The Loss of HMAS Sydney

An Enduring Mystery in Australian Naval History

Apr 2, 2009 Murray McLeod

How could a complete ship's company of 645 officers and men vanish without trace?

Returning to her Geraldton port the light cruiser Sydney intercepted a lone freighter off the West Australian coast. It was November 19 1941, and Japan had yet to unleash her attacks on Pearl Harbour and the Philippines. Australia had already despatched the Eighth Division to bolster British forces in Singapore and Sydney was returning to Geraldton after escorting the troopship Zealandia to Java. German raiders had been active in the Indian Ocean during 1941, with the destruction of 12 Allied merchant ships. These brazen activities had aroused alarm in Australian waters and demanded extreme vigilance on the part of Allied warships.

The mystery freighter claimed to be the Dutch merchantman ‘Straat Malakka’, when in fact it was the heavily armed raider HSK Kormoran, in disguise. What followed was a brief but devastating close-range gun battle, with both vessels suffering mortal damage and later sinking.

More than 300 German sailors were later recovered from lifeboats, but not one of the 645 officers and men from Sydney lived to account for their ship’s final ordeal. It is tragic but not unique for a warship to go down with heavy loss; the mighty Hood for example with just 3 survivors from a complement of over 1400. But for Sydney there was not a single soul to relate its final agony. What could have gone so tragically wrong?

A New Sydney

Sydney was the pride of the Royal Australian Navy; a gallant ship; a lucky ship; and the second warship to bear that proud name. Her predecessor, a Town Class cruiser of 5,400 tons, achieved enduring fame with the destruction of the German raider Emden off Cocos Island in October 1914. Her successor was originally laid down in 1934 as HMS Phaeton, a modified Leander class cruiser before her transfer to the RAN as HMAS Sydney. She was later to acquire two sister ships, Perth and Hobart; with a displacement of 6,500 tons and main armament of 8 six-inch guns they were a formidable element in naval combat.

With the outbreak of war in September 1939, Sydney was attached to units of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean theatre. Italy entered the war as Germany’s ally in June 1940, and in July Sydney was involved in the pursuit and sinking of the heavy cruiser Colleoni and one of its destroyer escorts.

At the end of the year Sydney returned to Australia for a refit and a tumultuous welcome in her adopted home port. There was also a change of skipper with the popular and bold John Collins replaced by Joseph Burnett in his first sea command.

Sydney was involved in escort duties during 1941; until late afternoon on that fateful November 19. It should have been a situation demanding extreme caution; instead Burnett placed Sydney beam-on and at close range to the mystery freighter. Suddenly she raised the German ensign and opened up with a devastating salvo directed at Sydney’s bridge and fire control area.

Death Throes

It was a fatal blow for Sydney; in all probability the captain and executives were killed in that moment and both forward turrets destroyed. Two torpedoes were then launched from Kormoran; one striking Sydney in the area between A and B turrets. Sydney’s bow came apart, and ablaze from bow to midships she drifted past Kormoran’s stern; still being raked with gunfire from Kormoran. All seemed lost for Sydney but somehow she managed to score hits on Kormoran from her X and Y turrets. It was a final gesture from a doomed vessel but Kormoran had also received a death blow.

Read the concluding article of HMAS Sydney.

The copyright of the article The Loss of HMAS Sydney in Military History is owned by Murray McLeod. Permission to republish The Loss of HMAS Sydney in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Capt.J.Collins