This is huge news in Australia I hear.

The light cruiser HMAS Sydney was Australia's most successful ship of WW2 and the largest ship to be lost with her entire crew during the war. Kormoran was located on 12 March and Sydney on 16 March, only hours after the Prime Minister had announced that Kormoran had been found.

from: Wreck of HMAS Sydney found - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Wreck of HMAS Sydney found
Posted Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:53am AEDT

The group searching for HMAS Sydney has found the wreckage of the World War II Australian warship off the coast of Western Australia, the ABC has confirmed.

The breakthrough by the Finding Sydney Foundation comes less than 24 hours after it announced it had located the wreckage of the German raider Kormoran, which also sank after a battle with the Sydney in November 1941.

The Sydney's entire crew of 645 went down with the ship in the Indian Ocean and its location has been a mystery for 66 years...

(article continues at: Wreck of HMAS Sydney found - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) )

and
First look at Sydney wreckage planned - Breaking News - National - Breaking News

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

That was an interesting battle. I was familiar with the sea battle when studying WWII as a hobby as a teenager. I understood it to be the only time an armed raider sank a warship of that calibre during the war, a David vs Goliath win for the raider. The Kormoran knew it was going to be detected as a raider in disguise and got the Sydney to come unwittingly up next to it where it then broadsided it with all the guns it had. The Kormoran was also fatally wounded in the quick but deadly fight but the Kormoran's survivors last saw the Sydney drifting away on fire and disabled and was never heard from again. It was taken as a big loss for OZ in the war and an accomplishment by the German raider given raiders were merely disguised-as-merchants with guns preying on real merchant marine ships and were never expected to beat an openly armed warship, which are naturally better armed and structurally protected for sea battle head-to-head than a possum merchant marine raider would be. I'm glad they finally found the wrecks.

Searches have also failed to locate the USS Indianapolis, the one that delivered the A-bomb and was famously torpedoed, leaving survivors to the sharks, water and the elements and further resulting in kangaroo court martials to hide Naval errors that led to the late rescue and massive shark and other deaths. Someday I hope it gets found too.

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The Indy sinking was a tragedy in so many ways and the cover-ups were outrageous.

For anyone interested, here's a bit of discussion on the topic. The same source also has excellent background material on the Sydney and Kormorant (amongst a host of other WW2 warships).

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Sydney "Upright and Largely Intact"

Thanks for the link. I think the writer's theory on why there were no survivors is spot on considering the reported intact condition of the wreck.

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I agree. Turned "turtle" and then rolled again once under the surface, thus landing on the sea bed "upright and largely intact."

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I am a liberal, a classical liberal. Classical liberalism is liberalism, but the current collectivists have captured that designation in the United States. In Europe they are glad enough to call themselves socialists. But no one in America wants to be called socialist and admit what they are.

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