Survivors from the Bathurst class corvette, HMAS Armidale, which was sunk on 1 December 1942 ...

Survivors from the Bathurst class corvette, HMAS Armidale, which was sunk on 1 December 1942 after being attacked by Japanese aircraft, south of Timor. On 7 December 1942, the survivors were sighted by an aircraft in a position about 280 miles north west of Darwin and about 33 miles north east of where Armidale had sunk. A Catalina flying boat was despatched from Cairns to pick up these survivors and reached the area on the afternoon of 8 December 1942. One of the Catalina aircrew took this picture, but the aircraft was unable to land because of the rough sea state. Despite exhaustive air and sea searches and the rescuing of other survivors, these pictured survivors were never seen again after the Catalina departed from the area.