What I was wondering was what cheating would look like.
That's easy, the rules say that a warship has to be flying it's national colors before it can open fire. Cheating would be failure to do so. Practically speaking that means as long as the ship's colors are, or reasonably should be, visible to it's opponent, it can open fire immediately. As Mark Horan pointed out, it takes maybe 5-6 seconds to raise an ensign, and it took about the same time to drop the Kormoran's gun screens, which means that Kormoran could have legally raised it's flag, dropped the camouflage screens, and opened fire almost simultaneously.
Detmers was always going to fight. To have possibly the best raider ever, with a captain who has many times theorised about taking on a cruiser with his ship coming up against a British light cruiser with an inexperienced, tired captain was really bad luck. Sydney and Kormoran did not get into their relative positions accidentally. Detmers intended to fight from the time Sydney was seen to follow them and maybe before. He positioned his ship to best advantage to bring as many of his guns and torpedoes to bear as possible.
That's all to Detmers' credit. During WW II the captain of a warship, and Kormoran was a warship no matter what her origins or mission, was expected to fight his ship, regardless of the odds, until he no longer had any means of resistance, and then, if necessary, scuttle her. Obviously, Detmers had given thought to a possible encounter with a regular enemy warship and the possible tactics which could be employed, but I seriously doubt if he really wanted to engage a cruiser.
The Australian captain has regulations that tell him not to approach closer than 5,000 yards to a suspect ship. Reliable accounts have the Sydney at 1,500 yards and possibly as close as 800 yards before the Kormoran opens fire.
Has this been confirmed, as I have not heard this before? Were these standing orders for all RAN warships when encountering a suspected enemy raider, or did Burnett have specific instructions in such a case? Even 5,000 yards seems pretty risky considering the armament of most German surface raiders. The key question, of course, is why Burnett closed to such close range? I have read one account wherein the author suggests that Burnett had received a briefing on the likely appearance of various German raiders and their auxiliaries. This briefing included pre-war pictures of the Kormoran and various other German ships. According to the author, the picture of the Kormoran showed her with a stern configuration very similar to the Kulmerland, which was known to be operating in the Pacific as a raider supply ship, and thought to be unarmed. The speculation is that Burnett confused the Kormoran for the Kulmerland and closed the range in the hopes of putting a boarding party aboard to capture either the ship or her documents before she could be scuttled. Whether this is true, or just another of the many rumors about the engagement, I have no idea.
He uses his antiaircraft guns to take out the bridge. That was a masterstroke because it works. The officers on the bridge cannot issue orders before they are destroyed. As I remember, the Germans could drop the shields on the antiaircraft guns and have them firing in an instant.
Actually, this is just common sense. The 20 MM and 37 MM AA guns on the Kormoran could only be expected to decisively damage three targets on the Sydney; the bridge, the FC director tower atop the bridge, and the unshielded 4" secondary guns along the Sydney's port side. Since the bridge and FC complex were far more important targets, it only makes sense to try to take them out first with the Kormoran's AA guns, as this would render Sydney's response much less effective by forcing her main turrets to go to local control.
If he has given the order to raise his colours and does not wait, the officers on Sydney are dead before they see the German flag. I believe that he gave the order to raise the colours but, the waiting? No, I do not think so. But if so, how long does he wait? Until the flag has reached the top? Until the Sydney has indicated or signalled that she has seen the colours?
Even if Detmers does wait the 5-6 seconds it takes the ensign to reach the masthead or whatever, it would take the Sydney's officers a few seconds, perhaps three, to identify it and react. This gives them maybe three seconds to transmit orders to open fire before Sydney's bridge is raked with heavy machine gun fire and the FC director put out of action by the same fire. It's entirely possible that Burnett, his gunnery officer, and entire bridge watch were dead before they could give that order. In that case, the order to fire was probably given on the initiative of some surviving junior officer. I don't, for a second, believe Detmers cheated and opened fire before the German ensign was visible at his masthead. However, I also don't think he ordered the colors raised, slowly counted to ten, and only then ordered his weapons to open fire. Personally, considering the mistakes Burnett made, I don't think those 5-6 seconds made any difference one way or another.
The torpedo(s) always has me wondering. Would Sydney observe the firing? When would Sydney detect the torpedo? Once the torpedo strikes, the Kormoran has more firepower than Sydney by a substantial margin.
As I understand the sequence of events, Sydney slowed to a very slow speed as she approached the Kormoran. With very little way on, it would make no difference if Sydney's lookouts observed a torpedo launch or not, as the ship would be unable to maneuver and thus avoid a well-aimed torpedo.
One of the Kormoran crew accused the Sydney gunnery officer of firing unders and overs, trying to bracket the Kormoran rather than just firing for effect from the get-go. Other Kormoran crew say that the main guns were not trained on Kormoran. when the German opened fire.
I simply cannot conceive of a regular RAN warship, in war time, approaching a suspected enemy warship without going to general quarters and training it's guns on it's opponent; I don't believe it happened. As for Sydney's guns trying to bracket the Kormoran, I doubt it. At the reported range, if you are on in bearing, you are very likely to hit your target because of the low angle of trajectory and the resulting large danger zone. More likely the Sydney's gunnery officer was already dead and the FC director destroyed. Probably what appeared to be attempts to bracket the Kormoran was the result of the after turrets firing in local control.
If Sydney's gunnery was closed up ready to fire, they should have been training the guns. Before Kormoran can get off her first shots from her main weapons and before the torpedo can arrive, Sydney should have been firing.
Maybe, maybe not. Detmers could have done everything by the book and still managed to kill Burnett before he could give the order to open fire. If that duty then devolved upon a junior officer, in the confusion of a sudden attack, it might have taken as much as 60 to 90 seconds before the main armament received the word to open fire. If the Kormoran's torpedo was set for the mid-range speed of 40 knots and was fired as soon as her battle ensign was displayed, at 800 yards it would impact the target in about 35 seconds; if the range was 1,500 yards, it would take 65 seconds. Assuming the Sydney's bridge, command personnel, and FC system were already badly damaged or destroyed, and the turrets forced to switch to local control, that doesn't leave much time to get off many rounds before the forward turrets also are destroyed. Detmers and the Kormoran crew just may have executed a flawlessly coordinated attack that, in the very beginning of the battle, severely crippled Sydney's ability to fight back.
