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One of Australia's greatest mysteries has finally been solved thanks to advances in DNA technology, with the 'Unknown Sailor' finally identified exactly 80 years after he died. Thomas Welsby Clark was just 21 years old and an able seaman on HMAS Sydney when it was sunk on November 19, 1941, about 200km off Western Australia. He had trained as an accountant in Brisbane, then served in the army before finding a berth on HMAS Sydney. His remains washed up on Christmas Island, 2,600km north-west of Perth, 11 weeks after the HMAS Sydney was lost, and it was all that was...

The first images of two warships which sunk after a deadly battle during World War II have emerged. The wrecks lie 20 kilometres apart from each another about 200 kilometres west of Steep Point, Shark Bay in Western Australia, north-west of Perth, and sunk in November 1941. The German raider HSK Kormoran and the light cruiser HMAS Sydney were re-discovered in 2008 with an expedition to the wrecks going out earlier this year. Researchers from Curtin University and the Western Australian Museum captured 700,000 high resolution images of the two ships with the help of two remotely operated underwater vehicles...

The Loss of HMAS SYDNEY II Summary The controversy HMAS SYDNEY II was lost on 19 November 1941. She sank after an engagement with HSK KORMORAN, a German armed raider that was disguised as the Dutch merchant vessel MV STRAAT MALAKKA.KORMORAN also sank, being scuttled by her commanding officer, CAPT Detmers. SYDNEY’s commanding officer, CAPT Burnett, and all her 644 crew were lost; CAPT Detmers and 317 of his crew managed to take to lifeboats and survive. That consequence led to doubt and controversy about the circumstances of the engagement because the account given by the German survivors was that...

The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, AC, AFC said HMAS Sydney II was lost with all hands on 19 November 1941, following an engagement with the German raider, HSK Kormoran, off the Western Australian coast. “For a long time our nation has struggled to understand how our greatest maritime disaster occurred,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said. “The unanswered questions have haunted the families of those brave sailors and airmen that never came home.” President of the Commission, the Honourable Terence Cole, AO, RFD, QC, said that the Inquiry’s key findings confirm that accounts provided by...

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...

COMPUTER reconstructions of HMAS Sydney's wartime encounter with the German merchant raider Kormoran show the Australian warship was hit by a torpedo and peppered with close-range gunfire that would have trapped most of its crew. The light cruiser was lost with all 645 crew on November 19, 1941, following a battle with the disguised Kormoran off the West Australian coast. Observations from the wreck site and accounts from Kormoran survivors have enabled a team of defence scientists and naval architects to create computer graphics of the battle. The stark images were shown today at the resumption of public hearings in...

SIXTY-SIX years ago, a month after HMAS Sydney disappeared off the coast of Western Australia, it was standing room only at St Andrew's Cathedral in the city that shares its name. Widows stood in the aisles, praying for lost loved ones, amid hopes the war would end some day soon. Yesterday, at that same cathedral, families of the 645 crew who died when the Sydney was sunk by the German raider Kormoran spilled out on to the street as hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their respects. "I don't mind being outside," said Brian Doyle, whose 19-year-old uncle Thomas Glackin...

GRIPPING, crystal-clear new pictures of HMAS Sydney reveal the devastating bombardment by the Germans - but are also testament to the heroics of Aussie gunners who never gave up. Shipwreck investigator David Mearns said the images were remarkable for their clarity and their documentation of the punishment suffered by Sydney and its crew. "I have studied many historical accounts of the battle between Sydney and Kormoran, but none of these could fully prepare me for the enormous damage withstood by Sydney,'' he said. One of the new photos shows a cluster of four large-calibre shell hits on Sydney's starboard side....

THE legendary Australian warship HMAS Sydney has loomed out of the deep, dark blue of the Indian Ocean to be captured on film for the first time in almost 67 years. Finding Sydney Foundation director Glenys McDonald recalled the stunned silence inside the packed survey room of the SV Geosounder which early yesterday flashed images back to the world. "All we could see was a blue screen with a bright light and the occasional fish," she said yesterday. "Then there was a shadow, and, almost immediately, HMAS Sydney appeared in front of us. "It's almost impossible to convey to you...

FIRST pictures have been released of the wreck of HMAS Sydney which sank in 1941 with the loss of all 645 crew. The eerie shots come just weeks after a search team pinpointed the wreck and that of the German raider Kormoran, which sank it. The two ships destroyed each other in a ferocious battle of the West Australian coast on November 19, 1941. Of the Kormoran crew, 317 people survived.

IT has all the makings of a Boy's Own blockbuster: a mass breakout by German POWs from a rural Victorian internment camp; a mysterious dictionary revealing dotted codes of vital military importance; and a body washed up on a remote Indian Ocean island. These events - three of many surrounding the evolving, extraordinary story of HMAS Sydney - continue to fascinate historians, who are now tantalisingly close to solving a military riddle that has haunted the nation for more than 66 years. In the next few days, shipwreck hunter David Mearns and his crew aboard the SV Geosounder will sink...

The group searching for HMAS Sydney has found the wreckage of the World War II Australian warship off the coast of Western Australia, the ABC has confirmed. The breakthrough by the Finding Sydney Foundation comes less than 24 hours after it announced it had located the wreckage of the German raider Kormoran, which also sank after a battle with the Sydney in November 1941.

THE 66-year search for the wreck of HMAS Sydney is believed to be over. The ship, in which 645 Australians died, is believed to have been found by a group of West Australians using a grappling hook and a camera last weekend. The Sydney sank after a battle with German raider, Kormoran, on November 19, 1941, Fairfax newspapers said. Video film of the find shows tangled wreckage over large, much longer than any other ship known to have sunk nearby.

FORENSIC pathologists have removed a bullet from the skull of a skeleton that researchers are now confident was a sailor from the doomed HMAS Sydney. They also believe the remains, exhumed from Christmas Island earlier this month during a navy-led expedition, are not those of Sydney crewman Tom McGowan, whose younger brother Ted was pivotal in getting the search party off the ground. It is now almost certain that the remains are those of the so-called "unknown sailor", a HMAS Sydney crewman who was washed up in a Carley float on Christmas Island in February 1942, almost three months after...

THE remains of the unknown sailor believed to be the sole survivor of Australia's most enduring wartime mystery - the sinking of HMAS Sydney off Western Australia - have been unearthed on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The Defence Department last night confirmed that bones had been discovered in the island's Old European Cemetery by a navy-led team of experts and, once removed, would be taken to Sydney for further forensic tests in an attempt to establish identity. The discovery is yet another piece to a puzzle that has fascinated and frustrated historians for more than half a century....

Anti-war protesters receive maximum penalty for halting warship SYDNEY (AFP) Apr 30, 2003 Eight anti-war activists were fined 440 dollars (270 US) each Wednesday over a spectacular protest that delayed the departure of an Australian warship bound for the Iraq war. Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court Magistrate Ross Pogson imposed the maximum penalty but said it was inadequate. The eight were part of a Greenpeace protest in which two activists clambered up the sides of the frigate HMAS Sydney and unfurled a "no-war" banner in a demonstration that brought the vessel to a halt on April 9. The two managed...

Protesters stop Australian warship leaving for Iraq SYDNEY, April 8 (Reuters) - Anti-war protesters stopped an Australian warship on Tuesday leaving Sydney Harbour for Iraq by attaching themselves to the ship with mountain climbing gear and laying an underwater object in front of the vessel. Despite Australia being on heightened security post-September 11 and the Bali bombings, protesters surprised water police as the guided-missile frigate HMAS Sydney steamed towards the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Television footage showed one protester attaching themselves to the bow of the ship and unfurled a "No War" banner, while another hooked on to the stern...