HMAS Armidale: 70th anniversary of her sinking

I am indebted to the following tweet from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra for reminding me that today is the 70th anniversary of the loss with all hands of the corvette HMAS Armidale.

Aust War Memorial (@AWMemorial)

1/12/12 11:10 AM

#OnThisDay 1942: HMAS Armidale was sunk by Japanese aircraft. Teddy Sheean fired at attacking bombers until he was lost with his ship.

HMAS Armidale was one of 60 Bathurst Class corvettes constructed for the Royal Australian Navy during World War II.

Armidale  was laid down in Sydney on 1 September 1941 and commissioned on 11 June 1942.

HMAS Armidale in Port Moresby, September 1942

HMAS Armidale and SS Tulagi, 7 November 1942

In late November 1942, the RAN was called on to evacuate the commandos of the 2/2nd Independent Company, a contingent of Dutch troops, and over 100 Portuguese civilians, while delivering a relief contingent of Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and Australian soldiers. Armidale  was one of the ships assigned to the operation, together with her sister ship Castlemaine.

The corvettes sailed from Darwin at midday on 29 November, leaving just as Japanese aircraft flew over the harbour. At 09:00 on 30 November, the two ships were located by a Japanese reconnaissance plane, but were unable to shoot it down. Because of the likelihood of attack during the day and the distance from the destination, the ships radioed Darwin and suggested that the mission be aborted, but they were instructed to continue after steering away from their intended destination for an hour, and promised fighter support. Armidale  and  Castlemaine were attacked at midday by 14 Japanese bombers, but these were driven off by a force of Bristol Beaufighters, which then returned to Australia. Another attack came at 14:00, but neither side was able to do damage.

These actions and other events disrupted the operation and it was attempted again the following day.  At 13:00, five approaching Japanese dive-bombers were sighted by Armidale. Two aircraft were damaged by the corvette's guns, while the other three missed while attempting to evade fire. A second air attack occurred at 14:00; five Zero fighters distracted the corvette's weapons while nine torpedo bombers made attack runs. At 15:10, the ship was hit in the port side by two torpedoes in quick succession: the first into the mess deck, killing many of the soldiers there, the second into the engine room.

As the soldiers and sailors began to evacuate into the water, the Zeroes stopped attacking the sinking corvette and began strafing runs on those in the water. Ordinary Sailor Edward "Teddy" Sheean, who had been wounded in the initial attack, strapped himself into one of Armidale's 20 mm Oerlikons and opened fire on the aircraft. Teddy forced one Zero to crash into the sea and damaged at least two others; continuing to fire until he went down with Armidale. Low on fuel, the Japanese aircraft headed for home. The survivors found that the two ship's boats survived the sinking, and were able to fashion a raft from debris.

Teddy Sheean, after whom the Collins Class submarine HMAS Sheean is named

 – the only enlisted sailor ever to have a Royal Australian Navy vessel named after him

The survivors remained together until midday on 2 December, when one of the boats, with the commanding officer aboard, set out for Darwin in an effort to find rescuers. At 10:15 on 5 December, they were spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft, and the 22 aboard were rescued by Kalgoorlie. On learning that more men were still at sea, an air search was organised, and the auxiliary patrol boat Vigilant was to stand by off Melville Island. That same day, the other boat, with 29 aboard, headed for Darwin, leaving the raft, with 49 aboard, behind. At 16:00 on 8 December, a PBY Catalina flying boat sighted the raft, now with about 20 aboard, and the second boat. The aircraft was unable to land to assist either group of survivors because of rough seas, but directed Kalgoorlie to the boat. The raft could not be located again, however, and the search effort was called off on 13 December. 40 of Armidale’s crew and 60 embarked men of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army were killed.

This raft of Armidale survivors were not seen again

after this photo was taken on 8 December 1942.

The HMAS Armidale memorial in

Central Park, Armidale

Source: The principal source for the above was Wikipedia; its account may be read here.

Historic Photos: Australian War Memorial

A "Small World" Story

Following the dropping by the Egyptian authorities of charges against Australian free-lance journalist Austin G. Mackell I put a question to him via Twitter to satisfy my curiosity regarding something that I had been wondering about since his name first came to my attention.

The exchange, at about midnight on 30-31 August, went like this:

The Austin “Austie” Mackell that I referred to was a Tobruk veteran who had been Commanding Officer of the Sydney University Regiment during the late 1950s (I would guess until 1959) and who was a great friend of my father, who was at that time a Major in SUR. I met him a couple of times when his regimental duties brought him to Armidale (the citizen-soldier element of the University of New England was the New England Company of SUR), and most notably when the two families had a café meal in Tamworth following a ceremony at Tamworth Airport in 1959, at which Princess Alexandra presented the 12/16th Hunter River Lancers with a regimental guidon (lance). At this stage I was in my second-last year at secondary school.

At Tobruk Austie Mackell was a young platoon commander in the 2/17 Battalion, 2nd AIF who, on the night of 13-14 April 1941, was involved in an action that resulted in him being awarded a Military Cross, and in the posthumous award of a Victoria Cross, the nation’s highest award for gallantry, to a member of his party, Corporal John Edmondson. The story is probably best told by quoting the citation for Edmondson’s VC, which may be found here:

NX15705 Corporal John Hurst EDMONDSON
2/17th Australian Infantry Battalion AIF
13th April 1941 at Tobruk, Libya

"On the night of 13th-14th April 1941, a party of German infantry broke through the wire defences at Tobruk and established themselves with at least six machine guns, mortars and two small field pieces. It was decided to attack them with bayonets, and a party consisting of one officer, Corporal Edmondson and five privates, took part in the charge. During the counter-attack Corporal Edmondson was wounded in the neck and stomach, but continued to advance under heavy fire, killing one enemy with his bayonet. Later his officer had his bayonet in one of the enemy and was grasped about the legs by him, when another attacked him from behind. He called for help, and Corporal Edmondson, who was some yards away, immediately came to his assistance and in spite of his wounds, killed both of the enemy. This action undoubtedly saved his officer's life. Shortly after returning from this successful counter-attack, Corporal Edmondson died of wounds. His actions throughout the operations were outstanding for resolution, leadership and conspicuous bravery”.

[London Gazette: 4th July, 1941]

John Hurst EDMONDSON was born at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales on 8th October, 1914. He is buried in the Tobruk War Cemetery, Libya.

In civilian life after the war Mackell became Managing Director of the Sydney-based chemical firm Scott and Bowne, and in 1961 paid my father an enormous compliment. My father was planning his 1962 sabbatical leave which he intended would involve undertaking a course for postgraduate medical students on the principles and practice of clinical electroencephalography at the Institute of Neurology (London University) at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, followed by a period in Montreal working with Herbert Jasper, Professor of Experimental Neurology at Montreal Neurological Institute (McGill University).  For various reasons the idea of joining Jasper’s research team was not practicable – it would have required more time than the University would have been prepared to fund. As Jasper’s research was directly connected to my father’s own research on subliminal conditioning he was very keen to have at least some face to face time with Jasper, but he had no idea where he would find the funds for a side visit to Montreal from London. Succour came from an unexpected quarter; as my father told it in his memoir Psychology at New England: The First Forty Years:

On the eve of our departure from Armidale, I received a phone call from John Dart, who was, at this stage, Assistant Manager of Scott and Bowne, the Scott’s Emulsion firm which manufactured other drugs and chemical preparations at their factory in Sydney. John held a commission in Sydney University Regiment, as I did, and his boss was a former Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. Austin Mackell, M.C., B. Ec. (Syd.). … The purport of John Darts telephone call was that the Company had had an Executive-staff Meeting that day and had voted me a gift of £300 to cover my return fare London-Montreal, to enable me to visit McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute.

The eight days that my father spent in Montreal were highly productive, had a lasting impact on my father’s future researches, and led directly to the Ph.D. project he drafted for Helen Beh, and hence to the article in the prestigious journal Science referred to at the beginning of the obituary piece at Vale Helen Beh, 1941-2012.

To return to the younger Austin Mackell, the link he sent me contains some wonderful photos from a visit he made to the Alamein battlefield in company with an Italian colleague whose great-uncle had fought with the Italian Army in the North Africa campaign (which reminds me, if you ever have a chance to see the Italian film about the Battle of Alamein – El Alamein: La linea del fuoco – don’t miss it; IMDb entry here).  See Mackell’s Alamein photographs here.

The younger Mackell’s own account of his travails in Egypt, published in New Matilda on 30 August 2012, may be found here.

Opening of Light Horse Museum, Armidale, 1998

In May 1998 I accompanied the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, The Hon. Bruce Scott, to Armidale, where Mr Scott was to be Guest of Honour at a ceremony to mark the opening of the Light Horse Museum at the 12/16 Hunter River Lancers' Gaza Training Depot.

There is a proud Light Horse tradition in the New England region. The "12" in the regimental name derives from the 12th (New England) Light Horse, which was one of the two regiments that participated in the last great cavalry charge in history, the charge on the Turkish lines at Beersheba in 1917.  Several descendants of participants in towns like Armidale, Tamworth, Inverell , Glen Innes etc. Major E. Hyman, from Tamworth, who commanded the lead squadron of the 12th Light Horse Regiment was, like several other participants, an old boy of The Armidale School.

It is worth recounting the critical moments of the charge, and the element of surprise that gave the Lighthorsemen success in what should have been a fairly forlorn hope, charging the Turkish artillery over open ground in close formation. As recounted by the Australian Reserve Forces Day Council here:

The two Regiments formed up behind a ridge and moved off by Squadrons in a three-line charge formation, five feet between horsemen within each Squadron. Each Squadron had a frontage of from 300 to 500 metres apart. The lead Squadron of the 12th was entrusted to A Squadron, commanded by Major E. Hyman from Tamworth. They started from a walk-march, to a trot, then to a canter, then to a gallop. The German Officers in command in Beersheba recognised the advancing formation of Mounted Horsemen as Mounted Infantry and ordered his Turkish Defenders to wait until they had dismounted, then 'open fire'. Field guns were sighted on the horsemen; the infantry set their rifle sights to 1,500 metres.

Immediately the Regiments deployed they were quickly sighted and fired upon by the Turkish artillery, who opened fire with shrapnel that exploded in front of the formation then among the galloping horsemen, some were hit, then, after a brief zone of casualties, the lines galloped free. The Turks could not wind down their guns fast enough and soon the shells were bursting behind the charge.

Members of the 2nd Inverell Light Horse Association participated in the ceremony, and Quirindi-born Senator Sandy Macdonald, with Light Horse connections himself, also attended.

Unfortunately the Museum is closed at the present time, but the good people at the University of New England Heritage Centre and Regional Archive are working to get it reopened.

Anzac Day roundup

It being the eve of Anzac Day it seems appropriate to provide readers with a roundup of the various posts I have put up about, or touching on, the war service of various people I have known, usually with connections to The Armidale School or the University of New England.

In Anzac Day, 1967 I provided some pictures of the Anzac Day March in Sydney, 54 years ago.

Anzac Day, Armidale, 1959 gives a couple of photos taken by my mother during Armidale’s 1959 Anzac Day march, and a bit of background about Anzac day in Armidale.

In Duty Done: Flight Lieutenant Colin Russell Leith AM DFC I recounted the remarkable flying career of Spitfire pilot Russell Leith, who served with RAAF 453 Squadron in Britain, was credited with 3 ½ kills, participated in the Battle of Normandy, was shot down behind the German lines, evaded capture and rejoined his unit to fly on until the end of the war.

In Burial of Australian Spitfire Pilot I noted the burial with full military honours of Flight Lieutenant Henry ‘Lacy’ Smith, who had been missing presumed dead since his aircraft was shot down on 11 June 1944, just five days after D-Day, and whose body was discovered in the wreckage when his plane was discovered last November by a French couple, buried in the mud of the Orne estuary.

In Vale Rex Robert Budd, DFC (1935-2010) I wrote of an Old Boy of The Armidale School who served two operational tours of duty with 9 Squadron between 1968 and 1970 flying Iroquois helicopters during the Vietnam War and was the first RAAF pilot to log 1000 hours during that campaign. After the war he became one of the pioneers of helicopter mustering of cattle.

Alex Buzo on George Crosslé reproduces my late classmate’s obituary piece for a remarkable Irishman, one of our teachers at The Armidale School, who never revealed anything of his war service in our time at school, because he worked at the top secret British code-breaking establishment at Bletchley Park.

Alex Buzo on Brian Mattingley reproduces Alex’s obituary for another remarkable teacher, who commenced teaching at the Armidale School in 1939, survived 36 missions over Germany and occupied Europe as a navigator in Lancaster bombers (average survival 10 missions), was awarded a DFC, returned to the School and resumed his teaching career.

Remembering Des Harrison is an obituary I wrote in 2005 about the teacher who was master in charge of cadets during my time at The Armidale School. He had joined the staff at The Armidale School at the beginning of 1942, but after just two terms he enlisted in the army and spent two eventful years as a member of the Northern Australia Observer Unit that came to be known as "Curtin's Cowboys".  In peacetime, as well as being master in charge of cadets, he had a long career with the 12/16 Hunter River Lancers, becoming in due course the regiment’s commanding officer.

Jock McDiarmid, MM C de G is a plea for information about a remarkable Scotsman who was School Sergeant at The Armidale School from 1957-59 and from 1961-April 1962. Jock had an outstanding war record, having seen action with the Special Air Service behind German lines in the invasion of Sicily and the liberation of France, followed by further action in Holland (where the picture in the post was taken in 1945) and Germany. On the trail of Jock McDiarmid pieces together what little I have been able to find out about his military career, and Jock McDiarmid’s MM commendation quotes the citation for Jock’s Military Medal.

New England University Rugby Team 1939 recounts the stories of a group of young men, my father included, who were university students at the outbreak of war, and touches on their military service where known.

Last but by no means least, Ida Madge Brown (1904-2009) is a tribute to a family friend, daughter of John Francis Brown, who planted the first vine grapes at Milawa.  Madge died in Wangaratta in 2009 at the remarkable age of 105. Madge had an eventful war: she served with 2/4th Australian General Hospital during the height of the conflict at Tobruk, became matron-in-charge of the hospital ship Wanganella, and at the end of the war shared with my father the task of commencing the rehabilitation of the prisoners in Changi Prison and arriving in Singapore from the Burma-Thailand railway and camps elsewhere.

Burial of Australian Spitfire Pilot

Later today an Australian Spitfire pilot who fought with the Royal Australian Air Force’s No. 453  Squadron in the Battle of Normandy will be buried at a Commonwealth war graves cemetry in France, with full military honours. The body of Flight Lieutenant Henry ‘Lacy’ Smith, who had been missing presumed dead since his aircraft was shot down on 11 June 1944, just five days after D-Day, was discovered in the wreckage when his plane was discovered last November by a French couple, buried in the mud of the Orne estuary.

Flight Lieutenant Smith will have been a colleague of Flight Lieutenant Russell Leith, about whom I wrote in Duty Done: Flight Lieutenant Colin Russell Leith AM DFC.

No 453 Squadron was in operation over the Normandy battlefield from D-Day on, and very shortly after the invasion it was deployed to airfields in the Normandy beachhead, from which it operated for the next three months.  As I have related in the above-referenced article about Russell Leith, this unit under Australian command forms the basis for Australia to be regarded as one of the nations which participated directly in the Battle of Normandy.

Below is the text of a Department of Defence media release about today’s ceremony. Images of the recovery of the aircraft wreckage may be seen here.

WWII Flight Lieutenant Henry ‘Lacy’ Smith Laid to Rest in France

Today Australian World War II Flight Lieutenant (FLTLT) Henry ‘Lacy’ Smith will be buried with full military honours in France.

The Minister for Defence Science and Personnel and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, the Hon Warren Snowdon MP and Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin AO, will join FLTLT Smith’s surviving niece and nephew and their extended families at the ceremony.

The service will be held at the War Graves Cemetery, at Rue des Airbornes, Ranville in Normandy and include a traditional wreath laying, the Ode, and the Last Post bugle call. This symbolises that his duty is over and he can rest in peace.

Ceremonial elements will be performed by members of No. 453 Squadron from RAAF Base Williamtown, NSW, the unit with which Smith flew, and Australia’s Federation Guard.

FLTLT Smith from Sans Souci, south of Sydney, NSW, was shot down by anti-aircraft fire on 11 June 1944 during World War II and crashed into the River Orne, near Caen, in northern France. The Spitfire aircraft and Smith’s remains were found in November 2010.

“At age 27, FLTLT Smith made the ultimate sacrifice for our country during World War II. He was from No 453 Squadron, the first Australian squadron to go into action on 6 June 1944, where it provided tactical support for the troops landing on the Normandy beachhead,” Mr Snowdon said.

“No 453 Squadron carried out operations that included harassing the retreating enemy, attacking enemy convoys, bombing missions, armed reconnaissance and bomber escort duties.

“I am thankful for the brave contributions of FLTLT Smith. He will now have a marked grave that can be visited so that both Australians and French can remember his sacrifice, and I am pleased he has now been afforded the military burial and honour he deserves.’’

“I hope this reinterment will support a greater understanding of the important contribution FLTLT Smith made during World War II.”

During the ceremony, the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin AO, posthumously awarded and presented FLTLT Smith’s service medals: the 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star with France and Germany Clasp; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939-45; and Australian Service Medal 1939-45.

Mr Snowdon said the Australian Defence Force was in the process of shipping the wreckage of FLTLT Smith’s Spitfire aircraft to Australia to display at the RAAF Museum, Point Cook, Victoria. Plans are for the aircraft to arrive in Australia mid year, where it will undergo conservation work.

On the trail of Jock McDiarmid

In Jock McDiarmid, MM C de G I  posted a plea for information or source material that would assist me to write a piece about a former World War II Special Air Service Regiment soldier who was School Sergeant at The Armidale School from 1957-59 and from 1961-April 1962.

There is not much about Jock on the web – his exploits, having taken place before the information age, are largely unrecorded.

My principal source is D.I Harrison’s These Men Are Dangerous: The Special Air Service at War, Cassell and Company, London, 1957, which was awarded to me as a school prize in 1957. The School was proud of Jock.  This book mentions Jock’s involvement in the British invasion of Italy across the Strait of Messina, for his part in which he was awarded Military Medal in 1943 (see Jock McDiarmid’s MM commendation), and his involvement in operations behind German lines in France in 1944. There is also a photo of D.I Harrison and Jock in Holland in 1945.

What I did not know was whether, prior to the invasion of Sicily, Jock had a background of operations in North Africa as well. I think the photo at left answers that question. It comes from the Special Forces Roll of Honour website.

Apart from the photo, this page tells us that Jock was in the Special Air Service Regiment from 1941-45, which means that he must have been with SAS from its very early days – the first operation of L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade (renamed 1^st SAS in September 1942) was in November 1941, a parachute drop in support of Operation Crusader, the operation which relieved the siege of Tobruk.

We are told that his parent unit was the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), and he is listed simply as “Commando (Pte)” in 1941.   He is listed as a Corporal in L Detachment SAS in 1942, then in A Squadron 1 SAS (1942-43), and 2 Troop Special Raiding Squadron (1943) – with which unit he landed behind German lines at Bagnara and was wounded in action during the invasion across the Strait of Messina – and then a member of C Squadron, 1 SAS, 1944-45.

I am still in the market for information about Jock – please post a comment if you have reliable information or can guide me to useful links.

Special Forces Roll of Honour

In the course of my researches concerning Jock McDiarmid, MM C de G I came upon a website called the Special Forces Roll of Honour, a site established and maintained by John Robertson of Ayr in Scotland, in memory of his father-in-law, Adam Anderson, who served with Popski’s Private Army (No. 1 Demolition Squadron), 1944-45.

It contains a massive amount of information and many photos, and is well worth a visit for anyone with connections to special forces soldiers who served from World War II to the present. It covers British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and US Special Forces, Indian Parachute Brigades, French, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Palestinian, Polish and Czech secret agents, Chindits, Dambusters, Fiji Guerrillas, and many more categories.

Report into the loss of HMAS Sydney II

This afternoon in Canberra the Minister for Defence, the Hon. John Faulkner MP, released the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney II, which was lost with all hands on 19 November 1941, following an engagement with the German raider, HSK Kormoran, off the Western Australian coast.

The report may be downloaded from here at the Department of Defence website.