Nazi Germany commerce raider with short but productive career

The merchant vessel Steiermark was launched in Kiel, Germany in 1938. It was 515 feet in length, displaced 8,700 tons, and was powered by four nine-cylinder diesel engines. It had just completed sea trials when war was declared and the ship was commandeered by the Nazi government for conversion into a commerce raider. As a commerce raider, it carried a crew of 400 and was armed with six 15 cm guns and six torpedo tubes. It also carried mines for use in enemy coastal waters and two small seaplanes. Korvettkapitän Theodor Detmers was appointed the commanding officer and he renamed the ship Kormoran, after the SMS Kormoran, a German commerce raider from World War I. Kormoran departed on its maiden (and sole) voyage on 3 December 1939, sailing north around the Faroe Islands to avoid Allied patrols. Its mission was to seek out and destroy enemy merchant vessels in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and to lay mines off Allied ports. It also carried extra torpedoes and spare parts for replenishing German U-boats when possible. During four months in the Atlantic, Kormoran encountered and sank seven Allied ships after taking on board most of their crews. It also captured the Canadian freighter Canadolite. This ship was taken as a prize, with a small German crew successfully sailing it to Bordeaux. During five months in the Indian Ocean, Kormoran encountered and sank three Allied ships, again rescuing most of the crews. Finally, on 19 November 1940, while sailing north off the west coast of Australia, it encountered the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney (D48), which was headed south to port in Fremantle. Sydney initially identified the commerce raider as the Dutch merchant ship Straat Malakka, because Kormoran had been intentionally disguised as such. As a result, the crew of the Sydney was not at general quarters. When Kormoran was unable to respond to a request to show its secret signal, Detmers ordered all weapons to commence firing on Sydney after hoisting the German battle ensign. Sydney’s bridge, gun direction tower, and forward turrets were quickly destroyed. Sydney returned fire, damaging Kormoran’s main engines and causing a fire in a fuel tank. Sydney soon lost steering, as well as most power, moving slowly south while afire. Kormoran lost power soon after and was unable to extinguish the fires onboard, which were closing on the hold where the mines were stored. Detmers ordered the crew to abandon ship. Kormoran sank soon thereafter. There were six German officers, 75 German sailors, and one Chinese sailor lost in Kormoran. The survivors, totaling 318, were recovered from lifeboats or captured ashore and held as prisoners of war until after hostilities ceased in 1945. HMAS Sydney sank with a loss to all 645 onboard. Because its radio had been destroyed in the opening salvo, no distress or other signal was sent. It was several days before a (fruitless) search was begun. Finally, in March 2008, the wrecks of the two combatants were located and are now protected under the Australian Historic Shipwrecks Act.