The Battle for Australia

War at Sea

AWM 044154 On 1 December 1942 (four weeks short of his 19th birthday) Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean RAN was killed when the corvette HMAS Armidale came under a sustained Japanese air attack whilst en route to Timor. Enemy planes came from all directions, including nine bombers, three fighters and a float plane. Two explosions rocked the Armidale causing the "Abandon Ship!" order. The Japanese began machine-gunning survivors in the water. When Ordinary Seaman Edward "Teddy" Sheean saw this, although having been wounded twice himself, he manned the aft 20mm Oerlikon antiaircraft gun and began shooting at the attacking aircraft. "Teddy" shot down one of the attacking aircraft and damaged two others. He sacrificed himself to save his shipmates. He was still firing when the ship sank. For his part in this action Sheean was posthumously awarded a ‘mention in despatches’. Moves are still afoot to have him awarded a posthumous VC. Sheean is the only junior sailor to have an RAN ship named for him. HMAS Sheean is the fifth submarine of the Collins Class and was commissioned on 23rd February 2001 at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia.

AWM 121470 Betano, Portuguese (East) Timor. Lying on the beach where she ran aground in September 1942, is the shattered and rusted hulk of HMAS Voyager. The destroyer came to Timor bringing the main body of the 2/4th Independent Company to reinforce the 2/2nd Independent Company. During the disembarkation she drifted onto a sand bank and became embedded. Unable to move she was subsequently disabled by exploding a depth charge in her. Prior to this she was bombed by Japanese aircraft which scored one hit for the loss of one of their planes.

AWM 301768 Aerial port side view of the sloop HMAS Yarra. She is camouflaged in two shades of grey. She was sunk by the Japanese about 400 miles (640 kms) south of Java on 3 April 1942 whilst escorting a convoy from Java to Fremantle.

AWM 002290 HMAS Sydney at anchor. On 19 November 1941, following a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran, in the Indian Ocean off the Western Australian coast, the light cruiser HMAS Sydney disappeared, almost without trace. The loss of the Sydney with its full war complement of 645 remains to this day Australia’s worst naval disaster and one of its greatest wartime mysteries. The only confirmed relics found were a lifebelt and a Carley life float damaged by shellfire. Three hundred and seventeen of the Kormoran’s crew of 397 were rescued.

AWM 026616Port Moresby, Papua. 1942. Commander R.B.A. Hunt RAN (extreme right), Naval Officer in Command at Port Moresby, and his staff on the steps of their quarters.

AWM 016664 Kent Class cruiser, HMAS Canberra was part of the naval force screening the United States 1st Marine Division invasion force which had started landing on the island of Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942. The aim of the operation was to capture the almost completed Japanese airfield at Lunga Point on the island of Guadalcanal thereby protecting the allied supply lanes and to regain the Solomon Islands. She suffered severe damage in what became known as the Battle of Savo Island. Efforts were made to extinguish the fires, but there was no water pressure. Eighty-four men from the cruiser’s complement lost their lives in the brief encounter. Canberra was still afloat the next morning. However, as she was unable to get underway, the decision was made to sink the ship. United States destroyers fired over two hundred and sixty 5 inch shells and more than five torpedoes into the burning hulk before she sank.

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