THINKING ABOUT FUNNELS. Funnel hit on HMAS SYDNEY [II], Cape Spada, July 1940. Photo Collection of Harold John Watts, courtesy Jenny Scott.

4404. This was the single hit HMAS SYDNEY [II] received in the Battle of Cape Spada, off Crete, on July 19 1940 when she engaged the fast Italian Condottieri Class cruisers BARTOLOMEO COLLEONI and GIOVANNI DEL BANDE NERE.

 

BARTIOLOMEO COLLEONI was disabled and finished off by British destroyers, while GIOVANNI DEL BANDE NERE escaped with some damage. It was the RAN's most successful single ship action of the war.

 

SYDNEY escaped without casualties, and there is a another photograph taken in Alexandria of

four or five men posing happily from inside this large hole.

 

Quite frankly, we have eschewed that image as looking a little too 'posed' for the likes of the Unofficial RAN Centenary 1911-2011 Photostream.

 

Photo: Collection of Harold John Watts, courtesy Jenny Scott [Adelaide Archivist].

Done