The gun turret of the Sydney II was discovered with the rest of the vessel in March 2008.
Posted on 08/12/2009 9:25:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Australian cruiser met the disguised German vessel in the waters off western Australia two years after the two became enemies in World War II.
The Australian ship approached, trying to determine whether the vessel was friendly. It wasn't.
What resulted was Australia's worst naval disaster: the sinking of the Australian ship and the loss of its entire crew of 645. The wreckage wasn't found until last year, leading to decades of conspiracy theories about what actually happened.
On Wednesday a long-awaited report on the sinking of the Sydney II ended the mystery that began when it met its fate, November 19, 1941.
Made to look like a cargo ship, the German vessel was in fact a military raider that fired on the Australians when they got close. The Sydney fired back and, in the end, both ships went down.
More than 300 of the sailors on board the German vessel, the Kormoran, survived. But because they were the only witnesses to the disaster, some doubted their accounts, leading to various theories about the real fate of the Sydney.
After the wrecks of both ships were located in March 2008, an Australian commission began an inquiry to formally close the book on the loss of the Sydney.
The results confirm the accounts provided by the German sailors.
They said the Sydney closed in on the Kormoran until it was parallel with the German ship, little more than 1,000 yards away.
"Sydney obviously thought the ship was friendly and was taken by surprise when, after she asked what she believed to be (a friendly ship) to give her secret call sign, the response was a number of salvos that destroyed Sydney's bridge and amidships superstructure and a torpedo strike that crippled the ship and her forward guns," the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
The gun turret of the Sydney II was discovered with the rest of the vessel in March 2008.
Ping
A very bad way for a mystery to end. (Don’t they train headline writers any more?)
Hmmm. Was this the same Sydney that sank the German Light Cruiser Emden during WWI? A fascinating book entitled “The Last Cruise of the Emden” by Edwin P. Hoyt tells the story of how the HMAS Sydney sank the German raider in 1915 or 1916.
A different ship.
The WWI HMAS Sydney was launched in 1912
The WWII HMAS Sydney was launched in 1934
bump
The inclusion of airmen is puzzling. What kind of ship was the Sidney?
A light cruiser, 8 6-inch guns.
It carried a floatplane and crew, plus some ground crew.
I understand that in the RN, RAN, RCN, etc. aircrew on navy ships were technically airforce personnel, somewhat how US Marine medics are actually in the Navy.
Thanks!
The naval liaison accompanying the expedition for the documentary postulated that the reason for the loss of the entire crew was, first, the severe loss to the command-and-control personnel on the bridge and gunnery control, as well as that of the crew itself .. approaching 80% casualties .. in the engagement with the Kormoran and, second, the torpedo hit forward.
Because of the severe loss to the crew and command group, the Sydney was limping towards land at a reasonable speed while the remainder of the crew was going about their damage control duties, probably mostly belowdecks and fire-fighting above. Because of the extensive damage to the bow .. the torpedo supposed struck between A and B turrets .. and the speed of the vessel, the bow probably wasn't hanging on by much.
The bow was found some distance from the rest of the Sydney, so it was assumed that it broke off and sank suddenly and unexpectedly, causing the remainder of the ship to be driven under the water by the forward speed of her engines. Those belowdecks wouldn't have had a chance and those above would have been caught by surprise and left adrift without rafts or boats. Being quite some distance and over the horizon from the Kormoran, who was also in the process of sinking and being scuttled herself, those few sailors who were alive in the water would have probably perished fairly quickly.
The underwater pictures of the Sydney are phenomenal, as are those of the Kormoran. In one picture, it quite clearly shows a hole in one of the turrets, created by a German armor-piercing shell, just below and squarely between two of the guns.
Quite a story.
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Thanks. Interesting additional information and a thought provoking addendum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQwDAeoD-40
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Thanks BlueLancer. I think we've had a couple of these, but not in a long while. However, it's a modern topic. OTOH, my pinging modern history stuff isn't unheard of. I guess what I'm saying is, I could go either way on this. |
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To be pedantic, Brit light cruisers carried a floatplane 
Oz light cruisers carried an amphib flying boat 
Also that would be deck crew.
Great pictures which answer my question completely. Thanks.
The Sydney II managed to sink the raider even after getting hammered that hard in the opening salvos?
Sounds to me like proof of a very well trained and solid crew.
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