the article. Lewis also argued in "The truth about Sydney – conspiracy theorists should crawl back into the bilges." Wartime magazine, Issue 45, that speculation the Sydney crew were massacred was damaging to the well-being of the families concerned. Following the discovery of the wrecks, a second inquiry into the loss of Sydney was held, this time by the Department of Defence. The inquiry was presided over by Terence Cole, an expert in maritime law and a former Deputy Judge Advocate General. Cole's findings were published in a three-volume report in July 2009, with one volume focusing specifically on assessing the various controversies and alternative theories surrounding the battle. The inquiry concluded that Burnett was responsible for placing his ship in danger but stopped short of claiming negligence. It also found no evidence to support any of the alternative theories investigated. A month later, shipwreck hunter David Mearns published an account of the search for the two ships: The Search for the Sydney: How Australia's greatest maritime mystery was solved. Dr Tom Lewis published "What has the wreck of the Sydney told us?" in Warship magazine Issue 44 and "Needles and Haystacks – Why finding the wreck of the Sydney was so difficult" in the Australian War Memorial's Wartime magazine, Issue 43. Controversy Rumours that the battle was not what it seemed commenced almost as soon as Sydney failed to reach Fremantle on schedule, some emanating from the highest levels in the administration, but it was not until Montgomery's Who Sank The Sydney? that a published work collated these rumours and challenged the accepted view of the battle. Frame and Olson both credit Montgomery with igniting the controversy; the former describes Montgomery's work as "a polemical, finger-pointing, brawling account" which, if not deliberately prepared to create a controversy, had that effect, while the latter claimed that the book only "sparked debate [and] opened old and new wounds".Olson, Bitter Victory, pp. 74–5 The controversial views have been maintained and propagated by several organisations, such as the Sydney Research Group and End Secrecy on Sydney, and authors like McDonald and Samuels. Much controversy surrounding the battle stemmed from disbelief that a modified merchant ship could defeat a modern cruiser, with most theories describing how the Germans deceitfully gained the advantage. However, the two ships' armament was closer to equal than this matchup implied, and although Sydney had the benefit of armour plate