1941 naval battle during World War II
On 19 November 1941, the Australian light cruiser and the German auxiliary cruiser engaged each other in a battle off the coast of Western Australia. "Sydney", with Captain Joseph Burnett commanding, and "Kormoran", under (lit. 'Frigate captain') Theodor Detmers, encountered each other approximately off Dirk Hartog Island. The single-ship action lasted half an hour, and both ships were destroyed.
From 24 November, after "Sydney" failed to return to port, air and sea searches were conducted. Boats and rafts carrying survivors from "Kormoran" were recovered at sea, while others made landfall at Quobba Station, north of Carnarvon; 318 of the 399 personnel on "Kormoran" survived. While debris from "Sydney" was found, there were no survivors from the 645-strong complement. It was the largest loss of life in the history of the Royal Australian Navy, the largest Allied warship lost with all hands during World War II, and a major blow to Australian wartime morale. Australian authorities learned of "Sydney"'s fate from the surviving "Kormoran" personnel, who were held in prisoner of war camps until almost two years after the war with Germany had ended.
Controversy has often surrounded the battle, especially in the years before the two wrecks were located in 2008. How and why a purpose-built warship such as "Sydney" was defeated by a modified merchant vessel such as "Kormoran" was the subject of speculation, with numerous books on the subject, as well as two official reports by government inquiries, published in 1999 and 2009.
According to German accounts—which were assessed as truthful and generally accurate by Australian interrogators during the war, as well as most subsequent analyses—"Sydney" approached so close to "Kormoran" that the Australian cruiser lost the advantages of heavier armour and superior gun range. Nevertheless, several post-war publications have alleged that "Sydney"'s loss had been the subject of an extensive cover-up, that the Germans had not followed the laws of war, that Australian survivors were massacred following the battle, or that the Empire of Japan had been secretly involved in the action (before officially declaring war in December). Currently no evidence supports any of these theories.
Background.
HMAS "Sydney".
 was one of three Modified "Leander class" light cruisers of the RAN. Built for the Royal Navy, the cruiser was bought by the Australian government to replace , and it was commissioned into the RAN in September 1935. The cruiser was long and displaced . "Sydney" carried eight 6-inch (152 mm) guns in four twin turrets ("A" and "B" forward, "X" and "Y" aft) as primary armament. These were supplemented by four 4-inch (102 mm) anti-aircraft guns, nine .303-inch (7.7 mm) machine guns, and eight torpedo tubes in two quadruple mountings. The cruiser also carried a single Supermarine Walrus amphibious aircraft.
Initially assigned to escort and patrol duties in Australian waters, "Sydney" was sent to the Mediterranean in mid-1940. "Sydney" operated against Italian naval forces for eight months, during which she participated in multiple battles, sank two Italian warships and several merchantmen, and supported convoy operations and shore bombardments. The cruiser was recalled to Australia in early January 1941: the need to rest the ship and personnel, plans to spread combat experience across the RAN fleet, and a desire to reinforce the nation following German raider activity in nearby waters were all factors. "Sydney" was assigned to Fremantle, Western Australia, and resumed escort and patrol duties. Command was handed over from Captain John Collins to Captain Joseph Burnett in May 1941.
On 11 November, "Sydney" departed Fremantle for Singapore with the transport . The vessels sailed to Sunda Strait, where the troopship was handed over on 17 November to . "Sydney" then turned for home and was scheduled to arrive in Fremantle late on 20 November. At the time of the battle, she had a ship's company of 645: 41 officers, 594 sailors, six Royal Australian Air Force personnel, and four civilian canteen staff.
"Kormoran".
During the 1930s, disparities between the conventional warship strength of the "Kriegsmarine" (German Navy) and other nations caused by the Treaty of Versailles led the German military to recognise that auxiliary cruisers engaged in commerce raiding would be of use during future wars and that suitable vessels should be identified. The merchant ship (named after Styria) was one such vessel; she was taken up by the at the start of World War II. Renamed , she was the largest and newest of nine raiders, referred to as (auxiliary cruisers) or (trade disruption cruisers).
"Kormoran" was commissioned in October 1940. After modification, she was long and measured  GRT. The raider was fitted with six single guns (two each in the forecastle and quarterdeck, with the fifth and sixth on the centreline) as the main armament, supplemented by two anti-tank guns, five anti-aircraft autocannons, and six torpedo tubes (a twin above-water mount on each side, and two single underwater tubes). The guns were concealed behind false hull plates and cargo hatch walls, which would swing clear when the order to decamouflage was given. The secondary weapons sat on hydraulic lifts hidden within the superstructure. The ship could be disguised as one of several Allied or neutral vessels.
"Kormoran" departed German waters in December 1940, under the command of (Frigate captain, equivalent to Commander) Theodor Detmers. After operating in the Atlantic, during which time she sank seven merchant ships and captured an eighth, the raider sailed to the Indian Ocean in late April 1941. Only three merchantmen were intercepted during the next six months, and "Kormoran" was diverted several times to refuel German support ships. As the raider was carrying several hundred sea mines and was expected to deploy some of these before returning home in early 1942, Detmers planned to mine shipping routes near Cape Leeuwin and Fremantle, but he postponed this after detecting wireless signals from a warship (Australian heavy cruiser ) in the area. Instead, he decided to sail north and investigate Shark Bay. At the time of the battle, the raider was disguised as the Dutch merchantman and carried 399 personnel: 36 officers, 359 sailors, and 4 Chinese sailors hired from the crew of a captured merchantman to run the ship's laundry.
"Note: All times in this section are UTC+7."
Battle.
Identification.
On 19 November, shortly before 16:00, "Kormoran" was southwest of Carnarvon, Western Australia. The raider was sailing northwards (heading 025°) at . At 15:55, what was initially thought to be a tall ship sail was sighted off the port bow, although it was quickly determined to be the mast of a warship (HMAS "Sydney"). Detmers ordered "Kormoran" to alter course into the sun (heading 260°) at maximum achievable speed (which quickly dropped from because of problems in one of her diesel engines) while setting the ship to action stations. "Sydney" spotted the German ship around the same time, and she altered from her southward heading to intercept at .
As she closed the gap, the Australian cruiser requested that "Kormoran" identify herself. Communications were initially attempted with a signal lamp to repeatedly send "NNJ" ("You should make your signal letters"), but those aboard the raider did not understand the uncommonly used signal and did not respond. "Sydney" continued to signal for 30 minutes, after which those aboard the cruiser used flags to send the more common "VH" signal ("You should hoist your signal letters"), while the signal lamp was used to transmit the message in plain language. After another delay, "Kormoran" raised "PKQI"—the call-sign for the Dutch merchant ship "Straat Malakka"—on the triatic stay and hoisted a Dutch merchant ensign. As "Sydney" was approaching from just starboard of "Kormoran"'s stern and away, the call-sign was obscured by the raider's funnel; German accounts vary as to if this was to further the illusion of a civilian ship, a ruse to lure "Sydney" closer, or an error on the signaller's part. "Sydney" signalled "Make your signal letters clear", which the signals officer aboard "Kormoran" did by lengthening the halyard and swinging it around to starboard. By 16:35, with "Sydney" away, the malfunctioning engine aboard "Kormoran" was repaired, but Detmers chose to keep it in reserve.
"Sydney" asked "Kormoran" "Where bound?", to which the raider responded "Batavia". "Sydney" may have then made signals asking for the raider's port of origin and cargo; the Germans who claimed this said their replies were "Fremantle" and "Piece-goods", respectively. At around 17:00, Detmers instructed his wireless operators to send a false distress signal indicating that "Straat Malakka" was being approached by a suspicious ship. The message, transmitted at 17:03 and repeated at 17:05, contained the distress call for a merchantman under attack from a raider instead of a warship (QQQQ, as opposed to RRRR), the latitude and longitude of the transmitting ship, the time per Greenwich Mean Time (the normal practice was to transmit local time; using GMT was to let the "Kriegsmarine" know that the ship was actually a raider about to be lost), and the ship's name. This signal was partially received by the tugboat "Uco" ("QQQQ [unintelligible] 1000 GMT") and a shore station at Geraldton ("[unintelligible] 7C 11115E 1000 GMT"). The Geraldton station broadcast a message to all ships asking if there was anything to report (which was interpreted by the Germans as acknowledgement of their signal), but after no response was forthcoming, they ignored it until a report on the signal was forwarded to the Naval Board on 27 November.
During the exchanges and distress signal, "Sydney" positioned herself just off the raider's starboard beam on a parallel course, approximately from "Kormoran". The cruiser may or may not have been at action stations; the main guns and port torpedo launcher were trained on "Kormoran," and her Walrus scout plane had been readied for launch, prompting Detmers to prepare to engage "Sydney", but her guns were unmanned, and personnel were standing on the upper deck. During her manoeuvre, "Sydney" appeared to signal "IK" (the short-form for "You should prepare for a cyclone, hurricane, or typhoon"), which "Kormoran" did not respond to, as from their perspective, such a signal did not make sense. The Germans were unaware that the letters were the interior of the real "Straat Malakka"'s secret Allied-assigned callsign, "IIKP": to verify her identity, the ship had to signal back the outer letters. The aircraft was shut down by 17:25, and the catapult swung into the storage position; the two ships were too close for a safe launch.
At around 17:30, after the raider had failed to reply for 15 minutes, "Sydney" signalled by light "Show your secret sign".
Action.
In response to the cruiser's signal, Detmers ordered that "Kormoran"'s disguise be dropped, for the Dutch flag to be replaced by the "Kriegsmarine" ensign, and for the guns and torpedoes to open fire. Accounts disagree on which ship fired first but agree that both opened fire almost simultaneously. The first shots from "Sydney", a full, eight-shell salvo from the main guns, were reported in most accounts to have passed over "Kormoran". However, some of the Germans said that shells punched through the funnel and the wireless office at bridge level without exploding and hit the water on the far side of the raider. One analysis claims that this was either a warning shot just over the superstructure or an attempt to destroy the raider's bridge as a prelude to capture. With "Kormoran"'s opening salvo (which consisted of two shells instead of four because the raider's two centreline guns were slower to decamouflage), the gunnery officer attempted to bracket the cruiser's bridge but failed to hit it, with the shells striking other parts of the ship or missing completely. Two torpedoes from "Kormoran"'s starboard above-water tubes were launched simultaneously with the raider's attack, and the close proximity of the target allowed the use of the anti-aircraft and close defence guns to rake "Sydney"'s flank, thus preventing the use of the cruiser's secondary weapons.
Subsequent salvoes from the raider were more accurate. The second, three-shell salvo destroyed "Sydney"'s bridge and damaged her upper superstructure, including the gun direction control tower, wireless offices, and foremast. The fourth gun was ready by this time, and all four began to fire. The third and fourth salvoes knocked the cruiser's "A" and "B" turrets out of action before they could fire a second time, and the fifth hit "Sydney" on the waterline in proximity to the forward engine room, although one shell hit high and destroyed the Walrus. "Kormoran"'s guns were aimed at "Sydney"'s