

Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.













The Hon Darren Chester MP  Minister for Veterans’ Affairs  Minister for Defence Personnel  Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC



MEDIA RELEASE

29 April 2018

NATIONAL COMMEMORATION FOR THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE  BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

VETERANS and their direct relatives will meet in Canberra to recognise the 75th anniversary of the  Battle of the Atlantic, which was critical to the Allied victory in the Second World War.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Darren Chester paid tribute to the Australians who served during the  Battle of the Atlantic and said that had the Allies lost here the war might have taken a very different  course.

“The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest military campaign of the Second World War, beginning in  September 1939 and concluding almost six years later with the surrender of Germany on 8 May  1945,” Mr Chester said.

“Supply routes across the Atlantic Ocean were vital to the Allies, as Britain relied on shipping for  almost everything it needed to survive, including war materiel, food, fuel and reinforcements.  Germany sought to isolate Britain by severing the Atlantic shipping lanes, waging a campaign that  cost the lives of tens of thousands of sailors on both sides.”

“The Battle of the Atlantic was fought over thousands of miles across the war’s most dangerous  shipping lanes. It involved submarines, ships and aircraft, code-breakers, intelligence operatives and  thousands of civilian seamen and merchant mariners. More than 3,000 British and Allied ships were  sunk and some 30,000 Allied and merchant seamen were lost.”

The 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic will be marked with a national commemoration to  be held at the Australian War Memorial.

“The award of some 5,000 Atlantic Stars to Australian service personnel and merchant mariners  gives us a sense of how many men from our shores risked their lives in this campaign. Australians  reflect with gratitude on the contribution of our service men and merchant seamen to the Battle of  the Atlantic and this will be demonstrated at a national commemoration to be held in their honour,”  Mr Chester said.



Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.





“The efforts of thousands of Australians helped pave the way to an eventual Allied victory in the  Second World War and we will never forget their sacrifice and service.”

The national commemoration will commence at 1pm on 1 May 2018.

**Biographical information for veterans is available**





ENDS

MEDIA CONTACTS:   Whil Prendergast: 0427 672 815  DVA Media: 02 6289 6466

Office of the Hon. Darren Chester MP, Canberra.



































































Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.





Biographies





Name Age Hometown State

ANDERSON, Arthur 95 Perth WA

BACKHOUSE, Walter 95 Banora Point NSW

BADDELEY, Ernest  91 Forest Hill  NSW

CHARLESWORTH, Robert 97 Frankston VIC

GILLING, Douglas 97  Blue Mountains NSW

JENSEN, Peter 97  Sydney  NSW

KENNEDY, Don 91  Sydney  NSW

MEAD, Lionel 92 Canberra  ACT

MUNRO, Peter 92 Perth WA

WRIGHT, Walter 98 Canberra  ACT







Mr Arthur (Andy) Alfred Anderson  Arthur, or Andy as he prefers to be called, joined the Royal Australian Air Force in Perth in  March 1942. On arrival in the United Kingdom he was posted to 10 Squadron, flying  Sunderlands out of Mount Batten near Plymouth. He recalls that packets of gum leaves were  sometimes posted to Squadron members from relatives in Australia, which would lead to a  ceremonial burning of the leaves in the Mess.

As pilot and aircraft captain he flew anti-submarine and convoy escort missions in the Bay of  Biscay and the western approaches from December 1943 to the end of the war in Europe, in  May 1945. Arthur notes that flying boats were rarely subject to fire from the land, but tells of  one mission where he experienced just this. Ordered to fly up the Gironde river, north of  Bordeaux, to gather intelligence on enemy shipping in the docks, he was told that the French  Resistance would ensure he had nothing to fear from German fire. All went well until the  Sunderland, having photographed the docks, turned for home. The Germans opened up and  the crew immediately took evasive action, dropping the Sunderland down to weave its way  at water level out to the open sea.

Arthur left the RAAF in February 1946. He flew for Australian National Airlines for several  years, before transferring to a British airline. Until 1982 he operated commercial aircraft in  Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East. After his retirement from flying  in 1982, Arthur initially owned a restaurant and subsequently took up avocado farming.



Mr Walter Backhouse  Walter Backhouse was born in Sydney in 1923. As a teenager he worked as an assistant  baker and dockworker before enlisting in the Merchant Navy in 1941 at 18.



Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.





He chose to enlist because he wanted to do his “bit for Australia”. He said he chose to join  the Navy because he felt that it was a “natural progression” from working on the wharves.

He served on the Queen Mary during the Battle of the Atlantic and trained as an able  seaman. He describes his role as “transporting troops and Prisoners of War”. He believes  that getting troops across the Atlantic was vital to the outcome of the war.    He rates the “mates” he “made and lost” as the most memorable aspect of his service.

After the war, he returned to Sydney and joined Australian Customs.



Mr Ernest Baddeley   Ernest Baddeley was born in Port Melbourne in 1926 and was only 13 when he learned that  Australia was at war in 1939.

He chose to enlist in the Merchant Navy citing that he was “no good at school” and began  training as a deck boy before being promoted to ordinary seaman. He served in the Battle of  the Atlantic on a number vessels and recalls that he was specifically told that his role was to  “put out fires if they happened”.

After the war, Ernest returned to Melbourne, began working at General Motors, got married  and started a family.



Mr Robert Charlesworth  Robert Charlesworth grew up in Melbourne and began working as a junior clerk with an  insurance company before enlisting in the Royal Australian Navy in 1940 at the age of 18.

He served on a number of vessels as an able seaman before being promoted to leading  seaman during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942. He vividly remembers his role in the Battle  in the “torpedoing of enemy vessels” and “picking up survivors”.   Robert said that he understood the battle’s importance to the outcome of the war and his  role in ensuring “food and supplies to the United Kingdom continued together with the safe  arrival of troops and armament to destinations”.

Robert’s most memorable aspect of his war service was “being given a week’s leave in June  1943 to get married and have a short honeymoon in England”.

After being discharged from service in 1945, Robert returned to his pre-war employment at  the insurance company and furthered his education in accountancy and real estate  management.



Douglas Lawrence Gilling RANVR  Between January 1940 and March 1942 some 500 Australian volunteer naval reservists  served “on loan” to the Royal Navy (RN) under what was known as the “Yachtsman  Scheme”. The scheme provided that, after initial training and sea-time in RN vessels,  personnel would complete an officer training course in the United Kingdom and be  commissioned for further service in the RN. Douglas Gilling joined the scheme in Sydney in  June 1941.



Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.





In December 1941, after initial training at HMS Collingwood in Fareham, Douglas joined  HMS Berkeley, a Hunt class destroyer based at Portsmouth. At the foot of Berkeley’s  gangplank he met the rating he was to relieve who was not only a fellow “yachtie” but a  schoolmate from Sydney.

Early feelings of being an Australian misfit in a British destroyer had disappeared 7 months  later after celebrating his 21st birthday in traditional RN manner. After imbibing his own tot of  rum and “sippers” from his messmates Douglas came-to in a deck locker. He had been  stowed there out of sight of superiors by sober shipmates.

In August 1942 Berkeley was bombed and sunk while taking part in the ill-fated combined  operations raid at Dieppe. Following survivor’s leave and an officer training course Douglas  was commissioned in December 1942. Further service in the RN was mainly in the branch  known as Coastal Forces. At first he was posted as 1st Lieutenant of a Fairmile ML in the  Western Approaches and then in command of HMML366 based in East Africa and  HMML195 based at Felixstowe UK. After VE Day in May 1945 ML195 became part of the  occupational forces in North West Germany.

Douglas was demobilised in March 1946 and became an Architect. After a few early failed  efforts he finally retired in 2004. He now lives in Leura in the Blue Mountains.



Mr Peter Jensen  Peter Jensen was born in Sydney several years after his father returned home from the First  World War in 1918 with severe injuries sustained on the Western Front.  Peter began working at the age of 12 delivering early morning newspapers for one shilling a  day. He kept up the paper run while undertaking numerous jobs after school and then began  studies with the intention of becoming a Chartered Accountant.

Peter recalls shopping for shirts and ties in Sydney Town Hall on a Friday night when he  heard that war had been declared. He saw this as an opportunity for adventure and chose to  enlist.

Mad about aviation, Peter wanted to fly and joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in  1941 at the age of 20. However, after enlistment, he was told that there were too many pilots  already training and was posted to Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme for  training as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner.

During the Battle of the Atlantic, Peter served as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner flying in  Sunderlands with 462 Squadron RAAF.  His primary tasks revolved around anti-submarine  patrols, escorting convoys and the occasional mission to Gibraltar to transport equipment  and repatriate downed allied airmen to Britain.

After his service during the Battle of the Atlantic, Peter was based near Inverness in the  north of Scotland where he was put in charge of Wireless Training. He spent nearly 12  months as a wireless instructor there before being posted back to Australia in March 1945.

Following his return, Peter completed his Chartered Accountants studies, married and had  two children. He has continued his affiliation with the Air Force Association in the  Sunderlands Branch and to this day, he is still serving as the President.





Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.





Mr Donald Edward Kennedy  Donald joined the Merchant Navy in Sydney on 1 February 1944 at the age of 16 as a Deck  boy on a Norwegian Tanker MT Seierstad.  His ‘enlistment interview’ took two minutes. He  was soon made assistant gunner on an anti aircraft gun. Rapid promotion came when the  gunner left the ship at Panama while Seierstad was returning to Australia from the Atlantic  and Donald became Kanonkommander Kennedy. He used his gun in action for the first time  in the Atlantic a month later. He remembers the anti aircraft gunner course was held in a  shed on the wharf at Auckland and that it did not take much longer than his enlistment  interview.

Donald served in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.  After a year or so on the  Norwegian ship he transferred to the United States Army Transport Point San Pedro. At the  conclusion of the War in the Pacific, Donald left that ship in China and returned to Australia  via the Philippines, having accepted a ride on an army transport aircraft. Following discharge  in June 1946 he joined the RSL in 1947 and went back to sea on Australian Ships until late  1949.  In 1950 Donald took a permanent position in the New South Wales Attorney General  and Justice Department, retiring as State Manager, Sherriff’s Office field staff.  He later  spent 16 years in the Army Reserve.

He is currently president of the Merchant Navy RSL sub-branch and does voluntary work for  the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.



Mr Lionel Mead  Lionel Mead grew up in western Queensland before moving to Brisbane where he began his  working life as a public servant before enlisting in the Royal Australian Navy at the age of 17.  In due course, Lionel qualified as an able seaman.

In 1943, Lionel served on HMS Striker, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier in an 87 ship convoy  crossing the North Atlantic from New York to Liverpool. Not a single ship was lost in the  voyage. The convoy left New York on 30 June and all vessels arrived safely in Liverpool on  14 July. Lionel describes this successful convoy as a “wonderful illustration of allied co-operation, skill and efficiency in getting armaments and other supplies to Europe for the  eventual D-Day”.

At the end of his Atlantic service, Lionel served within the Royal Australian Navy in the South  West Pacific, taking part in amphibious operations with the United States 7th Fleet. Lionel  later joined HMAS Kybra, an anti-submarine patrol and training ship operating on Australia’s  eastern seaboard during which time he was helmsman.

After the war, Lionel spent 43 years in the Australian Public Service, working in areas  including immigration and veterans’ affairs. He then worked for 11 years as a consultant with  a private personnel firm.



Mr Peter Munro  Peter was a clerk in the Western Australian railways before the war. He enlisted in June  1943 and was trained as an aircrew gunner in Australia. He was then sent to Britain and  joined 10 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, at Mount Batten, near Plymouth.

From August 1944 to the end of the war, he flew in Sunderland flying boats on anti-submarine and convoy escort missions in the Atlantic. With a crew of up to 12 men, and



Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS) can be reached 24 hours a day across Australia for support and  free and confidential counselling. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 8 8241 4546). VVCS is a service founded by  Vietnam veterans.





missions as long as 14 hours, the aircrew required a cook.  Working on a roster system, the  off duty gunner would fulfil this role, as well as attending details in the gun room. Peter  undertook the role on a number of occasions. Though no record survives of his skill in the  culinary art, the men he served with did survive, so he believes he must have done ok.

In December 1944, Peter was in a Sunderland flying anti-submarine search over an ocean  liner bound for the United States of America. The liner was so well escorted by the battleship  Ramilles and other formidable destroyers, that Peter’s crew speculated on the value of the  cargo - gold bullion was what the majority thought. Later, after the detonation of the atomic  bombs in Japan, the crew re-evaluated their thinking, agreeing that it may indeed have been  carrying items instrumental to atomic weaponry.

Peter remembers returning from a mission on 26 January 1945, and of being unable to  return to their base in Plymouth. They were instead diverted to Calshot on the Isle of Wight.  They had sustained some damage and were flying low, operating with only three engines.  In  order to survive they needed to lighten the load.  Flying very low, the crew was emptying the  plane of un-primed bombs, ammunition and machine guns, tossing them into the sea. As  they approached the coast of the Isle from the west, the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Clarke  realised that they were flying directly into the chalk needles arising from the sea and had to  act very quickly to avoid collision.

In February 1946 Peter was discharged from the RAAF with the rank of Warrant Officer. He  returned to his job as a clerk on the railways. He later joined the Commonwealth Bank of  Australia, for whom he worked for 23 years including a short stint in Nowra where he met his  wife Hazel. His later careers included real estate sales and a share in the ownership of a  rock lobster boat.



Mr Walter Wright   Walter Wright was born in Newcastle in 1920 before moving to Sydney with his parents,  where his father worked as an engineer. At the age of 13, Walter gained a cadetship with the  Royal Australian Navy and trained as a midshipman.

Throughout the Second World War, Walter served on numerous Navy vessels in war zones  and was promoted from midshipmen to Sub Lieutenant and then Lieutenant.  During the Battle of the Atlantic from 1939 to 1945, Walter served as Navigator on HMAS  Norman. He was responsible for ensuring the safe passage of the vessel during operations  and this experience is the focus of his autobiography entitled Putting it Wright, published in  2014.

Following the Battle of the Atlantic, Walter served in the Indian Ocean, Australian home  waters and across the Pacific. Once the war ended, Walter served on HMS Anson, a British  Battleship which berthed in Sydney.

Walter describes his service as Navigator of HMAS Norman and his years of responsibility  for the ship’s safety as the most memorable aspect of his war service.





