Remembering those who served on the seas

Lenard Roberts Stoker Mechanic 232488

Lenard Winch Roberts was a member of the crew of the ill-fated HMAS “Sydney” - but Len was meant to live. This is his story …

Lenard Winch Roberts was born in Cardiff, Wales, on November 16, 1920, and, with his family, moved to Western Australia when he was only a boy. As World War II approached, Len enlisted with the Royal Australian Navy on June 9, 1939, and after doing his initial training aboard HMAS “Cerberus”, he was transferred to HMAS “Sydney”. Serving in the Mediterranean, they were in one major engagement in which one Italian cruiser was damaged and another sunk.

In 1941, after HMAS “Sydney” returned to Australia and was stationed in Perth, Len and a mate were staying at his mother’s place the night before the ‘Sydney” was due to leave port.  A faulty alarm clock caused them to sleep in and miss the ship as she left on patrol for the Dutch East Indies. They spent some time in Fremantle Jail at his Majesty’s pleasure for missing the ship - a small price to pay considering the misfortune of so many others.  On November 19, 1941, HMAS “Sydney”, the pride of the Australian Navy, was sunk by the German raider HSK “Kormoran”, posing as a Dutch trading ship. The entire 645 crew members of “Sydney” were lost though the reason the ship went down with all hands on board still remains a mystery.

When Japan entered the war soon after, Len and his mate were placed in charge of Chinese Stokers on a coal fired tugboat towing a damaged British ship to Melbourne.  During this trip across the Great Australian Bight, they complained about the food and conditions. The British Captain pulled his revolver and told them he could shoot them for mutiny. Around this same time, Len’s brother, Roy, was posted missing after HMAS “Perth” was sunk.  Roy spent the rest of the war as a Prisoner of War in Japan.

While posted to HMAS “Magnetic” in Townsville, Len met and married a Proserpine girl, Doreen Muller, in 1944.  He then served on the heavy cruiser HMAS “Shropshire” taking part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. In the Surigao Strait, “Shropshire” was instrumental in sinking the Japanese battleship “Yamashiro”.  On another occasion, a mine jammed in the ship’s clearing gear and started bumping on the side of the ship. Len described that being locked up at action stations in the engine room and hearing the mine hitting the side of the ship until it was cleared and destroyed, was one of the most frightening moments he experienced.

Len served on other ships, namely HMAS “Madang” from 1945 – 1946 in New Guinea; a Corvette HMAS “Gladstone” until 1947; “HMAS” Leeuwin: until 1950 and HMAS “Australia”, a heavy cruiser. Also, the “Penguin”, “Ping Wo” and ‘Moreton”.

Upon his discharge on June 8, 1951, Len returned to Proserpine and worked at the Proserpine Sugar Mill as a steam loco driver and later he cut cane in the Lethebrook and Conway areas.  He also worked as a driver for AW Rasmussen and Filby’s before becoming a linesman with the PMG (later Telecom). Len and Doreen had eight children - four sons and four daughters - and lived at Cannonvale Beach until his death on February 19, 1994.

Lenard Roberts was indeed meant to live, in fact 53 years longer than his crew mates from HMAS “Sydney”.  Who would have thought that a humble alarm clock would mean the difference between life and death - something on which Len no doubt often dwelled during his many years after the wartime disaster.

LEST WE FORGET

Story and photo sourced from Proserpine Historical Museum Society Military Archives.

Photo supplied.