HMAS Sydney II

[mabrown]

Originally Posted by Rick Thomson

Unfortunate demise is perhaps understated, the RAN seems to have been a bit of a hard luck outfit at best. No disrespect to the valour of the RAN tars intended.

Rick

Yes indeed. One can also add HMAS Canberra to the hard luck ledger and probably several others.

In this country, we tend to accord our losses much greater importance than our victories.

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by mabrown

Yes indeed. One can also add HMAS Canberra to the hard luck ledger and probably several others.

In this country, we tend to accord our losses much greater importance than our victories.

You have to add Canberra's sister ship HMAS Australia, hit by kamikazes on 6 occasions in 1944-45.

Canberra was a joint sinking between the IJN and USN, a torpedo from USS Bagley hit the Canberra early in the Battle of Savo island. The County Class were tough ships - the Canberra took 2 torpedo hits and 24 8" shell hits but was still afloat although burning the next day - the wreck was finally sunk by US destroyers.

Regards,

Charlie

[mabrown]

Originally Posted by CharlieC

The demise of the Sydney is an on-going debate in Australia. With the discovery of the wrecks of the Sydney and the Kormorran off the WA coast there has been an inquiry running to look at the loss of the Sydney again. The weight of evidence seems to be that the Sydney's captain brought the ship too close to the Kormorran after challenging it.

Regards,

Charlie

I feel very sorry for Burnett. As the conspiracy theories have fallen away with the discovery of Sydney's wreck, Burnett has become the main focus of her loss. Sadly, he isn't here to defend himself and it is impossible to know what was going on on Sydney's bridge at the time.

Sydney was clearly a very good ship at the ranges for which she was designed. She had proved it at Cape Spada against two cruisers which on paper were her equal (although I think that can be debated). I think it has been hard for Australians to accept that a modern cruiser could be lost in battle with a glorified freighter. At 1000m though, Kormoran was clearly a tough adversary and Detmers gave himself every chance to win. Sydney was simply much too close.

In relation to Canberra, there is an excellent web page by one of her crew here:
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/index.html

[mabrown]

Wow, 2 weeks since my last update. Have had lots to do (my little boy turned one today) and haven't had much time for projects. Tonight I have finished (baring inevitable revisions I'm sure) all of the hull frame parts.

I'm nearly ready to try to build this frame. I'm steeling myself for a very public failure...

[B-Manic]

Looks good Mark, looking forward to seeing it in the real world. Reducing the number of frames reduced the number of possible problems. If there are problems don't think of them as a failure. Think of them as opportunities for improvement. That's what I always tell my new Sr. NCO's, unless they really pooch it of course. But they are not building paper models.

[APA-168]

Looking fantastic Mark, this one should be a winner!

When remembering Aussie naval history, do not forget one of the bravest acts of the war, the sloop HMAS Yarra's suicidal charge against Japanese heavy cruisers in an attempt to give her convoy time to escape. It is a real shame so few seem to have heard of Yarra and her story. I am planning on building a model of her (not paper) and have been doing research and it is appalling how little is out there.

[zot]

You know Avery, designing a paper model of her would be a fitting tribute. I think that is what you call a not-so-subtle hint

[zot]

Mark,
You are doing one heck of a Job. Happy B-day to the little one.

[redhorse]

We'll see how it goes, but I'm thinking your frames will be quite a success.

[mabrown]

Thanks guys for the vote of confidence. This is a great forum.

Avery, I'm fascinated that you are building Yarra. One of the things that impresses me about the members here is how broad the interests and knowledge are. I would love to try a model of Yarra some time down the track if I can make this current model work. Yarra's story is an incredibly heroic one. They named a Collins class sub after Rankin which is some sort of belated recognition. Is your model a resin one? I'm guessing that it would be off-topic to post images of it here but I would love to see it by PM some time if you wouldn't mind.

Thanks Scott for your birthday wishes for my boy. We all had a very nice day. I'm a first time dad at 41 and wouldn't swap the time I'm having now for anything.

All the best everyone.