Thanks to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, I read today that in cooperation with the Royal Australian Navy, the Finding Sydney Foundation has found Australian warship HMAS Sydney along with the German raider that sank her, HSK Kormoran. In an engagement off the Australian coast, both ships sank 66 years ago. According to German POWs from the Kormoran, one of their torpedoes scored a perfect hit in the bow of the Sydney, sending all 645 men onboard to a grave three kilometers down.
The Kormoran was damaged too, and although not hit by any of the torpedoes, the 152 mm guns of the Sydney scored enough hits to force the German crew to abbandon ship. Out of the 397 crew from the Kormoran, 317 were picked up and captured. Until yesterday, their testemonies were the only ones in existance about the last battle of the HMAS Sydney.
YouTube has a couple of news reports from Australian TV with some short interviews. I will make a new post when the ROVs have taken the first pictures of the wreck(s) – I hope the HSK Kormoran is not forgotten. Now for the videos:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOK_eC0IKyg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jInzzfwuoEk[/youtube]