Theodor Detmers

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Theodor Detmers
Kapitän zur See
UnitKriegsmarine
Commands heldHermann Schoemann
Kormoran
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
Other workAuthor[1]

Theodor Detmers (22 August 1902 – 4 November 1976) was a German naval officer and captain of the

HMAS Sydney in a mutually destructive battle
.

Career

Detmers joined the

sail training ship Niobe and also served on Berlin. Detmers became a sublieutenant on the cruiser Emden. From 1926 to 1928, he served on the Albatross. In 1927, he was promoted to lieutenant. From 1930 to 1932, he served as staff officer and was then stationed on the cruiser Köln, on which he visited Australia in 1933.[3]

In 1934, he served on torpedo boats and destroyers of the Reichsmarine. In October 1938, he was in command of the destroyer Hermann Schoemann and participated in Operation Weserübung in April to June 1940.

HSK Kormoran

In July 1940, Detmers became captain of the commerce raider

scuttled, after which Detmers was captured and became a prisoner of war (POW).[5][6]

In December 1941, Detmers was awarded the

Kapitän zur See. He had earlier received the first class Iron Cross
.

Prisoner of war and later life

Detmers' Prisoner of War Service and Casualty Form

From 1941 to January 1947, Detmers was held as a POW at HM Prison Dhurringile. While a prisoner, he wrote a coded account of the battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran that survived the war.[7] Detmers tried to escape Australian captivity with other members of his crew, through a tunnel and then hoped to capture a sailboat to get to Indonesia; however, the attempt was unsuccessful. Later during his imprisonment, he suffered a stroke.[8]

Detmers returned to Germany in 1947 and was released from British captivity in

German navy. In the early 1950s he married Ursula Reinhardt, daughter of a Protestant pastor. They had no children and he died in Rahlstedt, Hamburg in 1976. Detmers wrote a book about his Kormoran experiences,[1]
which has been translated into English.[9]

Awards and decorations

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ "HMAS Sydney II and the Kormoran". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
  3. ^ "Hilfskreuzer Kormoran". bismarck-class.dk. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
  4. ^ Captain Detmers' book revisited Archived 29 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine (pdf) pp.7-8 The Australian Association of Maritime History.
    Admiral Karl Dönitz in 1959 confirmed that Allied codes had at that time been broken and that German raiders were in possession of the procedures for challenge and reply. It is possible that Detmers possessed the Straat Malakka's secret callsign, although he denied it. This might explain why Sydney was so close.
  5. ^ "Sydney-Kormoran action". www.awm.gov.au. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Fregattenkapitän Theodor Detmers". Shepparton News. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  7. ^ "HMAS SYDNEY and KORMORAN DOCUMENTS". Sea Power (Royal Australian Navy Archive). 1941. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
  8. ^ HMAS Sydney II – Captain Theodor Anton Detmers
  9. ^ Detmers Theodore (1959). The Raider Kormoran. London: William Kimber.
  10. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 135.

Bibliography

External links