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8 - Seeking the unknown: Remembering Sydney

from PART 3 - AIR AND SEA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2013

Bruce Scates
Bruce Scates
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Summary

HMAS Sydney won fame in July 1940 when she sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni off the coast of Crete. The 6380-ton light cruiser returned to Australia in early 1941 to engage in work closer to home. In November 1941 Sydney departed Fremantle to escort the troopship Zealandia, carrying members of the 8th Division, to Singapore. On her return to Fremantle, Sydney encountered the German raider Kormoran disguised as a Dutch merchant vessel. Sydney's captain made a fatal error in approaching too close to Kormoran. The speed and accuracy of the German gunners mortally wounded Sydney. None of Sydney's complement of 645 men survived.

The Mitchell and the Jamieson families lived close to one another in Foote Street, Albert Park, only a short distance from Port Phillip Bay. Francis Joseph Mitchell, known as Joe, was born in March 1919. More than six feet tall, with blue eyes and a head of brown hair, Mitchell joined the Royal Australian Navy in May 1940. In March 1941 he was transferred to HMAS Sydney as a supply assistant. The Jamiesons' second son, Ernie, also joined the navy. After his training in Victoria and New South Wales, he was posted to HMAS Arunta, and would later take part in the battle of Leyte Gulf.

Type
Chapter
Information
Anzac Journeys
Returning to the Battlefields of World War Two
 , pp. 176 - 201
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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