Angielski
At eighteen years old, Ordinary Seaman Edward "Teddy" Sheean made one of the most extraordinary decisions in Australian naval history.
On 1 December 1942, HMAS Armidale was attacked by Japanese aircraft in the Timor Sea. The ship was struck, fatally damaged, and ordered abandoned. Wounded and with his own chance of survival slipping away, Sheean turned back to his 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun and kept firing at the attacking aircraft while his shipmates struggled in the water.
He died with the ship.
For decades, Sheean's courage was remembered by survivors, his family, Tasmania, naval advocates, and Australians who believed his final act deserved the nation's highest honour. In 2020, nearly eight decades after his death, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia.
Teddy Sheean: The Boy Gunner of HMAS Armidale tells the story of the Tasmanian teenager, the war that carried him north, the doomed mission of HMAS Armidale, and the final act of sacrifice that became one of Australia's clearest examples of courage, duty, and mateship.
This is a serious and readable account of a young Australian sailor whose life was short, but whose final decision still speaks across generations.
