Download or read book From Great Depths written by M. McCarthy and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long considered one of the world's most significant wartime mysteries, the fateful dusk encounter between HMAS Sydney (II) and the German raider Kormoran stands as Australia's single largest naval disaster. The loss of both ships on the night of 19 November 1941 with Sydney's full war complement of men and boys sparked a growing mystery spanning sixty-six years for Australia's most famous fighting ship and for one of Germany's best known raiders. The 2008 discovery of the wrecks captured the imagination of two young researchers who dreamt and then lived their impossible dream -- bringing what lies in total darkness on the seabed nearly three kilometres beneath the waves and over 100 kilometres from the coast to the surface for all to experience. From Great Depths features the results of their astounding success, presenting absolutely stunning underwater photography and fascinating new discoveries, brought together with inspiring and heartrending personal accounts of wartime service on the ships, and their fierce battle with the devastating loss of over 700 souls from both sides.
Download or read book Royal Australian Navy 1939 1942 written by G. Hermon Gill and published by Canberra : Australian War Memorial. This book was released on 1957 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bitter Victory written by Wesley Olson and published by Uwa Pub. This book was released on 2002 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On November 11, 1941, HMAS Sydney sailed from the port of Fremantle, Western Australia, on a routine escort mission. Though scheduled to return on the afternoon of November 20, it failed to arrive. Three days later, the Australian cruiser was instructed to break wireless silence. There was no response. The following morning, November 24, search aircraft were dispatched. They were unable to locate the ship. That afternoon however, the Navy Office learned that German naval men had been recovered from a raft in the Sunda Strait-Fremantle Shipping lane. They claimed their ship had been sunk by a cruiser. In the days that followed, more German survivors were found, and all told the same story: they had been involved in an action with a Perth Class cruiser on November 19 and their ship, the auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, was set on fire and had to be abandoned. The cruiser they were involved with, later identified as Sydney, was last sighted as a glow on the horizon. Sydney and its entire complement of 645 officers and men were never seen again. The disappearance of Sydney has baffled the Australian government, historians and the public alike for over fifty years, and although many attempts have been made to unravel the sequence of events, three basic questions have always remained: Why did Sydney sink? How did it disappear without a trace? And why were there no survivors? Wesley Olson's book, Bitter Victory, re-opens the case. By examining every piece of available evidence and carefully reconstructing the event through reports and eye-witness accounts, Olson has produced both a compelling narrative and the most persuasive explanation yet for the tragedy of HMAS Sydney.
Download or read book HMAS Sydney written by Tom Frame and published by Hachette Australia. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complete and authoritative account of the sinking of the HMAS Sydney, and the recent finding of her wreck. On 19 November 1941, the pride of the Australian Navy, the light cruiser Sydney, fought a close-quarters battle with the German armed raider HSK Kormoran off Carnarvon on the West Australian coast. Both ships sank ? and not one of the 645 men on board the Sydney survived. Was Sydney?s captain guilty of negligence by allowing his ship to manoeuvre within range of Kormoran?s guns? Did the Germans feign surrender before firing a torpedo at the Sydney as she prepared to despatch a boarding party? This updated edition covers the recent discovery of the wreck ? with the light this sheds on the events of that day 67 years ago, and the closure it has brought to so many grieving families. `Tom Frame has produced the most comprehensive and compelling account of the loss of HMAS Sydney to date. His judgements are fair and his conclusions reasoned. If you only read one book on this tragic event in Australian naval history, and want all the facts and theories presented in a balanced way, Tom Frame?s book is for you? - Vice Admiral Russ Shalders AO CSC RANR Chief of Navy, 2005-08.
Download or read book The Loss of HMAS Sydney Two written by Australia. Department of Defence. Commission of Inquiry into the Loss of HMAS Sydney II. and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Sinking of HMAS Sydney written by Doctor Tom Lewis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2024-01-03 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HMAS Sydney was the pride of the fleet during the Second World War. A light cruiser and one of Australia’s main combat vessels. On the 19th November 1941, off the coast of Western Australia, The Sydney engaged in a fierce and bloody battle with the German raider Kormoran. Following this action, The Sydney failed to return to port. An extensive search and rescue carried out, but the warship had disappeared with all 645 men on board. Whilst the battle lasted little more than an hour, this single ship engagement remains Australia’s greatest naval disaster. More Australian servicemen died in the battle between the German raider Kormoran and the light cruiser HMAS Sydney than perished in the Vietnam War. It was not until 2008 that the wreck was discovered. The passage of time between the sinking and the discovery led to numerous mystery and conspiracy theories, all of which started replacing the truth. Now, with an explanation of how those on board lived, fought, and died, this book tells the full story.
Download or read book Dark Secrets written by Robert Hadler and published by . This book was released on 2020-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of murder on HMAS Australia. During World War II a sailor is killed, the suspects are part of a rumoured homosexual group on board the flagship. What followed was one of the most controversial events in the history of the Royal Australian Navy and triggered unprecedented legal and political events.
Download or read book Beware Raiders written by Bernard Edwards and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-07-19 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A British naval historian recounts the victories and defeats of two of the most infamous German Navy vessels during World War II. Bernard Edwards’s Beware Raiders! tells the fascinating story of two German ships and the havoc they caused amongst Allied shipping in World War II. One was the eight-inch gun cruiser Admiral Hipper—named for World War I’s German fleet Admiral Franz von Hipper—fast, powerful, and Navy-manned. The other was a converted merchant man, Hansa Line’s Kandelfels armed with a few old scavenged guns manned largely by reservists, and sailing under the nom de guerre Pinguin. The difference between the pride of the Third Reich’s Kriegsmarine’s fleet and the converted cruiser was even more evident in their commanders. Edwards emphasizes the striking contrast between the conduct of Ernst Kruder, captain of the Pinguin, who attempted to cause as little loss of life as possible, and the callous Iron Cross–decorated Wilhelm Meisel of the Admiral Hipper, who had scant regard for the lives of the men whose ships he had sunk. Contrary to all expectations, as Edwards reveals in his thrilling accounts of the missions performed by each ship, the amateur man-of-war reaped a rich harvest and went out in a blaze of glory. The purpose-built battlecruiser, on the other hand, was hard-pressed even to make her mark on the war and ended her days in ignominy.
Download or read book The Loss of HMAS SYDNEY II Entire Set written by Australian Government - Department of Defence - Defence Publishing Service and published by . This book was released on 2009-06 with total page 1200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cruiser written by Mike Carlton and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2011 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young--many were still teenagers--from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French, and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months on end until, ultimately, during the disastrous evacuation of the Australian army from Crete, their ship took a direct hit and thirteen men were killed. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the forlorn campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off the coast of Java in March that year she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain and the Royal Australian Navy's finest fighting sailor, 'Hardover' Hec Waller. Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there, victims of unspeakable atrocity. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end. Cruiser, by journalist and broadcaster Mike Carlton, is their story. And the story of those who loved them and waited for them.
Download or read book Flagship written by Mike Carlton and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2018-08 with total page 651 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1924, when the grand old battle cruiser HMAS Australia I, once the pride of the nation, was sunk off Sydney Heads, there was a day of national mourning. In 1928, the RAN acquired a new ship of the same name, the fast, heavy cruiser HMAS Australia II, and she finally saw action when World War II began, patrolling the North Atlantic on the lookout for German battleships. By March 1942, Australia had returned home, where the ship was stunned by a murder. One night one of her sailors, Stoker Riley, was found stabbed. Before he died, he named his two attackers, and the two men were found guilty and sentenced to death under British Admiralty law. Only weeks later Australia fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea near Papua New Guinea, the first sea battle to stop the Japanese advance in the Pacific. She was heavily attacked and bombed from the air but, with brilliant ship-handling, escaped unscathed. In 1944, she took part in the greatest sea fight of all time, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which returned General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines. She was struck by a kamikaze bomber, killing her captain and 28 other men. The next year, she was hit by four kamikaze planes on four successive days. She was attacked by more kamikaze aircraft than any other Allied ship in the war, and in the end this finished her war. She retired gracefully, laden with battle honors, and was scrapped in 1956--the last of her name, for the navy no longer uses Australia for its ships.
Download or read book False Flags written by Stephen Robinson and published by Exisle Publishing. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Search for HMAS Sydney written by Ted Graham and published by UNSW Press. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In November 1941 HMAS Sydney, the pride of Australia's wartime fleet, and its crew of 645 disappeared without a trace off the Western Australian coast. All that was known was Sydney had come under fire from the German raider HSK Kormoran, which also sank. After numerous unsuccessful searches from the mid 1970s onwards, the Finding Sydney Foundation was set up and in March 2008 one of Australia's greatest maritime mysteries was solved when both wrecks were finally discovered. The Search for HMAS Sydney pieces together the incredible story of Sydney, its crew and the families left behind. It details the innovative and powerful research procedures implemented by the Foundation to locate the wrecks of Sydney and Kormoran, their discovery and the detailed forensic analyses and commemorations that followed.
Download or read book The Drowned Man written by Brendan James Murray and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Shipwreck Hunter written by David L Mearns and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2017-07-26 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The underwater worlds of past and present collide in the depths of the ocean in this gripping and suspenseful narrative by David Mearns, a true expert on the mysteries of the deep sea.' CLIVE CUSSLER David Mearns has found some of the world's most fascinating and elusive shipwrecks. His deep-water searches have solved the 66-year mystery of HMAS Sydney, discovered the final resting place of the mighty battlecruiser HMS Hood and revealed the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur in the narrow underwater canyon that served as its grave. His painstaking historical detective work has led to the shallow reefs of a remote island that hid the crumbling wooden skeletons of Vasco da Gama's sixteenth century fleet. The Shipwreck Hunter is the compelling story of David's life and work on the seas, focusing on some of his most intriguing discoveries. It details the extraordinary techniques used, the research and the mid-ocean stamina and courage needed to find a wreck kilometres beneath the sea, as well as the moving human stories that lie behind each of these oceanic tragedies. Part detective story, part history and part deep ocean adventure, The Shipwreck Hunter is a unique insight into a hidden, underwater world.
Download or read book Lolita and the Hollywood Fleet written by William Blunt and published by . This book was released on 2020-05 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the 22nd of November 1941, the Sydney based motor cruiser, Lolita, was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Lolita. She was one of thirteen 'pleasure' cruisers requisitioned by the Navy to form its Sydney fleet of Channel Patrol Boats (CPB). That fleet became known as the Hollywood Fleet. Throughout the years of war in the Pacific, those Channel Patrol Boats with their crews worked to protect Australia. Several, including HMAS Lolita, fought in the Battle of Sydney Harbour. At least one of the fleet operated in Darwin during the Japanese bombing raids. She was later joined by two others. Another served on the south-west coast of New Guinea while two others reached the north coast of New Guinea with one eventually serving in Indonesia. One of the vessels which served on the north coast of New Guinea was HMAS Lolita before she was destroyed by a massive explosion. That explosion took the lives of two naval mechanics and injured others. Three other cruisers of the Hollywood Fleet were destroyed whilst on naval service. Another was gutted by fire whilst on patrol, but was salvaged and rebuilt and remarkably, remains afloat today along with two other vessels of the fleet. The whereabouts of the other six, remain to be discovered.This is the historical record of Lolita and HMAS Lolita, and the other motor cruisers that formed the Hollywood Fleet. It is also the record of how Lolita and her commander and crew were written out of history, and how they and their sister ships of the Hollywood Fleet and their crews, deserve their recognition and place in Australia's history.
Download or read book The Life and Death of Harold Holt written by Thomas R. Frame and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2005 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full length biography of Australia's most enigmatic prime minister.
