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This clip shows actual and re-created interviews with survivors from the German raider HSK Kormoran. They describe the battle with, and crippling of, HMAS Sydney during the Second World War. The clip includes black-and-white archival footage of a crew manning battle stations on a German raider, and paintings that illustrate the battle between the Kormoran and the Sydney.

Educational value points

• No Survivors: The mysterious loss of the HMAS Sydney describes the worst naval disaster in Australian history. On 19 November 1941, following a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran in the Indian Ocean off the Western Australian coast, the cruiser HMAS Sydney was crippled and sunk. None of her 645 crew survived. The only relics found were a lifebelt and a life raft (known as a 'Carley float’) that may have come from the ship. During 1941 the cruiser had escorted Allied merchant ships and carried out patrol duties in the Indian Ocean and in Australian waters. In 2005 the Australian Government contributed more than $1 million to a search for the remains of the ship.

• During the Second World War (1939–45), Germany used disguised and armed merchant ships known as raiders, such as the Kormoran, to attack unescorted Allied merchant ships and to lay mines on shipping routes used by the Allies. In November 1941 the Kormoran, which was posing as the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka, had been in service for just over a year and had sunk ten merchant ships, mostly British.

• The clip suggests that the Kormoran deceived the Sydney. After a request from the Sydney, the raider identified herself as the Straat Malakka, but when the Sydney ordered her to make her secret call sign, the Kormoran hoisted the German colours and, already at action stations, fired at the cruiser at almost point-blank range. It has been speculated that the Sydney was not prepared for battle and had come far too close (within 1 km) because the captain, believing that the raider was an unarmed German supply ship, wanted to board her before the German crew scuttled her, as was their practice.

• Details of the battle were pieced together from interviews with Kormoran survivors. It appears that within 5 minutes of the action commencing (about 5.30 pm WA time), the Sydney, although a superior warship, was overwhelmed by the Kormoran. The raider’s first full salvo scored a direct hit, destroying the Sydney’s bridge and tower. The Sydney’s forward gun turrets were then hit, its aircraft (on a catapult on deck) was destroyed, spreading burning oil amidships, and the bow was hit by a torpedo.

• The loss of HMAS Sydney is the subject of ongoing controversy. The Curtin government’s delay of 12 days in announcing the loss of the Sydney (it issued 11 censorship notices preventing the publication of the details), the fact that the only accounts of the battle came from German survivors and the failure to find the wreckage of the Sydney have sparked allegations of a cover-up. However a 1997 Parliamentary Inquiry found no evidence of a cover-up and Prime Minister John Curtin’s biographer revealed in 1999 that a distraught Curtin 'couldn’t bear to think of the shock the news would mean to relatives and friends of the crew’ and was advised by the Governor-General not to make any announcement until all hope was exhausted.

• While the Sydney sustained extensive damage, she was able to return a short but effective burst of fire that hit the Kormoran’s engine room, setting the ship alight. Around midnight the crew abandoned ship and scuttling charges were exploded, sinking the Kormoran. Of her crew of 393 men, 78 lost their lives. The survivors depicted in the clip were picked up by Allied naval and merchant ships and interned in Australia for the remainder of the War.

• The defeat and loss of the Sydney had a huge effect on public morale. The pride of the Australian naval fleet, the ship had become the 'toast of the country’ after a distinguished campaign in the Mediterranean. The loss of all 645 crew, its defeat by a much smaller ship, as well as the fact that there was so little information about the cruiser’s last hours, caused considerable public disquiet.

• Despite consistent Kormoran survivor accounts that the Sydney staggered off while still under fire and that they saw the light from the burning ship in the distance around midnight, questions remain. For example, why were 315 men from the German raider rescued and none from the Sydney; and how could the Sydney, with such superior fire power and armour, have been sunk by the Kormoran? There is also speculation about why the Sydney’s captain exposed the ship to danger by coming so close to the Kormoran and why the Sydney did not send a distress signal or use its reconnaissance aircraft.

This clip starts approximately 22 minutes into the documentary.

A re-enactment of an interrogation between a crew member of the ‘Kormoran’ by a woman and a man.
Translator (Speaks German)

Crew member Madam, I speak English. What you want to know?

Interrogating Officer That’s excellent. What can you tell us about the engagement with the Sydney?

Crew member Engagement?

Woman (Translates in German)

Crew member Ah! I see her going away, burning. Me, below decks – I see nothing. I hear, I have ears. I see lifeboat. Many days. Many men.

Man Well, we’ll go into that later. Do you like tobacco? Would you like a cigarette?

They are now interrogating the captain of the 'Kormoran’.
Captain Yes, thank you very much.

Man Now, Captain Detmers, perhaps you’d be so good to describe to us, what happened from when you first sighted the Sydney.

Captain The Kormoran was armed with 6-inch guns. When I first saw Sydney, I did not know what ship she was. As she turned broadside on, I realised she was a [inaudible] class cruiser and quite expectant to be sunk.

Scene changes to interview with a German survivor and footage from a naval battle or exercise.
German survivor If you go to sea in a war and on an armed merchant ship, you know what your fate might be, so we knew that it would be our hour – serious.

Heinz Messeschmitdt, Mines Office HSK ‘Kormoran’ [inaudible] To hoist the signal letters which allied merchant ships had only for journey, especially from the navy who had none. So, the war flag went up the mast and the, uh, guns came out.

A re-enactment of an interrogation of the captain of the ‘Kormoran’.
Captain I opened fire.

Interview with Erich Falk, Engineer HSK Kormoran.
Erich Falk, Engineer HSK Kormoran Our hits were reasonably accurate. You could hear the crying of the touring men and so on, and then it went on. It was one of the lucky shot the first time, too, and it was too close.

Crewman of the ‘Kormoran’ I saw, for instance, when she was hit by a torpedo that the front of the ship sank very deep and eventually got up again. You saw the guns, front guns, were silent very soon but the guns at the back of the ship were still firing for quite a while. You saw the people running on deck. Most of them probably would be caught in the machine-gun fire.