maybe you can help?

AussieArmyWife

Active member
Hi all! Maybe you can help me......

Ive begun to research my Grandfathers service history, and I am having a dificult time understanding some of the information Ive found. My grandfather served in the Royal Australian Navy aboard HMAS AUSTRALIA during WW2. As he died when I was 5, I never had the oportunity to ask him about his experiences, and my mum never really showed much of an interest to ask him anything. (bummer!)

I have written to our Aust War Memorial and they sent me coppies of his service papers. Which back then really only consisted of one large piece of cardboard with all their personal details on ect. I also found a few other pieces of paper showing his training scores, and weapon drills ect.

Im having difficulty reading a lot of it, as the original has yellowed and worn, and cursive writing combined with their bad hand writing back then dosnt help! Hehehe!

What I would like to know if anyone can tell me, is under RANK is LEADING SEAMAN. Can anyone tell me what this means exactly? Someone once told me that it is the equivilent to the army rank of Corporal. As my hubby is army, we only know the ranks associated with this, and what those jobs are.

Is that right? Would my pop have been equivilent to Corporal? Does anyone know what his job would have been? Like what his daily duties would have been? What his responsibilties entailed?

Is the navy ranks ect, the same for each country? Or is this rank just Australian?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am yet top meet anyone here in aust that is in the navy.

Thanks, Atlanta
 
I'm not from Oz, but I might be able to help you some.

Ranks very from country to country, some have similiar titles and symbols, and most everybody has the same fundemtal structure, officers, NCOs, and jr. enlisted. Most of the Commonwealth ranks are about the same, though.

I did find some information on Leading Seaman from Wikipedia.

Comparative Table of Australian Military Ranks

It looks like it is in fact equivalent to a Corporal.

Since it's an non-commissioned rank, he was most likely responsible for so many Jr. enlisted in his assigned section, as well as their training and readiness. One of the other Aussies or probably any Squid here can probably answer that question in more detail for you, I'm not too familiar with the innerworkings of the Navy in general, and more specifically the Australian Navy.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for taking an interest! Those links were interesting! I will just have to keep looking!

If anyone else knows what his job description would have been, your help would be appreciated!

Thanks again!
 
AussieArmyWife said:
Thanks for taking an interest! Those links were interesting! I will just have to keep looking!

If anyone else knows what his job description would have been, your help would be appreciated!

Thanks again!

Is his actual job not listed elsewhere in his paper work? That would have been his rank, but his specific duties would have probably differed depending on what his job was.
 
Unfortunatley no! Both my hubby and I have gone over them again and again, and cant see anywhere that says anything about what he actually did, or what part of the ship he worked in or anything.

Its bugging me because im putting together scrapbooks of his pics, and other memrobillia items from the family and bought of ebay ect. So our kids one day will know all about it and dont have to do the same researching!

All i have so far are a few pics, his paperwork and short tales he told the family about his service. Like how he lost his friends in the first ever kamikaze attack ect....

But throughout all this stories, I think the truth has become a little more romantisised. And its now very hard to picture him as a sailor, that had duties ect.
 
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