By Tom Lewis*
This article first appeared in Quadrant and is republished here with the kind permission of the author, naval historian Dr Tom Lewis, who points out that this article was written for the general public, and deliberately tries to simplify the technical detail so the average modern reader isn’t too confused and deterred.
The identity of the HMAS Sydney crew member now revealed, whose body was recovered in World War II and buried at Christmas Island, focuses attention once again on the final fight of this gallant warship. The loss of her 645 ship’s company members – more than this nation lost in the Vietnam War – was a terrible blow to the country. But how did such ships fight, and where does the only recovered Sydney man, Able Seaman Thomas Welsby Clark, aged 21, fit into the puzzle?
