On 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney (II) fought the German raider Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia. Both ships sank. None of Sydney’s 645 men returned home, and roughly 80 of Kormoran's crew died. It's Australia's worst naval disaster. Behind the headlines were Australians with different backgrounds, skills and hopes. The stories of Joseph Burnett, Harold Armstrong and Thomas Welsby Clark help us understand the human cost of war. Investigate the event through personnel records, eyewitness accounts and physical evidence.
Different lives, one ship
Captain Joseph Burnett began naval service before World War I. For Harold Armstrong and Thomas Welsby Clark, it was a much newer experience.
In November 1941, their lives came together aboard HMAS Sydney, a light cruiser serving in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Their work helped protect ships travelling through Australian waters. Merchant ships carried supplies, while troopships transported service personnel. Escorts such as Sydney guarded them against attack. The ship was a household name in 1940 after it attacked the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni.
On 11 November, Sydney left Fremantle to escort the troopship Zealandia to the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra. After handing over responsibility to the British cruiser HMS Durban, Sydney turned for home.
The ship was expected back in Fremantle on 20 November, but it never arrived.
Joseph Burnett – a lifetime in the Navy
Joseph Burnett was born in Singleton, New South Wales, on 26 December 1899. As a schoolboy, he applied to join the Royal Australian Naval College (RANC). He became one of its first cadets at the end of 1912, alongside Harold Farncomb.
His career took him far from home. During World War I, Burnett served aboard the battlecruiser HMAS Australia. Later, he trained as a gunnery officer, specialising in naval gunnery.
Burnett also enjoyed sport. He represented naval teams in rugby union and participated in tennis, squash, cricket and athletics. (In 1944, the RANC named the Burnett Prize for rugby in his honour.)
From 1918 to 1921, he served in HMS Royal Oak with the Atlantic Fleet before transferring to HMAS Adelaide. He married Enid Ward in England in 1924.
By the outbreak of World War II, Burnett had sea experience and had held senior naval appointments. He took command of Sydney in May 1941, aged 41. He is remembered as a well-regarded and highly experienced officer whose career reports were consistently favourable. After almost 2 years at HMAS Cerberus in Victoria, Burnett's senior officer wrote:
As Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff his work has been outstanding and he has a grasp as wide as I have known in any officer. He is full of initiative, most loyal and tactful and extremely hardworking. One of the most promising and exceptional officers I have met.
[Officer competency report, 12 May 1941, in NAA: A3978, BURNETT J.]
Captain Joseph Burnett, Royal Australian Navy, on the bridge of HMAS Sydney, 1941. He died in the sinking of Sydney after its action with the German auxiliary raider Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia on 19 November 1941. AWM 128096
Harold Armstrong – a young sailor
Harold James Armstrong was born in Geelong, Victoria, on 10 October 1917. One of 5 children, he was the only son of James and Violet Armstrong. His father worked for Geelong Water Works and Sewerage.
Armstrong enlisted in the RAN on 30 December 1940, aged 23. His war service records preserve small details: grey eyes, dark brown hair and a scar on his left cheek. Such details help turn a name on a memorial into an individual. He trained in Victoria and New South Wales before serving aboard Sydney. As an ordinary seaman, he had a junior sailor’s rank.
By Sydney’s last voyage, Armstrong had turned 24. Less than a year had passed since he joined the Navy.
Ordinary Seaman Harold James Armstrong, HMAS Cerberus, Royal Australian Navy, c 1940.
Thomas Welsby Clark – an accountant at sea
Thomas Welsby Clark was born in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm, Queensland, on 28 January 1920. He attended Slade School in Warwick and worked on his family’s properties and oyster leases.
Clark was a strong swimmer and keen yachtsman. Before joining the Navy, he worked as an accountant and served in the Militia, Australia’s part-time army.
In August 1940, he joined the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR). He trained in submarine detection and later served in a training ship in Sydney Harbour.
Clark joined Sydney in August 1941. He was 21, and he spent only a few months aboard the cruiser before its final battle.
S/4449 Ordinary Seaman Thomas Welsby Clark, HMAS St Giles, Royal Australian Navy, c 1940–1941. AWM P08739.001
A merchant ship with concealed weapons
On the afternoon of 19 November 1941, Sydney encountered a vessel off Western Australia. It appeared to be a merchant ship. But it was actually HSK Kormoran, a German auxiliary raider. An armed ship disguised to approach and attack merchant shipping.
The German raider claimed to be the Dutch cargo freighter Straat Malakka. Its crew delayed their responses as Sydney signalled for identification and moved closer.
At about 5:30 pm, Kormoran raised the German naval flag and opened fire. Sydney returned fire with its larger guns but came within range of the raider. Shells and torpedoes caused devastating damage, and both ships were lost.
The disaster killed all 645 men aboard Sydney. They included naval personnel, 6 Royal Australian Air Force members and 4 civilian canteen workers.
Of Kormoran's crew of about 399 men, about 80 died, and the rest escaped in lifeboats and rafts. Some drifted ashore in Western Australia. Others were picked up at sea by passing ships. The survivors remained at Australian internment camps for nearly 2 years after the war ended.
The broad course of the battle is established, but no one aboard Sydney survived to give an account. Reconstructions rely heavily on evidence from German survivors, assessed alongside other records and later findings. We cannot describe Burnett’s final thoughts, Armstrong’s actions or Clark’s movements during the naval engagement.
Last known image of the Royal Australian Navy Modified Leander-class light cruiser HMAS Sydney (II), leaving Fremantle, c 11 November 1941. The ship sank off the coast of Western Australia on 19 November 1941 with loss of all 645 crew after a battle with the German auxiliary raider Kormoran. The photograph shows the ship painted in a wartime disruptive camouflage scheme. Fremantle History Centre.
Reporting the ship's loss
When Sydney failed to return to Fremantle, naval authorities initially considered possible delays. Attempts to contact the ship brought no reply, and extensive searches lasted until 29 November.
The Australian Government kept the incident secret for 12 days before officially announcing it. It withheld information about the presumed sinking and issued censorship notices to the media. In a press conference, prime minister John Curtin gave 3 reasons for the secrecy:
- strategic, including the safety of other ships
- the remote possibility of HMAS Sydney still being found afloat
- the hope that any surviving personnel could give an account of the ship's loss.
Many also believe preserving public morale was a key motivator for the media blackout.
Rumours circulated widely throughout Australia, especially among Navy families and media members. The Rear Admiral Commanding HM Australian Squadron, John Crace, noted in his personal diary:
Wednesday 26 Nov. … [Carola] came in soon after 12.00 and asked me if it was true Australia was sunk. I asked her why, and she said Lady [Mabel] Fairfax had met them with a whiteface and asked if they'd heard the news. C said no, and then Lady F. didn't wish to say, but on being pressed said there was a strong rumour that "Australia" had been sunk. This I suppose is the confidence we put in the press. M-G [Commodore Gerard Muirhead-Gould] was told by signal to see all Editors and ask them to keep the matter secret for the present … Thursday 27 Nov … I reported the matter of Lady Fairfax and her rumour to M-G officially – I heard that Purton was asked by a train conductor if it was true that Sydney had been sunk and gather that the conductor knew that it was all set up in type ready for publication. Many officers wives were asked if their husbands were still in "Sydney" and if they had photographs of them! … and I suggested that he [Commander Little, naval security in Sydney] should interview Lady Fairfax and find out the source of the rumour.
[Hore, HMAS Sydney (II): The Cruiser and the Controversy in the Archives of the United Kingdom, p 71.]
The government closed down 3 radio stations until 6 pm on 2 December after their announcers reported the presumed loss of HMAS Sydney during the temporary ban.
When Curtin finally broke the silence at 9 pm on Sunday 30 November, the media had been following the rumours and were well prepared. Most major newspapers published many illustrated articles about the ship and its lost men on 1 and 2 December:
- 'H.M.A.S. SYDNEY LOST IN ACTION; BUT SINKS ENEMY RAIDER', The Canberra Times, 1 Dec 1941, p 1.
- 'HMAS SYDNEY MISSING. PRESUMED LOST', The Argus, 1 Dec 1941, p 1.
- 'THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT CRUISER, HMAS SYDNEY ', The Argus, 1 Dec 1941, p 1.
- 'HMAS Sydney', The Argus, 1 Dec 1941 1941, p 4.
- 'VICTORIANS IN HMAS SYDNEY', The Argus, 1 Dec 1941, p 5.
- 'H.M.A.S. SYDNEY MISSING: SANK RAIDER', The Courier-Mail, 1 Dec 1941, p 1
- 'H.M.A.S. SYDNEY AT SEA — VICTORY IN MEDITERRANEAN — PORTRAITS OF MISSING CREW', The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Dec 1941, p 11.
Prime minister Curtin publicly mourned the crew's loss:
"While regretting the loss of a fine ship and her gallant complement [crew and passengers]," said Mr Curtin, "the people of Australia will be proud that she and they upheld the traditions of the Royal Australian Navy and completed a glorious career in successful action against the enemy."
['H.M.A.S. SYDNEY LOST IN ACTION; BUT SINKS ENEMY RAIDER', The Canberra Times, 1 December 1941]
The official message expressed national grief, but each death also affected a particular family and community. For families, uncertainty made the loss harder. No returning shipmates could explain what had happened to their loved ones.
Giving an unknown sailor his name
In February 1942, a life raft carrying a dead sailor reached Christmas Island. He could not be identified and was buried there.
Decades later, investigators recovered his remains and pursued identification through historical research and DNA testing.
On 19 November 2021, the Australian Government announced his name: Able Seaman Thomas Welsby Clark.
The announcement linked the unidentified sailor to the young Brisbane accountant. It also showed how scientific evidence can answer historical questions long after an event.
Clark is the only person from HMAS Sydney whose body has been recovered and identified. His case does not establish exactly how many others may have survived the initial fighting or entered the water.
Remembering people and examining evidence
Divers found Sydney’s wreck in 2008. Its discovery provided physical evidence to compare with battle accounts.
Other evidence had been available much earlier. The initial search recovered an empty Carley float, a type of life raft. The Australian War Memorial has held it in its collection since 1942.
The raft is different from the one that carried Clark to Christmas Island. Examination of the Carley float found damage consistent with naval shellfire, rather than machine-gun fire. Its history shows why historians must test claims against evidence and revisit earlier explanations.
Burnett, Armstrong and Clark had different paths into naval service. Their stories reveal the people behind Sydney's loss. Remembering them involves preserving their names and lives, while being honest about what the evidence can and can’t tell us.
Commemoration
We commemorate HMAS Sydney’s veterans through permanent memorials, anniversary services and the telling of individual stories.
At the Australian War Memorial:
- Roll of Honour lists Australian naval and air force personnel lost aboard HMAS Sydney
- Commemorative Roll lists 4 Australian civilian canteen workers
- Last Post ceremonies honour individual crew members.
In Geraldton, Western Australia, the HMAS Sydney II Memorial overlooks the city from Mount Scott. Its Dome of Souls contains 645 stainless-steel seagulls, one for each man lost.
Annual services on 19 November bring families and communities together in Geraldton and at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, keeping the men’s names and service in public memory.
Australians observe Remembrance Day on 11 November to remember all those who died or suffered during wars, conflicts and peace operations.