Remembering Anzacs and not forgetting HMAS Sydney

The shock discovery of a bullet in the skull of a sailor from HMAS Sydney has opened fresh claims a Japanese submarine sank the Australian battle cruiser weeks before the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

Forensic experts last week found the bullet while examining the sailor's remains. He was washed up on Christmas Island three months after the ship sank in 1941.

Captain Jim Parsons, leader of the naval team that discovered the remains in an unmarked grave on the island, said: “The round appears to be from a low-velocity weapon, possibly a handgun.”

Ballistic experts are trying to confirm the type of gun it came from. It fits descriptions of eight-millimetre bullets used in the Type 14 Nambu, a pistol widely used in the wartime Japanese navy. They are smaller than the nine-millimetre bullets fired by the German Luger and 0.38-inch Australian-issue bullets.

If it was from a Japanese pistol, it would add weight to the theory that a Japanese submarine torpedoed HMAS Sydney during its battle with the German raider Kormoran on November 19, 1941, off the coast from Geraldton, Western Australia (“Bullet in sailor reopens WWII war theory”, Sydney Morning Herald).

More compelling evidence was revealed, much of which also supported John Doohan’s research, and included that:

The shot was fired from behind the head just below the neck as though the man had his head bowed.

It was found lodged in his frontal lobe, according to Bruce Billson, the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence.

These astounding revelations had profound implications for the government-generated lies about the fate of Sydney’s men: The insertion point and the trajectory of the bullet strongly suggested assassination in the pose seen in other Japanese theatres of war. This information elicited responses from two of Sydney’s dedicated researchers. In the Post, it was reported that:

“This changes everything,” said John Samuels.

“... It is clear that this should now be a murder inquiry conducted in the normal way.

“The investigation should be taken out of the hands of the navy ...