HMAS Sydney

1941

Indian Ocean, Kormoran's disguise, no survivors Location: Indian Ocean, ~110 nmi WNW of Carnarvon, Western Australia · Coordinates: 26.25°S 111.00°E · Casualties: 645 · Survivors: 0 · Depth: 2,468 m · Cause: naval gunfire · torpedo — Engaged the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (disguised as the Dutch merchantman Straat Malakka) at close range on the afternoon of 19 November 1941. Both ships opened fire simultaneously; the Kormoran's concealed 5.9-inch guns and one torpedo struck the Sydney's bridge and turret magazines. Both ships were mortally damaged, but the Sydney burned through the night and was not seen again. · Fate: located 2008 · protected war grave · Type: light cruiser · Leander class (modified) · Tonnage: 6,830 tons · Crew: 645 · Flag: Australia · Launched: 1934 Royal Australian Navy light cruiser, intercepting what she took to be a Dutch merchantman off Western Australia on the afternoon of 19 November 1941. The 'merchantman' was the disguised German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran. Both ships opened fire at close range; Sydney's bridge and turret magazines were destroyed in seconds. Both ships were mortally damaged; Sydney was not seen again, lost with all 645 aboard. Her wreck was located in 2008 by David Mearns at 2,468 metres, 22 kilometres from the Kormoran. The Vessel HMAS Sydney (D48) was a modified Leander-class light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, commissioned at Portsmouth on 24 September 1935 and transferred to Australia on 4 August 1936. She was 170 metres long, 6,830 tons standard displacement, armed with eight 6-inch guns in four twin turrets, four 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes in two quadruple mountings. Her designed speed was 32.5 knots on four-shaft Parsons geared turbines. The modified Leander-class differed from her British sisters principally in propulsion machinery arrangement: her boiler rooms and engine rooms were separated by fore-and-aft subdivision to improve damage survivability, an Australian improvement that would prove critical to her war service. She was the second ship of her name in the Royal Australian Navy, her predecessor having been the light cruiser HMAS Sydney (II) that had sunk the German raider SMS Emden at the Cocos Islands in 1914. Her Second World War service was distinguished. Under Captain John Collins she had engaged and sunk the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni at the Battle of Cape Spada on 19 July 1940 in one of the opening Royal Navy victories of the Mediterranean campaign. She had escorted the Australian Second Division to North Africa, had participated in the Syrian campaign, and had returned to Australian waters in February 1941 as the most celebrated warship in the Royal Australian Navy. Her new commanding officer from May 1941 was Captain Joseph The Disaster Captain Burnett closed Sydney to 1,300 metres from the supposed Straat Malakka in an attempt to positively identify her through the international signal code. At this range, the two ships were within point-blank gunnery range of each other. Detmers, now unable to maintain his disguise at such short range, unmasked Kormoran's armament at 17:30 and opened fire simultaneously. Kormoran's concealed 5.9-inch guns and her torpedo tubes were fired essentially at the same moment as Sydney's main battery. The first two Kormoran salvos struck Sydney's bridge, director control tower, and main signal-flag arrangement; Captain Burnett was killed on the bridge, and the senior gunnery officers were killed in the director tower. Sydney was, within the first thirty seconds of the engagement, effectively decapitated. The subsequent action lasted approximately 30 minutes. Sydney fought back from her surviving turrets and hit Kormoran repeatedly with 6-inch shells that ignited the German raider's oil tanks and her torpedo magazine. Kormoran was burning and was mortally damaged by approximately 18:00. Sydney, listing heavily to port from the torpedo hits and with uncontrolled fires forward, turned away southeast at 18:05 and disappeared into the gathering dusk with a visible fire still burning. Both ships sank on the night of 19-20 November 1941. Kormoran was scuttled by Detmers at approximately 00:30 on 20 November after her crew abandoned her in her intact lifeboats. 318 of Kormoran's 393 crew