Quote:
Originally Posted by lufttiger
Wow that was some story that i never heard of before. Amazing how they
ended up sinking each other.
|
Yes but the HMAS Sydney should have kicked the HSK Kormoran's butt.
The Sydney had bigger guns, was faster and more importantly had thicker armour plating than the german vessel.
The Sydney's "NEW" Captain was negligent and to blame for the loss of his ship and crew.
Quote:
The Sydney, which served with distinction alongside the British and French in the Mediterranean, had been sailing from Sumatra back to Fremantle when the warship encountered the Kormoran, disguised as a Dutch freighter.
While the Sydney’s crew perished, there were 317 German survivors from among the Kormoran’s 397 sailors.
Their accounts suggest that the Sydney sailed too close, with Kormoran’s first shots causing catastrophic damage to Sydney’s bridge, radios and gun control.
According to the German survivors the Sydney's gun turrets were trained fore and aft which would indicate that she was not at action stations which would also indicate that there was not even the slightest concern that the merchant ship could have been a German raider.
Wes Olsen, an Australian author of a book about the Sydney, said that no one would ever know why the warship, with far superior six-inch guns, came within 1,500 metres — well within the range — of the raider.
“We are always going to be in the dark as to what prompted the captain of the Sydney to go so close to what must have been clear to him a suspicious vessel,” Mr Olsen said.
David Mearns, a shipwreck hunter who led the expedition and who was involved in finding the wrecks of the HMS Hood and the DKM Bismarck, said that a 25-metre (80ft) section of the bow had snapped off.
“Our feeling is that the loss of the bow, which had been weakened by the torpedo hit on her port side . . . is probably what sent Sydney to the seabed.”
|
Against Navy regulations he got too close to an
"Unidentified Vessel" and this allowed his ship to come into the effective range of the Kormoran's inferior guns.
He took the advantage of his bigger guns and thicker armour and threw it away when he moved his ship in close to ready a
"Boarding Party".
If he had followed them while staying out of range till the ship's identity he was in pursuit of had been established and confirmed, I'm sure the battle would have had a much different outcome.
Cheers,
Dave