German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran

With its assignment completed, Sydney turned around and began making its way south back to Fremantle.

HSK Kormoran was a German auxiliary armed cruiser of the Kriegsmarine, originally built as the merchant freighter Steiermark for the Hamburg America Line in 1938.

The vessel was acquired in 1940 by the German Navy and converted into an armed commerce raider.

Germany acquired these ships as a relatively inexpensive and quick method of supplementing its naval force.