Replies

The commerce raider was a sneaky little cuss. From wiki "....On 19 November 1941, the Kormoran encountered HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean at 26°9′50″S 111°4′25″E / 26.16389°S 111.07361°E / -26.16389; 111.07361, off the coast of Western Australia between Carnarvon and Geraldton. At the time, the German raider was flying a false flag while posing as the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka, with a black hull and black funnel.[1] Captain Detmers hoped to pass by undetected, but Sydney closed in to investigate. The German ship maintained her deception until Sydney was about 1,500 metres (1,600 yd) away, which gave her a better chance of attacking the superior Australian warship. According to the surviving crewmen of Kormoran, the Australian warship was not expecting battle, nor fully prepared for it, as her secondary guns were unmanned and therefore not trained on Kormoran.[5] Taken by surprise, Sydney was hit about 50 times by the raider's 5.9-inch (150 mm) heavy guns before she managed to return fire. Overall, Sydney received approximately 150 hits. A torpedo hit, scored relatively early in the engagement, caused massive damage to the bow of Sydney. The two heavily damaged ships drifted apart and Sydney was last seen by the crew of Kormoran in flames on the horizon......"