HMAS Sydney wreck heritage listed

[Feuer Frei!]

The wreck of the HMAS Sydney warship, lost in World War II, has been added to the national heritage list.
When she was found in 2008 in deep waters 290km off the West Australian coast, it ended decades of hunting for one of the nation's most famous navy vessels.
The wreck of the German raider HMS Kormoran, sunk in the same battle, has also been added to the heritage list.
The shipwrecks and associated debris fields are 22km apart, 290km off the coast of Western Australia in 2500 metres of water.

On the afternoon of November 19, 1941, the light cruiser Sydney, sailing from the Sunda Strait to Fremantle, encountered an unidentified vessel purporting to be the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka. Instead it was the disguised and heavily armed mercantile raider Kormoran.
According to Kormoran survivors, their captain Theodor Detmers realised he might one day encounter a warship and the only way to survive would be for the Kormoran to maintain its disguise as long as possible, then open fire with every available weapon. And that's what happened.
At a range of perhaps 1000 metres - point blank range in naval terms - Kormoran could hardly miss.
If anything, Kormoran was better armed for a close range fight thanks to five quick-firing 20mm anti-aircraft guns.
In a battle which lasted perhaps an hour, Kormoran's six 15-centimetre guns fired some 450 high-explosive shells.
An examination of Sydney's hulk revealed she was hit by at least 41 15-centimetre shells on her port side and 46 on the starboard side.
Many penetrated and exploded, wreaking carnage and starting devastating fires. A torpedo struck about 20 metres from Sydney's bow.
All 650 men of the Sydney were lost while estimates suggest 20 Germans may have perished aboard the Kormoran.


SOURCE

Now some reading material.
This is really interesting, for instance:

The ferocious, close-range battle that took place off Shark Bay, Western Australia, in the late afternoon of November 19 1941, remains one of the most extraordinary and controversial sea battles in history.
The key question, which has been the subject of ludicrous conspiracy theories, several excellent books, and bitter controversy to the present day, is why did such an experienced naval officer as Captain Joseph Burnett RAN, bring his ship so close to a vessel which he had not only failed to identify, but had not even established what type of vessel she was?
The concensus view would appear to be that he was under the impression that he was dealing with an unarmed supply-ship, most probably the Kulmerland, which bore a striking resemblance to the Kormoran, and which was known to have been operating in Australasian waters disguised as the Tokyo Maru, and that he was intent on sending a boarding-party to prevent her crew from scuttling her.


Another thing, just goes to show that humanity reaches far and wide:


One of the Kormoran’s torpedo men, Erich Meyer, who had been taken ill on the raider, and whom Detmers had hoped to repatriate on the Kulmerland, but couldn’t, due to the supply-ship not having a doctor on board, and who somehow managed to survive the ordeal of several days in an open boat, to be admitted to hospital in Perth, passed away shortly afterwards, and was buried with naval honours in a cemetary there. In a poignant and remarkable turn of events, the family of an Australian sailor who had gone down with the Sydney, generously offered to tend his grave.


Also:


No charges were ever brought against Detmers, despite some suspicion about possible ‘foul play’ against the Sydney, a controversy that still rages to this day, and the Australian Government finally released him and his crew on January 21 1947, nearly 21 months after the end of the war.
Some people, again, not all of them Germans, think this prolonged internment was a form of revenge.