The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Ordinary Seaman Alan Hartley Schmidt, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on Ordinary Seaman Alan Hartley Schmidt, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War.


The recording for this Ceremony is damaged and not suitable for release to public

Ordinary Seaman Alan Hartley Schmidt, HMAS Sydney (II)
KIA 20 November 1941
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 29 January 2016

Today we remember Ordinary Seaman Alan Hartley Schmidt and the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (II), lost after engaging the German surface raider Kormoran in 1941.

Alan Hartley Schmidt was born 10 May 1923 in the small South Australian country town of Kangarilla, the only son of Hartley and Pansy Schmidt. Hartley Schmidt was a returned soldier from the Great War, having served with the 48th Battalion, and he enlisted again during the Second World War, serving in a garrison battalion.

The Schmidts had lived in Kangarilla since 1892, when Johann Schmidt and his wife immigrated to South Australia from Germany in 1877. Three generations later, Alan and his sister, Marjorie, grew up in Kangarilla and attended the local school. The family later moved north to Hamilton in the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Following the outbreak of war, 17 year old Alan Schmidt was working as a labourer when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on 2 July 1940. He was 168 centimetres tall with brown hair, hazel eyes and a pale complexion. He was sent to HMAS Cerberus, the navy’s training establishment south of Melbourne, near Crib Point on Western Port Bay. He remained there for several months before being posted to HMAS Sydney in February 1941.

A modified Leander-class light cruiser, Sydney was armed with eight 6-inch guns and was the pride of the Royal Australian Navy. Built in England, the cruiser was commissioned into the RAN in 1935 with a mixture of ages and levels of experiences on board.

Sydney was one of several Australian warships sent to the Mediterranean, where it had demonstrated its fighting prowess sinking the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in the battle of Cape Spada. In February 1941 Sydney returned home to Australia, where it received a hero’s welcome.

On 19 November Sydney was steaming back to Fremantle, having escorted a troopship part of the way to Singapore. At about 4 pm the cruiser spotted a suspicious merchant ship and decided to investigate. By 5:30 pm Sydney had almost drawn alongside the vessel when it suddenly revealed its true identity as a German raider.

Hoisting its German naval ensign, the Kormoran fired its guns and torpedoes. Its first salvo slammed into Sydney’s bridge. The Australian cruiser returned fire, but Kormoran’s second and third salvos again hit Sydney’s bridge and amidships. Its three main turrets were soon out of action, but a fourth kept up fast and accurate fire that hit Kormoran’s funnel and engine room. Sydney, in turn, was hit by a torpedo between turrets. Mortally damaged and ablaze, Sydney turned away from the raider, continuing to fight using its secondary armament and torpedoes.

Kormoran was also burning. At 6.25 pm its captain gave the order to abandon ship. As the German sailors evacuated their stricken vessel, they watched the Australian cruiser, now only a distant glow on the dark horizon, disappear into the night. By midnight Sydney was gone, lost with all 645 hands, including Schmidt. He was 18 years old.

Alan Schmidt is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain. His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Ordinary Seaman Alan Hartley Schmidt, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section