As a follow-up to my video on HMAS Sydney, last weekend, we have the wreck of her final enemy. The German raider, Kormoran. A ship that, by all rights, should never have been able to sink Sydney. Through deception, surprise and a lack of proper protocol on the Australian ship, the Germans succeeded in sinking her.
Sydney, however, got off fatal hits of her own. Kormoran would sink, blowing up in the process. Her wreck would, eventually, be found in 2008. At a depth of 2,560 meters (or 8,400 feet) beneath the surface, since it occurs to me that I forgot to put that in the script.
Her wreck is in…an interesting mix of absolutely terrible, blown apart debris, and some of the most intact paint I’ve ever seen.
Timestamp:
0:00 – Introduction
3:48 – Wreck
Pictures:
https://www.awm.gov.au/
Even though it was scuttled, I would imagine that some Sailors died on this ship, RIP.
That being said and with the realization that she is probably better as a war grave, am I the only one that thinks that it would be neat to see Linda in a museum? Lol
Looks like they racked up an impressive record, before running into Sydney.
I would love to see the Atlandtis if they ever find it. It was a very successful Raider. The CO survived and wrote a book.
This ship wreck is amazing. At 1st I wasn't thinking Id see much. The kill list photos on this wreck and the trench art on the guns are the best thing ive seen in a long time
thankyou sir for bringing these wrecks to life
Atlantis would be a great follow-up if they could find her , Captain Rogge's book reads like a fiction adventure but he comes across as a old school privateer gentleman ship master .
Great video look forward to more.
Thank you bud. I have always wondered what happened to Kormoran once she left the surface, but I still would've liked to have seen Sydney be the victor in this battle. Still, Theodor Detmers and his crew fought hard to protect their Q-ship, but they fought in vain. I could still never imagine a Q-ship conquering even a light cruiser in any way.
What's truly sad is that Captain Detmers was interned as a POW. He escaped prison camp with a score of other war detainees, but he was brought to a hospital a week later after suffering a stroke. He was ultimately released in 1947 and survived until 1976.
Nothing lasts forever – unless it sinks in the depths of the Great Lakes or the Black Sea – then it sticks around for quite a while.
That gun at 5:30 is haunting – the ends of the barrels are rusting because they fired so many rounds the heat blistered the paint
I think this is the first time ive seen a wreak of a germanraider
Sorry but what be wrong with bring her gun up and put in a museum.
Kormoran one hell of a merchant she sank a warship!!
The gun mount 'Linda' reminds me of one of the things I've always found fascinating about WW2. On all sides crews did stuff like name their guns, planes, tanks, etc and had artwork and such on them….which is something that's disappeared ( afaik ) in the modern age. Always thought that personalization and…not sure individualism is the right word but it's what comes to mind as well as pride in their machines was a neat and humanizing element. These weren't just faceless mooks on all sides, it was people, often young men.
And the 317 surviving crew of the Kormoran resolutely refused to say how they destroyed HMAS Sydney (II). Despite being rescued by their enemy – Australia – and being able safely and securely to sit out the remainder of the war, as POWs. Not the greatest exploit of the WW2 Kriegsmarine.
Hope the scavenger who looted Prince of Wales and Repulse never find either of them.
Looking at those 15 Cm guns if Sidney had kept more distance those concealed guns might not have been much use due to lack of ability to elevate those guns. But Sidney should have exercised more caution and been at general quarters with weapons loaded and trained when it approached.
If find it odd that the below the waterline torpedo tubes did not ahve outer doors for reloading.
Look, ima go ahead and say this. That sonar image looks rather phallic.
😊😊😊😊😊😊❤❤❤❤👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
the kormoran deserves a movie, they have a really interesting run till HMAS Sydney Encounter
the Aussie navy refused to search for Sydney using the German sailors data…
because Aussie navy is still upset to be the only navy in history, who lost a war ship to a merchant rider…
and after got ordered by the Aussie PM to start at the German postions data, and what a wonder, they found both ships..
so as one of the Komoran officers said, that Aussies are sore losers!
That paint the good old fashioned lead type.
Would have made a thrilling movie 🎬 scene. I remember some B&W films of early WWII "Q" type ships that like this raider, looked like a harmless merchant man from a distance but could quickly reveal weapons to bring to bear on an unsuspecting U-boat that didn't want to use an expensive torpedo if her deck gun was sufficient to sink the targeted vessel. In the later half of the war the days of surface deck gun use for U-boats were over and were removed to save weight and drag.
One reason for the good preservation of the paint was that the paint was very fresh. The ship changed its disguise several times during its mission, which included repainting. So you have several layers of fresh paint, which is a plausible explanation for the good preservation of the paint. Until the wrecks were discovered, nobody believed Kormoran's crew, that a raider could sink a cruiser without treachery. Apart from being disguised it was a remarkable feat of tactic, to be able to get in close enough range to bring those small weapons (the 37 and 20 mm) to bear with a devastating effect, disabling the bridge and suppressing the torpedo tubes on Sydney. That being said, even on a battleship the bridge is not armored aside of the conning tower, which many capitans refused to use in favor of having a better awareness. Which is a terrible weakness at such a close range.
Excellent gunnery on the raiders crew
5.9 inch guns with a quick loading chain of men on standby with shells ready to load
Surviving gun crews believe with rapid firing of the board side 5.9s they shot 15 to 18 rounds within a minute
The cruiser for the first few brief minutes couldn’t do a thing
Complete surprise
Yeah the captain of that cruiser is directly responsible for his crews death he ignored the telegram telling him not to approach any unidentified ship's to closely because there was a raider in the area