First photos of HMAS Sydney

[bookworm_020]

First photos of HMAS Sydney have been released. It confirms that the wreck is HMAS Sydney!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hmas-sydney-revealed/2008/04/04/1207249402155.html

The photos may confirm that it is the Sydney, but it opens up a whole big can of worms. They believe that she sank sten first and all turrets are still in place.:hmm:

The photo of B turret give an idea of the damage inflicted on her.:huh:

[CaptHawkeye]

If by "can of worms" you mean the details of the damage inflicted on her by Kormoran, sure. I honestly hope you don't mean "lawl it was teh conspirazies".

Kormoran was packing some serious heat during the engagement, so a lot of the damage actually doesn't surprise me that much.

[bookworm_020]

I don't believe that she was sunk by a Japanese sub, or that the suvivors from the ship swam ashore and did gold prospecting for the rest of their lives (they were some of the "suggestions" at a royal commision into the sinking)

I do hope they can get a clear idea why she sank without suvivors, but I do relise that the entire story will most likely never be known.

I just want to know what caused her to sink (ammo explosion?) and what happend to the crew (why no one survived).

[darius359au]

http://hmassydney.com/

Edit - can't link to the press release page , just hit the link under breaking news for 04-apr-08 to get to the release and photos.

The description of the damage in this press release is interesting - the Bow immediatly foreward of A turret is missing showing signs of a massive explosion and the hull appears peeled back , right where the Kormaran survivor said they torpedoed her.

[TarJak]

Can't wait to see the videos from the remote cameras. Should be interesting viewing. I doubt that the details will ever really be known as unless the know the sequence of the damage it is hard to tell whether it was caused by gunfire or secondary explosions.

EDIT: An article speculating on the fate of the survivors due to the lack of lifeboats published today in the SMH:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/where-are-the-lifeboats/2008/04/04/1207249460459.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

[bookworm_020]

well that mystery has been solved

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/lifeboat-pictures-solve-sydney-mystery/2008/04/07/1207420255381.html

There is now some video footage on the finding Sydney website

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

[darius359au]

The photo of her boats is the most poignant of any released so far.
http://www.findingsydney.com/gallery.asp

[darius359au]

Photos of Kormoran have been released.

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

Looking at the damage from the combined scutteling charges/Mine explosion you can see how amazingly luck she was that none of the shells from sydney hit the mine storage.

[Jimbuna]

Following these events with great interest :hmm:

[bookworm_020]

It seems the team is already getting some praise and helping disprove some of the wild claims made by various people

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/torpedo-tubes-sink-theory-of-mystery-sub/2008/04/09/1207420485903.html

[TarJak]

Good to hear. Having read both the books mentioned in this story I can say I never believed some of the conspiracy theories and think that the German suvivor accounts were very accurate as these guys had little reason to lie about the action and what they saw.

I think most of the theories were concocted to explain something that they couldn't understand. Why the Sydney closed with the Kormoran and allowed herself to be surprised which frankly looks exactly like what really happened based on the photo's and positioning of the wrecks.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shoes-found-near-hmas-sydney-wreck/2008/04/10/1207420589214.html

The shoes are possibly some of the saddest images I've seen.

[Jimbuna]

The gas mask photo and the fact that lifeboats were probably subject to small arms fire did it for me :nope:

[bookworm_020]

A good little story on the guy who did the actual underwater search. He was the bloke who found HMS Hood a couple of years back:up:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23519670-31477,00.html