Medals Awarded to Max Shean

These medals belonged to one of Western Australia’s most gallant naval officers, Lieutenant Commander Max Shean, DSO. As a young man he began a degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at UWA, before suspending his studies in 1940 to join the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR). He was trained in anti-submarine warfare and joined the British corvette HMS Bluebell, remaining with the ship for 14 months serving in Atlantic convoy escort duties. Max saved his ship on the night of 11 December 1941 when he picked up the whining sound of torpedoes and warned the bridge, allowing the corvette to evade the torpedoes.

In mid-1942 Max volunteered for something described as ‘special and hazardous service’. Applicants had to be unmarried, under the age of 24, good swimmers and of ‘enduring fitness’. What he had volunteered for was the Royal Navy’s X Craft fleet, a midget submarine class that was deployed to attack German battleships. Max participated in the following X-Craft missions:

• Operation Source, an attack by five X-craft against the German battleship Tirpitz in Kafjord, Norway.
• Operation Guidance, an attack on the German collier Barenfels. The ship was destroyed, and Max was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
• Operation Sabre, the cutting of two underwater telegraph cables off Japanese-occupied Saigon (Ho Cho Minh City) . Max was awarded a Bar to his DSO and the US Bronze Star.

After the war Max returned to WA, completed his degree, and worked for the State Electricity Commission. He died on 15 June 2009.

British Flower class corvette HMS Bluebell underway on the Tyne, 24 June 1942.
Credit: Royal Navy (UK)