Military history is replete with stories of heroism and self-sacrifice, but that of Australian Edward “Teddy” Sheean stands out.
And on Wednesday, nearly 78 years after the then 18-year-old sailor provided cover for his comrades to escape the Japanese planes, Sheean was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth’s highest honor for military bravery.
On December 1, 1942, Sheean was a bit of a gunner on the Corvette HMAS Armidale, when it came under attack during an operation near Japanese-occupied Timor, now the land of Timor-Leste across the Timor Sea from the Australian city of Darwin.
According to records from the Australian War Monument (AWM), Sheean’s ship was tracked down by Japanese reconnaissance plans when it left Darwin on 29 November. That meant a dangerous mission, as Japan dominated the air and waters around Timor, about 720 kilometers (447 miles) northwest of the Australian port.
On the afternoon of December 1, Japanese warplanes crashed into the Armidale. The Australian corvette was hit by two torpedoes launched by Japanese planes and soon began to sink, according to the AWM. An order was given to leave ship.
“Sheean was wounded and instead of leaving the ship, he tied himself to his Oerlikon (anti-aircraft gun) and began to pull the attacking aircraft, even as the ship sank beneath him. He shot down two planes, reminding crew members to see tracer rise from below the surface when Sheean was dragged underwater, fired to the end, “the AWM said.
There were 149 sailors on board the Australian ship. Forty years survived and were plucked from the Timor Sea a week after sinking. Each is likely to be guilty of the life of the 18-year-old gunner, according to an expert panel set up in June of this year to assess Sheean’s case.
It was the fourth time the case for Victoria Cross for Sheean has been tried. The first three, in 1942-43, 2013 and 2019, determined that Sheean’s actions did not rise to a level high enough to guarantee the nation’s greatest honor.
But the 18-year-old is a legend in Australia, with monuments and tributes around the country. The Australian Navy even named a submarine for him, the only ship it had ever named after a sailor with such a low rank as Sheean.
And the Navy has never relied on its bid to get Sheean the honor it felt was so deserved.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison listened and said the government was provided with “conflicting evidence” after reviews in 2013 and 2019 and formed another panel to re-examine Sheean’s case.
Morrison wrote Wednesday that he had corrected a “substantial injustice.”
The Victoria Cross was introduced in 1856 by Queen Victoria for acts of gallantry by the British Army. Winning the prize requires an act of extreme courage in the presence of the enemy, according to the UK’s National Army Museum.
“According to legend, the prototype, along with the first 111 crosses issued, comes from the bronze of rifles taken prisoner by the Russians in Crimea,” the museum details on its website.
Sheean will be the 101st Australian to receive the Victoria Cross when the medal with the words “For Valor” is awarded to his family, now in the father state of Sheean of Tasmania, later this year.
Modern Australian soldiers receive the Victoria Cross for Australia; four have won that distinction.
The most recent Australian winner was Cameron Baird, also taking the award posthumously, after he was assassinated in 2013 in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
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