Background for my story. On November 19th 1941 the cruiser HMAS Sydney was 150 miles S/W of Carnarvon Western Australia when it challenged a Dutch merchant ship called Straat Malakka. This ship was in fact the disguised German raider Kormoran. The Kormoran opened fire and the Sydney returned fire. The Sydney was badly damaged and still burning sailed over the horizon dissapearing from the sight of the Kormorans crew just over 5 hours after the battle began. The Kormoran was also badly damaged and sank 1½ hours after the Sydney was last seen. The Sydney along with her 645 crew were never seen again. On February 6th 1942 a RAN life raft containing a body was picked up off Christmas Island. The currents and amount of marine growth on the raft seemed to indicate the raft came from the Sydney. A name tag on the body read either McCowan, McGowan or McEwin. The Sydney had crewmen named McGowan and McEwin. The body was buried and a few weeks later the Japanese occupied the island hampering further investigation so the find was largely forgotten for the next 50 years as a positive identification was thought impossible. The graves location was lost but attempts to locate it began in 2000 and in September 2006 it was found. There was however one survivor. A friend of my parents was a crew member on the HMAS Sydney. The crew had shore leave before sailing on it's last journey and this particular sailor due to an excess of having a good time arrived at the dock to see the Sydney leaving port without him. He was AWOL but due to the confusion of the time was still listed as being on board when it was lost. His parents were informed he had been lost at sea so it came as a great shock when they found he was still alive. He went on to run a successful company and a few years ago although he had retired he arranged for my son to work there during school holidays. It was an interesting experience to talk to someone with such a connection to an event that is now a significant part of Australian history. My next story concerns a fake getting his comeuppance. In the early 70's the foreman of the company I was working with was very vocal about his war service. He had fought the Germans here and the Japanese there etc. So vocal that you'd think he had won the war single handed and we all know that it was John Wayne who did that I don't want to embarrass his family and he has since passed away so I will just call him JOE. I never got on with JOE and he was always telling me how useless i was. Being young I was the company gofer and he would rant that I was a thief if his lunch change was 1c short. Not a pleasant guy but I always had respect for those who fought for us so I always let it slide. You can see why I was so happy about what happened next. We were working on a new construction site and a worker approached me and said "Is that JOE over there?" I said it was and he told me that he hadn't seen him since they were in the army together. KACHING! Tell me all about it! Turns out that JOE didn't join the army until very late in the war and never left Australia. And the best was yet to come. I asked if he had any stories concerning JOE. They were at a training camp in Victoria and JOE was driving a jeep with my new friend the passenger. A training session began in the nearby firing range and JOE thought the Japs were invading. He ran the jeep off the road into a ditch, jumped out, and ran into an orchard where he climbed a tree. He stayed there until my friend convinced him there was no invasion. Of course I didn't take my new friends word as fact until I introduced him to JOE but it all came out then and the look on JOE's face was priceless. Everyone lost respect for JOE after this and he never spoke of his war service again.
Hi Wayne. The first was at least a relief for one sailors parents. The second sadly has been emulated many times with many different outcomes.
