The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (W1567) Stoker Herbert Henry Johnson, HMAS Goorangai, Second World War

Place Oceania: Australia, Victoria, Mornington Peninsula, Portsea
Accession Number PAFU2014/407.01
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 28 October 2014
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Robyn Siers, the story for this day was on (W1567) Stoker Herbert Henry Johnson, HMAS Goorangai, Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

Stoker Herbert Henry Johnson, HMAS Goorangai
Accidentally killed 20 November 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 28 October 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Stoker Herbert Henry Johnson of the Royal Australian Navy.

Herbert Johnson was born in Middlesborough, Yorkshire, on 19 January 1897. His father, also Herbert Henry, had served with the East Riding Royal Engineers in the First World War. Little is known about how or why Herbert Johnson came to be in Australia, but on the outbreak of the First World War he was living in Canterbury, Victoria, and working as a fireman in the Newport Power House. He was also a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.

Johnson reported for active duty in June 1940 and was eventually posted to HMAS Goorangai. This vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when the war started she was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping.

In early November 1940 a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession Bass Strait to German mine-laying operations. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mines. Following that operation the ship returned to Queenscliff, but a rising storm sent the ship to the safer harbour of Portsea.

As the Goorangai passed in darkness through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay she was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in half. A crewman on the ship that hit the Goorangai reported: “In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge the Goorangai had disappeared. There was not a sound but the crash of water.” In that moment in between some eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness, and lifeboats deployed immediately, but despite a long search no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. The remaining 19 were never recovered, including that of Herbert Johnson, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

The names of Johnson and all of the crew of HMAS Goorangai are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with more than 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Stoker Herbert Henry Johnson, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

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