Heroes of the Navy

Presenter: Dr Tom Lewis OAM RAN (Rtd)

Tom Lewis has combined three interesting career paths to make him one of Australia’s foremost military historians. He has integrated a 20-year RAN track, primarily as an intelligence analyst, with high school teaching, and work as an historian. His 30-year writing career followed time as a journalist, with his first publication Wrecks in Darwin Waters, which was followed by an analysis in Darwin’s Submarine of the first successful submarine RAN action of WWII, resulting in the sinking of the I-124, which still lies outside Darwin today with her 80-man ship’s company. Zero Hour in Broome analysed the second biggest air raid on Australia, and The Submarine Six presented biographies of the six who had RAN submarines named after them; while Lethality in Combat, his most controversial work, analysed the realities of battlefield combat.

Carrier Attack, an extensive technical analysis of the first Darwin raid, revealed many unknown aspects of that assault, and Teddy Sheean VC chronicled not only the fight of this naval hero but the fight to get him the Victoria Cross he deserved. Tom’s most recent publications are The Empire Strikes South, an accounting of all Japanese air raids made in Northern Australia, showing the attacks were far more widespread than first thought, and Atomic Salvation: how the atomic bombs saved the lives of 30 million. His Order of Australia medal was presented for services to naval history.

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