Cruiser (93 page)

PART 1: LEAVING HOME

Chapter 1: The
Autolycus
Sails

1
The Sydney Morning Herald
, 13 May 1939.

2
Another British cruiser, HMS
Shropshire
, did join the RAN in 1943, but only as a replacement for HMAS
Canberra
, which was sunk in the Solomon Islands in 1942.

3
The Daily Telegraph
, 13 May 1939.

4
Gee, p. 32.

5
Later renamed
Forever England
.

6
Gee, p. 122.

7
‘How to Join the Royal Australian Navy', booklet by the Navy Office, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1 September 1912.

8
An Aboriginal word meaning ‘open sea'. Pronounced
Ting-guy-rah
.

9
Joan Gandy (née Flynn), interview with the author, 2006. Joan has since died.

10
Roberts, p. 12.

Chapter 2: Gathering Clouds

1
An astounding 250 warships met at Jutland, including 28 British battleships and 22 German. The Grand Fleet outnumbered the High Seas Fleet in ships and firepower by approximately 4:3, but British tactics had atrophied in the long period of peace, and failures in signalling, gunnery and ship design led to the British defeat. British losses were 6094 men killed and 113,300 tons of ships sunk, including three battlecruisers. The Germans lost 2551 men and two capital ships for a total of 62,300 tons sunk but timidly failed to press home their advantage. The best new account of the battle is in
The Rules of the Game
, by Andrew Gordon. For rare video footage, google ‘Battle of Jutland'.

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
Ibid., p. 22.

10
Cunningham, p. 303.

11
Jim Nelson.

12
Messerschmitt BF109 fighters.

13
Bracegirdle, Ahoy – Mac's Weblog,
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net
.