In the Wake of HMAS Sydney II
by Bryan Clark
ISBN 978-0-85905-493-5, (2010 new), A4, 265pp, 740grams
$50.00* + POST
Researched over a 15-year period by the former editor of The Gascoyne Telegraph and The Northern Timesnewspapers, Bryan Clark, this newly-released book is the only record of many of the now-deceased German survivors of the World War 11 raider, HSK Kormoran, which sunk the famous Australian cruiser, HMAS Sydney 11, off the West Australian coast on November 19, 1941, resulting in the deaths of 645 Australian naval personnel.
The author, Bryan Clark, set himself the difficult task of tracing most of the key German survivors of the famous sea battle, most of whom were scattered all over the world. A few, surprisingly, had returned to Australia as immigrants, preferring life in this country to that of war-torn Europe.
Bryan was strongly criticised at the time for approaching the Kormoran survivors to document their reminiscences because, as one critic put it: "Why ask them anything about it? They are only going to give you lies."
Years later, once the Sydney-Kormoran wrecks were discovered in the depths of the Indian Ocean, and interest was revived, the author's research was proven to be invaluable, and this book contains much of the evidence in all its uncensored wonder.
Nowadays, the author has moved far away from the Western Australian haunts where he lived and worked for many years as an editor-journalist and lives in the beautiful Ilparpa Ranges south-west of Alice Springs, in Central Australia sharing his domain with his Heeler mates, Bluey and Cheeky, while working on an autobiography which describes his adventures of living in the Northern Territory.