HMAS Sydney (d. 11/19/1941) Sailor Identified

[iambecomelife]

HMAS Sydney Mystery Solved: 11/19/1941 - 11/19/2021

After 80 years, the mystery sailor from "Sydney" whose body washed up on Christmas Island has been positively identified through DNA analysis and forensic archaeology. The results will be announced at the time of this year's

annual commemoration in Australia on November 19th.

There was speculation in 2019 about one name in particular, but now we will be 100% sure.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-80-years.html

80 years ago, he and his mates saved hundreds of lives at the cost of their own; hopefully this development will be some comfort to their descendants.

[iambecomelife]

Also, an extremely interesting medical analysis of the fighting that I found yesterday. It explains what injuries were likely suffered during the battle, and why none of Sydney's crew likely survived for very long:

https://jmvh.org/article/1262/

[Jimbuna]

Hopefully this will result in immense relief for the extended family.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Hopefully this will result in immense relief for the extended family.

For sure. Shortly before she was sunk, a Royal Navy cruiser boarded a Royal Navy auxiliary merchant in the Pacific - the skipper sent a report warning the Admiralty of how dangerous close range boarding procedures were ... according to the merchant captain he could have sunk the cruiser easily if he had been a German raider.

The brass ignored this report. They continued to insist that cruisers approach unidentified ships closely... If they were German they could be prevented from scuttling and captured, to help alleviate Britain's merchant shipping shortage. They gave no thought to how this threw away a cruiser's advantages (easier for raiders to penetrate armor, kill deck crew, & fire torpedoes at close range). If this report had been taken into consideration, 600+ lives might have been saved.

Total lunacy AFAIC ... one modern cruiser and 600 men in exchange for what was basically a German merchantman is a poor trade in my opinion.

[Jimbuna]

Agreed

[Eisenwurst]

With this announcement some news videos were posted on Youtube.

Most comments were respectful and decent, but.....some were rather nasty and singularly disrespectful.

What's wrong with people these days? Why all this nasty negativity?

Armchair Admirals and keyboard warriors think they know it all.

A brave ship and crew went down fighting

RIP, brave crew of HMAS Sydney.

[Eichhörnchen]

Totally with you on that, mate

[em2nought]

Interesting, I'd never even heard the story before. If I was German, I'd probably want to make a movie about it.

[Eisenwurst]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Totally with you on that, mate

Thanks Big E.

I've sent you a PM I think you'll find interesting re this.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by em2nought

Interesting, I'd never even heard the story before. If I was German, I'd probably want to make a movie about it.

There is some good original footage about german raiders shown now and then in well-made history features/reports here, but mostly about WW1.

There were quite some Hilfskreuzer (~auxiliary cruisers) used by Germany in WW2, but the lack of overseas support bases made the conduct difficult to say at least. Most were sunk early, and only a few were really successful, like the Hilfskreuzer »Atlantis« (translation by Google) with lots of translation errors sigh

HMAS Sydney (II) and the HSK Kormoran survey expedition 3 May 2015:



May they all rest in peace.