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What will the wreck of the HMAS Sydney reveal? Tom Lewis, the author of six history books, offers an answer.
THE story, as related by the German survivors, is well known. The light Leander-class cruiser, HMAS Sydney, closed the raider to within fatal range. The Kormoran, flying a false flag, struck it, hoisted her true colours, and opened fire, hitting the cruiser with her third salvo in the bridge area. Sydney hesitated, and then replied. The two ships fought each other for just under an hour, the Sydney taking a torpedo hit, and the Kormoran began sinking, her survivors taking to their lifeboats. The Sydney, on fire, and having taken a tremendous battering, moved off, probably not under effective control. The ship lay missing for 67 years. There appear to have been no survivors from the cruiser, although a body in a Carley float, presumed from the ship, was later recovered and buried at Christmas Island. These remains have been recovered and are still being analysed. There are many controversies associated with the action. Why did the Sydney not stand off at the extreme range of Kormoran where she would have had the disguised raider under fire from her own more effective weapons? Why did she not deploy her Walrus aircraft for overhead inspection? Some allegations made over the years range from the possible to the extreme. Did Kormoran open fire under the German flag as she should have? Were Japanese forces involved – several weeks before they joined WWII with the Pearl Harbor attacks? Were Sydney survivors machine-gunned in the water to prevent their speaking out about “war rules” being broken? To answer such questions, and to bring closure to the relatives of the Sydney ship’s company, there has been much pressure over the decades to find the wreck of the cruiser. But can finding the ship give any answers? Spurred on by pictures of the Titanic and other vessels on the ocean floor, many people seem to think the finding of Sydney’s remains will answer questions. But will an inspection of Sydney tell us much about the battle? Will there be clues from the condition of the external hull? Sydney engaged in a lengthy fight with a heavily-gunned raider. According to the Kormoran’s gunnery officer, Lieutenant Fritz Skeries, Kormoran fired 450 rounds from her main armament, and several hundred from her anti-aircraft batteries. Skeries commented on the final stages of the 55-minute battle that the Australian ship was being constantly hit by gun fire from the raider. Sydney, crippled, limped off to the south-east, on fire, with “glare” and “flickerings” showing her presence until around midnight, some eight hours after the action commenced. Will there be much left of the Sydney at all? We can expect a battered, twisted, charred remnant of a once-proud warship. Given that Sydney’s ability to manoeuvre was degrading steadily during the battle, we can expect her to receive an increasing number of strikes due to inability to avoid fire, for a period, as the battle continued, although this must be offset by the strikes Kormoran was receiving herself, thus reducing her firepower, and offset by the opening range. When initial firing commenced the distance between the ships was approximately 1,600 yards. This is an incredibly close when one considers that the Sydney, when engaged the previous year in combat with two Italian cruisers, the Bartolomeo Colleoni and Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, opened fire at 20, 000 yards, and obtained a hit on one of them within six minutes. Indeed, a German historian, commenting later on the Kormoran engagement, said "no guns could miss at such a range". The Sydney began receiving terribly destructive armour-piercing delayed action fuse shells which exploded inside the ship. With this sort of firepower, at such a short range, being directed against the light cruiser, the Sydney was doomed. The cruiser’s remains should be smashed extensively on both sides. According to all Kormoran survivor accounts of the battle, it was only around a few minutes after battle was commenced that Sydney veered hard to port, and fired a salvo of four torpedoes. The course change took her astern of the Kormoran, and exposed her starboard side to the raider. Observation of other battles leads to a conclusion that warships generally finally end up on an even keel. Out of twelve wrecks catalogued from the Battle of Savo Island, for example, ten are keel down; one on its side, and one upside down. Sydney will probably be right side up, and inspection will be made easier. The basic dimensions of the wreck, if she is in one piece, will be a ship 171.3m x 17.3m. Confirming features will include the two funnels and two masts of the Leander-class, and eight guns in twin turrets. The ship’s Supermarine Seagull V (Walrus) single-engined aircraft was mounted between the two funnels, but little of it will remain, although the 16m launching slide and recovery crane may be located. Leanders also carried four 4-inch single guns and eight torpedo tubes in two quadruple mounts. The condition of all of these will provide further clues as to the veracity of the accounts of the ship’s end. Given that the wreck, if it is sitting on an even keel, will have sunk into the seabed, it will be difficult to see if there are torpedo holes below the waterline, especially as along the sides of the hull there will also be much 5.9-inch and 3.7-inch damage. There is often little left internally in a ship’s remains which can enlighten historical analysis. Anything not made of very tough materials does not survive in a ship wreck. Paper disappears, breaking up, eaten by fish, generally dispersing. Wood becomes porous and crumbles. Human remains disappear. Human remains are dispersed by tide and fish. While softer tissue vanishes, bones too eventually dissolve. This takes a comparatively short time. Shipwrecks more often than not do not remain intact. Sometimes they break apart from the stresses engaged in the disproportionate pressures necessitated in compartments being flooded. Titanic, for example, although involved in a fairly simple collision – that is, no-one was killed in the initial collision with an iceberg, and she settled slowly over around three hours – finally broke in half during her sinking. There seems ample evidence the Australian ship sank quickly. Several Kormoran survivor interrogation reports noted that the cruiser, after she was hit by the torpedo, was down in the bows, most estimating by six feet. This suggests quite heavy flooding in that area. Given evidence that the forward turrets were paralysed, there can be some conclusion that this area was heavily damaged, with damage control equipment in the area perhaps out of action. The Sydney wreck is going to be in one piece, perhaps with sections missing. She is likely to be on an even keel, but is going to be so battered that her hull exterior will be insufficient to add to the story. This was, after all, a light cruiser which was hit by hundreds of highly explosive shells, and a torpedo; was on fire “from the bridge to the after funnel” when last seen, and was according to the experienced sailors who were abandoning Kormoran, to be hardly functioning. The Sydney wreck is going to be so badly damaged that a survey of it will tell us only a little of her final moments. The ship’s remains are now 67 years old, and upright sections will have corroded and probably fallen in on the remainder. It will be heavily covered with marine growth which will have become concretions in many parts. Many sections will not be distinguishable as parts of a ship. Penetration of the wreck is certain to be strictly forbidden, as although human remains are unlikely to be present, the site will be considered a war grave out of respect for the feelings of the families of the 645 members of the Royal Australian Navy lost with the vessel. Dr Tom Lewis, OAM, is the author of six history books, and has worked as a divemaster and naval officer. He is the editor of Warship magazine, and Headmark, the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute. He has recently published "What may the wreck of Sydney reveal”.