[Matt Wiser]

Given that the fight was opened at around 1,500 yards, the raider was well-suited to win a knife fight at that range. The Australian Captain and the Bridge Watch probably had time to say "What in the Hell?" before the first 5.9" salvo slammed into the bridge. The German gunners were expert shots, and Kormoran had an ace up her sleeve: right after Capt. Detmers declared himself as a German warship, his torpedo officer launched torpedoes from both deck mounts and an underwater tube (similar to a U-Boat's). The two fish from the deck mount missed. The underwater one did not. Accurate 5.9" fire, plus 37-mm, 20-mm and machine-gun fire ripped the upperworks of Sydney to shreds, and killed the two forward 6-inch turrets. If Sydney's after fire control hadn't been on the ball and landed a salvo that ripped into Kormoran's engine room, the Germans would have not only followed Sydney to send her down, but would have picked up survivors. The Germans were sailors, and as far as raider crews were concerned, the war stopped when a ship was clearly sinking and one then followed the sailor's code. Only Von Rucketshell violated that on Widder's cruise, but he behaved more honorably on Michel's first deployment (SOLANT, IO, then on to Japan).