading

• Detmers, Theodor.The raider Kormoran 2nd ed. London [England]: William Kimber,1959. 158 p.
• Barbara Winter: Duell in front of Australia, ISBN 3-8132-0441-3
• W. A. Jones: Prisoner of the Kormoran, Australasien Publishing CO. PTY. LTD. Sydney
• Paul Schmalenbach: German Raiders 1895-1945 (1977) ISBN 0 85059 351 4
• August Karl Muggenthaler: German Raiders of World War II (1977) ISBN 0 7091 6683 4
• Stephen Roskill: The War at Sea 1939-1945 Vol I (1954) ISBN (none)
• Michael Montgomery: Who Sank The Sydney? 1981, rev 1985 ISBN 0 14 007706 5
• Olsen, Wesley Bitter Victory; the death of HMAS Sydney Repr. with amend. and add. Nedlands, W.A. : University of Western Australia Press, 2002. ISBN 1-876268-91-3

External links

• Sydney Morning Herald article (February 23, 2005) on expedition by David Mearns to find the wreck of Sydney
• HSK Kormoran page
• Researched article on Sydney-Kormoran battle and aftermath (Jason Stevenson
• Transcript of Media Conference: The Finding of the Kormoran, Australian War Memorial, Sunday 16 March 2008

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