Sydney found. Now the how and why?

By Carmelo Amalfi
HMAS Sydney author and WA train driver Wes Olsen says the truth to why none of the 645 sailors survived is written in the World War Two hulk sitting upright in 2.5km of water off Shark Bay.
Instrumental in the archival search for HMAS Sydney and the German raider ship HSK Kormoran, which were discovered within days of each other, Mr Olsen says video images of the wrecks will reveal how the ships sank on November 19, 1941.
More importantly, their discovery ends a 66-year wait for news of the final resting place of Sydney and its crew.
"The find is significant for the families of those lost," he said after a long shift hauling trains through the wheatbelt.
"The search was about providing closure for the families. They now know where their loved ones are.
"Now we have closure for a large number of Australians including British because there were Royal Navy people on board too."
Mr Olsen, whose contact over the past few years with British-based shipwreck hunter David Mearns and other Sydney researchers helped lead searchers to the Sydney site about 250km off WA, says he was lost in endless rail lines when he heard Kormoran was found.
That was on Sunday. On Monday, he was heading back from Merredin when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the discovery of Sydney just 12 nautical miles from Kormoran.
Mr Rudd described the historic find as a turning point in the search to find closure for Australian relatives and friends of the Sydney.
Most of the crew came from NSW and Victoria, 91 from WA; their loved ones converging on war memorials on November 19.
Why none of the Sydney crew survived the battle remains a mystery until video images of the seabed, expected to be available this week, sheds light on the wrecks’ war wounds.
“The bottom line is we trusted the German accounts and built the search pattern around their statements and hey presto we found the ship where it is supposed to be,” Mr Olsen said.
"Sydney is so close to Kormoran it's not funny. Everything fits with what the Germans said occurred."
That included the coordinates of the action given by Kormoran captain Theodor Detmers - 111 degrees east, 26 south, about 112 nautical miles west of Steep Point.
He said Kormoran caught fire during the sea battle and brief barrage from Sydney, flames threatening hundreds of mines which later exploded, the crew abandoning ship.
Most of the Kormoran crew, 317 out of nearly 400, arrived on the WA coast or were rescued at sea.
"The front section of Kormoran should be relatively intact," Mr Olsen explains. "The Sydney, from the German statements, was severely damaged on the forward superstructure and on fire, having also received a torpedo hit under the forward turret region.”
The survivors reported that Sydney was hit 50 times by the disguised raider's heavy guns, the firestorm causing severe casualties on its bridge and open decks.
The remaining 30 Kormoran crew, who meet each year to commemorate the batttle, maintain the 6830-ton light cruiser came too close and was unprepared for the battle.
"The best case scenario is Sydney took on so much water that she lost her buoyancy.
"The ship simply capsized and sank."
Mr Olsen says this was supported by initial reports indicating the hull is relatively intact: "In other words, we have 560 feet of ship, which is what we started with, and it's sitting upright on the seabed."
Mr Olsen said he did not expect to see much left above Sydney's waterline; big ships lose their turrets, masts and guns.
"The forward bridge superstructure will be badly smashed if not gone completely," he said.
"Guns, funnels, aircraft catapults and ship planes will be gone, leaving just a basic ship structure. The best we can hope for is the Sydney's four-inch guns."
He said torpedo tubes and other damaged sections of the ship structure would reveal how the ship fought her last action off WA.