Крейсер «Сидней»: История Австралийского Лёгкого Крейсера

Town class light cruiser

HMAS Sydney was a Chatham class light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Laid down in 1911 and launched in 1912, the cruiser was commissioned into the RAN in 1913. During the early stages of World War I, Sydney was involved in supporting the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, and escorting the first ANZAC convoy. On 9 November 1914, she defeated the German cruiser at the Battle of Cocos. During 1915 and 1916, Sydney operated on the North America and West Indies Station, before joining the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron at Greenock, Scotland in November 1916. On 4 May 1917, the cruiser was involved in an inconclusive action against the German zeppelin L43; neither was damaged. During late 1917, Sydney became the first Australian warship to launch an aircraft, and the first warship to do so from a rotatable platform. After the war's end, Sydney spent a year in reserve before being reactivated to serve as Flagship of the RAN. The cruiser was decommissioned in 1928 and broken up for scrap. Several sections of the ship, including her bow and foremast, have been preserved as monuments, and three of the ship's main guns saw later use in shore fortifications.

Sydney was a light cruiser, of the Chatham subclass. She had a standard displacement of 5,400 tons. Secondary and anti aircraft armament consisted of a single quick firing high angle anti aircraft gun and ten 0.303 inch machine guns (eight Lewis guns and two Maxim guns). Two 21 inch torpedo tubes were fitted, with a payload of seven torpedoes carried. Sydney was laid down by the London and Glasgow Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Company at Glasgow, Scotland, on 11 February 1911. In the course of the engagement, Sydney had fired some 670 rounds of ammunition, with around 100 hits claimed. She had meanwhile been hit sixteen times; three of her crew were killed and thirteen were wounded. 134 German personnel were killed, with the rest of the ship's company were captured by Sydney (apart from a shore party, which commandeered the schooner Ayesha and escaped) and were delivered to British forces at Valletta, Malta. After leaving Malta, the Australian cruiser proceeded to join the North America and West Indies Station, arriving in Bermuda on 6 January 1915.

Sydney spent eighteen months uneventfully patrolling along the west coast of the Americas. The airship dropped 10 to 12 bombs towards Sydney which failed to hit the ship (although the airship claimed to have hit one of the cruisers; the first air attack on an Australian warship. The Zeppelin was driven off by anti aircraft fire. Following an overhaul of the RAN honours system in 2010, Sydney was retroactively awarded two more battle honours: "Rabaul 1914" and "North Sea 1917–18".

Sydney was paid off into reserve on 13 April 1923.

Sydney paid off at Sydney on 8 May 1928 and arrived at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard in 1929, where she was broken up. This initially served as a monument to the engagement against Emden, but was rededicated in 1964 as a monument for all Australian ships lost and all sailors killed in the line of duty. Part of the bow, including the stem head, jackstaff, and fairleads, was set into the seawall at Milsons Point, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The main top mast was erected at Environa, but rotted at the base and collapsed. During the 1930s, two of the 6 inch guns were transported to Western Australia, and in 1938 were installed at Buckley Point on Rottnest Island. Another of the ship's guns was used on Thursday Island from 1940 to 1987. The naval gun and shield were installed at the Leighton Battery in September 2015 to replicate the original 6 inch guns at site.