By
Graham Davis
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Personnel
ready a WWII searchlight and its generator for transport
to the Military Museum on North Head, Sydney.
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Photo
ABPH Nina Nikolin
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A
group of technicians has beaten the clock by helping a group
of World War II searchlight operators in their plans to light
the night sky on May 31 and commemorate the 1942 Japanese attack
on Sydney Harbour, which claimed the lives of 21 sailors.z
Naval electricians, corrosion controllers and painters from
FIMA/Sydney have completed the refurbishment of a 1943 model
800-million candlepower searchlight and its generator.
The work has been going on at the unit’s Garden Island workshop
for some months. The generator is needed to power up a searchlight
already held at the Military Museum at North Head.
During WWII searchlights were beamed continuously across Sydney
Harbour as a deterrent to the Japanese.
They were used on the night of May 31/ June 1 when a number
of midget submarines entered the harbour, one sending a torpedo
into the seawall of Garden Island breaking the back of the accommodation
ferry Kuttabul and killing 21 sailors.
Two weeks ago the FIMA workers used a crane to load the generator
and a searchlight, to be assembled at a later date at North
Head, onto RAN trucks for delivery to the museum.
Spokesman for the WWII searchlight veterans, Mr Don Roberts
said the plan is to sweep the open seas from North Head between
6.30pm and 7.30pm on May 31 as a way to remember what happened
in 1942.
“Seven days later, we will repeat the lighting to mark the Japanese
attack on Bellevue Hill in 1942.”
The FIMA personnel led by CPO Allan Foley said the team had
to cut out rust as well as fabricate replacement wiring for
the generator and the light.
The diesel engine for the 150-volt generator was dismantled,
checked and reassembled.
The museum has a smaller light which is in working order, and
a generator which is not working.
The plan is to use the restored generator with the working light
and for the light restored by FIMA/Sydney to be assembled on
site and used at a later date.
“The light we worked on can reach ‘40,000 feet’ into the air,”
Allan Foley explained.
