No Survivors: The Horrific Sinking of HMAS Sydney

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As an ex Australian Navy sailor, the Captain had a bad habit of going too close to other unknown ships. This time he payed the price with his ship and ALL the men. Yet the Australian authorities kept this quiet for years. I am one of the lucky ones who have read the whole report after HMAS Sydney was found as a military mate was part of the report which l read.

My great uncle was lost on this ship and I remember my nan, his sister, speculating ways he might have survived. It’s horrible that the families were kept in the dark for so long after the war.

The worst part is knowing the captain of this ship had a letter telling him of a possible Q ship in the area telling him not to get to close to identified ships but he did it anyway and it cost everyone’s life on his ship

There was 1 Australian survivor of the battle that we know of who passed away in the lifeboat Able Seaman (AB) Thomas Welsby Clark, from New Farm in Brisbane, was found on Christmas Island by locals but was not reported for 60 years. The lifeboat is in a museum in Australia.

the preservation of the ships are incredibly haunting, its as if they've been preserved so well by the ocean as a warning to those that forget the horrors of war

This is an exceptionally well-made documentary. Highlighting the crew after the sinking really drives home the devastating human toll of naval battles that are all too often depicted as ‘spectacular’ or ‘noble’. Thank you!

Hi Mike, I had the honour to command four ships during my career , what Burnett did resulting in the loss of Sydney was unforgivable. Thank you for your great videos. Kind regards, Ian

I'm American so this is the first I'm hearing about the HMS Sydney. This was a hell of a story that had me riveted. Detmer was an absolute madman. RIP to the men of the Sydney.

In a Book i read on German auxiliary cruisers, after a paragraph talking about the Battle it talked about a woman visiting an Australian graveyard. She had two flowers with her one for her beloved husbands grave whom she is nover gonna see again and one for the grave of a young german sailor, who died in the cities hospital after the best effort of the doctors to save him had failed. That pargraph nearly made me cry.

My grandfather was on the Kormoran. Having spent the remainder of the war as a POW, he returned to Australia to raise a family.

I was watching the first drain the oceans episode from the history channel, they told this story, but you did it a million times better, I had to stop watching drain the oceans and come back over here, the quality of your videos are unmatched, your videos are better than anything on a streaming service. Thank you!!!

I find it amazing that literally nobody survived from HMAS Sydney despite it remaining afloat well into the night. Not a single life raft got away. It must have been hell on earth for those still alive and she went down. RIP to her brave crew.

Masterfully done! I've read many accounts of the encounter; yours adds details I had not yet heard. Your graphics and photos were perfect, they illustrated and personalized the crew and ships. Thank you for sharing the meticulous work you put into this.

I've never read an in-depth account of this action, which has always left me wondering at how an auxiliary cruiser so resoundingly defeated a full-fledged warship. Now I know, thank you! Excellent!

Such a sad, yet beautiful tribute to Sydney's crew. So many young, vital lives lost and futures snuffed out. War is so horrific.

Best telling of this tragic story I've ever heard. The ending was so moving and compellingly done that the sadness of losing those young sailors still resonates decades later.

Very well told and illustrated account of this horrible wartime disaster. I've read that the HSK Kormoran was laying mines and then lying-in wait for the big troopship HMT Aquitania that was due to pass through this area on the 21st of November while on her return voyage from Singapore to Sydney. Spies at Singapore had secretly notified the Kormoran about Aquitania's scheduled departure from the port on the 20th, so they could set up their trap for the liner in the waters northwest of Australia. There are two reasons this plan went afoul, the first obviously being Komoran's unexpected encounter with the Sydney on the 19th, and the second being a last-minute directive sent from the Admiralty, to increase the troop-carrying capacity on the Aquitania, and this order changed her timeline, delaying her departure from Singapore by two days. As it turned out, the Aquitania did indeed pass through the area on the 23rd, two days later than previously planned, and her lookout spotted a life raft in the water. The former Cunard liner stopped her engines and rescued about 26 members of Kormoran's surviving crew. Aquitania had a standing order to maintain wireless silence on all of her voyages, so the news of her rescue of the German survivors would be delayed in reaching Sydney, until the ship herself had actually arrived there. Have you heard anything about this part of this story?

From 2D animation to 3D. Your videos just keep getting better and better. Truly a work of art.

A workmate Heinz Homann was on the Kormoran -- he didnt ever say very much about the incident -- he told a few stories, not much, which i forget anyhow. He escaped during the war, & worked making charcoal in the bush -- protected by the locals -- & stayed when the war finished. I came to Australia on the Skaugum in Nov 1949 -- a sister ship of the Kormoran i believe.