Teddy Sheean

Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean (28 December 1923 - 1 December 1942) was a sailor in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II.

Teddy Sheean was posted on the "Bathurst" class corvette HMAS "Armidale" in 1942, when the ship was given the mission of landing 60 Netherlands East Indies troops at Betano, Portuguese Timor. "Armidale" encountered Japanese aircraft during the voyage to Betano, and was consequently a day late for the scheduled landing rendezvous. Rather than land the troops with the possibility of waiting Japanese defences, "Armidale" aborted the mission and returned to Darwin, where she was ordered to attempt the landing again, the risk of Japanese air attack was "to be accepted as ordinary routine secondary warfare".

On 1 December 1942, during the second attempt to reach Betano and land the troops, "Armidale" came under Japanese air attack once again, by thirteen aircraft. This time she was sunk by air launched torpedoes, resulting in the death of 40 of her crew and 60 of the commandos aboard her. Thirty-six members of the crew survived the attack. During the engagement Teddy Sheean manned an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun and was wounded by strafing Japanese planes while attempting to defend the ship. He went down with the ship, still strapped into the gun and still shooting at the attacking aircraft.

Due to the way Teddy Sheean died, fighting to the end against impossible odds, he was recognised as a hero, "an ordinary bloke who did an extraordinary thing", epitomising the phrase "fight on", a common saying uttered by those trying to encourage their fellow sailors or by the tired sailors themselves. Teddy Sheean was the only Australian ordinary seamen posthumously mentioned in despatches during World War II and was further honoured when be became the first Australian seamen to have a naval vessel named in his honour when the submarine HMAS "Sheean" was named after him, with the motto "Fight On".

Awards

Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheehan has been awarded with the following honours:

References

* LEUT Laura Bulloch RAN, LCDR Judith Rowe RANR, LCDR Brett Brace RAN "Australia's Navy Annual 2001" Fine-Line Publishing Pty Ltd
*cite web |url=http://www.navy.gov.au/w/index.php/HMAS_Sheean |title=HMAS Sheean |accessdate=2008-08-21 |publisher=Royal Australian Navy

External links

* [http://www.navy.gov.au/w/index.php/Submarine_Names Submarine Names on the Royal Australian Navy website] - contains brief biographies of the personnel the six "Collins" class submarines were named after