http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/TheDeathofHMASArmidale.html Moving stuff. As well as HMAS Sheehan, our new patrol boats are the Armidale class.
If a VC was ever warranted, this is it. Bravery under enemy fire, Laying down your life for others, most definitely in a war zone?????????????? We know it was deserved and in the end, that is all that matters. Maybe someone thought that a rating should not be the first recipient?
I wonder if anyone has written a book on servicemen/women who "should" have won a VC? There'd be a lot of conjecture for sure!
I am sure that there has been quite alot written and discussed. Many GM's have been awarded as one of the criteria for the VC was not met. Declared War Zone etc.
There's a book on Canadians and how the awards system wasn't consistant with them: Valour Reconsidered: Inquiries into the Victoria Cross and Other Awards for Extreme Bravery http://www.rbstudiobooks.com/Valour.pdf
Hugh Halliday is quite a proficient writer on both Aircraft and Birds. Couldn't help but notice this "paperback" of 242sq. 242 Squadron by Hugh A. Halliday (Paperback - Sep 30, 1982) 2 Used & new from $127.50
Yes, and he occassionally contributes on rafcommands and TOCH. That price is taking the pee - I can find copies from £10 on bookfinder.com But then again, Andy found a copy of a book by Terence o'Brien for $9000+ (I can't find the listing on Amazon now). Normally, the book is available for 0.2% of that price
Dammit, now Geoff's doing it! One for the list but not through Amazon! Link no worky now, must have been a typo?
Different and quite haunting. The way they've been painted indicates, to me, the confusion, harrassment, desperation of the crew.
HMAS Armidale - December 1 1942 Australian minesweeper (corvette) one of fifty-six such vessels in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II was commissioned on June 11, 1942, and engaged in the re-supply and evacuation of troops and civilians from Betuno Bay in Timor prior to the Japanese takeover. The Armidale, part of the 24th Minesweeping Flotilla at Darwin, was sunk by a force of nine Japanese torpedo carrying bombers and four fighters 191 kilometres south-southeast of Dili in Portuguese Timor at 3.15 pm. She sank in less than five minutes. Casualties on board were 100 men lost out of a complement of 149. (Two officers and 38 ratings plus 58 Dutch soldiers and civilians) Some survivors endured eight days at sea before being rescued. Twenty-nine survivors managed to cling to a makeshift raft and drifted away from the sinking vessel but they were never seen again. This was the highest loss of life on any Australian corvette during the entire war.
