The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (PM3269) Ordinary Seaman Harold James Armstrong, 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (PM3269) Ordinary Seaman Harold James Armstrong, HMAS Sydney (II), Second World War.

PM3269 Ordinary Seaman Harold James Armstrong, HMAS Sydney (II)
KIA 20 November 1941
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 9 March 2016

Today we remember Ordinary Seaman Harold James Armstrong and the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney (II), lost after engaging the German surface raider Kormoran in 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.

Harold Armstrong was born on 10 October 1917 in Geelong, Melbourne. He was the son of James and Violet Armstrong. On 30 December 1940, when he was 23 years old, Armstrong enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy. He was 165 centimetres tall with dark brown hair, grey eyes, and a fresh complexion with a scar on his left cheek. After three weeks at HMAS Lonsdale, the navy’s training establishment in Port Melbourne, he was posted to HMAS Cerberus on Western Port Bay in January 1941. In June he was posted to HMAS Kuttabul in Sydney Harbour for just over two months. He joined Sydney’s company in March 1941 after the cruiser’s celebrated return from the Mediterranean.

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 the German naval ensign, Kormoran opened fire. 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. The cruiser’s three main turrets were soon out of action, but a fourth kept up fast and accurate fire that hit the raider’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 but continued 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 it had gone, lost with all 645 hands, including Harold Armstrong. He was 24 years old.

Armstrong is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Britain. His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 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 Harold James Armstrong, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section