German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
Kriegsmarine merchant raider of World War II / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (HSK-8)[lower-alpha 1] was a Kriegsmarine (German navy) merchant raider of World War II. Originally the merchant vessel Steiermark ("Styria"), the ship was acquired by the navy following the outbreak of war for conversion into a raider. Administered under the designation Schiff 41, 'Ship 41', to the Allied navies she was known as "Raider G". The largest merchant raider operated by Germany during World War II, Kormoran ("cormorant") was responsible for the destruction of 10 merchant vessels and the capture of an 11th during her year-long career in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Auxiliary cruiser Kormoran meets a German U-boat at sea | |
History | |
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Germany | |
Name | Steiermark |
Namesake | Styria |
Operator | Hamburg America Line |
Route | East Asia (intended) |
Builder | Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, Kiel, Germany |
Launched | 15 September 1938 |
Fate | Requisitioned by Kriegsmarine |
History | |
Nazi Germany | |
Name | Kormoran |
Namesake | SMS Cormoran and the Cormorant |
Commissioned | 9 October 1940 |
Reclassified | Merchant raider (1940-41) |
Identification |
|
Fate | Scuttled following battle, 19 November 1941 |
General characteristics as Kormoran | |
Type | Handelsstörkreuzer (commerce raider) |
Tonnage | 8,736 GRT |
Displacement | 19,900 t (19,600 long tons) |
Length | 164 m (538 ft 1 in) |
Beam | 20.20 m (66 ft 3 in) |
Draught | 8.50 m (27 ft 11 in) |
Propulsion | 4 × 9-cylinder diesel motors |
Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Boats & landing craft carried | 1 × LS-3 minelaying boat |
Complement | 25 officers, 375 enlisted |
Armament |
|
Aircraft carried | 2 × Arado 196 seaplanes |
She is also known for sinking the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney during a mutually destructive battle off Western Australia on 19 November 1941. Damage sustained during the battle prompted the scuttling of Kormoran. While 318 of the 399 aboard the German ship were rescued and placed in prisoner of war camps for the remainder of World War II, there were no survivors from the 645 aboard the Australian cruiser. The wreck of Kormoran was rediscovered on 12 March 2008, four days before that of her adversary.
Kormoran's success against HMAS Sydney is commonly attributed to the proximity of the two ships during the engagement, and the raider's advantages of surprise and rapid, accurate fire. Prior to the discovery of the wrecks in 2008, the cruiser's loss with all hands compared to the survival of most of the German crew created controversy and spawned numerous conspiracy theories; some alleged that the German commander, Theodor Detmers, used illegal ruses to lure Sydney into range, others that a Japanese submarine was involved, or that details of the battle were concealed through a wide-ranging coverup. None of these claims were substantiated by any evidence.
The merchant vessel Steiermark was constructed by Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel for the Hamburg-Amerika Line. Launched in 1938, the ship was to operate on the East Asia run, but had completed only sea trials when war was declared.[1]
Following World War I, German naval power had limits placed upon it by the Treaty of Versailles, which were later eased by the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement.[2] By the 1930s, the discrepancy between the conventional warship strength of Germany and that of other nations led the German military to recognize that auxiliary cruisers engaged in commerce raiding could play a significant role in future wars, as they had during World War I.[2] Merchant ships that could be converted into raiders were identified, and were to be taken up by the Kriegsmarine for conversion following a declaration of war.[3]
Steiermark was one of these ships.[1] Receiving the designation Schiff 41 (Ship 41) for administrative purposes, she was taken into dockyard hands following the outbreak of World War II.[1][4] Conversion of the merchant ship commenced in early 1940, and was prioritized as second only to work on the U-boat fleet.[5] The conversion work included installation of camouflaged weapons, fitting of bunks for the sailors, creation of internal passageways leading to their stations.[5] Prisoner accommodation, consisting of an open area for hammocks and facilities to keep ship's masters and women separate from the general population, were constructed.[5] The raider was also provided with equipment with which to modify her appearance and allow her to masquerade as other merchant vessels.[5] While the ship was being refitted, her future crew underwent training aboard the blockade runner Monte Pascoal.[6]
Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) Theodor Detmers was selected to command Schiff 41 in July 1940; the 37-year-old was the youngest man to command a German merchant raider.[4][7] Detmers named the ship Kormoran, inspired by SMS Cormoran (a Russian merchant ship captured by the Germans during World War I and operated as a raider) and the cormorant (with Detmers comparing the seabird's use in fishing to his ship's attempts in catching Allied vessels).[8][9] After a successful trials cruise in September 1940, Kormoran was commissioned on 9 October.[10]
Kormoran was one of nine[lower-alpha 2] civilian ships taken up by the German Navy for conversion into merchant raiders; they were referred to alternately as Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruisers) or Handelsstörkreuzer (trade disruption cruisers).[11] She was the largest of the raiders, and the most recently constructed when she was taken up for modification.[4] After modification, Kormoran was 164 metres (538 ft 1 in) long and 20.20 metres (66 ft 3 in) wide, with a gross register tonnage of 8,736.[12] She was propelled by four 9-cylinder diesel engines driving electric motors, which could propel the ship at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).[13]
The raider was fitted with six 15-centimetre (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns as primary armament: two each within the forecastle ("1" and "2") and quarterdeck ("5" and "6"), and one each fore and aft ("3" and "4" respectively) on the centreline.[14] These guns were World War I-vintage; gun "3" had been removed from the battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz in 1916.[14] The forecastle and quarterdeck guns were hidden behind counter-weighted false hull plates, while each centreline gun was concealed by fake cargo hatch walls.[14]
The secondary armament consisted of five 2-centimetre (0.79 in) anti-aircraft guns:[14] two on the forecastle, two on the after funnel deck, and the fifth in the quarterdeck.[14] All five were hidden by the structure of the ship until they were raised clear on hydraulic platforms.[14] There were plans to fit four 3.7-centimetre (1.5 in) anti-aircraft guns, but only two ex-army anti-tank guns could be scrounged; these were installed on Kormoran's superstructure, hidden by sheet metal panels.[14][15] Kormoran was also equipped with six torpedo tubes: two dual launchers on the upper deck, and a single underwater tube on each side.[14] The underwater tubes were amidships, angled at 135° from the bow, and could only be fired if the raider was travelling at less than 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph).[14] Kormoran carried a payload of mines, with an LS-3 fast boat carried inside[clarification needed] No. 6 cargo hatch for minelaying.[5] The raider carried two Arado Ar 196 floatplanes for reconnaissance.[5][16] Although Detmers wanted a catapult, such equipment would have spoiled any merchant ship disguise used by Kormoran; instead, the planes were stored inside No. 5 cargo hatch, and were launched and recovered from the water with hoists.[5][17] Mechanical problems, difficulties in moving the aircraft between the hatch and the water, plus a lack of opportunities meant that only seven flights were made during the ship's operational deployment.[16]
Running the blockade
The day after commissioning, Kormoran sailed to Kiel, where she was provisioned for a 12-month voyage.[18] The raider then travelled to Gotenhafen (Gdynia, Poland) and underwent further trials of the ship's weapons, aircraft, and minelaying boat.[18] Despite a range of problems and defects, Detmers elected to repair problems at sea instead of taking the ship into dock and delaying their mission.[19]
The raider departed on 3 December, and once she cleared German waters on 10 December, her disguise was changed from a minesweeper to the Soviet freighter Vyacheslav Molotov.[20] The Royal Navy had blockaded German waters at the start of the war, and Kormoran had to break through to reach her first patrol area.[21] It was suggested that the raider either sail through the English Channel with support from captured French coastal batteries and the Luftwaffe, or around the Faroe Islands. Detmers chose to travel north of Iceland and through the Denmark Strait before heading south.[22] The longer route was justified by its greater distance from British naval and aviation bases, and was thus less likely to be patrolled.[22] The raider reached the strait late in the evening of 12 December, passed through it under the cover of a heavy storm, and entered the Atlantic by the following midday without encountering any Allied ships.[23][24]
Atlantic Ocean
Having cleared the British blockade, Kormoran's instructions were to search the Atlantic Ocean for targets of opportunity, then move to the Indian Ocean and seek out Allied merchant shipping, with additional orders to lay mines around one or more Allied ports in India or Australia.[25] Kormoran was also expected to replenish U-boats when ordered to do so, and carried extra torpedoes and spare parts.[25] The raider's first operational area was in the Atlantic, below latitude 40° north, which she crossed during the night of 19–20 December.[23] The German ship initially patrolled the western mid-Atlantic, outside the Pan-American Security Zone.[26] During the first two weeks, the only ships spotted were merchant vessels flying the United States flag, which merchant raiders were forbidden to attack as they were still neutral.[27]
By 6 January 1941, Detmers was ready to relocate to a point west of the Mediterranean because of a lack of targets, but that afternoon, Kormoran encountered the 3,729-ton Greek freighter Antonis.[28][29] The raider ordered the freighter to heave to and not send any wireless transmissions, and sent a boarding party over.[30] Antonis was armed with three British machine guns and loaded with 4,800 tons of Welsh coal.[29][30] Though Germany was not at war with Greece, the presence of Allied weapons and cargo allowed Detmers to sink her or take her as a prize.[29][30] As coal was of little use to the Kriegsmarine, the weapons, ammunition, and 29 crew were transferred to Kormoran, and the boarding party scuttled her at 18°17′N 28°32′W.[30][31] Admiralty notifications for raider activity gave an incorrect date and location for the attack, and initially attributed it to the raider Thor.[32] Kormoran then headed southeast, avoiding the convoy routes from the Mediterranean to America or down the African coast, in order to seek vessels sailing alone and without warship escort.[33]
Before sunset on 18 January, smoke was spotted on the horizon, so Kormoran accelerated and altered course to pursue.[33] The source of the smoke was a tanker flying no flags, showing no lights, and zigzagging to thwart submarine attack, leading Detmers to conclude she was an Allied vessel.[33] With little time before the sun set and the likelihood the tanker would resist capture, Kormoran commenced fire at 7,000 yards (6,400 m) in an attempt to disable the ship.[33] When the third salvo hit, the merchantman broadcast a distress call, identifying herself as British Union and saying she was under attack by an unknown vessel at 26°24′N 30°58′W.[34] Firing continued until British Union directed a light towards Kormoran, which the Germans assumed was a surrender signal, but as the raider closed to 4,000 yards (3,700 m), four shots were fired by the tanker.[35] All four missed, and heavy retaliatory fire from the raider set the merchant ship alight and forced the crew to abandon ship.[35] The decision was made to destroy the 6,987-ton tanker with a torpedo, although two torpedoes and shells from the raider's main guns were required to sink her, while a third torpedo exploded as soon as it cleared its safety distance and armed; Detmers later stated the quantity of ammunition used during the attempted capture was excessive for the result obtained.[31][35] The tanker's master, 27 sailors, and a pet monkey were recovered from two lifeboats as the tanker sank at 26°29′N 31°07′W, and the raider fled the area.[35][36] The distress call and glow from the fires attracted the attention of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Arawa, which passed through the engagement site around midnight in pursuit, but failed to locate Kormoran, and returned that morning to collect a third lifeboat carrying seven survivors.[37][38] These sailors stated their attacker had fired on the other two lifeboats, a claim not made by those rescued by the Germans.[39] The Allies initially assumed that the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was responsible, but after this was disproven, the Admiralty was unable to determine the identity of the attacker.[40]
Just after 13:00 on 29 January, Kormoran encountered a large merchantman which altered course on sighting the raider, but returned to her original heading after Kormoran made no aggressive moves.[40] Detmers instead waited until the distance between the ships had decreased before the raider altered course to intercept, dropped her camouflage, and ordered the merchantman to stop.[40] The ship did not comply, and after a warning shot elicited no response, Kormoran fired for effect.[40] A distress signal was transmitted but jammed by the raider, and after unsuccessfully trying to break away from the faster German ship, the merchant vessel came to a stop and ceased attempts to transmit.[40] The crew was ordered by signals from Kormoran to abandon ship, but the merchant sailors did not comply until after the raider resumed fire, having observed an attempt to man the ship's stern gun.[41] A boarding party identified the victim as the 11,900-ton refrigerator ship Afric Star, carrying meat and butter to England.[42] The complicated configuration and damaged condition of Afric Star ruled against her capture as a prize ship; after confiscating code books and other vital documents, and recovering 76 people, including two women, attempts were made to scuttle her.[43] The merchantman refused to sink, and Kormoran had to use shells and torpedoes to send her to the bottom at 8°44′N 24°38′W.[43]
Later that day, lookouts aboard the raider spotted a merchant ship sailing without lights.[43] Sneaking up on the vessel, Kormoran opened fire; her first salvo missed, but within minutes, the target was heavily damaged and aflame.[43] The ship transmitted a distress signal, which Kormoran was unable to jam completely, but this ceased as crew members started to abandon ship.[43] The raider stopped firing, but resumed when the merchantman attempted another transmission, and shore stations responded.[43] Communications intercepts and the code books taken from Afric Star earlier that day revealed the target's identity: the 5,273-ton British freighter Eurylochus, with a cargo of bombers for the Gold Coast.[43] These intercepts also indicated that several parties, including the Air Ministry, were aware of the attack, prompting Detmers to order the torpedoing of Eurylochus.[43] This was accomplished with a single torpedo, sinking the British ship and her cargo at 8°15′N 24°04′W, three and a half hours after Afric Star.[43][44] 39 Chinese and four British crew were recovered by the German raider before she fled the area with British warships Norfolk and Devonshire in pursuit.[43] Another 28 survivors were found by the Spanish merchant ship Monte Tiede later that night, with 10 men killed during the attack or lost at sea.[45] Eurylochus' master was among those rescued by the Allies, and recounted that two ships had attacked, one of them armed with 11-inch (280 mm) guns, which led British Naval Intelligence to conclude that the responsible ships were Thor and Admiral Scheer, or an unknown raider operating in concert with one of these.[46] Among the rescued was ship's gunner Frank Laskier who, on returning to England, was interviewed by BBC radio and proved so popular he became a figurehead for Merchant Navy enlistment propaganda for the rest of the war.[47]
After evading pursuit, Kormoran made for a point off the Cape Verde Islands, where she rendezvoused with the supply ship Nordmark on 7 February.[48] During a three-day replenishment operation, Kormoran topped up Nordmark's supply of spare U-boat parts with components brought from Germany, and transferred 170 of the 174 prisoners acquired so far.[49] The four Chinese sailors from Eurylochus were hired to stay aboard the raider as laundrymen, and the British Union crew left their pet monkey aboard as thanks for their treatment while in captivity.[49][50] A piano was taken from Nordmark's companion Duquesa, a captured coal-burning ship that was to be scuttled when her fuel ran out, but Detmers warned that if the piano caused any problems among the crew, it would be pushed overboard.[51]
Kormoran left the rendezvous on 10 February and headed south.[49] During the transit, Detmers received a signal from Germany indicating that his ship had been awarded two First Class Iron Crosses, and 50 Second Class Iron Crosses, to be distributed as he saw fit.[49] Detmers transmitted a request on 18 February for WM-80 white metal (Babbitt (metal)), as the softer WM-10 used in bearings for two of the four diesel engines were wearing out too quickly.[52] Some metal was acquired from the raider Pinguin on 25 February, but this was not enough to replace all the bearings.[52] On 15 March, Kormoran met German submarine U-124 to transfer torpedoes, provisions, and spare parts, but rough seas forced the two vessels to head south, where they met the German cruiser Admiral Scheer a day later.[53] The raider's broken radar and a sailor with an eye injury were transferred to Scheer, but attempts to replenish the U-boat were again interrupted by bad weather, forcing the two vessels to relocate again.[54] The equipment transfer and refueling took another three days, during which crewmen from U-124 enjoyed the relatively luxurious facilities aboard Kormoran, and a sick sailor from the submarine was traded for a healthy man from the raider.[55]
Kormoran sailed north to the Freetown-South America shipping route, and began to patrol near where it intersected the border of the Pan-American Security Zone.[56][57] On the morning of 22 March, the raider encountered a tanker, which identified herself as the British vessel Agnita.[57] Kormoran instructed her to stop and maintain wireless silence or be fired upon.[57] The tanker instead broke away and began to transmit a distress signal, which was jammed as Kormoran opened fire.[57] Agnita signaled surrender after two salvoes; 12 British and 25 Chinese sailors were captured, along with maps of the minefields surrounding Freetown Harbour.[58] Efforts to scuttle the tanker failed, and Kormoran had to waste another torpedo to sink the ship at 3°20′S 23°40′W.[58]
Against usual practice, Detmers decided to return to the site of the action three days later, where another tanker was spotted.[58] Kormoran revealed her weapons and fired a warning shot at the tanker, which initially attempted to flee but then chose to surrender when the morning mist lifted and revealed the nature of her attacker.[58] The 11,309-ton (German-built) Canadian tanker Canadolite was taken as a prize ship, with a German crew taking the ship and her 44 sailors to Bordeaux, France, while the four officers were imprisoned aboard Kormoran.[58][59] After the captured tanker left, it was realised recognition signals to avoid Luftwaffe attack had not been supplied, and Kormoran raced to meet the tanker when she rendezvoused with the supply ship Nordmark.[59] The raider met the supply ship on 27 March, but it appeared Canadolite had enough fuel to reach France and had chosen to sail straight there.[60] Two U-boats were scheduled to reach the rendezvous point for resupply; Detmers suggested he meet U-105, which was carrying more white metal for Kormoran's engines, while Nordmark focused on U-106.[60] The commanding officer of U-105 agreed to transmit a warning to Germany regarding Canadolite once the U-boat had left the rendezvous point, which did not occur until six days later because of equipment problems delaying the replenishment.[61] The tanker arrived safely on 13 April, was renamed Sudetenland, and remained operational until her sinking by the Royal Air Force in 1944.[62][63]
Kormoran was due to rendezvous with the tanker Rudolf Albrecht on 4 April, and had no opportunity to search for new targets.[64][65] The 42 prisoners from Kormoran were transferred to the Albrecht, but as she was a civilian vessel, her master was sworn in by Detmers as a naval officer, and an armed guard had to be supplied.[66] Detmers ordered the transfer of four men from Nordmark to Rudolf Albrecht as guards, along with a fifth to Kormoran in exchange for the sick sailor taken from U-124 two weeks before.[67] The supply ship's commander attempted to obstruct the transfers, and then demanded replacements; one came from Kormoran, while three of the tanker's sailors were drafted.[67] Food, mail, and newspapers were received from Rudolf Albrecht, along with news that another three First Class Iron Crosses and 50 Second Class Iron Crosses had been awarded to Kormoran.[66]
Having returned to the waters off Freetown, Kormoran encountered a merchant ship at dawn on 9 April.[64] As the ship was behind Kormoran and on a similar course, the raider slowed until the merchantman was abeam of the raider and 5,000 yards (4,600 m) to port.[64] The German ship dropped her camouflage, increased speed, and ordered the freighter to stop or be fired upon.[64] In response, the merchantman attempted to transmit a distress call (which was jammed by Kormoran) and tried to man her stern gun, prompting the Germans to open fire.[64] The freighter took heavy damage, as every time Detmers ordered or was about to order a cease-fire, the target ship attempted to escape or transmit another distress signal.[64][68] Eventually, the 46 survivors of the crew (five were killed in the attack) abandoned their burning vessel, and boarding parties were sent from the raider.[64][69] She was identified as the 8,022-ton British freighter Craftsman, carrying an anti-submarine net for Singapore, which was to be delivered after a stop in Cape Town.[64] After scuttling charges failed to sink Craftsman, she was torpedoed at 0°32′N 23°37′W.[70]
Date | Name | Tons (GRT) | Nationality | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
13 January 1941 | Antonis | 3,729 | Kingdom of Greece | 18°17′N 28°32′W |
18 January 1941 | British Union | 6,987 | United Kingdom | 26°29′N 31°07′W |
29 January 1941 | Afric Star | 11,900 | United Kingdom | 8°44′N 24°38′W |
29 January 1941 | Eurylochus | 5,273 | Kingdom of Greece | 8°15′N 24°04′W |
22 March 1941 | Agnita | 3,552[73] | United Kingdom | 3°20′S 23°40′W |
25 March 1941 | Canadolite | 11,309 | Canada | 2°30′N 23°48′W[63] (captured) |
9 April 1941 | Craftsman | 8,022 | United Kingdom | 0°32′N 23°37′W |
12 April 1941 | Nicolaos D. L. | 5,486 | Kingdom of Greece | 1°54′S 22°12′W |
After fleeing the scene, Kormoran headed south, and early on 12 April encountered another ship.[74] After slowly closing on the merchantman over three hours, Kormoran de-camouflaged and fired several warning shots.[74] The freighter turned away and sent a distress signal; wireless operators aboard Kormoran were unable to jam it, but there was little concern as the transmission was an SOS instead of the more specific QQQ or RRR for a raider attack, while also giving the wrong coordinates.[74] Kormoran fired for effect, but it was not until the merchant ship's bridge was destroyed that her 35 crew abandoned ship.[75] A boarding party identified the ship as the 5,486-ton Greek freighter Nicholas D.L., carrying Canadian timber.[74] Because of her buoyant cargo, the scuttling charges failed to have major effect, but after firing some shells into Nicholas D.L., Detmers chose to leave the ship to sink slowly at 1°54′S 22°12′W.[62] Until 1943, the Admiralty accepted the SOS location, 18° further north, as fact, while attributing the sinking to the raider Atlantis.[62]
On 17 April, Kormoran sighted a passenger ship, but was unable to lure her into range before the vessel disappeared into a rain squall.[76] Two days later, Kormoran met Atlantis and the blockade runner Dresden.[74] An expected shipment of white metal for Kormoran had been supplied to a different blockade runner, which was delayed.[74] Several supply ships arrived at the rendezvous point over the next few days and transferred provisions, ammunition, and fuel to the raider.[77] Prisoners from Kormoran were handed over to the other ships, and the raider received new sailors to make up numbers.[78] Kormoran departed on 22 April, and spent two days changing her disguise to the Japanese freighter Sakito Maru before sailing into the Indian Ocean.[79]
Indian Ocean
On reaching the Indian Ocean, Kormoran was immediately diverted to refuel the whaling ship Adjutant and supply ship Alstertor; refuelling was carried out between 13 and 17 May.[80] Although originally confined to waters northeast of latitude 20°S and longitude 80°E, the raider's area of operations expanded on 1 June to encompass the entire ocean.[81][82] The ship's disguise was altered again on 5 June, with Kormoran taking the identity of the Japanese merchant ship Kinka Maru, as the owners of Sakito Maru rarely operated in the western Indian.[83] After patrolling around the Maldives without success, Kormoran sailed towards the Bay of Bengal with plans to lay mines in the approaches to Madras and Calcutta.[84] Although a target was spotted en route on 15 June, the raider's smoke generator malfunctioned and started to produce thick, black smoke, which scared off the merchantman.[84] On 24 June, while approaching Madras, the raider was spotted and shadowed by what the Germans assumed was a British auxiliary cruiser.[84][85] The suspicious ship later resumed her original course without incident, but Detmers decided to postpone the mine-laying operation and leave the area, as Allied forces would become suspicious when the 'Japanese' ship failed to reach port.[84]
During the early morning of 26 June, a darkened merchant ship was spotted.[86] Signals were sent to the ship without response, and after the merchantman appeared to ignore a warning shot, Kormoran opened fire and caused massive damage.[86] Nine men, identifying themselves as crew from the 4,153-ton Yugoslavian cargo ship Velebit, were recovered from a lifeboat; the lack of response was attributed to the actions of inexperienced Indian sailors taken on in Bombay.[87] The ship was left to sink, but another eight sailors remained on board, and kept Velebit afloat until she ran aground on the reefs surrounding the Andaman Islands.[86] That afternoon, smoke from another ship was spotted by Kormoran.[86] Maintaining a steady course away from the merchantman until a rain squall enveloped the raider, Kormoran then altered onto a converging course, and closed to within 600 yards (550 m) before crossing the merchantman's bow to reach a favorable firing position and revealing her identity.[86][88] Orders to stop were ignored, and the raider opened fire after a distress call was sent.[86] Within 30 seconds, shells from the raider destroyed the merchantman's wireless room and forecastle, damaged the engine room, and started several fires.[86][89] Some 48 sailors from the 3,472-ton Australian vessel Mareeba were recovered by Kormoran, and although a boarding party attempted to save the ship for use as a mine-layer, the severity of damage made this impossible.[86][89] The Australian ship was scuttled, and sank quickly at 8°15′N 88°06′E.[89]
After retreating to open waters, a 15-day overhaul of the engines was carried out.[90] While working on one of the seaplanes, a sailor was killed by electrocution.[91] Kormoran's disguise was changed to the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka, and notice was received of a further 100 Second Class Iron Crosses and five First Class Iron Crosses awarded to the ship.[90] On completion, Detmers set course for the Bay of Bengal intending to lay a second mine field, but aborted this on 30 July when he learned the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes would be in the area.[92] Kormoran then took to patrolling the shipping routes from Fremantle to Colombo or Lombok.[93] A merchant ship was spotted near sunset on 13 August, but the ship's actions (which included heading directly for Kormoran on spotting her, broadcasting a raider distress call without coordinates, and repeatedly broadcasting homing signals) caused Detmers to think the target was either an Allied auxiliary cruiser or was attempting to lure Kormoran into range of an Allied warship.[92][94] Kormoran broke off pursuit and retreated.[94] The raider continued to search for ships without success.[95] On 25 August, the lookout spotted a strange object on the horizon; this was worked out to be the peak of Boea Boea Mountain on Enggano Island, and the first sighting of land in 258 days.[96]
Kormoran then moved to waters south of Ceylon, and around midday on 1 September, a large vessel, which Detmers determined to be an unaccompanied troopship, was spotted.[97][98] Plans were made to attack that night, but the transport disappeared over the horizon during the afternoon and could not be relocated.[99] Two days later, Detmers was informed that Kormoran would be replaced by Thor at the end of December, and that he would be resupplied by the supply ship Kulmerland, which had come from Japan and would wait for the raider at a predetermined rendezvous point from 12 October.[99][100] Late on 23 September, the navigational lights for a ship were sighted.[101] After signalling the merchant ship for her name and nationality, which identified her as the 3,941-ton Greek freighter Stamatios G. Embiricus, the raider shone searchlights on her and ordered her to stop and accept a boarding party.[102][103] Those aboard the Greek ship assumed they were being pulled up by a British warship for not observing blackout regulations, and it was not until the armed Germans arrived on the ship that the nature of the 'warship' was revealed.[102] Although captured intact, Stamantios G. Embiricus was a coal-fuelled ship, and did not have enough fuel to reach any destination other than her intended port, Colombo.[104] The ship was scuttled at 0°01′S 64°30′E, but while a lifeboat carrying the ship's master and five crew rowed to Kormoran, a second lifeboat carrying the other 24 avoided capture in the dark.[103][104] A search using one of the Arado seaplanes found them late the next morning.[103]
Date | Name | Tons (GRT) | Nationality | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
26 June 1941 | Velebit | 4,153 | Kingdom of Yugoslavia | [verification needed] |
26 June 1941 | Mareeba | 3,472 | Australia | 8°15′N 88°06′E |
26 September 1941 | Stamatios G. Embirikos | 3,941 | Kingdom of Greece | 0°01′S 64°30′E |
A few days later, Kormoran's wireless operators intercepted transmissions between the Norwegian tanker Thelma and a shore station — initially in a new code, then repeated in a recently expired code.[107] This allowed the Germans to identify where the merchant ship was heading to, and make some progress on breaking the new code.[108] However, the tanker could have taken several routes to her Cape Town destination, and Kormoran did not encounter her during four days of searching.[108] The raider then headed south, and met the supply ship Kulmerland on 16 October.[103] Supplies and parts were transferred to Kormoran, while the raider's prisoners were moved to Kulmerland, along with documents captured from ships and five slightly ill German sailors to serve as guards.[103][109] After leaving on 24 October, maintenance and repairs were carried out.[103] Plans were made to sail up the coast of Western Australia; the original intention was to mine shipping routes near Cape Leeuwin and Fremantle, but after wireless signals were detected from a warship (Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra) escorting a convoy in the area, Detmers decided to sail further north and mine Shark Bay, then proceed to the East Indies before looping back west to the Bay of Bengal.[110][111]