lifeasdaddy

H.M.A.S. Arunta

HMAS Arunta (I) was a Tribal class destroyer which saw plenty of action in the Pacific theatre during World War Two.

Here's a view of ARUNTA from HMAS Shropshire during WWII:

 
 

Powerhouse Museum favourites - Part 4: The Collins medal.

If this is what I think it is, then it's significant because it was presented to one of Australia's best known naval heroes for his work captaining one of our most famous though ill-fated ships.  It's my second favourite.

The Powerhouse Museum describes it thus:

"N19261 Medal (-1) in case (-2), Australia: NSW, commemorative, presented by the City of Sydney to Captain J.A. Collins C.B.,R.A.N. for the sinking of B Colleoni by HMAS Sydney, 1940."

At age 14, John Augustine Collins entered the new Royal Australian Naval College in the first intake, 1913.  After various career postings he was promoted Captain in 1937 and after war came assumed command of HMAS Sydney (II) in November 1939.

(Department of Defence photo - HMAS Sydney arrives in Sydney for the first time 1936)

On 19 July 1940, HMAS Sydney (II)  captained by Collins engaged the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in battle. Naval gunfire was exchanged, but Sydney was the victor, sinking the Bartolomeo Colleoni in the first such allied naval victory in the mediterranean.  Captain Collins was honoured on 26 July 1940 by being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB)

When the ship returned to Sydney on 11 February 1941 it was met by huge crowds, about 150,000 people.  The crew marched through the streets of Sydney and were feted with a civic reception at the Sydney Town Hall.

 

 

(Department of Defence photo- HMAS Sydney II crew parade at Sydney's Martin Place after Meditteranian victories. 11th February 1941)

Here is the report from The Canberra Times of the follwoing day, Wednesday 12 February 1941. The reports says:

"Replicas of the plaque to celebrate the victory over the Italian cruiser were presented to ten representatives of the cruiser's company by the Lord Mayor, at the Town Hall.

A plaque has been placed on the gun turret on the quarter deck of the cruiser.

The Lord Mayor who carried out the opening ceremony, also presented a rose bowl to the ward room and a set of silver tankards to the officers mess.

Alderman Crick also said an identical plaque would be set up in the Sydney Town Hall."

This medal presented to Captain Collins is one of the replicas of that plaque.

As the newspaper report states, the identical plaque to that presented to the ship was set up in Sydney Town Hall.  I know it still exists, although I have not yet seen it myself.

The perfect companion item to the Powerhouse Museum's medal presented to Captain Collins would be this audio recording of the speech he gave that day, held by ScreenSound Australia.

The record also shows that the officers and crew were treated to a dinner at the Sydney Town Hall that night.  Captain Collins relinquished command of HMAS Sydney (II) on 14 May 1941.

Alas, the ship met a terrible fate on 20 November 1941and was sunk by the German raider Kormoran.  There were no survivors.

In the case of this medal, it will be interesting to find out how many medals were struck, and how many presented to members of the crew.  Some would likely have gone down with the ship.

At the moment, my guesstimate is that less than 20 would have been struck.

The archives of the City of Sydney will have some of that information and part will lay elsewhere.

There is an interesting file at the National Archives of Australiatitled HMAS Sydney - Replicas presented to Ships Co.  (NAA: SP338/1, 691/19)  It's 167 pages and runs from 14 August 1940 to 8 June 1943. According to Richard Summerrell's guide to Commonwealth Government records on the sinking of HMAS sydney (II), he states in Chapter 10:

 "Late on the evening of 10 February 1941 the HMAS Sydney returned to Sydney after its tour of duty in the Mediterranean. The next day an estimated crowd of 200 000 welcomed the officers and men of the ship when they marched through the city. This file deals with arrangements for the Sydney’s arrival at Circular Quay, for a civic reception on 11 February at the Town Hall, and for the presentation to the ship by the people of Sydney of a plaque in commemoration of Sydney’s sinking of the Bartolomeo Colleoni in the Mediterranean on 19 July 1940. The file includes letters from relatives of the crew both before and after the Sydney’s loss in November 1941, seeking presentation of replica plaques to those crew unable to collect them on the day of the presentation. Navy Office’s advice was that unpresented plaques had been placed in the Sydney’s safe and had therefore been lost with the ship."

It will be interesting to see the correspondence, especially any between Navy Office and the City of Sydney about the number of medals struck and their disposition.  I'm trying to get a copy of the NAA file.

John A. Collins went on to become a stellar person in the development of the Royal Australian Navy.  

In mid-1944 he was promoted Commodore and  became the first Australian to command the Australian Naval Squadron, as ships of the RAN were collectively known.  Prior to that a Royal Navy man had always been the senior operational commander.  He made HMAS Australia his flagship, and was seriously injured in October 1944 when that ship became one of the first victims of a deliberate Japanese suicide plane.

In July 1945 he returned to duty and made HMAS Shropshire his flagship.  

And this is where the story got very  interesting for me.  My father served in that ship.

After the long years of World War II, the guns were silent on 2 September 1945 when the Japanese surrender was accepted aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

HMAS Shropshire was in Tokyo Bay on that day, and Commodore Collins was accorded the honour of representing the Royal Australian Navy at the surrender ceremony.

Here's an excerpt from the ship's deck log of that day:

(National Archives of Australia SP551/1 Bundle 503 - photograph by blog author)

The Ship's post office had made a special mail canceling stamp to mark the occasion of the end of the war and my father, like many others, sent a letter home postmarked "Tokyo Bay 2 Sep 1945"; and also like many others taking signatures from shipmates :

You'll notice the signature at the bottom right hand corner: "John Collins".

The same John Collins??

It would be nice to think so, but there was also a Stoker named John Collins, as well as Commodore John Collins in the ship on that great day.

I'll have to check with my dear Dad and see.

It is worth noting that apart from this medal believed to have been presented to Captain Colllins, there is one other example of the replica plaque in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum, and it appears here.

So it seems that the Powerhouse Museum has two specimens of war related numismatics both of which are very rare, and highly significant.  As far as I can tell at the moment, the Australian War Memorial - our nation's great repository of things military and relating to war -  has zero specimens.

Now, enough of things relating to war, naval history and the sea.

ADDED 10/08/09:  Vice Admiral Sir John Collins eventually wrote his memoirs As Luck Would Have It which were published in 1965.

And on page 97 appears this reminiscence of the presentation of medals to each member of the ship at Sydney Town Hall:

H.M.A.S. Sydney, Meditemmell7l-lJ

families and girlfriends. This over, we set out on our march

to the TO'wn Hall.

I had warned the ship's company it would be a march at

attention with no waving to the crowd. As we marched up

Macquarie Street I saw, out of the corner of my eye, my

five-year-old daughter with her grandmother. Seeing her

father again was tOo much for Gillian. She broke away from

the grand-parental hand and rushed across the street \vaving

a flag at me. A press photographer must have been on the

spot, for next morning the picrure in the paper showed that

I had remembered my own orders. Gillian is waving a flag

a few feet away from me but I was happy to see that my

head and eyes were to the front. The sailors would have been

amused had I been shown waving back, and it would have

been difficult to know how many days' No. 11 punishment

to give myself!

The city of Sydney gave her name-ship a wonderful reception,

including presenting a medallion to each crew

member. A large plaque of the same design was presented to

the ship and secured to Y rurret. That, like the plaque from

Swan Hunter's workmen, also rests at the bonom of the

Indian Ocean.

The only untoward incident occurred as the ship went into

dry dock at Cockatoo Island a few days after arrival. The

entrance to the dock is rather trid:y in a southerly wind as

there is no room for rugs forward.

It is essential to get a wire

out from the bows to the nose of the dock as soon as the

ship is positioned, otherwise she will blow down on shoal

water. Out went the heaving lines but the dockyard riggers

refused to handle them. There Was some dispute on about

the time allowed for washing hands after breakfast! We

had lowered boats on approaching the dock and thus we

were able to get our own hands ashore to man the wires

before it was toO late. vVe were not amused by Our welcome

to

Cockatoo Island.

97

Mac Gregory to lead Melbourne's ANZAC Day march tomorrow.

My friend Mackenzie Gregory has been accorded the honour of leading the march in Melbourne tomorrow.

News stories here and here.

Mac blogs here.

WW Two vet Mac Gregory featured in Signals magazine.

As I mentioned here and here, my friend Mac Gregory has had a long association with the ship's bell of USS Canberra which is displayed in the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Signals Magazine of the ANMM has recently invterviewed Mac about the bell, and his naval career.  See the article here.

ANZAC Day - Lest We Forget.

ANZAC Day is one of Australia's national days of mourning for those who fell in war. 

We mark it on 25 April each year.  Throughout the land, in big cities and small towns people will gather today at a war memorial, cenotaph or cemetery - and remember.

A beautiful and moving tribute:

Their name liveth for evermore.

What was the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island wearing? Part 3.

Part One was here.

Part Two was here.

Part Four is here.

Mr. J. W. Brown stated in May, 1949 that the Carley float held, "... the body of an engine room rating in blue overalls very much decomposed.

How would Mr. Brown have known the body had been an engine room rating in life?  Well, Christmas Island would have been visited by plenty of Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy ships by 1941.  The corpse held no personal identification, so there must have been something about the clothing which led Mr. Brown to these two conclusions - that it was a "rating" (i.e. an enlisted rank or non-officer), and from the "engine room"

Let's look at naval engineering branch insignia.  The Royal Australian Navy used significantly the same badges to denote the engineering branch from 1911 to 1990.

A three-bladed propeller.

The upper example in the photograph was the printed type worn on overalls or boiler suit by Stokers.

The badges at left are Royal Navy World War II era badges.  The pictures are from the useful website www.naval-history.net We can see that the Royal Navy's badges were similar to the RAN badges.

See also the written description here on page 137 of the Navy List.  Unsurprising given the close links between the two navies.

Both RN and RAN ships were visitors to Singapore and Christmas Island so it is quite likely that Mr. Brown was familiar with the enginering branch insignia.

Let's now consider which members of the crew aboard HMAS Sydney may have been wearing a blue boiler suit bleached white by exposure, with four or five press stud closures down the front.

My regular readers know that my preferred evidence is a first person accout, so I thought it may be useful to see what a couple of people I know who actually served aboard Royal Australian Navy ships during World War Two had to say on the topic of clothing they wore. My friend Mackenzie Gregory was a Sub-Lieutenant and Lieutenant RAN aboard Australia's three 8-inch gun cruisers HMAS Australia, HMAS Canberra and HMAS Shropshire for the duration of WWII (except for time off to complete his Lieutenant's course in the UK).

I asked Mac about WWII era RAN workclothes. He said,

- Engineering officers wore white overalls by convention. But in Shropshire I seem to recall that I wore a white type of overall at action stations, plus anti-flash gear and blue mae west life belt. See the attachement after I was rescued by Patterson.

- Stokers, ERA's wore blue overalls. (E.R.A. = engine room assistant)

- Overalls of no other colour were worn.

- Also think the sailors all wore a blue overall at action stations, plus anti flash gear and blue mae west life belt.

- By day we normally wore Khaki shorts and shirt.

My father was a Stoker, RAN aboard HMAS Shropshire during WWII, so had a different perspective on navy life. He said,

- He wore a blue coloured boiler suit made from a denim like material which when new was very stiff. Some other stokers wore pants made of the same material without a shirt due to the high temperature in the engine compartment.

- When I asked him if anyone aboard ship wore a white coloured boiler suit, he said that some fellow stokers bleached their blue boiler suits to soften them and make them more comfortable to wear.

- He said that he thinks that his boiler suit did NOT have press stud closures, instead it used buttons.

- He wore black leather boots.

What about the possibility that the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island was a German, probably from the Kormoran?

In the media conference addressed by Captain Jim Parsons, Commander Matt Blenkin and Jo Button on 26 October 2006, the Q & A had this exchange:

REPORTER: So, to the team leader, just based on what you've discovered, what degree of probability would you say this sailor or this person who was buried, was actually from the Sydney ? What sort of level of probability would you put on it?

JIM PARSONS: I think you're bringing in some issues there where I can't draw a conclusion from, but the Defence Standing Committee drew the conclusion that on the balance of probability it was a sailor from HMAS Sydney . I think we have to accept that. What I have, is a strong belief that the person that we have recovered is the person that was recovered from the Carley raft in February 1942. I think the link is already made between that and the other part.

REPORTER: Just, is there any possibility that the sailor could be a German?

JIM PARSONS: It's not impossible and it would be interesting to theorise how he got into the Carley raft, but it's certainly not implausible. And this will be part of the process that we go through.

If the engine room sailor had been a german of the Kriegsmarine, he may have been wearing a patch like this one for the Maschinenlaufbahn, although the one pictured is known to have been in the U-boat service.

The military history website http://www.diggerhistory3.info/ has helpfully reproduced a copy of book produced in 1943 by the British Admiralty's Naval Intelligence Division.

If we look at page 30 from the book we see that the third row show a range of E.R.A. or Stoker badges, each having a 3-bladed propeller motif.

And what of overalls or a boiler suit in the Kriegsmarine? Well page 28, section C.of the book says, "In small craft such as E-boats, a black leatherette and one-piece suit is often worn at sea. The lining is provided with elastic cuffs and ankle pieces, to keep out the water. The suit is closed by a zip-fastener."

That does not correspond to the boiler suit that the Uknown Sailor was wearing so, at present there seems no evidence that a Kormoran sailor may have worn a blue boiler suit or even a boiler suit at all.  More research into the uniforms of the Kormoran sailors and the Kriegsmarine will be needed.

We must also consider the latest information from the mettalurgical analysis of the shrpnel fragment found inside the skull of the Unknown Sailor after the 2006 exhumation 

In no account given by Kormoran survivors either during their wartime interrogation or after the war was there a desription or an instance of a German shell exploding and injuring one of the Kormoran's sailors.  A file comprising 491 pages exists in the nationa Archives of Australia as   'Kormoran'(Raider No. 41) - 'G'German AMC - Interrogation of Prisoners [ NAA: B6121, 734562 ] which may be viewed online via NAA's RecordSearch facility.

Additionally, on page 13 of 491 in that NAA file the inferrogation notes with Richard Emil Adolphe KOHLS, Chief Engineer, Kormoran contains this ,

"... In Indian ocean all wore only white clothes - weather was never really cold (below 10 degrees centigrade)... all wore warm clothes at night (except near Equator)."

Hence that appears to rule out that the Unknown Sailor was from the Kormoran.

We must now also consider other persons aboard who may have worn blue overalls.

In review,

- One eyewitness stated the Unknown Sailor was wearing a blue boiler suit bleached white by  exposure.  There were four plain press studs from neck to waist. 

- One of these witness said that the body was that of an "engine room rating" dressed in blue overalls.

- One eye witness stated the Uknown Sailor was wearing a white boiler suit.

-

Adelaide University has helpfully placed online an article titled Bone Sailor by Cheryl Jones in the September 4, 2007 issued of the now-defunct Bulletin Magazine.  The substantive contents of the article is an interview with Jeremy Austin of Adelaide University's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA  (ADAD).  Dr. Austin , Deputy Director of ACAD, is part of the team attempting to identify the Unknown Sailor.

     Austin read the unknown sailor's genetic code to work out his position on the global human family tree.  The man was of European descent but carried unusual mutaions that put him in the haplogroup J1, rare but widespread in Europe.  Haplogroups - twigs on the family tree - are big groups of people with a common ancestor.

     Austin says research on other sections of the genome would be needed to pin  the sailor's linage down to a place in Europe - another possible clue to his identity.

     The geneticist knows the tall sailor, who had a mouthful of gold fillings, well, but he won't be able to finish the story until he gets a DNA match.

We must also consider the RAAF members aboard HMAS Sydney who may have been wearing blue coveralls.

Next, in Part 4 I will list USEFUL LINKS.

 

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What was the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island wearing? Part Two.

Part One appeared here.

Part Three is here.

Part Four is here.

The holdings of the National Archives of Australia (NAA) on matters related to the disappearance of HMAS Sydney (II) are vast.  They have also been trawled by many professional and amateur historians.

Let's concentrate here on what the archives have to show us about what the Unknown Sailor was wearing when he was found floating in a Carley raft off Christmas Island on 6 February, 1942.  (The photograph at left shows a Carley float typical of the period.  This one was from HMAS Shropshire.)

Mr. Richard Summerrell, then Assistant Director of the NAA in 1997 produced a guide to Commonwealth Government Records on this matter called The Sinking of HMAS Sydney (ISBN 0 642 34412), and it is available online here.  this guide is a very significant work of research in its own right.

The eyewitness accounts of the recovery of the Carley float/raft off Christmas Island are contained in the NAA as reference  [ NAA: AA1980/700, NID 194/222 ]   "Carley float and Corpse Recovered Off Christmas Island."    It is available for viewing online at the NAA website via the "Recordsearch feature."      Images of this file follow, which I have downloaded from the NAA site as Bitmap images and then converted to JPEG.  Technically, there was some image compression required to load onto this blog, so if you want the higher resolution image you will need to go to the NAA site.

In early May, 1949 Mr. J. W. Brown was staying at the Carlton Hotel, Perth, Western Australia and made contact with Mr. J. K. Atkinson of the West Australian newspaper.  Mr. J. W. Brown had been a resident on Christmas Island at the time of the recovery of the Unknown Sailor in February 1942.

And who was Mr. Brown?  According to the Parliamentary report section 7.53, he was former Sergeant of the Christmas Island Platoon of the Singapore Volunteers.

Mr. Brown's statement included this,

"... It was a Carley raft with one body on board, the body of an engine room rating in blue overalls very much decomposed.  Seabirds from above and fish from below had done their share to make identification impossible.  A pair of boots was also on the raft which our resident medical officer said could not have been worn by the dead man, this led us to believe that there may have been others on the raft.  ...."   (my emphasis added)

"

Mr. Atkinson of the West Australian went to the Naval Staff Office in Fremantle, West Australia and sought comment.  The Naval Officer In Charge at Fremantle sent his own agent to interview Mr. Brown.  Mr. Brown was at that time absent, so his wife was interviewed, and she substantiated that they were residents of Christmas Island in February, 1942. 

The Naval O.I.C. then, on 4 May, 1949 sent a letter to the Director of Naval Intelligence in Navy Office Melbourne seeking confirmation of any facts.

In February and March 1942 Christmas Island was in turmoil.  The Japanese military were advancing.  On 7 March the Japanese shelled the island.  On 11 March the 27 Indian troops staged a mutiny murdering Captain Leonard Williams and four British NCOs , all part of the British Army garrison who were to protect the island.  On 31 March 1942 the Japanese invaded the island, interning the Europeans, including Tom Pearson Cromwell  (District Officer).

On 23 February 1942, the Naval Staff Officer (Intelligence) compiled Shipping Intelligence Report No. 137/1942.  Of note was that the ship S/S Islander had arrived in port.

"The "ISLANDER" brought a total of 48 evacuee passengers from Christmas Island.  From Captain J. R. Smith, Harbour Master from the Island, the following information, which throws further light on the report by J. C. BAKER (reference "HERMION" in this report), was gathered.

... The corpse was clothed in a boiler suit which had originally been blue, but was bleached white by exposure.  There were four plain press studs from neck to waist.  "

Here is another page from the Shipping Intelligence Report No. 137/1942 relating to the visit of M/V/ "HERMION" to port.

"On board this vessel were J. C. Baker and wife, passengers from Christmas Island.  Mr. Baker, for the last six years, has been in charge of the Radio Station at Christmas Island.  ...

"The corpse was clothed in a white boiler suit, the pockets were empty and there was nothing to establish identity.   the Shore doctor established that the body was that of a white man.  All the flesh was gone from the right arm, also the eyes and nose were missing.  Otherwise the corpse was decomposed in parts. ..."

Here we have a conflict between the accounts of Smith and Baker concerning the colour of the boiler suit worn by the Unknown Sailor.

Smith said, " ... boiler suit which had originally been blue, but was bleached white by exposure."

Baker said, " ... a white boiler suit ..."

Well, the Naval Staff Officer (Intelligence) wrote about this conflict, " ... without any suggestion of discrediting Baker's statements, which were given in good faith, it is suggested that those made by Captain Smith should prove the more reliable."

In response to the request for information from the Naval Officer In Charge at Fremantle, the Director of Naval Intelligence, who was then Captain, later Rear Admiral George C. Oldham wrote to the RAN's Director of Victualling and Director of Naval Stores seeking remarks on paragraphs 3 (a), (b) and (c) of the W.A. Shipping Intelligence Report No 137/1942.

I cannot tell from my reading of the NAA's online file if the whole of W. A. Shipping Intelligence Report No 137/1942 was forward for reading and consideration by the D. of V. and the D. N. S. , or merely the page containing the account of Mr. Baker, which stated that the corpse was wearing " ...a white boiler suit." The fact that the D. of V. has commented on the topic of "pressed studs" and "press studs" infers that he also read the account of Smith who said, "there were four plain press buttons from neck to waist."

The Director of Naval Stores (D.N.S.) has replied ,

" Regarding Par 3(a), the boiler suit does not coincide with ratings' type stocked in R.A.N.  as pressed studs had [ illegible  words ] been adopted.  A naval rating may have worn the type described although not officially uniform.  R.A.N. officers purchased their own or had them made up privately. White & brown in colour [illegible word] press studs.

2. The markings on the shoes described by Captain J. R. Smith as underlined in blue pencil definitely correspond with supplies from our stores, provided they were leather not canvas shoes. I should think they had been supplied to an officer or rating."

  Let's look at the conclusions which were made by Captain G. C. Oldham, the Director of Naval Intelligence.  He replied to the Naval Officer in Charge at Fremantle on 2 August, 1949:

Captain Oldham concluded that the clothing could have been that of an R.A.N. rating, but that the Carley float did not belong to an H.M.A. Ship.

Captain Oldham's conclusion about the origin of the Carley float is now believed to be incorrect.  Based upon substantial further evidence which Oldham did not have at his disposal, the Joint Parliamentary Committee drew the conclusion that the Carley float may well have come from an H.M.A. Ship. See the report sections 7.8 through 7.50.

SUMMARY

One eyewitness in 1942 said that the Unknown Sailor was wearing a blue boiler suit which had been bleached white by exposure to the sun.

One eyewitness in 1942 said that the Unknown Sailor was wearing a white boiler suit.

One eyewitness in 1949 said that the Unknown Sailor was the body of an engine room rating wearing  blue overalls.

For this reason, I think that the current efforts to identify the Unknown Sailor by finding his surviving relatives should be concentrating on those members of the crew who would most likely have been wearing blue overalls/boiler suit - not those members of the crew who would most likely have been wearing white overalls/boiler suit.

Recall from my first post on this topic that analysis of the fabric remnants from between press studs found upon the exhumation of the Unknown Sailor's remains was conducted at the Australian War Memorial, and the conclusion was that the colour of the fabric was white.  This together with the weave of the fabric led to the conclusion that the clothing had been of a type issued to officers, most likely in the Engineering branch.

Part Three coming soon.

What was the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island wearing? Part One.

Part Two is here.

Part Three is here.

Part Four is here.

This blog post (part one) will address some factual matters surrounding identifying the body of an Unknown Sailor which was found off shore Christmas Island on 7 February, 1942. Many believe him to have been a member of the crew of HMAS Sydney (II).  Some background is required to gain an understanding of the issues.

(Photo from RAN)

HMAS Sydney (II) was lost at sea on 19 November, 1941 a victim of the German raider Kormoran.  All hands perished.  No survivor of the 645 crew members was ever found.

The pain felt by relatives of Sydney crew members has endured even as the decades have passed. There are strong emotions involved relating to the sense of loss, a perceived inaction and lack of care by our Government about appropriately commemorating the loss of the crew, indeed how best to commemorate and memorialise the loss, and how best to deal with the case of the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island with respect to finding and identifying his remains, and then a re-interment.  There have in the past been accusations of a cover-up by the Government which have hopefully now been allayed.

The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade mentioned these quotations in Chapter 8 of it's 1999 Report on The Loss of HMAS Sydney :

It seems inconceivable that a nation such as Australia, with its magnificent military history, can permit the fate of one of its most famous warships to remain shrouded in mystery and for the fate of 645 of her crew to remain unverified. It is, in short, a national disgrace and a scandal ... When a country such as Australia refuses to engage in a search for its lost heroes just off the shore of its own continent, it defies belief.1

What we say is that it is irrelevant how the Sydney was sunk. It will not change history ... What I, my mother, her brothers and sister (and I am sure all the wives, children, brothers, sisters and loved ones - plus one surviving mother of one of the Sydney's crew) would like to know is where the wreck of the Sydney is lying on the ocean floor, and if the body on Christmas island is that of one of the Sydney's crew.2

In  November 2004 the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne held an exhibition in tribute to the lost crew of HMAS Sydney.  My friend MacKenzie Gregory was a member of the organising committee for that exhibition and noted these emotional reactions to the exhibition:

"... Captain Burnett's daughter was one of our visitors, only 4 years old when her Dad died.

This lady, naturally enough became quite tearful when talking about the action which claimed her Father, she indicated that she was not in favour of finding the wreck, and would prefer to let her lay where ever she may be in peace.

On the other hand, many relatives with whom we talked would like to know the last resting place of their individual loved ones. "

With respect to the Unknown Sailor of Christmas island, the 1999 Parliamentary Report noted that,

For many who made submissions to the inquiry, the body on Christmas Island was a central concern.  If the body was indeed that of one of HMAS Sydney's crew, there was a strong feeling that it should no longer lie in an unmarked grave in a remote part of the Indian Ocean.

In October 2006 a Royal Australian Navy search team led by Captain Jim Parsons visited the Old European Cemetery of Christmas Island.  After an exhaustive yet targeted search they successfully located the grave of the Unknown Sailor, exhumed the remains which included a complete skeleton, and the ability to identify dental work via fillings and missing teeth. The remains were transported to the Shellshear Museum at the University of Sydney and they have subsequently been subject to dental, anthropological, pathological, ballistic, metallurgic and DNA analysis at a variety of locations.  Here's a transcript of the Media conference given on 26 October 2006 by Captain Jim Parson, Commander Matthew Blenkin, and Jo Button.

Capt. Parsons:

"Yes there's one other point that I missed, with the recovering of the remains, there were a couple of things we found.  One was press-studs - certainly what appears to be press-studs. they're badly corroded but that's what they look like.

Again, history tells us that when the sailor was recovered he was wearing blue overalls, bleached white by the sun, with press-studs down the front.  Again, another piece of evidence that suggests it's the right person."

and

"These are all part of the artifacts that we handed over to the Australian War Memorial earlier this week for analysis because it appears that both the eyelets and the press-studs have some minute traces of material still jammed between where they're pressed together and we're hopeful that we might be able to analyse something out of that."

In the photo at left (supplied by the Defence Department) Captain Jim Parsons, team leader for the Christmas Island Project, hands over artifacts found at the gravesite of the unknown sailor to the Australian War Memorial's Assistant Registrar Georgina Cunningham.  click on photo for larger image, and see one of the press studs in the sealed clear plastic bag closest to camera.

Since the remains of the Unknown Sailor were exhumed in October 2006 much work has been done by the team and associated scientists and technicians.

METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS OF SHRAPNEL FOUND IN THE SKULL

This indicated that the shrapnel was of German origin, not Japanese as it contained silicon and manganese which were known to be used by the Germans to harden metals in 1941.  The shrapnel did not contain either nickel or copper, which were characteristically used in Japanese hardening techniques in 1941.  The implication is that this is consistent with the attack by the German raider Kormoran on HMAS Sydney (II), and also seems likely to rule out the Unknown Sailor being a victim of a Japanese attack.  Some historians have postulated that the ship was sunk by a Japanese Submarine, however this is a minority view.

PATHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION

This has shown that death occurred between 50 and 100 years ago, again consistent with the skeleton being that of the Unknown Sailor from 1942.  It has also revealed shrapnel struck the front of the skull and lodged in the left forehead.  Additionally there was a second major skull injury with bone loss on the left side of the skull, above and behind the left earhole believed to have occurred around the time of death.  There were multiple rib fractures, but these may have occurred post mortem due to settling of the grave.

DNA ANALYSIS

Scientists at Adelaide Research and Innovation  and the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide extracted and analysed DNA from the teeth according to this report in NAVY.

FABRIC ANALYSIS

"White fabric and the particular weave of that fabric found within an overall stud recovered with the body pointed to an engineering officer from Sydney II" according to this report in NAVY.

Forensic odontological reports and anthropological reports excluded more than 500 of the crew of HMAS Sydney (II) according to this Defence Department media release.

Breaking those numbers down in this media release, we see that "... post mortem dental  examination of the remains was carried out.  Regrettably only half the crew dental records are available, the remainder having been lost with the ship.  While no positive match was achieved, this analysis resulted in more than 300 of the crew being excluded."

"The next stage involved an anthropological examination of the skeleton.  This effectively excluded a further 200 members on the bases of indicative age at death and height.  This left about 100 of HMAS Sydney II crew as potential matches for the remains. "

SEARCH FOR DNA MATCHING AMONGST POSSIBLE SURVIVING RELATIVES BEGINS

On 23 June 2007, the Defence Department announced that the attempt to match DNA was commencing with a search for surviving relatives of 3 Engineering Officers from the crew.  There were also widespread announcements in Australian media at that time.

The announcement also mentioned:

In particular Australian War Memorial (AWM) analysis of cloth fragments found within press-studs resulted in the assessment the man had been buried wearing white coveralls.

Historical research by the AWM and the Navy's Sea-Power Centre-Australia concluded that the sailor was therefore most likely to be an Officer or Warrant Officer from one of the technical categories.

Mike Cecil of the Australian War Memorial said this conclusion is based on the assumption that the sailor was dressed in accordance with Naval regulations and indeed was wearing his own coveralls.

"it must be noted that it remains quite possible that these assumptions may prove to be incorrect," Mr. Cecil said.

There is no doubt that all concerned in finding the remains of the Unknown Sailor and in attempting to effect an accurate identification are discharging their Sacred duty in a very thorough manner.

SEARCH FOR DNA MATCHING AMONGST POSSIBLE SURVIVING RELATIVES CONTINUES

On 6 August 2007, the Defence Department issued an update announcing that the attempt to find matching DNA with relatives of 3 short-listed sailors had been unsuccessful. Hence the search was being widened to locate surviving relatives of 11 other Officers and Warrant Officers who were entitled to wear white coveralls and 2 civilian canteen workers who may be potential matches due to uncertainty of what they may have been wearing during battle stations.

It was hoped that relatives may be able to provide additional biographical, physiological or medical information which would further assist the identification process.

Again, this received wide media coverage.

Again, admirable thoroughness.

Shortly after this release on 6 August 2007 Australia entered Federal Election mode, and due to caretaker government provisions few media announcements occur during that period.  However as at time of writing today, there seems to have been no further information released about the search.

My problem with this?  I think that the historical record in the National Archives of Australia show the Unknown Sailor was found off Christmas Island wearing blue coveralls which were bleached white by exposure.  Consequently the team striving to identify the remains should be concentrating on a different segment of the crew.  Those who would have been most likely to wear blue coveralls.

Let's explore that in Part Two. 

 

The Royal Australian Navy's Heritage Centre at Garden Island or A RAN Veteran revisits Garden Island for the first time since November 1945

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On Friday my father who is in town visiting, Edward and I went to the Royal Australian Navy's Heritage Centre at Garden Island, Sydney.

Garden Island contains the RAN's Fleet Base East and the Garden Island Dockyard and as such there is restricted public access only to a segregated area on the North-eastern tip of the Island.  Access is achieved by taking the Watson's Bay ferry from Circular Quay, which stops at Garden Island after a 6-minute trip around the Sydney Opera House.

Entry to the museum style gallery is free for kids, and costs $5 for Adults.

The Gallery has a large display which is drawn from some 300,000 artifacts which the RAN holds in its extensive archives which are otherwise unavailable for public viewing - so whatever goes on display must of necessity be a carefully chosen sample.  I'll mention a few items and make some commentary.

Although there was no identifying curator's plaque, this is a Naval Surgeon's amputation kit (incomplete).  Made by Arnold & Sons, a British surgical instrument maker.  The handles appear to be cross hatched ebony.  The long bladed knives at the front are Liston knives; their use is for cutting through muscle during amputation.  They were developed by a Crimean War (1854 - 1856) surgeon, Dr. Liston.  This dates the kit as being from after that period.  The work of Joseph Lister (different spelling) in 1867 led to revelations that porous material should not be used for the manufacture of handles on surgical instruments due to their propensity to harbour germs.  Hence this kit can be safely dated between  1854 and 1870.

The whole kit is contained in a chest made from mahogany with brass reinforcements.

The woven propeller badge with star insignia at lower left is similar to that worn by my father on his uniform during WWII.  The badge in blue motif on white background was worn on coveralls.

These cap tally bands include one for H.M.A.S. Shopshire and at bottom a simple H.M.A.S. without a ship's name. Both are as worn by my father in wartime.  This latter type was worn by sailors during wartime as a security measure to reduce intelligence on ship movements available to the enemy.

Without doubt the most popular exhibit in the gallery was the Attack Periscope Type CH74 built by Barr & Stroud from an Oberon Class Submarine.

Here is a pic of the oldest person in the gallery picking up the youngest person in the gallery to have a look through the monocular eyepiece of the periscope.  The other end of the periscope is about 13 metres above through the roof of the building and may be rotated through a full 380 degrees.  It's the real deal.

This large brass plate displaying the word "SHROPSHIRE" is not described by a curatorial plaque, and an identical large brass plate also appears in another part of the gallery again, not described.  My father believes it dates from post-WWII, as in wartime all identifying names were removed from the outside of the ship for security reasons.

Some slightly more modern technology was also on display like this Radar indicator Azimuth Range SRA-66 from a guided missile destroyer of the Charles F. Adams class (DDGs) such as HMAS Hobart, Perth and Brisbane, each of which saw action in the Vietnam War. You can see that Edward was keen to test his ranging skills.  He also spent some time on the torpedo aiming unit from a submarine which can be seen in the left of the pic, and the sonar unit out of frame to the right.  All of the controls on these units are in working order, however they are not connected to any power source.  Edward could turn the wheels and flick the switches.  Having been built to naval specifications they are quite hardy.

Here is a mock-up giving an idea of ship-board living conditions. I asked my father if he actually slept in a hammock aboard ship, he confirmed that he did so, but said that it was preferable to sleep on a bench like the one beside this meal table or if a sailor was lucky enough to have a mattress, he would sleep on the deck.

 

On the night of 31 May 1942 three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour and engaged in what became known as the Battle of Sydney.  One of the subs torpedoed HMAS Kuttabul, sinking it and killing 21 RAN sailors 19 RAN and 2 RN sailors.  As a boy I visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and remember seeing a hull section of one of the midget submarines on display in the AWM forecourt.  I should have wondered where the conning tower section of the sub was located, but never did.  The RAN have been holding onto it all these years, and now it is on display here.  it's worth noting that  the display about the Battle of Sydney and the conning tower of the Japanese Midget Sub are on display in the large entry hall to the building, and as such are available for viewing without paying the $5 entry charge to the Gallery,.

Somewhat amusingly, later in 1942 sections of the two captured/salvaged Japanese midget submarines were taken on a tour around Australia to raise money for the Naval Relief Fund, and parts of the sub were sold off.

In an otherwise admirable curatorial job in the Gallery display, my father did spot one factual error.The medal miniatures of Rear Admiral George Carmichael OLDHAM are on display, noting his award of the Distinguished Service Cross whilst aboard HMAS Shropshire during the Leyte Gulf Operations (He at that time held the rank of Commander).  The accompanying curatorial plaque incorrectly identifies his service as "RN" (to denote Royal Navy), however it should be "RAN" (to denote Royal Australian Navy).Perhaps the error occurred in confusion with Captain R. W. OLDHAM who was of the RN, and who was the first Captain of HMS Shropshire when she was launched into the Royal Navy on 5 July 1928. A digital image of Rear Admiral G. C. Oldham's service card may be viewed online at the National Archives of Australia.

I know that there is a good deal of interest in Siebe Gorman diving suits and equipment around the world, because the blog post I wrote about Siebe Gorman perinnially gets lots of hits.  The Gallery has an outstanding example of a Siebe Gorman diving suit, again with a six bolt helmet complete with the machinery to supply air to the suit and the electrical voice communication set.

During World War II, the RAN's biggest ships were the Heavy Cruisers HMAS Australia, HMAS Canberra and HMAS Shropshire.  They were each armed with eight 8-inch guns, and here is an example of one of the gun barrels from HMAS Australia.  The gun barrel is just over 10 metres long.  Depending upon the charge and projectile used, the maximum range was about 28 kilometres.

And here is photograph of HMAS Shropshire firing an 8-inch gun broadside.

In summary, this is a great litle museum... I'd even call it Australia's best small museum.  Even the journey to Garden Island is via a memorable Ferry trip passing between the Sydney Opera House and Fort Denison.  Visiting the museum with a 4-year old boy, I appreciated the fact that he could enjoy mucking about with the Radar Indicator unit (pictured above), and I contrast that with the environmentt on the USS Missouri Battleship Memorial  where it is monstly a look but don't touch situation, pictured below.

A question Dear Reader?  Put it in the comment section for a response.

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Added:

Here's a photograph of the Naval base at Garden Island taken between 1880 and 1900 which of course pre-dates the 1911 formation of the Royal Australian Navy. (photo from Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum on Flickr) 

Note that the island is truly an island at the time this photograph was taken.  Nowadays it is joined to the mainland at Wooloomooloo, as can be seen in the Google Maps image at the start of this blog post.

lifeasdaddy - HMAS Shropshire. Part 6: Siebe Gorman diving suit and helmet

In this rare photograph one of HMAS Shropshire's divers is wearing Siebe Gorman diving gear circa 1944. 

(Thanks to Mac Gregory for the identification of the equipment manufacturer.)

Siebe Gorman were the preeminent diving equipment makers of the day, and they made a range of different diving helmets which may be basically identified by the number of bolts used to attach the helmet to the collar of the suit.

The helmet pictured here is a 6 bolt helmet, and more information about it can be found here.

You can read about the Siebe Gorman company and their full range of helmets here.  The company is now defunct and their products are much sought after by collectors.

For a better view of this type of helmet and suit, here is a modern photograph of WO Glenn Spilsted OAM wearing a 50-year old Siebe Gorman standard diving suit, together with the modern equivalent Mk 27 diving suit worn by WO Eric Johansen.  This is the NAVY news article which was attached to the photograph.  Here's another charming NAVY news item about the same Siebe Gorman suit, which obviously gets a run on special occasions.

{ The photograph of HMAS Shropshire's diver is from a private collection and may not be published elsewhere without the express permission of the author of this blog.  Enquire to lifeasaddy  <at > gmail dot com   }