Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Non-familial uncle Francis “Frank” Charles Chattaway was mobilised into the RAN from the RAN Reserve on the 26 August 1941. He was sent to HMAS base Cerberus in Melbourne for training, then transferred to the light cruiser HMAS Perth on 12 December 1941, 5 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. They left Sydney Harbour that day, and conducted convoy escort duties in Australian waters until the end of January 1942. HMAS Perth was then despatched to Perth, and left Fremantle on 15 February as a convoy escort for 4 empty oil tankers and 2 cargo vessels to collect oil from the Dutch East Indies before the Japanese arrived. Singapore fell on the 15th and Darwin was bombed on the 19th, so this mission was cancelled on the 21st when the Perth was diverted to Java, and arrived at Surabaya on the 24th to join the American-British-Dutch-Australia (ABDA) Western Strike Force.  

This strike force was sent to intercept a large Japanese invasion fleet heading for Surabaya, which resulted in an Allied defeat during the Battle of the Java Sea on the 27th. Perth and the cruiser USS Houston were the only large Allied ships to survive, and they were ordered to head south into the Indian Ocean. Late on the 28th both ships were attacked and sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait. The Perth had run low on ammunition, and was then hit by 4 Japanese torpedoes within a few minutes. Of her 681 crew, 353 died that night, and of the 328 survivors only 218 were returned after the war. Frank, who couldn’t swim, attached and inflated his life jacket, said a quick prayer, and jumped over the side. He survived two nights in the sea covered in oil, and was then picked up by a Japanese destroyer. He was briefly sent to a camp on Batam Island in northern Indonesia, then to Changi camp in Singapore, then he was transferred to Rangoon in mid 1942 when the Japanese decided to build the Thai-Burma Railway. He survived 28 months building and maintaining that railway, and was then sent to the coal mines north of Nagasaki in January 1945.

After the surrender Frank was sent by rail south to Nagasaki, where he saw first hand the damage from the Fat Man atomic bomb. He arrived in Sydney onboard the destroyer HMAS Quiberon on 9 October 1945, where he was met by his fiancee Nell Pope, who he married on 12 January 1946. Frank returned to teaching, and eventually became the Principle at Goulburn High School, where he retired in 1982. Frank was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to people with disabilities and to community organisations in 1992. He passed away in 2013 at age 92.