Just over 100 years ago forebears of Dr Michael Levy and Betty Collins were locked in mortal combat on the high seas, one as the cook aboard the German naval raider Emden, and the other as an able seaman aboard HMAS Sydney.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Next week the two Canberrans are heading west to take part in a joint German and Australian commemoration of the Royal Australian Navy's first major combat victory.
Ms Collins's grandfather, Harold Mark Collins, was hailed as hero and was one of six Australian sailors to receive the Distinguished Service Medal for their part in what became known as the "Battle of the Cocos".
Dr Levy's ancestor, his grandfather's cousin Gustav Levy, did not survive the battle fought over a two hours on the morning of November 9, 1914.
It is believed that as the ship's cook he would have been at the animal pens just under the Emden's funnels when the action was joined.
These were the same funnels HMAS Sydney targeted with her six inch (15cm) guns. The animal pens were blasted to oblivion and no trace of Gustav Levy's body was ever found.
His life, and death, is recorded on a small war memorial in central Germany which Dr Levy visited some years ago.
Dr Levy, who is the medical officer at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, said the family had originated from a small village called Lavenau near Hanover in central Germany.
"When I visited there I found Levys with birth years as far back as 1772 in the cemetery," he said.
"I learnt the family had been butchers, a profession that fits with Gustav's role aboard the Emden as the cook and the person in charge of the animal pens. Live pigs and cattle were kept to provide fresh meat for the officers."
The cook would have been expected to be able to kill and butcher the livestock.
"Gustav paid the supreme price," Dr Levy said. "He was killed just shy of his 21st birthday."
Able Seaman Harold Collins, Betty Collins's grandfather, was the same age. Born at Orange on October 18, 1894, he had enlisted in the two-year-old Royal Australian Navy on June 12, 1913 for a five-year term.
Able Seaman Collins joined the crew of the Sydney on July 5, 1914, just in time to take part in the Australian seizure of German New Guinea that September.
By November the Anzac convoy, which included HMAS Sydney among the escorts, was at sea. At 6.30am on November 9 the cruiser responded to an SOS from the Cocos Islands which were under attack by the Emden.
Her captain, Karl Von Muller, had sent a landing party ashore to cut the telegraph cables linking Australia to the world.
The Emden came into view at 9.15am and the Sydney was able to wreak havoc on the smaller ship with her six inch guns. By the end of the engagement 199 of the Emden's 315 strong crew had been killed or wounded.
German gunners scored 15 direct hits on HMAS Sydney with their opening salvoes, killing four men and wounding 12 others.
Able Seaman Collins was one of eight Australians to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He "extinguished fires by the guns" and showed "general efficiency in attending to the sick and the wounded uninterruptedly for six days including terribly severe cases which were received from S.M.S Emden," his citation states.
Dr Levy is to join other Emden descendants, members of the "Emden family", who are travelling from Germany to the Cocos Islands to participate in the dedication of a memorial to the 140 men of both nations who were killed this November 8 and 9.
It is believed this will be the only Australian memorial that honours both Australian and German dead.
To find out more, go to www.newsboost.com/newsroom/sydney-emden-100th-anniversary
