HMAS Armidale was one of sixty Bathurst-class corvettes built in Australian shipyards during World War II. She was the only one of her class to be sunk by the enemy, and the circumstances of her loss became a symbol of sacrifice and bravery by Australian sailors in the Pacific.
A Ship Born of Wartime Necessity
In the late 1930s, the Royal Australian Navy faced a serious problem. It needed versatile ships, capable not only of anti-submarine warfare but also of mine-sweeping. At the same time, these ships had to be simple enough in construction and operation to allow for mass production in local yards.
The initial plans called for a modest ship, displacing about five hundred tons with a speed of only ten knots. However, when an opportunity arose to use industrial capacity freed after the cancellation of another type of ship, designers adopted a much more ambitious vision. The result was a vessel of six hundred eighty tons, achieving over fifteen knots and with a range of nearly three thousand nautical miles.
Bathurst-class corvettes were nicknamed the „maids-of-all-work” by their crews, owing to their versatility. Sailors joked, however, that those ships would rock even on wet grass, referring to their instability at sea.
HMAS Armidale, named after the town in New South Wales, was launched in early 1942 and commissioned on June 11 of that year under the command of Lieutenant Commander David H. Richards.
From Convoy Escort to Rescue Mission
For the first months of her service, Armidale undertook relatively safe tasks, escorting convoys along the Australian coast and between Australia and New Guinea. In October 1942, however, she received orders to join the 24th Minesweeper Flotilla operating out of Darwin. The corvette arrived at its new base on November 7.
Less than three weeks later, Allied ground command approved an operation codenamed Hamburger. Its goal was to evacuate Australian and Dutch soldiers and 150 Portuguese civilians from Japanese-occupied Portuguese Timor. On the island, the Australian 2/2nd Independent Company still held out, conducting guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupiers.
Three ships were assigned to the mission, including Armidale. The corvette was to deliver a relief detachment and pick up evacuees. No one suspected at the time this would be her final mission.
The 13th Hour of the First of December
Around 1:00 PM, lookouts on Armidale spotted five incoming Japanese dive bombers. Lacking air support, the situation seemed hopeless, and an urgent request for fighter cover was sent to Darwin. The reply was positive, but the fighters would not arrive before 1:45 PM.
For the next hour, the corvette’s crew repelled attacks. Gun crews managed to damage two Japanese planes, while the remaining three missed while maneuvering under fire. At 2:00 PM, the second wave struck. This time, five Zero fighters engaged the corvette’s anti-aircraft guns while nine torpedo bombers launched attacks from various directions.
Commander Richards desperately maneuvered to evade the torpedoes. At one point, a torpedo launched too late flew over the bridge before splashing into the water. It was only a brief reprieve. Around 3:10 PM, two torpedoes struck Armidale’s port side in quick succession. The first hit the mess hall, killing many soldiers inside. The second tore apart the engine room.
Teddy Sheean’s Final Salvo
The ship immediately heeled over to port. Richards ordered the crew to abandon ship. Sailors and soldiers began jumping into the water, with life rafts and a motorboat appearing on the surface. But the Japanese pilots would not relent. The Zero fighters stopped attacking the sinking corvette and began strafing the survivors fighting for their lives in the water.
Twenty-year-old sailor Edward Sheean, known to all as Teddy, had been wounded in the initial phase of the attack. Instead of saving himself by jumping overboard, he made a decision that would make him a legend. He strapped himself to one of the Oerlikon guns and opened fire on the attacking aircraft.
Sheean forced one Zero fighter to crash into the sea and damaged at least two others. He did not stop firing even as the corvette’s bow began to sink beneath the waves. Shells continued to fly from the barrel until the gun position was engulfed by the ocean along with the young sailor. Sheean died with his finger on the trigger.
It was only in 2020, nearly eighty years after those events, that Edward Sheean was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia, his country’s highest military honor for bravery. HMAS Armidale remains the only Bathurst-class corvette sunk by enemy action, and the story of her final moments stands as one of the most moving episodes in the history of the Royal Australian Navy.
Autor
Rory Thornfield
Rory's grandfather left behind a wartime diary filled with accounts of a minor Burma skirmish that history books never mentioned. Reading it, Rory realized: behind every famous battle are dozens of forgotten struggles, each with its own human drama.
His preferred topics: The overlooked corners of military history – secondary campaigns, shadow battalions, local conflicts that never made headlines. From medieval sieges to twentieth-century expeditions, he focuses on the soldiers, not the generals. The people who faced impossible choices and carried those experiences forever.
Rory strips away the romanticism without losing respect for those who served. He combines tactical analysis with personal stories, examining human endurance and moral complexity rather than celebrating warfare. His writing is balanced, thoughtful, and deeply researched.
Outside work, Rory visits forgotten battlefields (now quiet farmland), photographs war memorials nobody tends anymore, and interviews veterans' families.