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[bigfella]

Hi All

The big news here in Australia is that they have found the sight where the HMAS Sydney lays on the bottom of the Indian Ocean. She went down with all 645 hands in 1941 and its location remained a mystery up until Sunday. The only thing before then to be found was a life raft similar to the ones used on Sydney it was found on shore a few years back but could not be confirmed it was from the Sydney. They found the German raider Kormoran nearby this was the ship that the Sydney was doing battle with when she disappeared, I do believe that there were survivors of that ship and they could not, at the time, shed any light as to the Sydney's fate. They will be sending a submersable to take photos to see why she went down so fast and why no survivors.

Regards David

[Colin Bishop]

That's very interesting. The way the story goes is that the Sydney let her guard down when investigating the unknown merchantman which turned out to be the German Armed Merchant Cruiser Kormoran. The Kormoran opened a devastating fire on Sydney (and possibly torpedoed her as well). However, Sydney's guns, in local control, still did fatal damage to Kormoran which sank soon after. The last seen of Sydney as reported by Kormoran survivors is that she steamed off over the horizon heavily on fire. The assumption has always been that the fire reached the ship's magazines and she blew up with the loss of all her crew. It will be fascinating to see what this investigation discovers as this was one of the major naval mysteries of WW2.

Colin

[bigfella]

The thing is that they say that the ship although 2 miles down is still intact. And yes it will be interesting to find out what really happend, one can only speculate at this stage but for it to have no survivors something like the magazine going up would explain that.

[Colin Bishop]

It seems that even when ships are seen to blow up they are still left remarkably intact. A good example is HMS Defence at Jutland. The ship was seen to explode from aft to forward and disappear but the wreck is still substantially in one piece so maybe that's what happend with HMAS Sydney. Even if there were some survivors it was a remote area and they may not have lasted long.

Lots of interesting stuff if you Google Jutland Wrecks  - this for example.

http://www.periscopepublishing.com/images/Jutland%20gallery%20pages/Jutland%20exhibition.htm

[Pointy]

They were very quick to claim its the Sydney. They have two images from sonar scan, one is claimed to be the the german raider that sank her and from that wreck they followed a "debris trail" (with sonar scans?) to another wreck they claim is the Sydney. Reckon they should have waited for Friday- the day they say they will put an ROV down there.

[cbr900]

I do agree with you Pointy, but from the reports we have been getting here it does
look like it is both of the ships mentioned, but we willl have to wait for positive ID..........



Roy

[Colin Bishop]

Some pictures of the wreck have now been published confirming the identification of the ship. See here:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23486639-661,00.html

and

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/gallery/0,22010,5030764-5006020-1,00.html

[bigfella]

Thanks for the links Colin. Really great pictures.

Regards David

[Colin Bishop]

It does make you think a bit doesn't it?

I found the pictures very moving.

Colin

[plugger]

More pictures of the wreck and from archives at

www.findingsydney.com  - official website of the group that have put this search together.

[bigfella]

Thanks for the link Plugger. Wow a lot of clear pictures of The Sydney.

[Pointy]

http://www.findingsydney.com/default.asp

Despite the heavy battle damage the wreck is in amazing condition, wooden decks intact, 5 life boats found  :'( they still have symbols on them and you can even see traces of the camouflage pattern on her. Very little marine growth. Bow broken off due to damage of torpedo hit, they think this may have caused her rapid sinking. All main guns still on ship, still pointing to port...towards the raider.