The great Victorian escape

The loss of HMAS Sydney II with all 645 crew on 19 November 1941 was a devastating blow to families and friends and Australia’s wartime morale.

But a largely forgotten POW prison break in Ned Kelly country put this story back the front pages of newspapers several years later.

Many of the crew of the German ship Kormoran -- the ship that battled the Sydney off Western Australia – were captured along the coast in the following days and imprisoned in the Dhurringile POW camp near Shepparton in regional Victoria for the remainder of the war.

In January 1945, a group of German 20 officers and crew, including Kormoran Captain Theodore Anton Detmers, dug a 40-metre tunnel out of the camp and escaped, sparking a 10-day manhunt throughout the State.

All of the escapees were eventually captured and returned to the camp, with most of the escapees fleeing only a few miles and none making it across the border into New South Wales. Read more about their escape.