soc.history.war.world-war-ii

In article <47e51a71.1992828@news.individual.net>, aspqrz@pacific.net.au
(Phil McGregor) wrote:

> those who adhere to the "Germans couldn't possibly have
> lied" theory have at least a 50:50 chance of being in that boat.

I see no reason for the Germans to have lied about ranges or the action
report. They may have lied about when they hoisted the battle ensign and
or displayed a white flag, but unless Sydney had closed to point bank
range the results would probably have been different. As I said in
another post Sydney was not the fist cruiser to get too close for
comfort.

Given what I believe to have been a reasonably competent crew aboard
Sydney and the limitations of the armament fitted to the raiders (WW1
weapons with limited fire control, central range finder) Sydney must
have been close.

Ken Young