Until 2008 none of the attempts to locate the Sydney had succeeded. [48] Accounts disagree on which ship fired first, but agree that both opened fire almost simultaneously. [258] Subsequent writers on the subject have disagreed: Winter states that a carley float from Sydney would have been propelled by currents into proximity of Christmas Island around the time of its discovery, while Olson claims that the description of the float's rope and markings matched those used on British ships (from whose supplies Sydney could have drawn), the boilersuit indicated a naval rating, and that the quantity of marine growth corresponded with the time such a float would have been at sea. [33] The message, transmitted at 17:03 and repeated at 17:05, contained the distress call for a merchantman under attack from a raider instead of a warship (QQQQ, as opposed to RRRR), the latitude and longitude of the transmitting ship, the time per Greenwich Mean Time (normal practice was to transmit local time; using GMT was to let the Kriegsmarine know that the ship was actually a raider about to be lost), and the ship's name. [130], In 1990, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) were approached to join a Western Australian Maritime Museum-led search for Sydney and Kormoran, which was agreed to on the condition that the search area be narrowed considerably. Both ships were destroyed in the half-hour engagement. [137] Mearns's organisation entered a partnership with HMAS Sydney Search Pty. It was on the return of one of these voyages that she encountered the HSK Kormoran, on 19 November 1941. The first 'action honour' was awarded to the Town-class light cruiser, McCarthy, M., 2009. Report: HMAS Sydney located The discovery of a German raider ship, Kormoran, could eventually solve the mystery of what happened to the HMAS Sydney in 1941 (AAP) [33] As Sydney was approaching from just starboard of Kormoran's stern and 15,000 metres (49,000 ft) away, the call-sign was obscured by the raider's funnel: German accounts vary as to if this was to further the illusion of a civilian ship, a ruse to lure Sydney closer, or an error on the signaller's part. [145] Mearns focused on finding Kormoran first: the German wreck's approximate location could be predicted, and while the same was not true for Sydney, there was a wealth of information indicating her position relative to Kormoran. [205] Olson contends that in Detmers' original report, the 'six seconds' figure encompassed only the flag-raising, with the meaning corrupted over time. On 19 November 1941, Sydney was involved in a mutually destructive engagement with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, and was lost with all hands (645 aboard). We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and waters. [114][115] Some further interrogations were carried out after this point. In November 1941, HMAS Sydney, along with her crew of 645 officers and men, disappeared somewhere off the coast of Western Australia, without a trace. [154][155] The two wrecks were 11.4 nautical miles (21.1 km; 13.1 mi) apart, with Sydney to the south-east. [185][186] A second forum was hosted in 1997 by the End Secrecy on Sydney group, but the antagonism between holders of different interpretations of the battle meant the forum "degenerated into a partisan verbal melee". [270] He also believed that Burnett was not suspicious of Straat Malakka: had he been, he would have used the Walrus to identify the ship or broken wireless silence and enquired about the ship. Sydney sank after a naval battle with the German ship Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia. In it the 2-letter group (challenge) transmitted by Sydney was said to be `not understood, but thought to possibly be the second and third letters of Straat Malakka’s secret 4-letter call-sign.’ How extraordinary, considering that they professed to know nothing of the system at the time of the action! Australian War Memorial, Canberra. [106], In Germany, news of the battle was assembled from communications intercepts during the search for survivors, which was combined with Allied news articles to assemble an account of the battle and published in early 1943 for internal consumption by German officials. "[178][180], In 1991, the HMAS Sydney Forum was convened by the Western Australian Museum; its goals were to seek a consensus view of the battle, and collect suggestions on how and where searches for Sydney and Kormoran should occur. HMAS SYDNEY (II) 19 NOVEMBER 1941. [255] A post-war RAN investigation determined that as the raft's description did not match those manufactured for the RAN, this claim was incorrect. Come and see why. [182] Planning for the memorial commenced in late 1997, after a speech by researcher Glenys McDonald at the local Rotary club. This included … [252] This, combined with Detmers' observation and the belief that Sydney's approach followed procedures for an 'innocent' instead of a 'suspicious' vessel, prompted Cole to conclude that the Australian cruiser was not at action stations. [71], Kormoran was stationary, and at 18:25, Detmers ordered the ship to be abandoned, as damage to the raider's engine room had knocked out the fire-fighting systems, and there was no way to control or contain the oil fire before it reached the magazines or the mine hold. The Germans used nine ‘Hilfskreuzers’ (auxiliary cruisers) – disguised merchant raiders during the war. The two ships sank when, on 19 November 1941 they were involved in an unexpected and disastrous clash. [279] Despite the list of ships scheduled to be in the area, Cole believes that Burnett's previous experiences with inaccurate shipping lists caused him to think of Straat Malakka's unexplained presence as a clerical error. HMAS Sydney was a light cruiser and was sunk on 19 November 1941 by the Kormoran, a German auxiliary cruiser. [213][214], According to Montgomery, the involvement of a submarine is supported by numerous sightings of submarines or submarine-like objects in Australian waters, particularly a sighting off Townsville in late October of six "strange boats" that surfaced, sprouted wings, and flew off; he interpreted this as a floatplane-carrying Japanese submarine, which may have reached Carnarvon in time to attack Sydney. [223], The alternative engagement theories attribute the lack of survivors, corpses, or debris from Sydney to the need to eliminate evidence of German illegality or Japanese aggression. [121], For sinking Sydney, Detmers' Iron Cross First Class was upgraded to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz). Places of Pride, the National Register of War Memorials, is a new initiative designed to record the locations and photographs of every publicly accessible memorial across Australia. On the afternoon of 19 November 1941 the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (Commander Theodor Detmers) was steaming on a northeasterly course off the coast of Western Australia, approximately 150 miles south west of Carnarvon. Disguised as a Dutch merchant vessel, the Komoran used the advantage of surprise and brought all its armament to bear on Sydney II. Updated March 17, 2008 15:03:00 Over the years a number of theories have been put forward as to what exactly happened to HMAS Sydney on November 1941. The ship and its entire company of 645 were lost. Some claim they heard the explosions from HMAS Sydney in Geraldton. Available in PDF form www.defence.gov.au/sydneyii/WAM/WAM.070.0010.pdf, Military history of Australia during World War II, Search for HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, "Australian judge to examine wartime ship loss", "WWII Shipwrecks Photographed off Australia", "The HMAS Sydney/HSK Kormoran engagement: an analysis of events leading up the 60th anniversary celebrations in November 2001", "HMAS Sydney wreck to be recorded in safeguard mission", "HMAS Sydney II Memorial completed in time for the commemorative 70th anniversary", The Royal Australian Navy in World War II, Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, Western Australian emergency of March 1942, Western Australian emergency of March 1944, Coastal defences of Australia during World War II, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_between_HMAS_Sydney_and_German_auxiliary_cruiser_Kormoran&oldid=991074422, Naval battles of World War II involving Australia, Naval battles of World War II involving Germany, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [77] When the ship failed to arrive by 23 November, wireless communications stations (initially those in Fremantle, then all high-power stations in Australia) began signalling ordering Sydney to report in. [276] However, both ships (the raider supply ship Coburg and the captured Norwegian tanker Ketty Brovig) had commenced scuttling once Canberra started firing. Celebrated for her successful battles in the Mediterranean, where she famously sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni, the Sydney II and her crew of predominantly young men received a hero’s welcome on return to Australia in February 1941. The battle between the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran[a] was a single-ship action that occurred on 19 November 1941, off the coast of Western Australia. Many years passed after her sinking, with little information… November 19, 1941 (Wednesday) The Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran occurred off the coast of Western Australia. [17], During the 1930s, disparities between the conventional warship strength of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and other nations caused by the Treaty of Versailles led the German military to recognise that auxiliary cruisers engaged in commerce raiding would be of use during future wars, and that suitable vessels should be identified. [1] This was compounded by the loss of HMAS Parramatta, which was sunk by a German U-boat on 27 November; news of this was announced a day after Sydney's fate was made public. [181] An Inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney was carried out by the Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JCFADT) during 1997 and 1998, and was tabled in March 1999. RAN Ships The HMAS Sydney – HSK Kormoran Engagement (November 1941) – Part 2. [18] The merchant ship Steiermark was one such vessel; she was taken up by the Kriegsmarine at the start of World War II. [36][50] The Germans were unaware that the letters were the interior of the real Straat Malakka's secret callsign, "IIKP": to verify her identity, the ship had to signal back the outer letters. [83], Wireless signals to Sydney ceased, as it was assumed that if the cruiser had survived, battle damage or operational reasons prevented her reply. [213] However, several shorthand experts consulted by Winter could find nothing resembling Einheitskurzschrift (or any other shorthand style) in the sketches. In November 1941, HMAS Sydney was destroyed after being surprised at point-blank range by the disguised Nazi surface raider Kormoran. McCarthy, M. This page was last edited on 28 November 2020, at 03:20. [10] The cruiser was recalled to Australia in early January 1941: the need to rest the ship and personnel, plans to spread combat experience across the RAN fleet, and a desire to reinforce the nation following German raider activity in nearby waters were all factors. [212] Although cited as evidence that a Japanese submarine was supplying Kormoran, the bottles were obtained from the supply ship Kulmerland, which had taken on supplies in Japan. [65] Prior to the torpedo launch, Detmers had decided to destroy Sydney completely and ordered the raider to turn to port so four-gun salvoes could be fired: this manoeuvre caused the torpedoes to pass astern of Kormoran. While debris from Sydney was found, there were no survivors from the 645-strong complement. Your generous donation will be used to ensure the memory of our Defence Forces and what they have done for us, and what they continue to do for our freedom remains – today and into the future. 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