Lest We Forget

[goldy9091]

Originally Posted by Fat Chili

Any pics to share? Lucky bugger!

I have given the wife notice that i will be attending the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli 2015 - anyone else up for it?

I mentioned the same thing to my wife on Wed at our local dawn service in Runaway Bay!! She rolled her eyes and said start saving buddy!!

[Fat Chili]

This year whilst selling ANZAC badges at work for my local RSL I took the time to read the back of the Royal Australian Navy badge available.

The badge depicts the painting by Dale Marsh, it is titled Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, HMAS 'Armidale'. Now I am was not Navy, proudly Ex Army (3RAR), but the deeds and ultimately the supreme sacrifice paid by 'Ordinary Seaman Edward 'Teddy' Sheean are far from ordinary!

Please take 2 minute to read about his actions below.....its the least you can do.....it'll send a shiver down your spine.

Please remember, ANZAC Day is not about football or just a "day off", Remembering those that paid the supreme sacrifice is the least we can do.


Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean

Date of birth: 28 December 1923
Place of birth: Barrington, TAS
Date of death: 01 December 1942
Place of death: Arafura Sea





Edward "Teddy" Sheean was an ordinary seaman serving on HMAS Armidale whose death during a Japanese aerial attack on his ship has become a well-known episode in Australian Second World War lore.

Sheean was born at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923. He received his education in a Catholic school at Latrobe in Tasmania and, having completed his schooling, worked on farms in the area where he grew up. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941 and began his initial training in Tasmania. In February 1942 he was sent to the Flinders Naval Depot at Westernport in Victoria to continue his training, and the following May he was posted to Sydney.

At the end of that month, the vessel on which he was billeted, the former ferry Kuttabul, was sunk during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. Fortunately for Sheean he was in Tasmania on home leave that night. He returned to Sydney 11 days later to begin his service as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gunner on the newly commissioned corvette, HMAS Armidale. Armidale spent her early months on relatively uneventful convoy escort duties along Australia's east and northern coasts.

In October 1942 Armidale's captain, Lieutenant Commander David Richards, was ordered to Darwin and, on 29 November, the corvette began her last operation. Along with two other vessels, she was to undertake a resupply and evacuation mission to Japanese-occupied Timor.

Having been seen by Japanese reconnaissance pilots shortly after leaving the port, Armidale was destined for a dangerous journey. She and the other corvette on the operation, HMAS Castlemaine, missed the rendezvous with the third ship, in Timor's Betano Bay, but met her later some 100 kilometres off-shore. The plan having gone awry, Armidale was ordered to return to Betano the following night. Facing a long day in enemy waters and the certainty of attack, the crew waited.

When in the mid-afternoon she was hit by two aircraft-launched torpedoes, Armidale began to sink fast. Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oerlikon and began to engage the attacking aircraft even as the ship sunk beneath him. He shot down two planes, and crewmates recall seeing tracer rising from beneath the surface as Sheean was dragged under the water, firing until the end. He died on 1 December 1942 aged just 18. Only 49 of the 149 men on board survived the attack and subsequent ordeal on rafts and in life boats.

Many consider that Sheean's actions deserved the Victoria Cross, an award for which he was not recommended at the time although he was Mentioned in Dispatches. He has subsequently been honoured in a well-known painting at the Australian War Memorial and by having a Collins Class submarine named after him in 1999 - the only vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to be named after an ordinary seaman.

LEST WE FORGET

[layback40]

Originally Posted by Fat Chili

This year whilst selling ANZAC badges at work for my local RSL I took the time to read the back of the Royal Australian Navy badge available.

The badge depicts the painting by Dale Marsh, it is titled Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, HMAS 'Armidale'. Now I am was not Navy, proudly Ex Army (3RAR), but the deeds and ultimately the supreme sacrifice paid by 'Ordinary Seaman Edward 'Teddy' Sheean are far from ordinary!

Please take 2 minute to read about his actions below.....its the least you can do.....it'll send a shiver down your spine.

Please remember, ANZAC Day is not about football or just a "day off", Remembering those that paid the supreme sacrifice is the least we can do.


Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean

Date of birth: 28 December 1923
Place of birth: Barrington, TAS
Date of death: 01 December 1942
Place of death: Arafura Sea





Edward "Teddy" Sheean was an ordinary seaman serving on HMAS Armidale whose death during a Japanese aerial attack on his ship has become a well-known episode in Australian Second World War lore.

Sheean was born at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923. He received his education in a Catholic school at Latrobe in Tasmania and, having completed his schooling, worked on farms in the area where he grew up. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941 and began his initial training in Tasmania. In February 1942 he was sent to the Flinders Naval Depot at Westernport in Victoria to continue his training, and the following May he was posted to Sydney.

At the end of that month, the vessel on which he was billeted, the former ferry Kuttabul, was sunk during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. Fortunately for Sheean he was in Tasmania on home leave that night. He returned to Sydney 11 days later to begin his service as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gunner on the newly commissioned corvette, HMAS Armidale. Armidale spent her early months on relatively uneventful convoy escort duties along Australia's east and northern coasts.

In October 1942 Armidale's captain, Lieutenant Commander David Richards, was ordered to Darwin and, on 29 November, the corvette began her last operation. Along with two other vessels, she was to undertake a resupply and evacuation mission to Japanese-occupied Timor.

Having been seen by Japanese reconnaissance pilots shortly after leaving the port, Armidale was destined for a dangerous journey. She and the other corvette on the operation, HMAS Castlemaine, missed the rendezvous with the third ship, in Timor's Betano Bay, but met her later some 100 kilometres off-shore. The plan having gone awry, Armidale was ordered to return to Betano the following night. Facing a long day in enemy waters and the certainty of attack, the crew waited.

When in the mid-afternoon she was hit by two aircraft-launched torpedoes, Armidale began to sink fast. Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oerlikon and began to engage the attacking aircraft even as the ship sunk beneath him. He shot down two planes, and crewmates recall seeing tracer rising from beneath the surface as Sheean was dragged under the water, firing until the end. He died on 1 December 1942 aged just 18. Only 49 of the 149 men on board survived the attack and subsequent ordeal on rafts and in life boats.

Many consider that Sheean's actions deserved the Victoria Cross, an award for which he was not recommended at the time although he was Mentioned in Dispatches. He has subsequently been honoured in a well-known painting at the Australian War Memorial and by having a Collins Class submarine named after him in 1999 - the only vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to be named after an ordinary seaman.

LEST WE FORGET

Thank You for sharing this with us FC !!

[Fat Chili]

So why have I titled this years post "5,772"?

I work with several Belgium engineers, all are quite young (late 20's) and this afternoon one of them made an attempt at a smart arsed comment about Australian Soldiers before his fellow Belgium co-worker corrected him which in turn reminded him of the fact. The fact being the number of War Graves in the tiny country of Belgium.

There are 12 to be precise that contain the remains of the 5,772 identified and unidentified Australian Soldiers.

http://www.dva.gov.au/commems_oawg/O...20belgium.aspx

My co-worker is now slightly embarrassed and apologetic, however; he was joking and in hindsight at least after his memory jog it was evident that they are well aware of the supreme sacrifice made by so many Australians so far away from this great country.

This year may thoughts are with a Battalion mate of mine who committed suicide due to PTSD.....and also with the family of Matt Lambert (26), pictured below. Matt was killed in Afghanistan on 22 Aug 2011 due to injuries sustained from a road side bomb.
Matt's parents reside in the same community as I and his name was added to the Tamborine mountain War Memorial last year.



LEST WE FORGET

[fraz]

I found this poem on another forum, and felt it should be shared. The author does really well to hit the message home.

The Anzac on the Wall

I wandered thru a country town 'cos I had time to spare,
And went into an antique shop to see what was in there.
Old Bikes and pumps and kero lamps, but hidden by it all,
A photo of a soldier boy - an Anzac on the Wall.

'The Anzac have a name?' I asked. The old man answered 'No,.
The ones who could have told me mate, have passed on long ago.
The old man kept on talking and, according to his tale,
The photo was unwanted junk bought from a clearance sale.

'I asked around,' the old man said, 'but no one knows his face,
He's been on that wall twenty years, deserves a better place.
For some one must have loved him so, it seems a shame somehow.'
I nodded in agreement and then said, 'I'll take him now.'

My nameless digger's photo, well it was a sorry sight
A cracked glass pane and a broken frame - I had to make it right
To prise the photo from its frame I took care just in case,
'Cause only sticky paper held the cardboard back in place.

I peeled away the faded screed and much to my surprise,
Two letters and a telegram appeared before my eyes
The first reveals my Anzac's name, and regiment of course
John Mathew Francis Stuart - of Australia's own Light Horse.

This letter written from the front, my interest now was keen
This note was dated August seventh 1917
'Dear Mum, I'm at Khalasa Springs not far from the Red Sea
They say it's in the Bible - looks like Billabong to me.

'My Kathy wrote I'm in her prayers she's still my bride to be
I just cant wait to see you both you're all the world to me
And Mum you'll soon meet Bluey, last month they shipped him out
I told him to call on you when he's up and about.'

'That bluey is a larrikin, and we all thought it funny
He lobbed a Turkish hand grenade into the Co's dunny.
I told you how he dragged me wounded in from no man's land
He stopped the bleeding closed the wound with only his bare hand.'

'Then he copped it at the front from some stray shrapnel blast
It was my turn to drag him in and I thought he wouldn't last
He woke up in hospital, and nearly lost his mind
Cause out there on the battlefield he'd left one leg behind.'

'He's been in a bad way mum, he knows he'll ride no more
Like me he loves a horse's back he was a champ before.
So Please Mum can you take him in, he's been like my brother
Raised in a Queensland orphanage he' s never known a mother.'

But Struth, I miss Australia mum, and in my mind each day
I am a mountain cattleman on high plains far away
I'm mustering white-faced cattle, with no camel's hump in sight
And I waltz my Matilda by a campfire every night

I wonder who rides Billy, I heard the pub burnt down
I'll always love you and please say hooroo to all in town'.
The second letter I could see was in a lady's hand
An answer to her soldier son there in a foreign land

Her copperplate was perfect, the pages neat and clean
It bore the date November 3rd 1917.
'T'was hard enough to lose your Dad, without you at the war
I'd hoped you would be home by now - each day I miss you more'

'Your Kathy calls around a lot since you have been away
To share with me her hopes and dreams about your wedding day
And Bluey has arrived - and what a godsend he has been
We talked and laughed for days about the things you've done and seen'

'He really is a comfort, and works hard around the farm,
I read the same hope in his eyes that you wont come to harm.
Mc Connell's kids rode Billy, but suddenly that changed
We had a violent lightning storm, and it was really strange.'

'Last Wednesday just on midnight, not a single cloud in sight
It raged for several minutes, it gave us all a fright
It really spooked your Billy - and he screamed and bucked and reared

And then he rushed the sliprail fence, which by a foot he cleared'
'They brought him back next afternoon, but something's changed I fear
It's like the day you brought him home, for no one can get near
Remember when you caught him with his black and flowing mane?
Now Horse breakers fear the beast that only you can tame,'

'That's why we need you home son' - then the flow of ink went dry-
This letter was unfinished, and I couldn't work out why.
Until I started reading the letter number three
A yellow telegram delivered news of tragedy

Her son killed in action - oh - what pain that must have been
The Same date as her letter - 3rd November 17
This letter which was never sent, became then one of three
She sealed behind the photo's face - the face she longed to see.

And John's home town's old timers -children when he went to war
Would say no greater cattleman had left the town before.
They knew his widowed mother well - and with respect did tell
How when she lost her only boy she lost her mind as well.

She could not face the awful truth, to strangers she would speak
'My Johnny's at the war you know , he's coming home next week.'
They all remembered Bluey he stayed on to the end
A younger man with wooden leg became her closest friend

And he would go and find her when she wandered old and weak
And always softly say 'yes dear - John will be home next week.'
Then when she died Bluey moved on, to Queensland some did say
I tried to find out where he went, but don't know to this day

And Kathy never wed - a lonely spinster some found odd
She wouldn't set foot in a church - she'd turned her back on God
John's mother left no will I learned on my detective trail
This explains my photo's journey, that clearance sale

So I continued digging cause I wanted to know more
I found John's name with thousands in the records of the war
His last ride proved his courage - a ride you will acclaim
The Light Horse Charge at Beersheba of everlasting fame

That last day in October back in 1917
At 4pm our brave boys fell - that sad fact I did glean
That's when John's life was sacrificed, the record's crystal clear
But 4pm in Beersheba is midnight over here.......

So as John's gallant spirit rose to cross the great divide
Were lightning bolts back home a signal from the other side?
Is that why Billy bolted and went racing as in pain?
Because he'd never feel his master on his back again?

Was it coincidental? same time - same day - same date?
Some proof of numerology, or just a quirk of fate?
I think it's more than that, you know, as I've heard wiser men,
Acknowledge there are many things that go beyond our ken

Where craggy peaks guard secrets neath dark skies torn asunder
Where hoofbeats are companions to the rolling waves of thunder
Where lightning cracks like 303's and ricochets again
Where howling moaning gusts of wind sound just like dying men
Some Mountain cattlemen have sworn on lonely alpine track
They've glimpsed a huge black stallion - Light Horseman on his back.

Yes Sceptics say, it's swirling clouds just forming apparitions
Oh no, my friend you cant dismiss all this as superstition
The desert of Beersheba - or windswept Aussie range
John Stuart rides forever there - Now I don't find that strange.

Now some gaze at this photo, and they often question me
And I tell them a small white lie, and say he's family.
'You must be proud of him.' they say - I tell them, one and all,
That's why he takes the pride of place - my Anzac on the Wall.


Mark MOBLEY"

[wrench]

Just returned from the sunrise service at Mt Mee. This year the address was from a Marine colonel on secondment here.
It was quite moving watching the sun rise though the mist over the Glasshouse Mtns while reflecting on the bravery of our service men and women. It was clear from this Marines address how well they are respected around the world.

[Fat Chili]

100 years, pretty amazing...missed out on the Gallipoli electoral process, but its on my bucket list.

To all the veterans, have a great day today.

LEST WE FORGET