BRAVE SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 59, 3 December 1941, Page 8

BRAVE SERVICE

Career Of The Sydney MANY ENCOUNTERS (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY. December 2. . H.M.A.S. Sydney, a modified “Leander” type cruiser, was laid down oil July 8, 1933, at the yards of Messrs. Swan and Hunter, England. She was laid down as H.M.S. Phaeton and after purchase by the Australian Government, was renamed H.M.A.S, Sydney Launched on i September 22, 1934, she was completed on September 24, 193 u, and commissioned at Portsmouth on the same date. Her dimensions were displacement 6830 tons, length 562 feet, beam 56ft. Sin., horsepower 72,000. speed 321 knots. She mounted eight 6in. guns as her main armament,’ ' with secondary armament and anti-aircraft guns. She also carried torpedo tubes. The Sidney si>ent the critical months of 1935 and 1936 (whet! sanctions were applied against Italy) in the Mediterranean. When affairs had eased there she proceeded to. Australia, arriving at Fremantle on August 2, 1936. She continued on the Australian station, and was in Fremantle when war broke out. War Service. On November 11, 1939, the Sydney came under the command of Captain J. Collins. After war duty iu Australian waters she sailed for the Mediterranean on April $22, 1940, joining the Mediterranean Fleet the following month. In February, 1941, the Sydney arrived back in Fremantle. She was given a great welcome in Sydney when she reached there. She remained on duty on the Australian station. On May 15, 1941, Captain Joseph Burnett assumed command. The Sydney carried one aircraft and was fitted with a catapult amidships. Her-.armour wag lin. thick on her turrets and bridges, 2in. on the deck and from 2in. to 3in. on her sides. A. sister ship of H.M.A.S. Perth and Hobart, the Sydney was the first of the three to be completed. In most respects she was identical with the Achilles and Leander, but a different, arrangement of her engine and boiler rooms gave her two funnels instead of one. The Sydney visited Wellington in company with other Australian warships in 1937, after a series of exercises in the Tasman Sea with the Achilles. She was then commanded by Captain J. U. P. Fitzgerald, R.N., now a rearadmiral. ; Sank Italian Cruiser. In July, 1940, H.M.A.S. Sydney, commanded by Captain Collins, accompanied by two destroyers, attacked two Italian cruisers north-west of Crete. In the subsequent engagement the Italian 6iu. gun cruiser, Bartolomeo Colleoni, of 5069 tons, was sunk. . ' On February 14 of this year H.M.A.S. Sydney returned to Australia after nearly a 'year at sea, during which she steamed 80,000 miles, had more than eight encounters with the enemy, fired 4000 shells and withstood 60 heavy bombing attacks from the air. Up to that stage not one member of her crew had been lost.