[167] Despite this, Australian authorities were able to piece together the broad details of the battle, which was verified by German sailors recovered by Aquitania who had been taken to Sydney instead. [270] He also believed that Burnett was not suspicious of Straat Malakka: had he been, he would have used the Walrus to identify the ship or broken wireless silence and enquired about the ship. [188] However, the report was indecisive, and despite finding that there was no evidence to support the various controversial claims made about the battle, failed to end debates between holders of the various viewpoints: a debate which was said to have "become a dialogue of the deaf". Rumours that the battle was not what it seemed commenced almost as soon as Sydney failed to reach Fremantle on schedule, some emanating from the highest levels in the administration,[197] but it was not until Montgomery's Who Sank The Sydney? [76] Two days later, Kormoran met Atlantis and the blockade runner Dresden. [158], Geosounder returned to Geraldton on 20 March, but delays in installing and testing the ROV prevented departure until 29 March, with the ship sailing through the path of Cyclone Pancho. [115] Listening devices were planted in the prisoners' quarters, and intelligence agents infiltrated the camp, but neither method provided new information. [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. [63][64], At around 17:45, Sydney fired two torpedoes from her starboard tubes (although some Germans reported more). While of the aboard the German ship were rescued and During WWII the Kriegsmarine commissioned ten 1 merchantmen as auxiliary cruisers, colloquially they were also known as commerce raiders. [55] The fourth 15-centimetre (5.9 in) 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. [258] Subsequent writers on the subject have disagreed: Winter states that a carley float from Sydney would have been propelled by currents into proximity of Christmas Island around the time of its discovery, while Olson claims that the description of the float's rope and markings matched those used on British ships (from whose supplies Sydney could have drawn), the boilersuit indicated a naval rating, and that the quantity of marine growth corresponded with the time such a float would have been at sea. Launched in 1938, the ship was to operate on the East Asia run, but had completed only sea trials when war was declared. The Komet was launched on Jan. 16, 1937, at the Deschimag-Werk-Weser in Bremen, for the Nord-Deutscher Lloyd line to be operated as the freighter Ems. [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. [196] Dr Tom Lewis published "What has the wreck of the Sydney told us?" [182] Planning for the memorial commenced in late 1997, after a speech by researcher Glenys McDonald at the local Rotary club. [234][235] The Cole Report stated that Sydney's seakeeping ability would have rapidly deteriorated, hampering any evacuation efforts. [111][113], After the main interrogations were completed, the Germans were moved from Fremantle to Murchison, Victoria during late December and early January: the officers aboard the liner Duntroon, the sailors overland on two trains. Pinguin was known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 33, and designated HSK 5. [182][189] Glenys McDonald's 2005 work Seeking the Sydney: a quest for truth did not attempt an analysis of records and interrogation transcripts, but instead used accounts from people who claimed to have observed the battle or been involved in the search, rescue, or interrogation to compile an oral history of the engagement and its aftermath. [190] Samuels cites no reliable sources and ignores or dismisses evidence supporting the accepted view as part of the cover-up; one review states that the book only brings suffering to the relatives of those killed, and is on par with the Roswell UFO incident as a conspiracy theory. [112] Based on this, it was concluded that the true story was being given, and that there were no widespread attempts to falsify accounts. [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. [172] Kormoran's executive officer, gunnery officer, and the sailor who manned the starboard 37-millimetre (1.5 in) gun were awarded the Iron Cross First Class (although for the executive officer, this was a bar to a previous Iron Cross), while the other members of the crew were all awarded the Iron Cross Second Class. [199] However, the two ships' armament was closer to equal than this matchup implied, and although Sydney normally had the advantage of armour plate and superior range, these were lost by closing with Kormoran. Detmers chose to travel north of Iceland and through the Denmark Strait before heading south. Meanwhile German raider "Widder" arrived in France after six month's operations in the central Atlantic where she sank or captured 10 ships of 59,000 tons. [187][188] The JCFADT inquiry received over 400 submissions and compiled over 500 pages of oral testimony. [160][161] The next day, HMAS Wyrallah recovered a German lifebelt and two four-man liferafts, one of which was carrying a deceased German sailor, who was buried at sea. [173][174] Montgomery also suggests that the British government had foreknowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred three weeks later, and ordered the Australian government to cover-up the truth of Sydney's loss so the United States would be drawn into the war. [d][123], Despite the approximate position of Kormoran being known (most German accounts giving the battle coordinates as 26°S 111°E / 26°S 111°E / -26; 111), the required search area for both ships was unfeasibly large. German Commerce Raider vs British Cruiser: The Atlantic & The Pacific 1941: Amazon.it: Forczyk, Robert, Palmer, Ian: Libri in altre lingue McCarthy, M. [1] Receiving the designation Schiff 41 (Ship 41) for administrative purposes, she was taken into dockyard hands following the outbreak of World War II. [48] 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 4-inch (100 mm) guns were unmanned, and personnel were standing on the upper deck. [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. [58], Against usual practice, Detmers decided to return to the site of the action three days later, where another tanker was spotted. [75] A boarding party identified the ship as the 5,486-ton Greek freighter Nicholas D.L., carrying Canadian timber. [52] Some metal was acquired from the raider Pinguin on 25 February, but this was not enough to replace all the bearings. Prepared for the HMAS Sydney II Commission of Inquiry. [148][149] The lifeboat carrying Detmers saw the troopship but did not make their presence known, as the German officer hoped to be picked up by a neutral merchant ship. [33], Before sunset on 18 January, smoke was spotted on the horizon, so Kormoran accelerated and altered course to pursue. [260][261][262], The inquiry recommended that the grave be found, the body exhumed, and its DNA compared to relatives of Sydney personnel. [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. Their interviews showed similar commonalities and inconsistencies as those in Fremantle, and the interrogators concluded that the true story was being recounted. [202], For sinking Sydney, Detmers' Iron Cross First Class was upgraded to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. [86] Within 30 seconds, shells from the raider destroyed the merchantman's wireless room and forecastle, damaged the engine room, and started several fires. [74] Several supply ships arrived at the rendezvous point over the next few days and transferred provisions, ammunition, and fuel to the raider. [30][31] Admiralty notifications for raider activity gave an incorrect date and location for the attack, and initially attributed it to the raider Thor. [229][236] Based on survival rates for contemporary warship losses, Olson determined that anyone who survived the sinking would have died from wounds, exposure, or drowning before the search commenced, and corpses would not have floated to the surface until after the search had been terminated. [205] East Germany also operated a Kormoran; a small corvette borrowed from the Soviet Navy from 1970 to 1974. [201][218], On several occasions, Japanese broadcasts stated that Sydney had been captured and towed to Japan, or that personnel were interned in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. [162] After the conclusion of ROV operations near Sydney, Geosounder travelled to the wreck of Kormoran. Kormoran was the largest of the heavy cruisers at 8,736 grt, with a length of 164 m and maximum speed of 18 knots, manned by 401 men. 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). [74] Kormoran fired for effect, but it was not until the merchant ship's bridge was destroyed that her 35 crew abandoned ship. The German commerce raider Atlantis became the stuff of legends during World War II. [28] 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 postponed this after detecting wireless signals from a warship (Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra) in the area. [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. [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. [63] The German survivors were in five boats and two rafts: one cutter carrying 46 men, two damaged steel liferafts with 57 and 62 aboard (the latter carrying Detmers and towing several small floats), one workboat carrying 72 people, one boat with 31 men aboard, and two rafts, each bearing 26 sailors. [185][186] A second forum was hosted in 1997 by the End Secrecy on Sydney group, but the antagonism between holders of different interpretations of the battle meant the forum "degenerated into a partisan verbal melee". [246] This is interpreted by followers of alternative engagement theories as evidence that Sydney was not at action stations, and therefore unable to react when Kormoran unmasked. [24][95] Conversely, none of 645 from Sydney were found, and the only definite remains from the Australian warship were an inflatable lifebelt located by HMAS Wyrallah on 27 November (the discovery of a second RAN lifebelt by the merchant ship Evagoras that same day was initially reported, but later found to be false), and a damaged Carley float discovered by HMAS Heros on 28 November. [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. [14] Kormoran carried a payload of mines, with an LS-3 fast boat carried inside[clarification needed] No. [120] Coincidentally, tied up to the opposite pier was the real Straat Malakka. The Pinguin was known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 33, and designated HSK 5.The most successful commerce raider of the war, she was known to the British Royal Navy as Raider F. [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. ... Germany via the Denmark Strait and took no further part in independent commerce raiding. [242] All claims state that transcripts and other evidence were later destroyed. Lewis also argued in "The truth about Sydney – conspiracy theorists should crawl back into the bilges." [106], In Germany, news of the battle was assembled from communications intercepts during the search for survivors, which was combined with Allied news articles to assemble an account of the battle and published in early 1943 for internal consumption by German officials. [73] During the evacuation, a rubber liferaft carrying 60 people, mostly wounded, sank without warning; drowning all but three aboard. 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