Cruiser (80 page)
Authors: Mike Carlton
The loss of
Perth
was one of our great naval defeats. The death of her sister
Sydney
took a higher toll, of 645 men killed, but the story of
Perth
is unique and hallowed because she fought to the last in a battle she could never have won and because so many of her crew survived the brutality of Japanese imprisonment to tell that story. There is no comparable event in the history of the RAN. The men of
Perth
were special. No matter in what other ships they might have served, those who lived would forever call themselves members of
her
ship's company â a badge of honour they wore with pride. Those who died at sea would have no headstone to mark their graves,
but the memory of their heroism endures. In those poignant words of Laurence Binyon's ode âFor the Fallen':
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night.
They were the flower of Australia's greatest generation. No other has been so tested. For the most part, they were born into the Depression, and their late adolescence and early adulthood were spent at war. They took up arms not for conquest, nor for notions of glory or honour, but because they believed their country and their people were worth saving from tyranny.
In that, they were not defeated. They succeeded in full measure â a victory beyond price that entitles them forever to the nation's gratitude. Australia endures because of and beyond their sacrifice.
Captain Harold Farncomb, HMAS
Perth
's first Commanding Officer, went on to a distinguished wartime career.
(
AWM
001220)
Captain Hec Waller in HMAS
Stuart
, with the Scrap Iron Flotilla in the Mediterranean, 1940.
(AWM
005002/13)
Captain Sir Philip Bowyer-Smyth RN (wearing binoculars) on
Perth'
s bridge in the Mediterranean, 1941.
(AWM
006605)
Waller on the bridge of HMAS
Perth
in Australian waters. The sandals are not exactly regulation uniform.
(FAIRFAX
10151674)
Lieutenant-Commander Warwick âBraces' Bracegirdle,
Perth
's first Gunnery Officer.
(AWM
P04749.002)
Petty Officer Cook Roy Norris, nearly killed when the ship was bombed off Crete, 1941.
(N
AVAL
H
ISTORICAL
S
OCIETY OF
A
USTRALIA
)
Lieutenant Michael Highton RN, one of
Perth
's British officers killed when the ship sank.
(AWM
006617)
Chief Petty Officer Reg Whiting, lost in the sinking. He left behind a wife and two young boys.
Petty Officer Ray Parkin, who was at the wheel when
Perth
was sunk.
Ordinary Seaman Paul Doneley, who died on the BurmaâSiam Railway, 1943.
Able Seaman Fred Skeels, from Western Australia â another
Perth
survivor.
Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant Gavin Campbell, secretary to Captain Waller.
