In the last minutes of the battle with the Kormoran, a badly wounded Sydney crewman climbed into a life raft and drifted away from the burning ship. Weeks later, the body drifted up on Christmas Island and was buried.
People have long been wondering if he was from the Sydney and now they know he most-likely was. But, which of the 640 crewmen was he?
Navy forensic experts have narrowed his identity down to four possibilities. They have tracked down and obtained DNA samples from the families.
The body was recovered in October 2006. Little clothing remained, but there were button eyelets from WW II overalls. Samples were sent to the Australian War Memorial which discovered the threads had been white, the color worn by officers.
Dental records and bone structure had already narrowed the list of possible identities to just over 200 of the 645 crew members of the Sydney. But only twelve of that number would have worn white.
The Sydney Story Continues. --Cooter
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