Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Last Wednesday was proclaimed Battle for Australia Day, a day when the nation pays homage to the men and women who defended Australia when it came under direct attack in 1942 and 1943. As we know, the fall of Singapore in February 1942 was followed by the bombing of Darwin. The Battle of the Java Sea was followed by the bombings on Broome, Wyndham and Katherine. As invasion anxiety gripped the nation, three Japanese midget submarines snuck into Sydney Harbour.

Today, I want to remember and honour an unsung hero from that night, Warrant Officer Herbert Anderson, whose decisive action and bravery played a pivotal part in defending Australia’s most celebrated harbour but whom history has sidelined. On 31 May 1942, allied fighting ships were anchored in what was then considered a safe harbour. Most of the crew of those ships were off duty, with the commander and senior officials of the USS Chicago being wined and dined that evening by the Australian Rear Admiral—an event which may well explain some of the evening’s events.

On entering the harbour, the first enemy submarine got caught in the boom net. Guarding the net’s ends were two channel patrol boats. One was the Yarroma and the other was the Lolita, under the command of Warrant Officer Herbert Anderson. Communication systems at that time were vastly different from today. The night watchman who spotted the trapped object, which was the first midget submarine, had to row out to the Yarroma to alert them to investigate. Concerned that the submarine might in fact have been a mine, the Yarroma compounded signalling delays by sending the Lolita instead. By now the second submarine was in the harbour and the third was on its way.

Warrant Officer Anderson and his crew acted decisively, signalling confirmation of a submarine and, despite the risk to their lives, attacking by dropping a depth charge. Unfortunately, the shallowness of the water prevented the first depth charge exploding, so the Lolita attacked again. Again the depth charge failed to explode. After their third attempt, the Japanese commander, harried and no doubt recognising the futility of the situation, released his scuttling charges and self-detonated his submarine. Vitally, the explosion cut through the confusion and alerted other vessels to the threat, despite Naval Command’s lack of an urgent response. The rear admiral, on boarding the Lolita an hour later, was still ridiculing reports of enemy submarines, but 30 minutes later the torpedoing of HMAS Kuttabul removed any further doubts.

There are still questions about that night. The third submarine was located only a few years ago and its final movements remain unknown. Unfortunately there was no inquiry, leaving the official version of events reliant on the rear admiral’s report—a report that failed to mention the Lolita’s pivotal role. Warrant Officer Anderson was a quiet, unassuming man from my electorate of Port Adelaide whose heroic actions played a major role in preventing a successful attack on Sydney Harbour. (Time expired)

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