“HMAS sydney II” - Australian warship found after 66 year

March 17 (Bloomberg) — 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 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) off the coast of the state of Western Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said today. The ship was last seen sailing ablaze over the horizon after the 30-minute battle with the raider HSK Kormoran on Nov. 19, 1941.

“It’s very important to understand that this is a tomb and there are 645 Australian sailors entombed there,” 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, which was disguised as a Dutch freighter, lured the heavily armed Sydney in close and then opened fire.

`Occasional Flickering’

After the engagement, the Sydney, “crippled and on fire from the bridge to the after funnel, steamed slowly to the south” until all that was seen was “a distant glare then occasional flickering,” according to the navy’s Web site.

The hunt for the Sydney began when it failed to respond to radio messages. In subsequent days, 317 of the Kormoran’s 397- member crew were picked up, while no one from the Australian vessel was found. The Finding Sydney Foundation was set up in 2001 to search for the battleship.

The Sydney was detected yesterday by a high resolution sonar imaging device that was dragged behind a ship.

The navy will photograph the wreck next week, Vice Admiral Russ Shalders said at a news conference with Rudd.

While previous claims of the wreck’s discovery proved false, Shalders said there is no doubt this time.

“For 66 years the nation has wondered where the HMAS Sydney was and what happened to her,” he told reporters. “There is no doubt this is the Sydney.”

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