Reminder light restored

PO Alan Foley with the WW2 searchlight he and staff at FIMA/Sydney are restoring for the National Artillery Museum on North Head. Photo by ABPH Bill Louys

By Graham Davis
Technicians at FIMA/Sydney are working to restore a World War II searchlight to be exhibited at the National Artillery Museum at North Head in Sydney.

It will, never-the-less, have a more important role than sitting in the museum.
The light, along with another working exhibit, will be used to remind the people of Sydney of the attack by Japanese submarines on Sydney on the night of May 31 and June 1, 1942 and again on June 8.

On May 31 three midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour one sending a torpedo into the sea wall of Garden Island, smashing the accommodation ferry Kuttabul and taking the lives of 21 Australian and British sailors.

On June 8 a “mother” submarine fired rounds from her deck gun into Bellevue Hill.

This year on those two nights, and for the second consecutive year, museum staff and veterans of the 73rd Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battery, led by WO Steve Crawford, Don Roberts and Kevin Browning, trundled a working light out on to the road and for an hour played its 210 million candlepower beam into the night sky.

For those old enough to remember, the beam of light was a grim reminder. (There were two searchlights mounted halfway down the cliff face at North Head and it was their job to illuminate the waters of the entrance to Sydney Harbour.)

The museum has a second, later model light but it is in need of repair and restoration.

FIMA/Sydney personnel, led by PO Alan Foley offered to do the work. So far the Gardner diesel engine has been overhauled and started.

Work is under way on the generator while all surfaces have been stripped and repainted.

FIMA/Sydney staff are no strangers to working on WWII searchlights. The technicians have already restored a light for the military museum in Newcastle.

Meanwhile, said Don Roberts, the North Head museum is keen to acquire a World War II GMC or Studebaker six wheel drive army truck.

“We plan to mount the light on the truck and also use the vehicle as a tug to tow equipment about,” Don said.

 

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