Defence to release inquiry into loss of HMAS Sydney

news.com.au ^ | 11th August 2009

[naturalman1975]

THE long-awaited report of the defence inquiry into the controversial loss of the cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1941 will be released tomorrow.

Defence Minister John Faulkner will unveil the report at the Australian War Memorial in a function attended by defence chiefs and inquiry commissioner Terence Cole.

HMAS Sydney was lost with all 645 crewmen in a battle with the German mercantile raider Kormoran off the West Australian coast on November 19, 1941.

.....

In March last year, the wreckage of both vessels was discovered some 112 nautical miles off the WA coast in waters around 2.5 kilometres deep. Damage to Sydney appeared consistent with the German survivor accounts of the action.

[GOP Poet]

cool.

[OldArmy52]

Well, who says Govt takes a long time to get anything done?
Only took Govt about 60 years.
Lightning fast!
Hope Govt can run Healthcare that well and timely too!

[naturalman1975]

It’s not that bad.

There have been previous inquiries, but a definitive one couldn’t be held until the wreck was discovered. That only happened last year.

[american_ranger]

Why?
Lots of inquirys have been held without access to the wreck. In fact, most have.

Why are you defending this stall?

[Ronin]

Pretty embarrassing to lose a cruiser to a commerce raider. No wonder it took so long to release the report.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Well, who says Govt takes a long time to get anything done?

Doncha know there's a war going on?

I think the inquiry was occasioned by new information, specifically, discovery and examination of the wrecks.

[naturalman1975]

Because inquiries into this incident have been held before. Numerous times. This is not the first one. The discovery of the wreck has simply lead to one more inquiry in case anything new can be learned.

The loss of the Sydney is one of the most significant incidents in Australian military history. Wanting to take the opportunity to find out if any new information can be discovered now we have the wrecks of the Sydney and the Kormoran is something as a retired officer of the Royal Australian Navy, and an historian, I am quite willing to defend. This inquiry is releasing its report less than a year and a half after the wrecks were discovered - I don't see that as slow.

[PeteB570]

The commerce raider was a sneaky little cuss. From wiki "....On 19 November 1941, the Kormoran encountered HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean at 26°9′50″S 111°4′25″E / 26.16389°S 111.07361°E / -26.16389; 111.07361, off the coast of Western Australia between Carnarvon and Geraldton. At the time, the German raider was flying a false flag while posing as the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka, with a black hull and black funnel.[1] Captain Detmers hoped to pass by undetected, but Sydney closed in to investigate. The German ship maintained her deception until Sydney was about 1,500 metres (1,600 yd) away, which gave her a better chance of attacking the superior Australian warship. According to the surviving crewmen of Kormoran, the Australian warship was not expecting battle, nor fully prepared for it, as her secondary guns were unmanned and therefore not trained on Kormoran.[5] Taken by surprise, Sydney was hit about 50 times by the raider's 5.9-inch (150 mm) heavy guns before she managed to return fire. Overall, Sydney received approximately 150 hits. A torpedo hit, scored relatively early in the engagement, caused massive damage to the bow of Sydney. The two heavily damaged ships drifted apart and Sydney was last seen by the crew of Kormoran in flames on the horizon......"

[Ronin]

Well, that’s what commerce raiders are supposed to do. Since the allies used Q-ships during the war I don’t suppose we have any call to complain.

[RaceBannon]

So what happened?

Was it a surprise first shot?

[PeteB570]

I would guess the inquirery would be more in line with “why did the Sydney get so close while being so unprepared”.

The only survivors were from the Kormoran and they stated they pumped a great number of shells into the Sydney before she started fighting back.

The inspection of the Sydney will show the shell damage.

naturalman1975 - you got some better intell?

[Oatka]

Also from Wiki:

HMAS Sydney

HSK-8* Kormoran

Some of the Sydney's crew must have survived long enough to abandon ship, but I imagine in those empty waters, nobody was around to pick them up and they died lonely deaths. The USS Edsall's crew had a similar fate off Java in 1942.

* The abbreviation HSK comes from Handelsstörkreuzer; German for "commerce disruption cruiser".

[naturalman1975]

You've pretty much summarised what I expect the inquiry to have looked at - Sydney must have been taken by surprise, and there's no good reason that should have happened. They should have been alert. For some reason, they weren't.

The Kormoran seems to have inflicted a great deal of damage very quickly and there was probably an element of luck in that, but the bottom line is they caught the Sydney with its pants down, they managed to hit very hard, very quickly, and while Sydney was able to hit back with enough force that the Kormoran had to be scuttled, the damage had already been done. Sydney was fatally damaged.

[naturalman1975]

You've pretty much summarised what I expect the inquiry to have looked at - Sydney must have been taken by surprise, and there's no good reason that should have happened. They should have been alert. For some reason, they weren't.

The Kormoran seems to have inflicted a great deal of damage very quickly and there was probably an element of luck in that, but the bottom line is they caught the Sydney with her pants down, they managed to hit very hard, very quickly, and while Sydney was able to hit back with enough force that the Kormoran had to be scuttled, the damage had already been done. Sydney was fatally damaged.

[naturalman1975]

All available evidence is that Kormoran broke out German colours just before it opened fire, and so acted entirely appropriately within the rules and conventions of war. Nobody can criticise the Germans on those grounds in this case. They were sailing under Dutch colours until the battle began, but they broke out their true colours as battle was joined.

[Ronin]

This is true. And it’s a ploy that both sides used.