The HMAS Sydney has been found within a few miles of her nemesis in her last naval duel, the Kormorant.
When the HMAS Sydney sank in 1941 it became the greatest loss of life in Australian Naval history and the largest warship crew lost with all hands. The 6800ton 562 foot cruiser constructed in 1933 could steam at a very fast 32 knots. She carried eight 6-inch guns, a secondary battery of four 4-inch guns as well as a brace of torpedo tubes and machineguns for anti-aircraft use. She carried a walrus scout plane and was designed to be the eyes and ears of the larger combat fleet. In the opening stages of the Mediterranean naval war she sank the Italian destroyers Espero and Zeffiro as well as several Axis merchant ships. The year 1941 found the HMAS Sydney back in the Pacific. When she was interrogating what appeared to be a newly built 19,000 ton Dutch merchant ship some 100 miles offshore of the Australian coast. When she pulled within gun range the merchant showed itself to be the German Kriegsmarine auxiliary cruiser Kormoran. The ensuing naval battle left both ships lost at sea forever. The larger Kormoran was armed with six 5.9 inch guns and got the drop on the Aussie cruiser but the Sydney took her down to the locker with her. The entire Austrailian crew, some 645 men, went with her.
After six decades of fruitless searches the ships have both been found. Oddly enough the HMAS Sydney that was lost in 1941 was named after another HMAS Sydney which was lost in 1914 during the First World War. That ship also sank in a mutually destructive battle with a German cruiser, the SMS Emden
