Hello, Here I am going to suggest a person for a future Pages of History, Edward “Teddy” Sheean.
Teddy Sheean was Born on the 28th December 1923, In Tasmania, Australia and was employed as a farm-hand until April 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. After training, he was posted in Sydney, and joined the crew of the Bathurst Class corvette HMAS Armidale. The Bathurst class corvettes were small steam powered vessels, designed to act as minesweepers and alse be able to conduct anti-submarine operations. The ships could make about 15 knots, displaced 650 tons at standard load, and were armed with a single 4" gun, 3x 20mm Oerlikons and depth charges. Teddy was one a loader for one of these Oerlikons.
In February 1942, the Imperial Japenese army launched an inviasion of the Island of Timor, in the Dutch East Indies. They were resisted by a mixed force of Australian, British and Dutch soldiers, but were by far numerically superior, and in roughly 3 days they had forced the majority of the allied forces to surrender, however a group of several hundred Australian commandos continued the fighting, resupplied by aircraft and ships, until February 1943, when the last troops were evacuated. As part of the evacuation, in November 1942 a plan was drawn up to use 3 ships, the Bathurst class corvettes HMAS Armidale and HMAS Castlemaine, and the patrol craft HMAS Kuru taking 2 trips, the first to evacuate 190 dutch soldiers as well as 150 Portugese civilians who had been living in Portugese Timor (the island had been split in two since it was colonised, the portugese controlling the east half of the island and the Dutch the west), and the second to extract the Australian commandos. I have set the scene here and included all the relevant names and information about the operation, however what followed is quite complicated, and includes several things happening at different times, and so I am going to paraphrase directly from wikipedia, as there is already a perfect explanation of what happened when and why, and I may get things mixed up freewriting it as I have the rest of the post. I have highlighted what is paraphrased.
At 22:30 on 28 November 1942, Kuru set sail for Betano(the port on Timor they were going to extract the soldiers and civilans from). Kuru was scheduled to arrive at approximately 20:30 on 30 November, where she was to unload the supplies on board and embark the Portuguese refugees, which were to transfer to Castlemaine once she arrived along with Armidale two hours later. However, Kuru hit bad weather during her voyage and arrived at Betano three hours late. Armidale—with two Dutch Army officers, 61 Netherlands East Indies troops and three Australian Army soldiers aboard—and Castlemaine set sail from Darwin at 01:42 on 29 November. At approximately 09:15 on 30 November, while 190 kilometres (100 nmi) from their destination, the two ships were attacked by a single Japanese aircraft. Having missed with several bombs, the aircraft flew off in the direction of Timor an hour later. Fearing that their discovery by this aircraft would jeopardise the mission, Castlemaine 's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip Sullivan, ordered evasive action and signalled Darwin for further orders. A signal returned decreeing that the operation must proceed and a party of fighter aircraft were to be dispatched as protective cover.
Continuing in their voyage, Armidale and Castlemaine were attacked twice more by air, each time by a formation of bombers that bombed and machine-gunned the ships. Despite this, neither ship suffered damage or casualties and both arrived at Betano at 03:30 on 1 December, however there was no sign of Kuru. Having made sure that Kuru was not in the bay, the two corvettes decided to abandon the mission and sailed south in order to return to Darwin. Kuru 's commanding officer, Lieutenant John Grant, had loaded 77 of the Portuguese refugees as well as one critically injured Australian soldier on board the ship and set sail at around 02:00 on 1 December from Betano, fearing he had missed the rendezvous with the other two ships. While approximately 110 kilometres (59 nmi) south of Betano, Armidale and Castlemaine sighted Kuru, and the three ships closed by dawn.
Following the transfer of passengers from Kuru to Castlemaine, the former received orders that she was to return to Betano that evening “and do the job tonight”. At this time, a formation of Japanese aircraft was spotted and Kuru sailed for cover. Assessing the situation, Sullivan—as senior officer—decided that Armidale would accompany Kuru in order to unload the former’s passengers at Betano while Castlemaine returned to Darwin. Armidale and Kuru assumed separate routes to Betano.
On her way to Betano the Armidale was attacked by 13 Japanese Aircraft: 9 Bombers, 3 fighters and a floatplane, and was struck by 2 torpedoes and one bomb, and the order to abandon ship was given By this point, it was clear the ship was going down, and the Japanese aircraft began strafing the sailors who were jumping into the water and on the life rafts. While helping to free a life-raft, Teddy was injured by 2 bullets. In an action that can only be described as pure selflessness, he ran across the deck to one of the Oerlikons, Strapped himself into the harness and began shooting at the Japanese aircraft strafing his fellow sailors in the water, all while the ship was listing and sinking. It was confirmed that he shot down one of the aircraft, and damaged another 2, though it is unknown if the other 2 were able to return to their airbase, but more importantly his fire stopped the japaese planes from strafing the rest of the crew. Teddy went down with the ship, still strapped into the gun and according to his crewmates, he remained firing as he “disappeared beneath the waves” and they later testified to witnessing tracers rising from beneath the water’s surface as Sheean was dragged under.
Teddy was just 18 years old at the time, and his actions and sacrifice certainly saved many of the crew of the ship who had not already been killed in the attack, and 49 of the remaining crew would later be rescued from the life rafts.
This picture was taken from a PBY Catalina of one of the rafts.
At the time, Teddy was Recognised with a posthumous Mention in Despatches. On the 1st of May 1999, the Submarine HMAS Sheean was launched by his sister, Ivy Hayes, carrying the Motto “Fight on”. After several attemps and various hearings, Teddy was finally posthumously awarded the Victoria cross for Australia in 2020, becoming the first and I believe only RAN Crew member to have been awarded the medal.
I think Teddy Sheean is a perfect candidate for the Pages of history, as he is from a nation who’s participation is less often talked about, from a campaign that is usually overshadowed, and his actions were both more meaningful and more heroic than any of the propoganda icons that have been used for some of the more recent pages of history. I think that if Gaijin were to make a profile picture depicting Teddy on the sinking ship, firing the gun with a burning plane in the background, (the exact designations of the aircraft is not known, some accounts say that the Fighters were Zero’s, but the aircraft were almost certainly land based, and the Zero was used exclusively by the IJN, so this is unlikely. It is more likely that the fighters were Ki-43 or 44s, and the Bombers were most likely Ki-48 light bombers, though again, the records I have read do not specify.), it would make for an excellent commemoration of his actions.
- Yes
- No
I have included some testimonies from crewmembers who survived below:
“During the attack a plane had been brought down and for this the credit went to Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean. Teddy died, but none of us who survived, I am sure, will ever forget his gallant deed … When the order ‘Abandon ship’ was given, he made for the side, only to be hit twice by the bullets of an attacking Zero. None of us will ever know what made him do it, but he went back to his gun, strapped himself in, and brought down a Jap plane, still firing as he disappeared beneath the waves.”
-Ordinary Seaman Russel Caro
Two or three [aircraft] went right across the ship and they apparently were using their torpedoes as bombs. These did no damage although several of the torpedoes hurtled low right across the ship. However, the others hit us within two or three minutes of the commencement of the attack. We were hit on the port side forward, causing the ship to heel over at an angle of 45 degrees.
The Armidale was going fast and the captain ordered us to abandon ship. Ratings were trying to get out lifesaving appliances as Jap planes roared just above us, blazing away with cannon and machine guns. Seven or eight of us were on the quarterdeck when we saw another bomber coming from the starboard quarter. It hit us with another torpedo an we were thrown in a heap among the depth charges and racks.
We could feel the Armidale going beneath us, so we dived over the side and swam about 50 yards astern as fast as we could. Then we stopped swimming and looked back at our old ship. She was sliding under, the stern high in the air, the propellers still turning.
Before we lost her, we had brought down two enemy bombers for certain, and probably a third. The hero of the battle was a young ordinary seaman, Edward Sheean, not long at sea, who refused to leave the ship.
Sheean had no chance of escape. Strapped to his anti-aircraft gun, he blazed away till the last. One of the Jap bombers, hit by his gun, staggered away trailing smoke, just skimming the surface until it crashed with a mighty splash about a quarter mile away.
-Leading Seaman Leigh Bool
The workshop was about 1 metre in width and 2 metres in length with a phone to the bridge. My duties were to receive instructions for setting of the depth charge detonators, when hunting down subs. This was my station regardless of what action was in progress.
When we first saw these different looking planes coming, we just knew we were in big trouble, and that our end might be near, so I quickly went to my hideyhole, as I called it, and cringed in a corner, waiting to be blown to pieces. I was wearing shorts beneath my boiler suit, had only slippers on my feet, a tin hat on my head and my deflated Mae West [life preserver]. My only other possession was a Joseph Rodgers ‘Bunny’ pocket knife, which I acquired when rabbit trapping and hunting as a young lad in my Victorian rural home town. A torpedo hit us on the port side amidships and this caused my steel workshop door to burst open. I knew then the ship was doomed and so I attempted to leave through the doorway, only to be met with a huge wall of water from the explosion. This somehow sent me over the stern of the ship and into the swirling wash from the propellers. I had no control over my movements at that time, for everything happened so swiftly, but I was aware that I had lost my tin hat and my slippers. Later when I had time to think, I realised how lucky I had been, for I could have been killed then by being bashed into the davits that criss-crossed the stern of the ship.
As the ship sped away from me the port propeller was still under water and the starboard propeller was lifting out but still turning. The water around me then became calm, but the same couldn’t be said for me. I suddenly realised I was being left behind and nobody knew I was overboard. The Zeroes were raking the ship with cannon and machine gun fire from their noses and wings, then another torpedo struck on the starboard side and the ship split in two. Then another torpedo was dropped like a bomb, but it overshot the ship, hit the water and disappeared.
I was now in complete panic as my ship was sinking in front of my eyes, with all still on board trying to escape. Now the front of the ship was turning on its side and going down. The rear section was leaning on an angle, when the after Oerlikon gun started firing and I saw tracers actually hitting a dive bombing Zero which flew over my head and disappeared into the sea about a quarter of a mile away. A brilliant bit of shooting, I thought, considering the deck was at such a steep angle and that the gun was still firing as the ship sank under the water.
-Wireman William Lamshed