F2739/09 Edward James Lewis, as a petty officer, Royal Australian Navy (RAN) corvettes HMAS Shepparton, Whyalla and Benalla , Australian waters and North Pacific Ocean, 1941-1946, interviewed by William Gray Ritchie

Ted Lewis speaks about his early service as a naval cadet, an able seaman and a petty officer on HMAS Marguerite, Canberra and Yarra, 1926-1939; Naval training facilities; service on the Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) Manoora; other AMCs; the escape of the Scheer from blockade in Celebes; raider patrols off Tasmania and south of Albany; operations between Darwin and Learmonth; transfer to Rushcutter's Bay for medical treatment; a gunnery course on HMAS Adelaide; service on HMAS Kuttabul and transfer to the Flinders Naval Depot; declaring himself fit for sea service; service aboard survey corvettes HMAS Shepparton, Whyalla and Benalla, 1943-1945; camouflaging Benalla; survey operations in support of Kincaid's Seventh Fleet; the USN at Seeadler Harbour; US supply methods and dealings with the PX Store; survey operations before the landings at Biak; US and Japanese air operations; boiler cleaning and recreational opportunities in Tufi Harbour; survey operations and kamikaze attacks in Leyte Gulf; surviving a typhoon; hazardous air of operations at Tacloban airstrip; ship-borne boys from Nuakata Island and Christmas Day 1944 there; surveying Thursday Island to Darwin and in Exmouth Gulf; refit in Fremantle; more surveying in northern waters before paying off in Fremantle in November 1945; discharge in March 1946; explaining some naval jargon; the book Birth, Life and Death of a Grand Little Ship; awards to Benalla crew members; the end of the Second World War; the surrender of the Japanese in Timor at Koepang; several anecdotes and the fate of HMAS Benalla.

Part of a collection of nineteen oral history interviews conducted by the Royal Australian Navy Corvettes Association of Western Australia. Interviewers included John Roberts, Margaret Rickard, Lorna Dodd, William Gray Ritchie and Jack Shepheard.