Fishu thanks for the Link, i just read this and i hope you dont mind posting some parts here,
if the source is true, its incredible what happened there that time. Fighting in war, from one second to another
it can become so gruelsome.
"Theodor Detmers was at the same time, the youngest and the lowest-ranked of all the Hilfskreuzer commanders.
His performance was not particularly outstanding, taking just 12 ships, totalling 75,375 tons, during 351 days at sea, but his last day afloat was the most glorious of all the Hilfskreuzer commanders, if not of all German naval commanders in WW2.
He took on a regular warship, the Australian Navy’s 6,830-ton Perth-class light cruiser, HMAS Sydney, sister-ship of the Ajax and Achilles, packing eight 6-inch guns and capable of a top speed of 32 knots … and sank her.
Without any doubt, his fate should have been the same as that meted out to the HK Pinguin six months earlier by HMS Cornwall, but, inexplicably, the Sydney’s commander, Captain Joseph Burnett, seemingly unaware of the lessons learned in that battle, closed the distance to the Kormoran to around 1,000 metres.
Clearly the Kormoran’s disguise was excellent, and the reply to the key question "Give me your secret identification code" like all the dialogue between the ships, was by flag, with continuous repetition due to the deliberate flag fumbling and the poor English of the supposed ‘Dutch’ skipper of the ‘Straat Malakka’.
Detmers was a master in the art of such time wasting, during which the cruiser moved ever closer, enabling him to open fire on her at almost point-blank range.
The Sydney suffered many hits even before the first full broadside from the raider’s main armament hit her.
The automatic fire from the Kormoran’s 37mm and 20mm guns and heavy machines-guns was devastating, killing everybody on the bridge and decks, setting the Walrus seaplane on fire on its catapult, where it sat, engine running, but not ready for launching due to the catapult being trained inboard, and destroying all the lifeboats and rafts.
Seconds later, a torpedo struck the Sydney below the forecastle, taking both A and B turrets out of action.
The Sydney scored four hits on the Kormoran with her X and Y turrets, setting her on fire, but in an apparent effort to ram the raider, the crippled cruiser crossed her wake, exposing her entire starboard side to the German gunners.
Once again, the automatic fire from the Kormoran destroyed everything on Sydney’s starboard superstructure, and as with the previously devastated port side, this included all the lifeboats and rafts.
This is believed to have been the main reason for the loss of all 645 officers and men on board when she subsequently went down.
When it became clear to Detmers that the fire on the Kormoran was out of control, and threatening the mines, he gave the order to abandon ship."
