by Mike Carlton
2 Kershaw, Hubris, p. 54.
3 Hitler’s speech on becoming German chancellor is on YouTube. Search on ‘Hitler speech 1933’. His mastery of oratory, with all the theatrical pauses and gestures, is fascinating but, at the same time, utterly repellent.
4 Deutschland was later renamed Lützow to diminish a British propaganda victory if she were sunk.
5 Named from the Latin fasces – a ceremonial axe wrapped in a bundle of birch rods, which was a symbol of power in ancient Rome.
6 Phillip writing to his patron, the Marquis of Lansdowne, July 1788, letter in the collection of the New South Wales State Library.
7 See Frame, No Pleasure Cruise, p. 68.
8 The Argus, Melbourne, 31 August 1908.
9 Cited in Jose, p. lvii.
10 ‘How to Join the Royal Australian Navy’, booklet by the Navy Office, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1 September 1912.
11 A brief biography of the ship, and her formal entry to Sydney, is at www.navy.gov.au/HMAS_Australia_(I).
12 These lines actually came from ‘The Lady of the Snow’, a poem by Kipling on an unlikely and distant topic: Canada’s adoption of a preferential tariff in 1897. Nobody seemed to know or care in all the excitement.
13 Australian War Memorial: www.awm.gov.au/atwar/statistics/world_wars.asp.
14 Figures compiled by the International Military Commission for the Far East (aka the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal) after the Second World War. To this day, the Japanese Government does not accept them and refers to the massacre merely as ‘the Nanking Incident’. China argues that the toll was far higher.
15 Federal Parliamentary Hansard, 5 November 1936.
16 From a paper prepared for the Minister for Defence, Archdale Parkhill, for the London Imperial Conference, 1937. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Documents on Australian Foreign Policy, www.info.dfat.gov.au/historical. Chapter 3: To the World Beyond
Chapter 3: To the World Beyond
1 Jock Lawrance, interview with the author, 2008.
2 Parkin, Golden Mean.
3 King.
4 Judy Patching, interview with the author, 2008.
5 Gee, p. 125.
6 Roberts, pp. 13–14.
7 Parkin, Golden Mean.
8 Roberts, p. 32.
9 Eldridge, p. 43 – a good account of the early days of the RANC.
10 Hatfield.
Chapter 4: Portsmouth
1 Churchill’s last private secretary, Anthony Montague Browne, maintained that Churchill never said it but wished he had.
2 The Naval Historical Society of Australia. Pitiful as these amounts seem, the Australians were envied by sailors of the Royal Navy, who earned still less. Modern-day comparisons are difficult, but to give a rough indication in today’s cents, in 1939 a litre of milk cost 3c, a kilo of good steak about 40c, a packet of ten cigarettes 5c and a ticket to the movies 10c.
3 For a useful selection of navy-speak, see www.gunplot.net/traditions/navalterminology.html.
4 The RAN Seapower Centre, Naval Financial Regulations and Instructions, February 1940.
5 Judy Patching, interview with the author, 2008.
6 Bracht.
7 Ibid.
8 Jock Lawrance, interview with the author, 2008.
9 Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140353b.htm.
10 James was the grandson of the kitschy British artist John Everett Millais, who painted the boy, at the age of five, wearing a lacy velvet suit, golden curls and an angelic expression, blowing soap bubbles. The painting, named Bubbles, later became famous as an advertisement for Pears Soap – an image that followed him all his life. He had a distinguished naval career.
11 Roberts, p. 35.
12 Ibid., p. 36.
13 Hayler.
14 Gee, p. 128.
15 Bracht.
16 Hatfield.
Chapter 5: Welcome in New York
1 Watt, p. 97.
2 Commonwealth Government cable to Sir Thomas Inskip, UK Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 30 August 1939. Documents on Australian Foreign Policy, www.info.dfat.gov.au/historical.
3 Hatfield.
4 Roberts, p. 38.
5 Wife of George VI, later the Queen Mother.
6 Roberts, War Memorial Record AWM PR90/161.
7 Jock Lawrance, interview with the author, 2008.
8 Judy Patching, interview with the author, 2008.
9 Clipping from Basil Hayler’s memoirs.
10 New York Times, 5 August 1939.
11 Roberts, p. 46.
12 Roberts, War Memorial Record AWM PR90/161.
13 Hatfield.
14 Jock Lawrance, interview with the author, 2008.
Chapter 6: Rum with Shanghai Lil
1 King.
2 Roberts, p. 61.
3 Chamberlain spoke from a microphone set up in the Cabinet Room at No. 10, Downing Street. The broadcast was relayed, live, by BBC short wave.
4 AWM78 292/2/3 HMAS Perth, Report of Proceedings (War Diary).
5 The RAN usually refers to this as ‘a signal’, but the official Admiralty title was ‘The Imperial War Telegram’ (whereas it is commonly referred to as the Admiralty War Telegram).
6 Roberts, War Memorial Record AWM PR90/161.
7 Parkin, Caribbean Diary.
8 Roberts, War Memorial Record AWM PR90/161.
9 Bracht.
10 Ibid.
11 Roberts, War Memorial Record AWM PR90/161.
12 Ibid.
13 Hayler.
14 Parkin, Golden Mean, unpublished autobiography.
15 Whiting, private papers.
16 This brief account of the battle derived from Barnett and Pope. The victory gave great heart to Britain and the Empire in the opening months of the war.
17 Bracht.
18 Ibid.
19 King.
20 Bracht.
21 Hatfield.
22 Parkin, Caribbean Diary.
Chapter 7: First Homecoming
1 Whiting, p. xxv.
2 Joan Gandy (née Flynn), interview with the author, 2008.
3 Gill, 1939–1942, p. 67.
4 Churchill, Vol. II: Their Finest Hour, p. 38.
5 King.
6 Jim Nelson.
7 Sheedy, p. 37.
8 Speer, p. 172. Inside the Third Reich is a valuable account of life at the top of Hitler’s Nazi regime. Speer, though, was also an accomplished liar and goes to great pains to distance himself from Nazi atrocities.
9 The Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber was one of the most remarkable aircraft of the war. Logically, they should have been scrapped or in museums by 1939, but they performed outstanding service and, flown by brave men, scored some notable victories. They will figure again in this story.
10 Cited in Barnes, p. 329.
11 Confusion often arises over the name of this aircraft. The Australians officially called it a Seagull; the British (who built it) knew it as a Walrus. There were minor differences in the construction of each type. Perth eventually flew both types. The Australian crews generally referred to both types as a Walrus. See www.airforce.gov.au/RAAFMuseum/index.htm.
12 Norris, p. 5.
13 Jim Nelson.
PART 2: WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
Chapter 8: To the Mediterranean
1 Long, To Benghazi, pp. 163–206.
2 The letter was in Churchill’s words but nominally cabled from the UK Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the UK High Commissioner in Australia, on 11 August 1940, to be passed to the Australian Government. The Australian Government correctly viewed it as coming from Churchill himself. Documents in Foreign Policy, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, www.info.dfat.gov.au/historical.
3 Jim Nelson.
4 Cooper, AWM 3DRL/6478.
5 From the Gee family papers, held by Margaret Gee.
6 Norris, p. 16.
7 Cooper.
8 Norris, p. 19.
9 I
bid., p. 22.
10 Cunningham, p. 303.
11 Jim Nelson.
12 Messerschmitt BF109 fighters.
13 Bracegirdle, Ahoy – Mac’s Weblog, http://ahoy.tk-jk.net.
14 Leading Stoker Percy Larmer, of Toowoomba, Queensland. Killed in 1942.
15 King.
16 Guille was decorated with the MBE for his efforts. Leading Stokers Percy Larmer and Peter Allom, and Perth’s civilian canteen manager, Alfred ‘Happy’ Hawkins, were awarded the British Empire Medal. Guille’s citation said he had shown ‘the greatest steadiness, judgment, common sense, determination and personal courage’. As a lieutenant-commander, later in the war he became the well-respected Captain of the corvette HMAS Wagga. He died in 2004. See http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mildura/commandingofficers.htm.
17 Norris, p. 26.
18 Lawrance.
19 Bracht.
20 Norris, p. 27.
Chapter 9: Disaster in Greece
1 Cunningham, p. 203.
2 A captain (D) was in charge of a squadron of destroyers. A captain (S) had submarines, etc.
3 A monitor was a large, slow ship of no use in a sea battle, but with heavy guns especially designed for bombarding targets onshore.
4 Cunningham, p. 308.
5 Norris, p. 37.
6 A good story that no doubt improved over time.
7 Between Britain, Australia and the Netherlands.
8 Menzies, Dark and Hurrying Days, p. 24.
9 Blamey was a controversial figure, to say the least. His escapades as commissioner of the Victoria Police in the 1930s, including an incident where his commissioner’s badge was found in a brothel, brought him widespread notoriety. The men of the Army’s 21st Infantry Brigade, who had fought like lions in Kokoda in 1942, never forgave him for accusing them of behaving like rabbits.
10 Menzies, Afternoon Light, p. 26.
11 Menzies, Dark and Hurrying Days, p. 53.
12 Menzies, quoted in Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 17.
13 Cunningham, p. 315.
14 Roskill, Churchill and the Admirals, p. 181. Roskill had a distinguished career at sea in the Second World War and, on his retirement, as a prolific naval historian. He wrote the official three-volume naval history of the Second World War, The War at Sea.
15 King.
16 Norris, p. 38.
17 In one of the curious tides of history, hundreds of Kastellorizo’s inhabitants migrated to Australia in the last century. Their descendants today include such prominent Australian names as the Paspaley pearling family of Darwin, the Kailis fishing dynasty from Western Australia, former South Australian Labor Senator Nick Bolkus, the Sydney lawyer Nick Pappas and the television newsreader John Mangos. They call themselves Kazzies. They have a thriving community association in Melbourne: www.kastellorizo.com.au.
18 Parkin, Mediterranean Diary.
19 Bracegirdle, Ahoy – Mac’s Weblog, http://ahoy.tk-jk.net.
20 Reid family papers.
21 Norris, p. 114.
22 Jim Nelson.
23 Sheedy, p. 142.
24 York and Gloucester were also cruisers. Both were later lost in the Med.
25 Norris, p. 47.
26 Ibid., p. 48.
Chapter 10: Fleet Action
1 Quoted in Pack, p. 15.
2 Sheedy, p. 146.
3 Quoted in Pack, p. 42.
4 Greene and Massignani, p. 151.
5 Sheedy, p. 149. Perth could never have reached 36 knots. Sheedy’s claim is an exaggeration, pardonable under the circumstances. Her top speed was 32 knots, flat-out.
6 Ibid., p. 151.
7 Quoted in Pack, p. 67.
8 Cunningham, p. 332.
9 Appendix L, Royal Navy Staff History 44.
10 Lieutenant-Commander Rupert Robison DSO RAN, of Woollahra, Sydney.
11 Clifford, p. 164.
12 Sheedy, p. 162.
13 The Junkers JU88 was a workhorse of the Luftwaffe’s bomber squadrons.
14 Bracegirdle, Ahoy – Mac’s Weblog, http://ahoy.tk-jk.net.
15 Nelson family papers.
16 Jim Nelson.
17 There were rumours after the war that Murdoch’s service file recorded that he had deserted in the face of the enemy. This is not correct. The file is available online from the National Archives. Understandably, I have been unable to trace his relatives.
Chapter 11: Prelude to Crete
1 Jodl was questioned on Führer Directive No. 25 during his war-crimes trial at Nuremberg on 5 June 1946. The transcript is online at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/06-05-46.asp. Yale University Law School’s Avalon project – http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp – is the internet’s outstanding collection of historical documents over the millennia, beginning, almost unbelievably, in the year 122 BC. The entire Nuremberg transcripts, in English, are but a fragment of the collection.
2 Herrmann is still alive. In 1945, he was imprisoned by the Russians for ten years. Returning eventually to West Germany, he took a law degree and became notorious for his courtroom defence of former Nazis, including concentration-camp doctors and, eventually, the British author and Holocaust denier David Irving.
3 Norris, p. 62.
4 Parkin, Mediterranean Diary.
5 Jim Nelson.
6 Bracegirdle, Ahoy – Mac’s Weblog, http://ahoy.tk-jk.net.
7 Norris, p. 63.
8 Quoted in Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 71.
9 Rommel letter quoted in FitzSimons, p. 255.
10 Letter, Neame to the Australian Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, 31 March 1941. Morshead took great offence at it. Neame had won a Victoria Cross in the First World War and an Olympic gold medal in athletics, but as a general he made a very good lieutenant.
11 Quoted in FitzSimons, p. 251.
12 A small memory lapse. They were JU88s.
13 Bowden, ‘HMAS Perth Loses her Walrus’, www.navyhistory.org.au.
14 Ibid.
15 Brian and Bowden survived the war. Beaumont was killed as a squadron leader in New Guinea in 1942.
16 Bracht.
17 Private Frank de Silva, of Newcastle, New South Wales, quoted in Australians at War: www.australiansatwar.gov.au.
18 Jim Nelson.
19 Whiting, p. 11.
20 Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 172.
21 Quoted in Gill, 1939–1942, p. 330.
22 Sheedy, p. 181.
Chapter 12: Aegean Tragedy
1 Many of Hitler’s speeches are available, in English, at www.hitler.org/speeches.
2 Cunningham, p. 348.
3 Whiting, p. 13.
4 Able Seaman William Ranger, of Applecross, Perth, Western Australia. He survived the war.
5 Jim Nelson.
6 An acoustic mine detonates at the sound of a nearby ship’s engine or propellors.
7 Norris, p. 76.
8 Freyberg was a man of great courage and energy, who treated his troops well and was admired by them. He is regarded as New Zealand’s finest soldier, but, as a strategist and tactician, he would have struggled to make the Third XV. The New Zealand Dictionary of Biography (www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb) says that ‘he could be stubborn and obtuse’.
9 Freyberg to Wavell, 1 May 1941, www.nzetc.org.
10 Churchill to New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser, 3 May 1941, www.nzetc.org.
11 Churchill to Freyberg, 18 May 1941. The last line was a typically Churchillian exaggeration.
12 Freyberg, quoted in Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 221.
13 Sheedy, p. 189.
14 Jim Nelson.
15 Sheedy, p. 190.
16 Bracht.
17 One of Valiant’s officers was Midshipman Prince Philip of Greece RN, the future husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
18 Parkin, Mediterranean Diary.
19 The sinking of Kelly would inspire one of the great British propaganda films: Noel Coward’s In Which We Serve.
20 Parkin, unpublished notes.
&
nbsp; 21 Cited in Churchill, Vol. III: The Grand Alliance, p. 259.
22 Cunningham to Admiralty, 26 May 1941. Roskill writes that Cunningham was ‘notoriously harassed by extraordinary interference from London’ (Churchill and the Admirals, p. 185).
23 Quoted in Long, Greece, Crete and Syria, p. 304.
24 Cited in Churchill, Vol. III: The Grand Alliance, p. 265.
25 The exact number was 1188 – almost twice the size of Perth’s complement.
26 Norris, p. 86.
Chapter 13: The Starboard Slaughterhouse
1 Leading Cook William Fraser, of Lithgow, New South Wales.
2 Norris, p. 87.
3 Ibid., p. 87.
4 Sheedy, p. 198.
5 Ibid., p. 199.
6 Jim Nelson.
7 Norris, p. 87.
8 Whiting, p. 18.
9 Cunningham to the Admiralty, 14 September 1941.
10 ABC script, and a re-dubbed tape, held in the Australian National Archives, barcode 1018557.
11 Cited in Pfennigwerth, p. 153.
12 Cited in Clark, p. 44.
13 Churchill, Vol III: The Grand Alliance, p. 290.
14 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, www.info.dfat.gov.au/historical.
15 Ibid.
16 This may have been a personnel and personal necessity. Lavarack and Blamey detested each other. Lavarack did not suffer fools gladly and said so. Blamey saw him as a rival and did his best to thwart his career at every turn, at one stage claiming Lavarack had ‘personality defects’. Coming from Blamey, that was the height of hypocrisy.
17 Sheedy, p. 207.
18 Jim Nelson.
19 Later a distinguished Canberra political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald.
20 Wing Commander Robert Henry Maxwell (Bobby) Gibbes DSO, DFC & Bar, OAM died in 2007.
21 Roden Cutler became a diplomat after the war, was knighted and in 1966 began a record 15-year term as a governor of New South Wales (www.awm.gov.au/people/545.asp).
22 Norris, p. 96.
23 ‘Killick’ is an old word for an anchor, still used in the navy. A leading seaman, which was King’s rate before he was demoted, has an anchor as his badge of rank.