The loss of Australia's pride HMAS Sydney with all hands remains among the great mysteries of modern maritime history - one that has tested authorities, naval experts and researchers for more than six decades.

     Ablaze crippled and doomed the cruiser vanished off the West Australian coast in November 1941, leaving not just profound unanswered questions, but grieving families and a nation mourning such wholesale loss of life.

     Trying to unravel the mystery of the wartime sinking, McDonald relies on oral history and the power of memory  - German survivors particularly - to breath new life into what happened to HMAS Sydney.