SURVIVORS of the German raider HSK Kormoran had probably told the truth when they said their ship did not breach the rules of war when it sank the HMAS Sydney in 1941, the commissioner heading the inquiry into the sinking said.
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Terence Cole, QC, said many of the details given by survivors of the Kormoran during the inquiry, relating to the shellfire and torpedoing of the Sydney, had been verified by independent examination of the shipwrecks, which were found off Western Australia in 2007.
Mr Cole, who finished his hearings yesterday, said that if the German survivors were found to have told the truth, there might be a good argument that they had told the truth about everything else relating to the engagement on November 19, 1941.
Eleven Germans, who were interviewed when the Cole inquiry went to Germany, said there were no breaches of the rules of war, such as running up a white flag in pretence of surrender, and the Kormoran decamouflaged and ran up its war ensign before opening fire on the Sydney. They denied allegations that they machine-gunned the Australian survivors from their ship, or from a torpedo boat.
The Kormoran, which was badly damaged by return fire from the Sydney, particularly in the engine room, was scuttled late that night in 1941, and 318 of the crew were picked up by Australian search vessels.
Since Mr Cole began the inquiry in May last year he has heard 22 days of evidence from 60 witnesses, received 230 exhibits and looked at 200,000 pages of archives. He is expected to complete his report in June.
The loss of the Sydney, with all 645 men on board, has been shrouded in controversy.
Various theories were put forward as to why it became a sitting duck for the raider, which it had sighted from a distance of up to 40 kilometres.
Some alleged that the German captain, Theodor Detmers, had lured the vessel into thinking he presented no threat, and then launched an underwater torpedo. Others suggested that a submarine, perhaps Japanese, had worked in concert with the Kormoran and torpedoed the Sydney as it withdrew from battle.
A respected historian, Professor Tom Frame, in his book HMAS Sydney, said he did not think Captain Detmers was above ruthless behaviour.
Controversy was so intense that in 1997 the Federal Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade was ordered to conduct an inquiry.
The committee took submissions from 201 persons or organisations and published its report, of 4710 pages, in 19 volumes. But it did not have the advantage of expert examination of the wrecks.
