LCDR Maxwell Henry SHEAN DSO & Bar, US Bronze Star
Maxwell
‘Max’ Henry Shean was born in Perth on 6 July 1918, the son
of Henry Shean, an under-secretary for law with the Western
Australian public service, and his wife, Gladys Shean (nee
Bailey). Max was a keen yachtsman and educated at
Perth Technical College. In 1937, he commenced a
degree in mechanical and electrical engineering at the
University of Western Australia.
In mid-1940, following the evacuation of Dunkirk, Max Shean
volunteered for service in the RAN Volunteer Reserve (RANVR)
and was mobilised on 26 October 1940 at HMAS Leeuwin,
Western Australia as a probationary Sub Lieutenant. He
served briefly at Leeuwin, and HMAS Cerberus,
before commencing an anti-submarine warfare course at HMAS
Rushcutter in early December 1940. His
training also included service in HMAS Kybra where
he learnt seamanship, navigation, watchkeeping, small boat
handling, fire-fighting and damage control. He
completed his training in April 1941 and soon after
proceeded to the United Kingdom, in the MV Coptic
via the Panama Canal, for further training and loan service
with the Royal Navy.
After arriving in the United Kingdom he joined the Flower
Class corvette HMS Bluebell on 7 July 1941.
He was to serve in her as an Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer
for the next 14 months. Bluebell was part of
the 37th Escort Group escorting convoys between Britain and
Gibraltar, and Shean took part in some of the bitterest
fighting of the Battle of the Atlantic. His skill and
proficiency in using his ASDIC (sonar) earned him the
nickname ‘Ping King’ on board Bluebell.
At the end of 1941 Bluebell took part in the
desperate defence of convoy OG77, which was attacked by a
German U-Boat wolf pack while off Cape St Vincent. On
the night of December 11/12 Shean heard the high-pitched
whine of torpedoes three times through his headset and
warned his captain in time to have Bluebell alter
course to avoid the approaching weapons. Bluebell
also dropped two patterns of depth charges during the night
and may have contributed to the sinking of U-208, although
both British and German records are inconclusive.
While Bluebell was in refit, at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
in mid-1942 an Admiralty Fleet Order called for volunteers
for -
"special and hazardous service, who are: below age 24,
unmarried, good swimmers and of strong and enduring
physique".
Shean volunteered without knowing what he was actually
volunteering for. On 14 August 1942 he joined the
submarine training depot HMS Dolphin, at Gosport,
to undergo initial training as a diver for service in midget
submarines known as X-Craft.
Shean was accepted for further training and sent to HMS
Varbel, a shore depot on the Isle of Bute in north west
Scotland. The X-Craft were 27 ton midget submarines
that were 16 metres in length and operated by a four-man
crew. They had been designed to attack German
shipping, particularly warships operating from Norwegian
fjords, which had anti-torpedo and anti-submarine nets
surrounding the anchored vessels and heavy anti-aircraft
defences. Their weapon carried as ‘side cargo’ were
high explosive charges designed to be jettisoned underneath
enemy warships with fuses set for some hours later.
The resultant explosion would cause significant overpressure
designed to rupture the ship’s hull and sink or disable it.
As an X-Craft diver, Shean had to practise getting into and
out of the submerged submarine through a small wet-and-dry
chamber, shutting himself off from the rest of the crew
before flooding the compartment and opening the external
hatch. He also practised cutting underwater nets in
Scottish lochs, which were always cold and black.
There were accidents and deaths during training, but Shean
always felt sure that they could beat the odds. Max
Shean was promoted to Lieutenant on 23 April 1943.
His first mission was Operation SOURCE, the attack by a
flotilla of five X-craft on the German battleship
Tirpitz and the battlecruiser Scharnhorst, in
Kafjord in northern Norway, during 20-22 September 1943.
A sixth X-Craft was directed to attack the heavy cruiser
Lutzow in Langfjord. The X-Craft were manned by
passage crews and towed there by parent submarines, while
the attack crews, including Shean, prepared themselves in
the towing vessels.
Disaster struck, however, when Shean's X-9, being
towed by HMS Syrtis, broke her tow and sank.
The tow-rope became tangled round Syrtis's port
propeller, and Shean, whose diving suit was in X-9,
plunged over the side into the freezing waters.
Wearing overalls weighted with steel bars in the pockets,
Shean repeatedly duck-dived until he could free the tangled
tow line. Knowing that if Syrtis was spotted
by patrolling German forces she would dive, and abandon him
on the surface, Shean was more frightened than he had ever
been; and when he was hauled on board, the submarine's
Commanding Officer rewarded him with a simple “Well done!”
X-8 failed in her attempt to attack Lutzow
when she began to take on water and her demolition charges
were ditched, but exploded prematurely damaging the vessel
and forcing her to be scuttled.
X-10 commanded by Lieutenant Ken Hudspeth, RANVR
suffered mechanical failure and withdrew from Kafjord
without laying her charges. X-5 was attacked
and sunk by German naval forces within the fjord.
X-6 and X-7 laid their charges but were then
spotted by German forces and sunk; six of the eight crew
survived to become prisoners of war. Tirpitz
was badly damaged when the demolition charges exploded and
was out of action until April 1944. She was eventually
destroyed by heavy bombing by Lancaster bombers in November
1944.
Shean returned to Varbel and continued training for
further operations against German shipping. One of the
lessons from Operation SOURCE was the potential for
confusion during multiple attacks, so in Operation GUIDANCE
during mid-April 1944, Shean, now in command of X-24,
was towed by the submarine HMS Sceptre, commanded
by another Australian, Lieutenant (later Vice Admiral, Sir)
Ian McIntosh RN, to Bergen, Norway, to make a solo attack on
a large floating dock.
Lieutenant Max Shean, RANVR
(wearing woollen cap) sitting on the casing of the submarine
HMS Sceptre (Imperial War Museum)
X-24 successfully penetrated the fjords to reach
the harbour, but inadequate photo intelligence and incorrect
charts had led them to lay the explosive charges under the
7800-ton German merchant ship Barenfels, instead of
the floating dock. Barenfels was sunk in the
resultant explosion while the floating dock was undamaged -
despite this it was a model attack, and 24 hours later, sick
and suffering from headaches caused by the stale air in the
boat, Shean and his crew rendezvoused at sea with
Sceptre. Lieutenant Shean was awarded a
Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
‘for great courage, skill and determination in a most
hazardous enterprise’ (London Gazette, 13 June 1944).
X24 on display at the Royal
Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, Hampshire
Left: The engine of X24 --
Right: The interior of X24
In June 1944 Shean married Mary Golding who he had first met
in 1942. They later had two daughters.
On 15 November 1944, Shean was appointed in command of
XE-4 then nearing the end of her construction at
Vickers Pty Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness. Mary Shean
christened the submarine, on 4 December 1944, with a bottle
of Australian champagne broken across her bow and giving her
the unofficial name Exciter. On 7 December
1944 Shean joined the submarine depot ship HMS
Bonaventure which by then had XE-1 - XE-6
loaded on board.
Bonaventure departed Scotland in early 1945 and
sailed across the Atlantic, transited the Panama Canal and
after a stopover on the US west coast and Pearl Harbor
arrived in Australia in May 1945. Training commenced
in Queensland waters and in June Bonaventure sailed
north to Subic Bay, in the recently liberated Philippines,
to commence X-Craft operations. On 25 July 1945
Bonaventure arrived at Brunei Bay on the north coast of
Borneo. From there the X-Craft sailed on various
missions.
XE-4 was directed to conduct Operation SABRE; the
cutting of two underwater telegraph cables off
Japanese-occupied Saigon. The Japanese were using the
telegraph cables to send messages and these could not be
intercepted by the Allies. By cutting the cables the
Japanese would be forced to use wireless communications
which could be intercepted and decoded by the Allies.
Shean designed new grapnels to hook the undersea cables,
which Engine Room Artificer Vernon ‘Ginger’ Coles
manufactured. On 27 July the submarine HMS
Spearhead took XE-4 in tow for the three day
transit across the South China Sea.
A hand-held, hydraulically
powered, net cutter of the type used by X boat divers to cut
through torpedo nets protecting harbours
On the morning of 30 July Shean took over XE-4 from
the transit crew and using underwater dead reckoning,
updated by occasional sightings of the Cap St Jacques
lighthouse, Shean navigated XE-4 into the shallow
mouth of the Mekong river where, on 31 July 1945, he began a
submarine trawl for the cables. After ploughing the
seabed for hours, XE-4 snagged the first cable, and
13 minutes later the diver, fellow Australian Sub Lieutenant
Ken Briggs, RANVR returned on board with a short length of
cable as proof that it had been cut. Resuming the
trawl the second cable was located, much deeper than the
first, and Sub Lieutenant Adam Bergius, RNVR cut this cable
after several attempts.
Shortly after midnight XE-4 rendezvoused with
Spearhead and was towed to Subic Bay. Shean was
subsequently awarded a Bar to his DSO
‘for gallantry, perseverance and outstanding skill
in successfully cutting the Hong Kong-Saigon and
Singapore-Saigon cables on 31st July 1945. The
operation was performed in water much deeper than expected
and hampered by tide and rough weather’ (London Gazette, 18
December 1945).
Briggs and Bergius were each awarded a Distinguished Service
Cross and Coles a mention in dispatches to go with his
Distinguished Service Medal for the Bergen attack.
Shean was later awarded the US Bronze Star
‘for devotion to the accomplishment of a daring mission
that contributed essentially to the success of Allied
operations in the Pacific War’.
Lieutenant Shean returned to Australia in early September
1945 and was discharged from the RANVR at Leeuwin on 15
September 1945. After the war Shean completed his
engineering degree and worked for the City of Perth
Electricity and Gas Department, and the State Electricity
Commission until his retirement in 1978. Shean also
joined the RAN Reserve on 18 November 1949 as a Lieutenant
(engineer) and served at HMAS Leeuwin. He also
conducted regular periods of training in HMA Ships
Australia, Sydney and Vengeance and
was promoted to Lieutenant Commander (engineer) on 30 June
1955. Shean resigned from RAN Reserve on 31 December
1955.
In 1979 he celebrated the 150th anniversary of the
settlement of Western Australia by sailing to Plymouth in
his yacht Bluebell. He then competed in the
open division of the Parmelia Yacht Race from Plymouth to
Fremantle, via Capetown, winning the race. His wartime
autobiography 'Corvette and Submarine' was
published in 1992 and in May 2005 Shean and his wife
traveled to Europe to take part in the Department of
Veterans' Affairs VE-Day 60th anniversary activities.
Left: Lieutenant
Commander Max Shean, DSO & Bar, US Navy Cross, RANVR
(Australian War Memorial)
Right: Max Shean, centre, and other submariners pose
with an X-Craft in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.
Max Shean died on 15 June 2009 in Perth, WA and was
farewelled with a full service funeral at Karrakatta
Cemetery. He was survived by Mary, their daughters
Ruth and Heather and their families.
Maxwell
‘Max’ Henry Shean was born in Perth on 6 July 1918, the son
of Henry Shean, an under-secretary for law with the Western
Australian public service, and his wife, Gladys Shean (nee
Bailey). Max was a keen yachtsman and educated at
Perth Technical College. In 1937, he commenced a
degree in mechanical and electrical engineering at the
University of Western Australia.
