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From SMH
Max Shean, 1918-2009
THERE are many ways to navigate, but underwater dead reckoning at night in a submarine without sonar during wartime is probably the hardest. Max Shean made two great submarine missions in World War II, one to attack German shipping and one to cut vital Japanese communications, both times working with only a compass and the occasional dangerous periscope peek.
Maxwell Henry Shean, who has died at 90, was born in Perth, the son of Henry Shean, an under-secretary for law with the Western Australian public service, and his wife, Gladys Bailey. Max grew up boating on the river and went to Perth Technical College. In 1937, he began a degree in engineering at the University of Western Australia.
After news of the Dunkirk evacuations, he joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, trained in anti-submarine warfare in Victoria and Sydney, then went to England. There he joined the corvette Bluebell, escorting shipping, often under attack, between Liverpool and Gibraltar.
When the Admiralty called for volunteers for special and hazardous service, he was accepted. After more training, Shean learned that he was to become a diver for secret, 15.5 metre, four-man submarines known as X-craft; his knees started to shake.
The volunteers were all unmarried, under 24 and strong swimmers. They learnt to enter and leave the submarine underwater, through a small airlock, and how to cut underwater anti-submarine nets, a feat practised in Scottish lochs.
Shean’s first mission was in 1943, when the X-craft went to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. To get there, the small submarines were towed by larger ones. Shean was on a towing submarine and not in his diving suit on X-9 when the towing rope broke. X-9 and the crew were lost.
Then the rope wrapped itself around the towing submarine’s propeller. Shean, dressed only in overalls, repeatedly held his breath and dived into the icy waters to untangle the rope, knowing that if the submarine were attacked from the air, it would dive and leave him stranded. Completing the job, he earned a quick ‘‘Well done’’ from the commanding officer.
The X-craft finally attacked Tirpitz, although Shean and X-9 could not be part of the action. The submariners disabled the battleship enough to keep it out of the war.
In April 1944, Shean, commanding X-24, was towed to Norway for a solo attack on a floating dock. He made it through the fjords to the harbour, using dead reckoning, but incorrect information meant that he put explosives under a German merchant ship, destroying it rather than the dock. Back through the minefields and surfacing, he ducked under a German patrol boat and went undetected. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
Shean married Mary Golding, whom he had met in Scotland, during the D-Day campaign in 1944. Then he and his men were sent with an improved craft, the XE-4, to Asia. Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Ocean Areas and an experienced submariner called it a ‘‘suicide craft’’, but when Washington wanted two Japanese underwater telegraph cables cut, it was ideal.
The idea was to force the Japanese to use radio communications, which could be intercepted and deciphered. The submariners practised in Queensland and Shean designed a new, flat grapnel to hook the cables.
He was nearly killed on the tow north when the XE-4 was on the surface. A wave swept him away but, after ‘‘swimming the fastest strokes of my life’’, he grabbed the rudder and hauled himself back on board. Again using only dead reckoning, Shean took the XE-4 into the mouth of the Mekong River and trawled for the cables. He found and severed both and returned the XE-4 to its towing ship. He was awarded a bar to his DSO and the US Bronze Star.
After the war, Shean returned to university and completed his degree, with honours, in 1947. He worked for Perth’s Electricity and Gas Department and the State Electricity Commission until retiring in 1978. He also joined the Royal Australian Navy Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant-commander in 1956.
A member of the Fremantle Sailing Club, he was still bicycling 45 minutes between his house and the club in his mid-80s. In 1979 he won the open division of the Parmelia Yacht Race from Plymouth to Fremantle, marking the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Western Australia, in his yacht Bluebell. He published his biography, Corvette and Submarine, in 1992 and sailed solo until 2003.
Max Shean is survived by Mary, their daughters Ruth and Heather and their families.
Harriet Veitch
Max Shean, 1918-2009
THERE are many ways to navigate, but underwater dead reckoning at night in a submarine without sonar during wartime is probably the hardest. Max Shean made two great submarine missions in World War II, one to attack German shipping and one to cut vital Japanese communications, both times working with only a compass and the occasional dangerous periscope peek.
Maxwell Henry Shean, who has died at 90, was born in Perth, the son of Henry Shean, an under-secretary for law with the Western Australian public service, and his wife, Gladys Bailey. Max grew up boating on the river and went to Perth Technical College. In 1937, he began a degree in engineering at the University of Western Australia.
After news of the Dunkirk evacuations, he joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, trained in anti-submarine warfare in Victoria and Sydney, then went to England. There he joined the corvette Bluebell, escorting shipping, often under attack, between Liverpool and Gibraltar.
When the Admiralty called for volunteers for special and hazardous service, he was accepted. After more training, Shean learned that he was to become a diver for secret, 15.5 metre, four-man submarines known as X-craft; his knees started to shake.
The volunteers were all unmarried, under 24 and strong swimmers. They learnt to enter and leave the submarine underwater, through a small airlock, and how to cut underwater anti-submarine nets, a feat practised in Scottish lochs.
Shean’s first mission was in 1943, when the X-craft went to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. To get there, the small submarines were towed by larger ones. Shean was on a towing submarine and not in his diving suit on X-9 when the towing rope broke. X-9 and the crew were lost.
Then the rope wrapped itself around the towing submarine’s propeller. Shean, dressed only in overalls, repeatedly held his breath and dived into the icy waters to untangle the rope, knowing that if the submarine were attacked from the air, it would dive and leave him stranded. Completing the job, he earned a quick ‘‘Well done’’ from the commanding officer.
The X-craft finally attacked Tirpitz, although Shean and X-9 could not be part of the action. The submariners disabled the battleship enough to keep it out of the war.
In April 1944, Shean, commanding X-24, was towed to Norway for a solo attack on a floating dock. He made it through the fjords to the harbour, using dead reckoning, but incorrect information meant that he put explosives under a German merchant ship, destroying it rather than the dock. Back through the minefields and surfacing, he ducked under a German patrol boat and went undetected. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
Shean married Mary Golding, whom he had met in Scotland, during the D-Day campaign in 1944. Then he and his men were sent with an improved craft, the XE-4, to Asia. Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Ocean Areas and an experienced submariner called it a ‘‘suicide craft’’, but when Washington wanted two Japanese underwater telegraph cables cut, it was ideal.
The idea was to force the Japanese to use radio communications, which could be intercepted and deciphered. The submariners practised in Queensland and Shean designed a new, flat grapnel to hook the cables.
He was nearly killed on the tow north when the XE-4 was on the surface. A wave swept him away but, after ‘‘swimming the fastest strokes of my life’’, he grabbed the rudder and hauled himself back on board. Again using only dead reckoning, Shean took the XE-4 into the mouth of the Mekong River and trawled for the cables. He found and severed both and returned the XE-4 to its towing ship. He was awarded a bar to his DSO and the US Bronze Star.
After the war, Shean returned to university and completed his degree, with honours, in 1947. He worked for Perth’s Electricity and Gas Department and the State Electricity Commission until retiring in 1978. He also joined the Royal Australian Navy Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant-commander in 1956.
A member of the Fremantle Sailing Club, he was still bicycling 45 minutes between his house and the club in his mid-80s. In 1979 he won the open division of the Parmelia Yacht Race from Plymouth to Fremantle, marking the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Western Australia, in his yacht Bluebell. He published his biography, Corvette and Submarine, in 1992 and sailed solo until 2003.
Max Shean is survived by Mary, their daughters Ruth and Heather and their families.
Harriet Veitch
