"In November 1941 the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, with a crew of 645, disappeared off the coast of Western Australia. Shipwrecked German sailors told an incredible tale of how their ship, a lightly armoured merchant raider, had sunk the pride of the Australian navy. Almost at once conspiracy theories sprang up to explain the tragic loss of the ship and so many lives." "Based on the author's decryption and interpretation of German coded accounts, interviews with survivors from the raider, Kormoran, and other research, this book tells--insofar as it can ever be known--what really happened in the desperate fight to the death between the two ships, whose wrecks were finally located in March 2008"--Back cover.