It was great to hear from so many CW
readers passionate about naval history who
wrote in to the team regarding last week’s
HMAS Sydney story.
From all the emails we received it seems
there is still a great deal of conjecture and
mystery surrounding the circumstances of
the sinking of Sydney by the German
commerce raider, the Kormoran.
The author of the book Who Sank the
Sydney, Michael Montgomery, (also the son
of Sydney’s navigating officer), wrote in to
express his doubt over the official account
of the nautical disaster saying that it was his
belief that Sydney was in fact torpedoed by
a Japanese submarine which was at the
time liaising with Kormoran to ambush the
troopship Aquitania.
Certainly the circumstances in which
Sydney was sunk, and indeed the fact that
the only ones who lived to tell the tale were
those commonly held to be responsible,
must lead us on the sidelines of history to
ponder where the truth lies, and hope that
with our developing technologies sometime
in the near future we will be able to prove
one way or the other what indeed happened
to the Sydney, and her 645 human
companions on that fateful day on 19
November 1941.
In the meantime, discussions should be
encouraged, Lest We Forget.
