Dhurringile homestead.Frame, HMAS Sydney, p. 83 Some further interrogations were carried out after this point. Listening devices were planted in the prisoners' quarters, and intelligence agents infiltrated the camp, but neither method provided new information. One sailor died in captivity from lung cancer on 24 March 1942 and was buried in the Tatura war cemetery. On 11 January 1945, Detmers and 19 other Axis officers escaped from Dhurringile through a tunnel excavated during the previous seven months; all were recaptured within days. Detmers was found with a German-English dictionary which contained two encrypted accounts of the battle (a deck log or action report, and an engineering log), although these provided little new information. Shortly after returning to the camp, Detmers was hospitalised for three months following a stroke. The German officers and sailors were repatriated after the war, departing from Port Phillip Bay with other Axis prisoners aboard the steamer Orontes on 21 February 1947. Coincidentally, tied up to the opposite pier was the real Straat Malakka. On arrival in Cuxhaven, the prisoners were searched before leaving the ship; several written reports were confiscated, although nothing new was learned from these. Honours and awards For sinking Sydney, Detmers' Iron Cross First Class was upgraded to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz). Kormorans executive officer, gunnery officer, and a sailor who manned the starboard gun were awarded the Iron Cross First Class (for the executive officer, this was a bar to a previous Iron Cross), while the rest of the ship's company were all awarded the Iron Cross Second Class.Sydney was granted the battle honour "Kormoran 1941" in recognition of the damage done to Kormoran. This was one of only three honours awarded during the 20th century for the sinking of a single ship—rather than a lengthy operation in a military campaign—and the second granted to a ship named Sydney. Post-war searches Despite the approximate position of Kormoran being known (most German accounts giving the battle coordinates as ), the required search area for both ships was unfeasibly large.JCFADT, Report on the loss of HMAS Sydney, p. 138 This was due to the lack of a detailed location. This problem was compounded by supporters of alternative engagement theories, who believed that the Germans were lying and that the ships would be found further south and closer to shore.Frame, HMAS Sydney, p. 225 The survey ship conducted multiple unsuccessful searches