Thread: Any HMAS Sydney followers among us

Navy has surveyed the wreck and believe it is not the SYDNEY.

The body on Christmas Island has been recovered. Last I heard the testing was ongoing.

conspiracy ? don't think so. Wouldn't be the first time a war ship was lost with all on board.

Positional data was very poor back then.... so were communications.... it's a very big ocean.... I'm not surprised at all it hasn't been found.

I feal sad for the relatives after all this time... I think those idiots who gave them this recent false hope should apologise to each of them...

Pete

Originally Posted by landyfromanuthaland

By Sydney I mean the old girl zunk in ww2 with all hands of WA due to being sucked in by the so called Dutch ship Straat Malaka and then torpedoed by said ship which was actually a german raider, anyway I have been reading and following her for years, do we really think they have found her? what gets me is they found the Titanic, found the Bismark, found the Yorketown all of these are down along long ways, why have they been unable over the last 60 years to find these two ships? My own feelings is it was covered up for some reason, why out of 670 men on board was not a single body recovered other then the one that was found adriftin a Carley float, the sailor was buried as uknown and later the float was found to have come from the sydney, the navy couldnt find the grave of the sailor, this whole thing smells, what say the intersted members of the gang?

The Titanic, Bismark and Yorketown all went down in close proximity to other ships, and the locations were known to a good degree of accuracy. The position where the Sydney went down is not known within hundreds of miles. Add the fact that the other ships mentioned had the interest and resources of the United States to look for them, plus the remoteness of the area compared to at least the Bismark and Titanic, and I don't find it at all surprising that it has not been found.

Consider for example the discovery about a year ago of one of the ships that disappeared during Cyclone Tracy - it was found actually in Darwin Harbour, after being missing for thirty years. Or the Jap sub found a few miles off Sydney but only with a long search after sixty-five years.

John

Being ex Navy - I have a more than a passing interest in the Sydney - I don't believe that what they have found is the ship but it will be found one day - being mortally wounded it wouldn't have gone far from where it was seen driving over the horizon and the battle could be seen from the coast so the ship is likely to be within 100nm from the coast rather than out in the middle of the indian ocean. Most searches have been modest affairs with limited resources and limited access to records etc - I feel that if a fully funded and resourced effort was made then there is a chance it would be found - no there is no conspiracy just a tragedy of war.

Garry

I've been following any news print on this for years as well. There is a memorial cairn at Quobba Station north of Carnarvon. I've worked there a few times and been to the yearly service.

Lets hope they find it one day.

Jimmy

One aspect that I do not know whether has been covered - it is likely that the area, or at least parts of it, may have been covered by a modern high resolution aeromagnetic survey. In this case, investigation of any minor noise blips could be useful. Normally, in mineral exploration, these would be processed out as noise, rather than investigated. In fact, such a survey, aimed at discovering the position of the Sydney, would probably be the best use of available funds for searching for the ship.

John

After all these years I think it's abit sad that no proper search has been done.We can afford to buy 20 year old yank tanks,yank planes that don't fly,more yank planes to fill in for the ones that don't fly,yank helicopters for ships we didn't build and you guest it they don't fly either.The sinking of Sydney is one part of our history that should be solved. Pat

RAAF Orions from SA traverse that area on a routine basis, so if there was some magnetic anomaly I believe it would have been found if it was intact.

I seem to recall that they were specifically tasked to do a search a couple of years ago.

My personal opinion is that as she was last seen on fire, the magazines eventually exploded (ah la HMS Hood) & is in a zillion pieces on the seabed. Hood still had some major structures after her explosion.

I also think any remains if located should be left well alone as a War Grave. The relatives know the crew isn't coming back & probably what happened to them so it should be closed off for it would get exploited.

Similar to my late Uncle, who's Hudson was shot down in the Celebes within a couple of days of Japan entering WW2. Would I like his aircraft if found, picked over? No.

There is a curiosity certainly, but I know he's not coming back now so again, best left alone.

Same with Sydney I suspect. It's mainly a curiosity thing. Sure, it's part of our young history, but there is good & bad history & we have to live with these things.

My Grandfather was a P.O. Seaman (Petty Officer in charge of the torpedo tubes) on the Sydney II, and both my father and myself have had alot to do with all the different going on's in this never ending saga, and there are many theories aside from the generally believed outcome that is widely published.

Whether there is any truth to the conspiracy theories that do the rounds, I could not say, although given the strength of a couple of issues from isolated sources, I doubt the Sydney met the fate as told by the survivors of the Kormorran and supported by the government, especially the one in power at the time of the action.

I, especially for my fathers sake would like them to find it's final resting place and the truth about it's demise, regardless of how it occurred, so we cna properly honour all 645 hands lost that fateful day.