It was a touch of warfare right on our doorstep. Yeah it's sort of terrifying to
think how close we were to being... I was turning a dial on a receiver at two
o'clock in the morning this was. This loud morse code hit me in the ear
I couldn't write it down, it wasn't morse at all, it wasn't one of our letters
I screamed out loudly, "This is Japanese!"
I was born in a suburb of Sydney called Lakemba. Left school and started
work at the age of 15 to 16 working in a radio business in the city of Sydney.
I had been in the New South Wales Scottish Regiment in the Army. Joined up just on
18. Was in the Army 'til the early part of the war, then I transferred over to the Air Force.
I always wanted to have something to do with aeroplanes. I wan't to fly. Don't
always get your wishes there. But seeing as I had been in radio
it was a natural thing to me to think of wireless. In those days it was always
wireless, not radio. From Point Cook I was posted to No. 30 Squadron at Richmond.
I was one night turning a dial on a receiver
listening for an aircraft that might be in trouble somewhere. It was a monotonous
job, just turning and listening. Two o'clock in the morning this was. And this loud
morse code hit me in the ear. I couldn't write it down, it wasn't morse at all, it wasn't
one of our letters. It's got to be Japanese, and it was Japanese.
How did it feel at the time when you first discovered that it's got to be Japanese?
I screamed out loudly, "This is Japanese!" It's coming through my headphones. They all came running.
Two direction finding stations pinpointed where the signal was
coming from. Sydney Heads, right over Sydney Heads. So the Lockheed Hudson
went up, a dark night; black submarine, couldn't see them.
They were probably submerged anyway. Little subs came in.
One in black caught in the mesh and destroyed itself. Another one just
disappeared, couldn't find it. Didn't know where it went. But the other one, he was okay.
They were dropping depth chargers, coastal patrol knew they were there.
There was an American heavy cruiser, the Chicago. Right across the
channel out from Garden Island. And that's what they were after, if they could sink that
it would block Sydney Harbour off, it couldn't be used any more. This one
managed to fire off two torpedoes at the Chicago. Straight
at it. But unfortunately they were set too low and they went under the ship, and
didn't damage it at all. One torpedo landed on the shore, and the other one
hit a ferry boat which was used by the Navy as a workshop.
The Kuttabul. And it killed 20 odd sailors. It was a touch of warfare right on our doorstep.
Yeah, it's kind of terrifying to think... Well it sounds like your job operating the wireless or
as we now know it, the radio, at two o'clock in the morning when presumably
noone else probably wanted to do that at that time. It sounds like that played
a bit of a pivotal role in defending our... To think that the Air Force had a hand in
not the Navy or the Army, or anyone else, but the Air Force picked up the signal. Wow.
So it was a little accolade for the Air Force at that time. Absolutely, absolutely.