German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (HSK-8, Schiff 41, Raider G) was built by Germania-Werft of Kiel and originally launched on
September 15, 1938 as Steiermark of the Hamburg-America line.
She entered service as an auxiliary cruiser 9 October 1940,
commanded by Fregattenkapitän Theodor Detmers.
The largest of the German raiders, she operated in the South Atlantic,
Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. Kormoran sank ten merchant ships
for a total of 56,965 tons. Her career lasted 352 days, from 3 December 1940, until she encountered the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney off Western Australia 19 November 1941. Lured into range of the raider's guns, Sydney was lost with all hands, raising the former's total to 68,274 tons. However, Sydney did enough damage that Kormoran was scuttled. Detmers and about 320 of his crew were rescued and spent the remainder of the war in an Australian prisoner of war camp.
General Characteristics
- Length: 164 meters (515 feet)
- Beam: 20.2 meters (66 feet)
- Draft: 8.5 meters (30 feet)
- Displacement: 8736 tons
- Crew: 401 men
- Drive system: Diesel-electric propulsion
- Performance: Diesel 14,400 PS, electric drive motors 12,740 PS
- Speed: 18 knots
- Armament:
- six 5.9-inch (15cm) guns
- two 37mm anti-tank guns
- five 20mm FlaK
- two twin 53.3cm (21-inch) torpedo batteries above the waterline; two single tubes below
- 390 mines
- 2 Arado 196 airplanes
- 1 light speedboat
- Complement: 397 officers and men
