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Letters
Father's service on the HMAS Shropshire, picture of Tokyo Bay 2 September 1945 (See "Sunday the 2nd. of September 1945. Surrender in Tokyo Bay") Hello! My name is Philip Russell and I am writing to you about your weblog references to the HMAS Shropshire. My Father, Reginald Arthur Russell (aka J.R.A. Russell) was CPO on that vessel between 1944 and 1945 due to the damage done to HMAS Australia, where he was also CPO writer. His friends called him 'Jack' but his actual first name was Reginald. We think he may have been in the photo below. http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/HMASShropshirescrewtakeni.html Information about my father's service on the HMAS Shropshire is held in Hobart, Tasmania. At present I am living in Wollongong, NSW. When next I visit I will locate the documents and forward any information if you are interested. On visiting your website I found it to be an excellent resource. Thank you for providing it. Regards, Philip B. Russell
Hello Philip, What a wonderful photograph of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on the day of the Japanese surrender that your Father took. I well remember the excitement on board HMAS Shropshire that morning. The war was at last over, we had been involved in so much in the Pacific with the great achievement of not losing a single man to enemy action, and above all we had survived. She was a tremendous ship with a wonderful company, the absolute best I ever served in. You may not be aware that an Able Seaman on board, Stan Nicholls wrote a history of our ship HMAS Shropshire, he has put the total book on the web for anyone to read or consult. The URL is: http://www.hmasshropshire.com/ Stan was the brother of David Nicholls, one of my Jervis Year entry into the Royal Australian Naval College in 1936 , and their Father was Sir Robert Nicholls, the Speaker of the South Australian Parliament. In his book Stan has included a list of those who served in Shropshire, I could not find your Father in the list of Chief Writers, perhaps as he transferred from HMAS Australia. I would be delighted to have any details of your Father's service you would care to share, and thank you for your kind words about Ahoy. This site is a joint effort with Terry Kearns serving as my Web Master in Atlanta, Georgia, thanks to the wonders of both the net and E-Mail, all my writing and research, is ably translated by Terry into AHOY. Mac's Web Log, to look out onto the world for anyone to view if they happen to alight thereon. We are pleased to have any feedback, and thank you for taking the trouble to write. Best regards, and I hope to hear again from you when convenient. Mac. Gregory.
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