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The great mystery of the HMAS Sydney

Aug 25, 2016

A Great Mystery

It was a major disaster culminating in a mystery that lasted 66½ years, and pre-dated the Japanese attack on the Naval Base at Pearl Harbour, home of the US Pacific fleet, by nineteen days. Barely three weeks prior to Australia becoming embroiled in a fight against the forces of the Rising Sun, a series of battles that would bring war to our very doorstep and threaten our security worse than at any other time in our history, a naval battle took place off Shark Bay in Western Australia.

Our young country suffered its most grievous naval loss on 19 November 1941 when the cruiser HMAS Sydney was sunk in a fight to the death with a German raider, the HSK Kormoran. Tragically, all 645 of Sydney’s complement were lost. The Kormoran also sank, losing 80 of her 397 men.

Two great mysteries ensued – how could a heavily armed warship be lost with all hands to a relatively lightly armed converted freighter, and where had the two ships sunk? Theories abounded, some possible and many conspiratorial. The German crew, rescued over the following weeks, provided information about the battle including co-ordinates as to its whereabouts. But could they be believed or did they have reason to gloss over what had happened, and where?

A Hero Felled

Sydney had returned to Australian waters after a distinguished start to her war following action in the Mediterranean. In July 1940 off the coast of Crete, two Italian cruisers chased four British destroyers northward, being drawn into the clutches of a pair of British cruisers, HMS Havoc and HMAS Sydney. Steaming at full speed, Sydney fired her starboard guns and the Italians, realising they had now lost the advantage of pace and firepower they held over the smaller ships, turned away, making smoke. Sydney fired on and damaged the Bartolomeo Colleoni, slowing it and leaving it to the other ships to finish off while she chased the second Italian. With the lead it now held and its speed, it was able to escape to safety.

On return to Australia, Sydney received a hero’s welcome before a return to work. As protection against possible losses to German raiders, she was assigned to escort duty and was on return to Fremantle from Java after one such run when she intercepted a freighter, allegedly the Dutch ship Straat Malacca. She turned south-west towards the other ship and it turned away, also to the south west. The two ships were now less than a mile apart, with Sydney no longer afforded the advantage of greater firepower. The Dutch flag came down, to be replaced by the German; Kormoran opened fire.

Her opening salvoes at point blank range almost certainly took out Sydney’s front gun turrets and killed all on her bridge. Even with a consequent loss of gun control, she was able to fire a rear turret, fatally wounding her opponent. A torpedo from Kormoran badly damaged Sydney’s bow and sealed her fate.

A Mighty Search

There are a number of books available that tell the story of the successful search but the one I refer to here is The Search For The Sydney by David L. Mearns, published by Harper Collins in 2009 and available through Dymocks. In it we learn of the box search established by Mearns based on information provided by the crew of Kormoran. (The Germans all along had told the truth about the action.) Using their co-ordinates, combined with a reverse drift analysis of two lifeboats, he believed he could narrow down the search area with some hope of success. This proved to be the case, with Kormoran’s resting place discovered on 12 March 2008.

There was great excitement because the team knew that, now they had pinned down the German’s location, it increased the likelihood Sydney would be found. Using German accounts of Sydney’s last known sighting, her heading and her reducing speed, a search box measuring 20 nautical miles by 18 was established as her most likely resting place. And thus it was. The combatants lay on the ocean floor within little more than eleven nautical miles of each other.

There was a great deal more to it than that but at last, after nearly seven decades, the watery grave of 645 brave Australians had been found. Surviving relatives no longer need wonder. An outstanding monument has been erected in Geraldton, A Dome Of Souls, 645 seagulls flying free for all time. Especially poignant – it never fails to catch at my heart – is the statue of The Waiting Woman.

Lest we forget…