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Letters
Book for older children about H.M.A.S. Canberra Hi MacMy name is Sandy Holland. I live in a small town named Twizel, in New Zealand. It is the closest town to Mount Cook. I am 41 and I am a part-time teacher and a mother of 3 boys. Josh is 9. Ryan and Kyle who are twins turn two this weekend. We moved here from Dunedin a year ago because we love the mountains and the outdoor lifestyle for ourselves and for our children. My husband works in Conservation here, mainly in conservation of rare riverbed birds.
I have a strong interest in history and have studied history at University. My interest in history started when I was about 8 or 9 years old and a teacher read us a story called ‘The Silver Sword’, about children in Poland during WW2. I am also passionate about children’s books and encouraging children to read.
I am contacting you because I am writing a book for children aged about 10-14, about Guadalcanal and H.M.A.S. Canberra, and I think you may be interested, and hopefully able to help me with checking some factual details.
This is the first book I have ever tried to write, so it may never be published, but I am enjoying writing it immensely. I will certainly try to get it published but there is still many months of work to do, especially as I am only able to work on it for an hour or two each day.
The idea for my book came from my eldest son Josh. He is very interested in war history, as are many boys of his age.
He bought home a book from the library about Guadalcanal, I am sure you know it. ‘The Ghost Ships of Guadalcanal’ by Robert D. Ballard. It was that book and my son’s interest in war that gave me the idea for my story.
My story is a war history story, but it is also a family story, and a story of learning about change and loss within families. The main character is a New Zealand boy, and so the story is very much a story of New Zealand childhood. Bits of it have had both my son and husband in tears and in laughter. I am currently reading it to a class of 10 and 11 year olds and they like it a lot. So I am very motivated to keep going on it.
It is probably time I gave you an outline of the story. It has quite a predictable story-line, but it does work. I have finished drafting it, but it now needs lots of revision and verifying of facts. PART ONE – PADDY’S STORY We meet Paddy, the main character, a boy in N.Z. who is about 10-12 years old. Part One is all about him, his family, his friends, his school life, his interest in reading and in books, and his interest in Guadalcanal, sparked by a book he found in the library (yes, just like my boy found the book!). Paddy eventually finds out that his Grandad was at Guadalancal on board Canberra. Grandad tells him bits about it, but is reluctant to talk. Grandad gets sick and dies but first tells Paddy that after the war he wrote down his memories of that time. He wrote them down to help him get rid of nightmares. PART TWO – GRANDAD’S STORY In this part of the book is Grandad is writing about his experiences, from leaving Australia to go to New Zealand, then Guadalcanal, that terrible night … everything right through to boarding the President Grant. At the moment Grandad is of Irish descent and his name is Pat O’Connell. That of course may change. (In the story Grandad is writing in 1946 and will soon be shifting to N.Z.) PART THREE – PADDY AGAIN Part three is about Paddy missing his Grandad and learning to accept his death. He is also seeking answers to questions Grandad’s story left unanswered, such as how one of Grandad’s friends died, how Grandad got back to Australia, why all the mistakes were made … Paddy and his Mum and Dad find out lots more about the Canberra. Firstly in Grandad’s things (a postcard, a photo of Grandad at the memorial in Canberra …). Secondly on the web (an article about the threat to the environment the ships may be in the future, a photo of survivors arriving back in Australia …). Part Two in particular is very historical. I have found Robert Ballard’s book great and have also searched widely on the web. Your site has been fantastic. The challenge has been to be historically correct and use things that actually happened to people in order to make it real and interesting for children, while creating my own story. I have for example, written in my story about Grandad taking his boots off when preparing to abandon ship, as you did.
I am having trouble giving the Grandad an actual believable and real job on Canberra because the navy stuff is all like a foreign language to me!T
The more I read and learn the more interested I become. So are my son and husband. War is so huge and so tragic. Iron Bottom Sound absolutely shows that.
Interestingly, my own father-in-law was at Guadalcanal, a fact I hadn’t realised until recently, when I was well into writing. I only knew he had fought in the Pacific. My husband Dean tells me his Dad was in the Air Force at Guadalancal, in administration. He was a well-known middle-distance runner who was N.Z. team leader at the London Olympics post-war, and won a gold medal for NZ at the Empire Games in Auckland in 1950. Anyway, at Guadalcanal or somewhere in the Pacific, he apparently organised races for the troops. He apparently went back to Guadalcanal at some point post-war. He is coming to stay later this week and we have suggested he talk to us about it if he wants to. There is a box of war history books from the library here at the moment so he may or may not be into looking through those. Harold Nelson is his name. He has lived most of post-war life in Nelson, New Zealand. Prior to that he was in Dunedin. Please let me know if you are interested in the writing I am doing and if you are able to help me out with details.
These are some of the questions I have at the moment: 1. Where did the sailors train in Australia and for how long? Or was all the training during war-time done on board? 2. How old would a young sailor have been on Canberra if he had just come from training? 18? 19? 20? 3. What did the anti-flash gear consist of? What did it look like? How did it feel to wear it? When was it worn? 4. How many were in the Canberra crew at Guadalcanal? I read 800 on your interview transcript but my husband says that sounds like a huge number, so I want to check it. Especially since the 1928 Times article says 42 officers and 384 petty officers and men, and because other boats that apparently went down with ‘all hands’ seem to be more in the 300-400’s. 5. Would there have been many Australians of Irish descent on Canberra?
If you are interested and have the time I would love to be able to send you the story sometime. I would greatly appreciate feedback on factual details, but also on how well I have portrayed the emotion of that time.
I am more than a little nervous about sending this to you and have returned to this letter a number of times. It’s hard to put my nervousness into words but I guess it’s that I have been reading and writing about a time that you lived through. I want to write well and with respect to you and your contemporaries. I also want to portray war to children in an appropriate way that helps them understand that it is more than war games and glory. I hope to hear from you soon. Regards Sandy Holland
I should start with a couple of warnings, 1. You and I live in a house and not on a house, so when talking about ships never ever use the expression that sailors are on a ship, it is always in a ship. 2. The Navy uses the 24 hour clock, but never adds hours after a time as do both the Army and Airforce, eg 5 PM is 1700, but not 1700 hours. Please do not think I am being pedantic, but both of those rules will hold you in good stead, an old Navy type will get very cross when a writer uses on a ship, and talks 1700 hours in a Naval book or story. Now to your questions. All sailors will have trained at the major training site of HMAS Cerberus at Crib Point in Victoria, it has been the major naval establishment for training in the RAN, since the inception of our Navy in Australia. It used to be known as Flinders Naval Depot. I went to the Royal Australian Naval College located there in 1936. Some training was carried out at sea in our ships, eg Seamanship for advancement from Ordinary Seaman to Able Seaman, but basic training and specialist courses like gunnery, torpedoes, signalling, cooks, stewards, sick bay attendants, would have been done at Cerberus. Specialist Officers Long courses in Gunnery, Torpedoes, Asdics, Signals, and Navigation all were taken in England, eg, post war I undertook the first combined Torpedo Anti-Submarine Specialist course in UK, and it lasted over a year. I went to sea as a Cadet Midshipman in August of 1939 at age 17, a young seaman would be 18 if an Ordinary Seaman, and younger as an OD 2nd class, you had to be at least 18 to become an Ordinary Seaman. I have sent you an E-mail with a picture of anti-flash gear on a sailor, it consised of a hood, and long gloves up to the elbow, They were lined with an anti flash product which I suspect may well have carried asbestos fibres in its make up.
A sailor with his anti flash hood and long gloves on.
The gear was worn whenever one went to action stations, and in the Pacific war that was often. I found the gear hot, especially in the tropics, uncomfortable and a bit claustrophobic, but with Kamikaze aircraft in late 44 and 1945, it was essential in helping to reduce burns. I can assure you Sandy that Canberra's ship's company exceeded 800, of whom 84 died at Savo, and another 110 were wounded, Shropshire organised as a gift to the RAN by Winston Churchill to replace Canberra, had a crew of 1,280 at their peak. As an aside, always use italics for a ship's name, not HMAS, but the proper name of ships, either Naval or Merchant. I cannot say I recall any Irishmen per se in Canberra's company, no doubt some were of Irish descent, like an O'Rourke, or a Kelly. While I think of it Sandy, do not put the in front of a ship's name, such as the Canberra sailed out of Sydney harbour, just Canberra sailed out of Sydney Harbour. I guess that is it for now, if you need any expansion on anything at all, please just yell, I am very happy to be involved with you as we journey together to and around Guadalcanal. My web master in Atlanta Georgia, Terry Kearns, tells me I have produced over a million words on AHOY, and that we have had about a million and a quarter requests for down loaded pages. Look forward to hearing from you, get on out there in NZ and keep writing, the Canberra story is well worth telling, and if it helps to educate our young men about the sacrifices made by your countrymen and mine in maintaining a free world, it will achieve a worthwhile end. Best regards, Yours, |
