EDWARD (Teddy) SHEEAN VC
Western Front Association Central Victoria BranchEdward Sheean was born at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923. Soon afterwards, the family moved to Latrobe, Tasmania, where he attended the local Catholic primary school.
At the age of 17, in April 1941, he enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy. He was following four of his brothers who had already joined the AIF and another who had joined the RAN. In mid-June 1942 he was posted to HMAS Armidale as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun-loader.
Sheean served aboard Armidale as she initially took part in escort duties along the Eastern Australian coast and in New Guinea waters. Then he transferred with the ship to Darwin in October, assisting Australian operations in Timor.
On 29 November 1942, Armidale set out for an operation to Betano, Timor, along with HMAS Castlemaine. The two ships were attacked by Japanese aircraft along the way and were subsequently late in arriving at their destination, missing a planned rendezvous with HMAS Kuru. While returning to Darwin, the pair encountered Kuru south of Betano and it was decided by Castlemaine’s Commanding Officer – as the senior officer – that Armidale and Kuru should voyage to Betano. The two ships undertook different routes but on 1st December 1942 both vessels came under aerial assault.
Armidale undertook evasive action, manoeuvring frantically to avoid the aerial attack from thirteen enemy aircraft. However, at 15:15, the vessel was struck by two air-launched torpedoes, one hitting her port side and the other colliding with the engineering spaces, before a bomb exploded aft. The order was given to abandon ship.
As the crew leapt into the sea, they were repeatedly attacked by enemy aircraft. Sheean, after assisting to free a life-raft, was hit by two bullets from one of the aircraft, wounding him in the chest and back.
He struggled back up the sloping deck, strapped himself into the aft Oerlikon 20mm cannon and began shooting at the fighters in an effort to protect some of the sailors already in the sea. Subject to the fire from Sheean's Oerlikon, the Japanese aircraft were kept at bay.
With Armidale rapidly sinking, Sheean continued to fire and managed to shoot down one of the Japanese bombers. He damaged a further two aircraft before Armidale’s stern was engulfed by the sea. Despite this, Sheean maintained his fire as the water rose above his feet, and remained firing as he “disappeared beneath the waves”.
Sheean’s crewmates later testified to witnessing tracers rising from beneath the water’s surface as Sheean was dragged under.
On 23 February 2001, the Collins class submarine HMAS Sheean was commissioned and named in his honour – the first time a warship of the Royal Australian Navy has been named after a lower deck sailor.
Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia on 12 August 2020.
Sources: Bass Strait Maritime Centre, Devonport
- The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia https://www.gg.gov.au/australian-honours-and-awards/teddy-sheean-vc
