HMAS Sydney (D48) - Awards, Memorials, and Legacy

Awards, Memorials, and Legacy

Sydney was granted the battle honour "Kormoran 1941" in recognition of the damage done to Kormoran. This was one of only three honours awarded during the 20th century for the sinking of a single ship, and the second to a ship named Sydney (the other had been awarded to the previous Sydney for her defeat of the German light cruiser SMS Emden at the Battle of Cocos).

The main memorial for the loss of Sydney is located at Geraldton, Western Australia, on top of Mount Scott. Planning for the memorial commenced in late 1997, after a speech by Sydney researcher Glenys McDonald at the local Rotary club. The first, temporary memorial (consisting of a large boulder, a flagpole, and a bronze plaque), was installed prior to 19 November 1998, and was used in a remembrance ceremony that year. During the playing of the Last Post, a large flock of seagulls flew over the participants and headed out to sea in formation: this became a major feature of the permanent memorial. The permanent memorial included four major elements: a stele of the same size and shape of the ship's prow, a granite wall listing the ship's company, a bronze statue of a woman looking out to sea and waiting in vain for the cruiser to come home, and a dome (dubbed the "dome of souls") onto which 645 stainless steel seagulls were welded. The memorial (minus the stele, which had not been completed in time) was dedicated on 18 November 2001, and was used the next evening for a commemoration ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the ship's loss. In May 2009, the memorial was recognised by the Australian government as being of national significance.

Other memorials commemorating the loss of Sydney include an oak tree planted at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance, and an avenue in Carnarvon lined with 645 trees. The service of Sydney, along with the other ships of the same name, is commemorated by a stained-glass window at the Garden Island Naval Chapel, and by the mast of the first Sydney at Bradleys Head, New South Wales. The names of those killed aboard Sydney are inscribed at the Australian War Memorial.

The "HMAS Sydney Replacement Fund" was established to help finance the acquisition of a replacement ship. The AU£426,000 raised was contributed to the purchase of Australia's first aircraft carrier in the late 1940s; the Majestic-class carrier was named HMAS Sydney upon her commissioning into the RAN in December 1948. This Sydney operated during the Korean War, then was modified into a troop transport and served in the Vietnam War, before her sale for scrap in 1973.

The Supermarine Seagull V aircraft that operated from Sydney between 1937 and 1938, still survives as part of the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum in London.