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Sydney was a modified Leander
class light cruiser built for the British
Navy with the intended name being
HMS Phaeton. Before this
ship could be commissioned, the
Australian Navy bought her to be operated
under the name Sydney. The early
stages of World War Two saw Sydney
serve in the Mediterranean alongside
British cruisers. That role led to her
being involved in the sinking of one
Italian cruiser and two destroyers. On
November 19th 1941, approximately 150
miles west of Shark Bay/Western
Australia, Sydney came across the
German armed merchant raider
Kormoran.
Unaware the Kormoran had guns
hidden on her decks and torpedo tubes
below the waterline; Sydney was
taken in close to identify what the
Australians thought was an ordinary
merchant ship. This gave the crew of
Kormoran their only chance of
defeating the warship. As Sydney
neared the German ship with most of her
crew on deck to view what seemed to be a
routine check, the
Kormoran’s crew uncovered
their guns and opened fire. The following
battle ended with both ships sunk. Of the
397 crew onboard Kormoran, 317
were rescued five days later. Of
Sydney’s 645 crew, all
vanished without trace. The only items
found from the warship were a lifebelt
and a Carley life float that had been
damaged by shellfire. The Kormoran
survivors stated they last saw the
cruiser badly damaged and ablaze steaming
towards the Australian coast. Some people
have since claimed the Sydney sank
first and the Kormoran’s
crew machine-gunned survivors in the
water before scuttling their own
ship.
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