Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

Here is a copy of a famous and important signal, sent to all his ships in the British Pacific Fleet by their Admiral, Bruce Fraser on the day of signing the Japanese Surrender, on Sunday the 2nd. of September 1945.

My friend Kevin O'Neill ( we served together in the light cruiser HMAS Adelaide back in WW2 in 1942) was the Warrant Officer Gunner in HMAS Nizam, part of the BPF.

In that destroyer, the Officers drew lots as to whom would win their copy of this signal, and Kevin was the winner.

I have just been up to Kevin's country town Tocumwal, in the Riverna district of New South Wales, and spoke to his Probus Club on Thurday last the 8th. of May 2008, on the Life, Death, and finding the wreck of HMAS Sydney, about 60 members attended.

Tocumwal would have a population of about 2,000, and sits on the Murray River in a farming district growing wheat, running cattle and sheep.