Liberty Ship in Combat

Trivia question: What was the first US ship to sink a German surface combatant in WWII? OK, I'll make it easier, what class of ship was it?

The surprising answer in the SS Stephen Hopkins, a Liberty Ship! The crew of this mass-produced, under-powered freighter found themselves in foggy conditions on their maiden voyage and stumbled into the German merchant raider Stier. When the more heavily armed German ship ordered the Hopkins to surrender, the crew refused. Volunteers replaced members of the 4-inch gun-crew as they were wounded in the ensuing fire-fight. The merchant marine crew managed to fatally damage the raider, though their own ship was lost as well.

Fifteen members of the crew of the Hopkins survived the ensuing 31-day trip in open life-boats to the coast of Brazil. For his part, captain Horst Gerlach of the Stier wrote in his report back to Germany that he had lost his ship to a "heavily armed cruiser."

Not bad for a ship designed to be built in 42 days!

Mystery Bullet in Remains of HMAS Sydney II Crewman

One of the unanswered mysteries of WWII, the final fate of the Australian light cruiser Sydney II, has just gotten a bit stranger. As this article states, Australian authorities have finally exhumed the remains of a man assumed to have escaped from the Sydney before she sank. No one seems to know why he would have a bullet from a handgun in his head though.

The accepted story is that in November 1941 the German merchant raider Kormoran on a patrol in the Indian Ocean, lured the more heavily armed Sydney into a point-blank engagement and left the Australian ship burning as she sailed away to the south. The Kormoran herself was so badly damaged that she was scuttled shortly after.

The wreck of the Sydney has never been found and no survivors were located.

Those with a more conspiracy and pulp-fiction bend of mind wonder if in fact the ship didn't sink, but instead was captured by the dreaded Antarctic Space Nazis!