soc.history.war.world-war-ii

thornley@visi.com (David Thornley) wrote:
>
> Lots of things are credible in this situation. We don't have much
> in the way of facts. All we have to go on, right now, is the
> reports of the Kormoran survivors, which may not be accurate for
> lots of reasons.
>
> It is, however, entirely plausible that a sudden, violent attack
> from the really close range of 1500m (as reported) could cause
> enough damage to sink a cruiser. Lots of odd things happen in
> naval warfare, mostly because the numbers engaged are so small
> that extreme outcomes are still reasonably probable.

The facts revealed in the last few days seems to provide major support
for the reports of the Kormoran survivors and captain. The facts that
the ships were found about 12 miles apart, would overrule the conspiracy
theories that the Sydney crew was massacred by the Kormoran crew, or
that Sydney was captured by the Japanese and its crew massacred.

What is hard to understand is how all 645 crewmen of Sydney could be
killed in the action, apart from a massive magazine explosion, and if
the reports of the Kormoran survivors are to be believed, there was no
massive explosion, and the ships were close enough together that a
nighttime explosion would have been noticed.

Many of the Kormoran crew did survive.