mac
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,790
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Post by mac on Aug 11, 2020 11:56:26 GMT
After multiple esquires Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean has been recommended by the Australian government for the award of the Victoria Cross for his actions on December 1 1942.
The basics of the final findings are that when his ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft and the order to abandon ship was given, Sheean observed the Japanese aircraft strafing the survivors in the water and returned to his gun, strapped himself in, and despite wounds returned fire bringing down one aircraft. He continued firing as the ship sank beneath him and was never sighted again. He was 18 years old.
Vale Teddy.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 11, 2020 17:44:24 GMT
Sheehan and HMAS Armidale is a story of outstanding devotion to duty. The VC is well deserved, and the delay in the award almost incomprehensible.If memory serves all of Australia's Collins Class boats are named after persons awarded the VC except HMAS Sheehan. That will no longer be the case. The circumstances in which Armidale was lost remind me of the similar incidents in the Solomons during relatively the same time period where we lost Little, Gregory, Calhoun, and McKean (Duane Beeson's (REBCAV) grandfather's ship). None of those ships were armed and equipped for close combat with either surface or air enemy forces, yet they went, and their service invaluable.
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