At that time, Sydney was tasked with conducting patrol and escort work on the Australia station, escorting such famous troopships as the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in southern Australian waters throughout early September.
In late September 1941, the cruiser began operating off the West Australian coast, escorting convoys from Fremantle to the Sunda Strait in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). There, Sydney would hand the convoy over to other Allied warships that would continue escorting the ships to Singapore.
Able Seaman Thomas Welsby Clark’s niece Dr Leigh Lehane with her husband Robert Lehane (centre). naval historian John Perryman (left) and naval researcher Commander Greg Swinden, RAN (right).Credit:Defence Images
On November 11, 1941, Sydney departed Fremantle escorting the troopship Zealandia, carrying troops of the 8th Division, 2nd Australian Imperial Force. On November 17, in the vicinity of the Sunda Strait, Sydney handed the troopship escort over to the cruiser HMS Durban before commencing the return voyage to Fremantle.
On the afternoon of November 19, 1941, Sydney sighted what she took to be a merchant ship about 200 kilometres west of Shark Bay, Western Australia, and closed in to investigate.
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Sydney signalled the ship to identify itself, continuing to approach the mysterious vessel as she did so. The merchant ship stated it was the Dutch steamer Straat Malakka, but in fact she was the disguised and heavily armed German merchant raider Kormoran, which had already sunk 10 unsuspecting merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and taken another as a prize.
Sydney drew closer, rescinding her advantage of superior gunnery and range, demanding that the ship identify itself with its allotted secret call sign.
The captain of the German raider, Theodor Detmers, did not have the response and, with Sydney close on his starboard beam, he ordered the immediate hoisting of the German battle ensign and opened fire.
In the battle that followed both ships were mortally damaged. Sydney, torpedoed and ablaze, later sank with the loss of all 645 members of her ship’s company.
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The crew of Kormoran abandoned ship before the raider was scuttled, using demolition charges that set off her cargo of more than 300 sea mines. Approximately three-quarters of her crew survived to become prisoners of war.
When Sydney failed to return to Fremantle, a major search for the ship began; but only a single empty life-raft, known as a Carley float (now on display at the Australian War Memorial), and an inflated RAN lifejacket were found.
Several months later, on February 6, 1942, another badly damaged Carley float containing the body of a naval rating wearing blue overalls was washed up on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
The body was recovered, and, with no means of identifying the individual, his remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the European cemetery there.
In the post-war years, speculation that the body came from HMAS Sydney (II) increased, leading to a number of official inquiries being held that were to confirm the assumption. Efforts to relocate the body, with a view to attempting to identify it, followed, and in 2006 the remains of the unknown sailor were exhumed by a specialist ADF team.
The remains were carefully examined and biometric data and DNA samples were recorded before the sailor was reinterred, with full naval honours, in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Geraldton – the closest war cemetery to where Sydney was lost.
In the years since 2006, a committed team of researchers continued working hard to identify the unknown sailor and DNA testing revealed his identity beyond doubt this year.
On November 19, 2021, at a special ceremony held at the Australian War Memorial marking the 80th anniversary of Sydney’s sinking, Chief of Navy Vice-Admiral Michael Noonan announced that it was Able Seaman Thomas Welsby Clark, who had finally completed his long voyage home.
Lest We Forget.
Commander Greg Swinden, RAN
Thomas Welsby Clark ‘the unknown sailor’
Source: Philippines Alive
