Sydney  - A burst of light from the German warship HSK Kormoran told Captain Joseph Burnett he had made a stupendous mistake in bringing the HMAS Sydney within point-blank range of what he thought was a cargo vessel off the west coast of Australia at dusk on November 19, 1941.

Burnett was killed by that first salvo, dying in the knowledge he had been outwitted by Captain Theodor Detmers.

Not one among the 645 aboard the HMAS Sydney survived. Of the 397 sailors on the Kormoran, which was camouflaged to look like a Dutch freighter, 317 lived to tell how Detmers outsmarted Burnett and secured a famous victory over a superior ship.

"I am satisfied Captain Burnett made errors of judgement," investigator Terrence Cole said this week after delivering a three-volume report that included the testimony of German survivors.

Cole's is the latest of many inquiries over the past 60 years and is likely the last. Once again, it confirmed that German accounts of the battle were correct. Once again, it dispelled the calumny that there were no survivors because crew from the Sydney were machine-gunned in the water before the Kormoran was scuttled.

And yet, once again, Burnett escaped personal blame for Australia's worst maritime disaster despite acceptance that his actions resulted in the sinking of the Sydney.

"The terrible consequence of his erroneous decision was that Sydney did not go to action stations and approached to a position of great danger where all her tactical advantages were negated and the advantage of surprise was given to Kormoran," Cole said.

That there were no findings of negligence reflected national pride. Australians, it seems, still can't bring themselves to accept that Burnett was a fool and that his foolishness cost him his ship.

Cole came closer than most in condemning Burnett after a 17-month inquiry that trawled through 31,000 documents and produced 2,563 pages of transcripts.

"The knowledge that the sighted vessel was not on the plot [chart] of friendly merchant vessels, coupled with his knowledge of the possible presence of a raider, makes his decision to treat the sighted ship as appearing innocent almost inexplicable," Cole said

Navy chief Vice Admiral Russ Crane said Burnett's actions were understandable because "merchant vessels frequently did not properly respond to queries by warships."

Also defending Burnett was historian Tim Frame, who said saving the lives of prisoners of war on the Kormoran might have been his motivation. "Firing on the unidentified ship from a safe distance might have led to hundreds of sailors being lost," Frame said.

Survivors of the Kormoran have been hard on Burnett. When he was 90, former Lieutenant Commander Heinz Messerschmidt testified that Detmers ran up the German flag before firing and the Sydney's bridge was blown away in the first salvo.

"The Sydney was not ready for battle," Messerschmidt said. "It was half an hour of continual fire. It's no surprise no one survived."

Ludwig Ernst, the president of the Kormoran Survivors Association, predicted a harsher reading of Burnett's actions that day.

"Eventually, Australians will have to comprehend that the guilty party for Sydney's sinking is Captain Burnett," he said.

The wrecks of the two ships were found last year, 12 kilometres apart, 185 kilometres off the west coast and 2,470 metres below the Indian Ocean. They have been declared war graves. (dpa)