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When commenting on "Kormoran's" operations at a later date, SKL, was terse about the fact that mines were not laid, they considered that with little risk to his ship, Detmers could have used an Auxiliary to lay mines, which may well have claimed some victims.

To follow Detmers in his successfbl Raider, it is never clear why he always seems to duck the issue of mine laying, and continually rationalises why he did not, or could not, lay a nest of them in any area at all.

Pickings were sparse, when only 150 miles South of Ceylon, a fast ship of about 11,000 tons was sighted on the 1st day of September, but she passed too far away for any attack to develop, and "Kormoran" could not match her speed. Eventually she was lost after a rainstorm, and the seaplane could not be used to seek her out again.

Detmers lamented in his War Diary "Without a catapult it is a weapon of opportunity which can quite infrequently be employed." I have already noted how much more suceessful "Thor" had been in using its seaplane - one needed the will of both the Captain of a Raider plus his Arado pilot to get this aircraft airborne as often as practicable- this will to use his spotting aircraft, seems to have been somewhat lacking in "Kormoran."

SKL now told Demers that they intended to send "Thor" to relieve him in the Indian Ocean by the end of December. Detmers believed that he had a thankless role in this area, he thought Allied ships kept to the Northwards, close to British bases - thus they could only be attacked by a Raider taking a greater risk- and disregarding their operational orders. He thought this was the lesson to learn posed by the sinking of "Pinguin."

At last, success! On the 23rd of September, close to the equator, the Greek "Stamatios G Embiricos" of almost 4,000 tons, no cargo, just in ballast from Mombassa to Colombo was caught and scuttled. The crew were taken in "Kormoran," who had now achieved 68,283 tons of shipping sunk from 12 ships.

The "Kulmerland" out of Kobe with 4,000 tons of diesel fuel, lubricating oils, provisions for 6 months, and the long awaited white metal, met with "Kormoran" who carried out a self refit in the watery wastes of "Area Siberia" adjacent to the latitude of Perth. All prisoners were also handed over to the supply ship. Detmers command was now stored and fuelled up to the 1st. of June, 1942.

Nothing further was ever heard directly from "Kormoran" ever again.

His last War Diary sent home in "Kulmerland" indicated "Hope to be in operations area during the new moon period." Dr.Habben, one of the survivors, writing from prison camp told SKL that after writing the phrase above, Detmers had changed his mind- and intended to lay mines off Perth, but enroute, he learned that a convoy was to leave there, escorted by the British 8 inch Cruisers, "Cornwall," and "Dorsetshire," so he decided to move North along the coast heading for Shark Bay.

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