Remains of the WWII Cruiser HMAS Sydney Finally Found!

[SIG220]

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A search has finally found the sunken remains of HMAS Sydney, the largest ship in Australia's Navy during WWII.  At 7,300 tons, HMAS Sydney was also the largest ship in WII to sink with ZERO survivors.   

She sank in battle with the German Raider DKM Kormoran, which was disguised as a Dutch merchant ship, in 1941.   It has been theorized that the much more lightly armed German ship was able to lure the HMAS Sydney in close with its elaborate disguise, and then attacked with torpedoes, which devastated the ship.   Before the Sydney sank, however, it managed enough hits with its guns on the DKM Kormoran to also sink it.   But 73% of the DKM Kormoran's crew managed to get to lifeboats, and survived the battle. 


Here is a photo of HMAS Sydney taken during WWII:






And here is a sonar image showing her at the bottom of the ocean:





You are actually viewing the grave of 645 brave Australian sailors, which was the size of HMAS Sydney's crew.

Experts are hopeful that an inspection of the ship will finally shed some light on how such a more heavily armed ship was sunk in combat with an inferior opponent.   Many historians have not trusted accounts by the German crew to be accurate.   They claim that the DKM Kormoran raised its battle flag early on, properly identifying itself to the Australian ship.


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[FrodeMk3]

Q-ships' in the first world war were used to sink German U-boats' by posing as merchantmen, with their cannons' and other weapons hidden behind fake bulkheads and screens until the U-boat had surfaced (In the earlier part of the war, German U-boats would usually surface, and warn the crew of the merchantmen to get into the boats' before they sank the ship.) At that point, the guns' would be unscreened, and the suprised submarine sank on the surface.

[SteveBailey]

I read this.. interesting news for sure.

[DiabloTX]

Since she was last seen completely ablaze and by the looks of the sonar photo I'd say the fire finally got to a magazine and blew her in half.  This has always been a fascinating story to me.

[Vulcan]

They probably lured them in with offers of sheep and beer.

[-tronski-]

The Beer would've been enough...the sheep was just in case it was a Kiwi ship!


Great news indeed about the Sydney - hopefully the mystery of her last valiant fight may be finally be discovered

 Tronsky

[DiabloTX]

http://www.webatomics.com/jason/Images/LastFightSydney.pdf

Good read of the encounter.

[Fishu]

The history of HSK Kormoran: http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/kormoran.html

[SIG220]

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Something dramatic must have definitely happened very quickly, for the crew of the Sydney to not have launched any lifeboats.

Sounds like Captain Burnett totally blew it here in this encounter.  He fell for the German ruse, and exposed his ship to great danger.   And then failed to successfully deal with the damage done to the ship.

Although, if these German accounts are true, then perhaps all of the senior commanders ( including Burnett ) on the Sydney were dead by then.   The ship could have been virtually leaderless, which might also account for why an order to abandon ship was never given.

Interesting that that one German 37mm AA gunner was awarded the Iron Cross for his skill during the battle.   It was utterly ridiculous, though, that the Sydney got so close that those AA guns would play such a deadly role in the battle's outcome.

No doubt Burnett would have been court-martialed, if he had survived the battle.

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[Rich46yo]

They probably lured them in with offers of sheep and beer.

                      Thats a pretty lunkhead comment. I hope your not an American, but you probably are. A Vulcan would never say anything disrespectful to the memory of hundreds of brave men who fought and died on the Sydney, "it would be to illogical". The Sydney has been a very emotional issue down under for a long, long time and an enduring WW-ll mystery. Imagine a version of the USS Indianapolis if nobody had survived the sharks???

                     <S> To their memories, their families, and to our allies. I hope nobody else posts stupid sheep comments in this thread.

[SIG220]

                   
                     <S> To their memories, their families, and to our allies. I hope nobody else posts stupid sheep comments in this thread.

The Aussie gun crews manning the two rear 6 inch turrets were incredible in this battle, as every other gun position on the Sydney was apparently wiped out very early in the engagement.   So they had to fight the rest of the battle all on their own, and without any fire control orders either.   Think how incredibly difficult that must have been for them.

The Kormoran almost pulled this ambush off successfully.   And they would have, if it had not been for the men in those two rear 6 inch turrets on the Sydney managing to score vital hits on the Kormoran. 

I will salute all of the crew of the Sydney, except for Captain Burnett.   A Captain must be held responsible when his entire crew is lost.

<S> HMAS Sydney Crew

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[Fishu]

Something dramatic must have definitely happened very quickly, for the crew of the Sydney to not have launched any lifeboats.

Sounds like Captain Burnett totally blew it here in this encounter.  He fell for the German ruse, and exposed his ship to great danger.   And then failed to successfully deal with the damage done to the ship.

It sounds like the officers were first ones to lose their lives in the battle. It is wierd how none of the crew survived. The lack of lifeboats could be attributed to the same reason why Kormoran had to use overcrowded lifeboats. Many of the motorboats and lifeboats were consumed by fire and shrapnels. The biggest loss to the crew of Kormoran happened when one of the lifeboats capsized, although it was mostly filled with the injured.

It could be there wasn't anything for the Sydney's crew to hold on to after their ship sunk and they drowned. Or they were all killed and incapacitated. Combat ships are usually abandoned long before such heavy damage that Sydney received, but there was nobody to give the command. Usually when command to abandon ship hasn't been given there has been massive casualties.

[Dowding]

A Vulcan would never say anything disrespectful to the memory of hundreds of brave men who fought and died on the Sydney, "it would be to illogical".

For future reference, when you introduce a fictional character from a rather geeky sci-fi series to support your argument, a certain amount of gravitas is lost.

Just an FYI.

Also, Vulcan is a New Zealander, and Aussie's are fair game in that part of the world.

[SLAMMER]

<S> to the crew members lost.

[Vulcan]

                      Thats a pretty lunkhead comment. I hope your not an American, but you probably are. A Vulcan would never say anything disrespectful to the memory of hundreds of brave men who fought and died on the Sydney, "it would be to illogical". The Sydney has been a very emotional issue down under for a long, long time and an enduring WW-ll mystery. Imagine a version of the USS Indianapolis if nobody had survived the sharks???

                     <S> To their memories, their families, and to our allies. I hope nobody else posts stupid sheep comments in this thread.

Its my right to mock australians, even in cases of war like this, in fact it is considered my national duty.

ps wrong sort of vulcan, and get over yourself.