Thread: HMAS Sydney 2

Yesterday at 5.45pm marked the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Sydney with the loss of the entire crew of 645 men (including my uncle Able Seaman Jim Kelly) after a skirmish with the German raider HSK Kormoran off the coast of WA. One of my have to do things is to one day visit Geraldton to see the Sydney memorial. My dear old Grandma was the last surviving mother of any of the crew and even at 99 years of age she was still petitioning the Federal government to hold an inquiry into the sinking as it was all hushed up for years and the truth only came out after she passed away when an inquiry was eventually forthcoming. Sadly she passed away in 2002 at 102 years of age without knowing the full facts. No one back then could understand why a very capably ship like the Sydney which was the pride of the RAN could be taken out by a raider. The Sydney inflicted some serious damage on the Kormoran and it was scuttled by the crew after the Sydney had sunk. The only reports of what actually happened were from some of the raiders crew who eventually landed on the WA coast and were treated with skepticism as no one at the time considered the Sydney could be taken out by a raider like the Kormoran. That's Jim front row, second from the left in the second picture.