I have a Google search on for articles about the recent discovery of the HMAS Sydney off the west coast of Australia. This is a big story in Australia, but I'm amazed how little has been said about it here in the US.
This is a major human interest story and a tribute to the "Greatest Generation" who are now so quickly passing away.
The April 5th Chicago's Daily Herald, the voice of Chicao's northwest suburbs, is the first account I've come across in an American paper.
The article says that damage evident in the photos of the wreck show the furious exchange of naval artillery, torpedoes, and machine gun fire and the two ships were perhaps irreparably damaged in the first five minutes of the fight. I believe most of the damage during the first five minutes was done to the Sydney.
For years, the gGrman accounts of the battle were regarded as suspect and there was the general belief that the Germans had machine-gunned the the Sydney's survivors. The fact that the lifeboats are missing tends to support this thought, but Naval Historian David Stevens says they might have become dislodged as the ship sank. He believes the German accounts were very accurate.
On February 6, 1942, a decomposed body with a shrapnel wound in the head, was found washed ashore in a lifeboat at Christmas Island, about 1100 miles to the north. A few years ago, an Australian boy found the grave. Dental records and DNA support the belief that he was a member of the Sydney's crew.
It's About Time America's Press Got Onto This Story. --Cooter
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