Finding the memo would be more damning than finding holes in the ship. The Ausies would have been the most likely source of this info since by then they had picked up the German Survivors, although Churchill may have been reading the German's mail.
But, most reports seem to imply that the Ausies did not put all the pieces together untill some time later, after Pearl.
Still, its a leap to assume that even certain knowledge, after the fact, of an attack near Austrailia (and any such knowledge was far from certain) would automatically suggest fore-knowledge of another attack thousands of miles further north. Especially since Sydney more or less blundered into the Kormoran which was heavily disguised as a commercial vessel.
An interesting story in any event.
> Finding the memo would be more damning than finding
> holes in the ship.
Indeed, but Sandy Berger shredded it.
> ... its a leap to assume that even certain knowledge,
> after the fact, of an attack near Austrailia (and any
> such knowledge was far from certain) would automatically
> suggest fore-knowledge of another attack thousands of
> miles further north.
That wasn't what I had in mind. An alert to US forces
in the Pacific, that the Japanese had attacked an
Australian warship, might have put them on an alert
status just enough higher to seriously degrade the
effectiveness of the Dec 7 attacks.