After 66 Years, Australia Locates World War II Ship
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Australia discovered the location of a World War II battleship that went down with 645 crew members on board after a naval engagement with a German merchant raider, ending a 66-year search.
Divers found the HMAS Sydney II at a depth of about 1.5 miles off the coast of the state of Western Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday. The ship was last seen sailing ablaze over the horizon after the 30-minute battle with the raider HSK Kormoran on November 19, 1941.
“It’s very important to understand that this is a tomb and there are 645 Australian sailors entombed there,” Mr. Rudd told reporters in Canberra. The Kormoran’s wreck was also found.
Before the discovery, the only trace of the Sydney was the 2006 discovery of the remains of a sailor buried on Christmas Island, northwest of Australia, whose body washed up on a navy life raft in February 1942.
The Sydney was located yesterday about 22 kilometers from the wreck of the Kormoran, which was discovered the day before about 210 kilometers off the Western Australian coast. Germany’s government has been informed of the raider’s discovery.
The Australian navy’s account of the battle, taken from survivors of the Kormoran, says the German ship lured the heavily armed Sydney in close, and then opened fire.
