Ted Bernays loved the discipline which his five years Navy service offered.
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“The discipline was a great thing,” he said.
The Gunnedah veteran is among a dwindling number of World World Two servicemen in the region and one of the last remaining to have fought at the Battle of Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942).
This week, Australia and its American allies will commemorate the battle’s 75th anniversary with services in Australia and overseas.
Mr Bernays served aboard HMAS Australia, a heavy cruiser which came under Japanese fire during the infamous battle in the Pacific.
“We were attacked by torpedo, luckily didn’t get hit,” Mr Bernays said, who held the rank of Seaman at the time.
“It was pretty frightening.”
The then 17-year-old was tasked with loading four-inch shells for the high-angle, anti-aircraft gun. He even spent his 18th birthday (May 6) in the midst of battle which sought to halt the enemy fleet’s advance to Australia.
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He was later posted to another ship, HMAS Hobart which experienced its share of tragedy during the war.
“A torpedo hit the stern of the ship,” he said. “Blew off the back end.”
They managed to limp the light cruiser back to a US base but not before the death of more than a dozen sailors.
“We buried 15 men at sea from the incident,” he said.
A torpedo hit the stern of the ship [and] blew off the back end
- Battle of Coral Sea veteran, Ted Bernays, describing an encounter with enemy fire
Afterwards he was transferred to destroyers, described as the “cream of the Navy” with some of the fastest ships operating at the time.
“They were a thrill to be on,” he said. “They could really move.”
Throughout it all in war and peace, Mr Bernays said it was mateship that stood the test of time.
“It was a very tight sort of relationship where everyone relies on everyone else,” he said. “There was plenty of mateship.
"You had to get on well with your fellow men. Unity is the thing in the navy. You've got to be unified or you've had it."
Every modest, he downplayed his personal contributions but thought some of his mates deserved the military’s highest honour, the Victoria Cross.
”I’m only a little grain of sand on the beach,” he said. “But I’ve seen actions of blokes who deserved a VC.”
Ted has a long family history in the military. His uncle (Roy Bernays) was killed at Gallipoli and Ted’s father was a major in the Royal Marines in France, who on return to Australia, worked with a construction company on Sydney Harbour Bridge, but was a “very sick man” after being injured in France.
Ted discharged from the Navy in early 1946 with the rank of Leading Seaman.
