Podcast on the HMAS Armidale
A message from the producers of The Armidale Podcast
HMAS Armidale was an Australian corvette sunk by the Japanese in a brief battle off the coast of East Timor on 1 December 1942. More than 40 lives were lost during the sinking and more than 100 men went into the water.
The Armidale Podcast recounts the dramatic, riveting and historic true story of Lieutenant Commander David Richards and his brave young crew (average age 21) – including Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean VC, many of whom battled extreme conditions on the open sea, bound by comradeship, duty and their instinct for survival. Supported by the Royal Australian Navy and funded by DVA through a Saluting Their Service grant, the podcast is in part told by the people who were there.
Forced to split into three groups – the raft, the whaler and the motor boat – their story is extraordinary and remarkable. The motor boat was rescued after five days on the open sea, the whaler after an incredible eight days and while the men on the raft were spotted after six days, they were never seen again.
The Armidale Podcast (nine episodes x 40 minutes) seamlessly blends stories of great individual acts of courage with the horror of war. Of the 149 men aboard Armidale, fewer than 50 survived. As you will come to appreciate the Armidale story deserves to join the ranks of Australian war classics.
“The ship was not inanimate, it was a dynamic, living thing. It was almost as if it paused, and stopped for a second. It might have been in my imagination … but that’s how it seemed to me, almost as if it were reluctant to disappear, and of course it just slid under. And that was probably, apart from the death of my parents, the saddest moment in my life.”
- Armidale survivor, Ordinary Seaman Ray Leonard
“The series is, without doubt, one of the most captivating and polished productions on the Royal Australian Navy that I have had the pleasure of listening to.”
- John Perryman, Naval Historian
You can access it via Spotify, Anchor or Google it.
