BIG SCREEN HONOUR

War hero to be immortalised in film

TASMANIAN war hero Teddy Sheean’s courage will be immortalised in an upcoming feature film about the sinking of HMAS Armidale.

Award-winning Australian director Craig Monahan said filming was expected to start some time next year, with hopes for a 2022 release.

He said it was fortuitous he could make the announcement about the film’s start at the same time the campaign to award Sheean (right) a posthumous Victoria Cross was stepped up. “Personally, I think everyone on that ship deserves a VC, but Teddy’s actions in particular were just extraordinary,” he said.

The film, titled Armidale, will tell the story of HMAS Armidale’s final mission in 1942, during which it was sunk in a threeminute attack by Japanese aircraft. Only 46 survived.

HOPES may be fading for a Victoria Cross for Teddy Sheean, but the Tasmanian war hero’s courage will be immortalised in an upcoming feature film about the sinking of the HMAS Armidale.

Director Craig Monahan said he had been trying to make the film happen for 20 years, and it was serendipitous that he could make the announcement at the same time as the campaign was stepped up to get Sheean a posthumous Victoria Cross.

“I think everyone on that ship deserves a VC,” he said.

The film, Armidale, tells the story of HMAS Armidale’s final mission in 1942, when it was sunk by Japanese aircraft. Only 46 of 149 men aboard survived.

As the ship was went down, Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean strapped himself to an anti-aircraft gun and held off the enemy aircraft while his shipmates escaped, going down with the ship while still firing.

Sheean is credited with saving many lives. But because of the classified nature of HMAS Armidale’s final mission, and a 1949 ruling by King George VI that no further VC candidates from World War II be considered, Sheean was never awarded the medal for valour many believe he deserves.

Monahan said the story of the Armidale was incredibly cinematic: its secret mission to drop Javanese guerrilla fighters at Timor, the crushing Japanese attack, the acts of heroism, the ordeal of the survivors at sea, and the official investigation that followed the ship’s loss.

“We have never done a naval story like this one,” he said.

Monahan would not weigh in on the Victoria Cross controversy, in which Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to make a recommendation to have the medal posthumously awarded to Sheean, despite a tribunal finding in favour of a recommendation.

But he said Sheean’s actions spoke for themselves.

“The Royal Australian Navy named a submarine after him, they named a whole class of patrol boat after the Armidale, and I think that shows the high regard they have for Teddy and the rest of that ship,” Monahan said.

Sheean’s nephew Garry Ivory said it was welcome news that the film was going ahead.

“Maybe something like a film will help us argue how extraordinary his story really is,” he said.

State Veterans Affairs Minister Guy Barnett, who has been advocating for the VC to be awarded, said he welcomed the news.

“I am not surprised and totally delighted to know that Teddy Sheean’s courageous story is set to be made into a film,” he said.

“It could be a film of titanic proportions and, together with other Tasmanians, I look forward to seeing it upon its release.”

Monahan said filming was expected to start some time next year with hopes for a release in 2022.