Guest Speakers: Commander Gavin Reeves RANR
Remembrance Day 2018 Speech
Sunday 11th November 2018
Mr Ian Watson, President, Rotary Club of Cockburn
Mr Logan Howlett, Mayor of Cockburn
Other distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour for me as a serving naval officer to join you today in marking the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice, which occurred at 11am the 11th of November 1918, and I thank Rotarian and naval Warrant Officer Kurk Brandstater for inviting me to join you. Although not a submariner, I have worked closely with the Submarine service for a number of years as a Training Commander in the RAN’s Submarine School in HMAS Stirling.
Given the importance of all RAN Submarines being based in Western Australia and their proximity to where we are gathered this morning, I want to focus on the long and important association of Australian and allied submarines with our great State.
Through my work I often reflect on why submarine service is universally held in high regard. Submariners are a special group: they are unique; only those with exceptional human qualities, including loyalty, courage and high morale in the face of danger and adversity, are successful in this extremely demanding and highly respected branch of the profession of arms.
It is pleasing to note that your President Ian Watson is an ex RAN sailor and his son Brett is currently serving on HMAS/m Sheean.
Winston Churchill very succinctly summed up the high esteem in which submariners are held the world over:
"Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners."
In a more light-hearted manner, distinguished Royal Navy Submarine Commander Jeff Tall proudly described the quintessential human side of submariners by summing up the unique blend of pluck, courage, devotion to duty, good humour and exuberance that endears them to everyone:
"There is a touch of the pirate about every man who wears the dolphins’ badge."
Both Churchill and Tall are correct: submariners are a special group of sailors who have made enormous sacrifices for their country in peace and war. Consequently, our submariners deserve special recognition as we reflect on the significance of Remembrance Day to Australia’s freedom and our special way of life, underpinned by a fair go and respect for all irrespective of race, creed or colour.
Fremantle has long been associated with submarines and has a fine memorial to submariners on Cantonment Hill as well as the former Oberon Class Submarine HMAS Ovens as a living museum open to the public. The Port of Fremantle contributed significantly to the war effort during World War II as a major Allied submarine base.
160 submarines from the Royal Navy, the Royal Netherlands Navy and the US Navy, supported by the Royal Australian Navy, were based in Fremantle from 1942-1945. Not only did their crews endear themselves to the local population, but they quickly united and became, as Nelson would have called them, a band of brothers.
Throughout their posting to Western Australia, submariners made a highly significant and successful contribution to the Allied war effort. Sadly, they paid a high price for their efforts with heavy losses of men and submarines. War is always unprofitable and invariably unforgiving, resulting in many submariners who sailed out of Fremantle from within a few miles of where we are now and never returning. They are still out on patrol, and we honour their memory today.
I mention also that HMA Submarine AE1, whose wreck was recently discovered off Rabaul after being lost for over 100 years, was the first ship loss for the RAN and the first Allied submarine loss for World War I.
At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for an armistice in order to secure a peace settlement.
On the first anniversary of the armistice, 11 November 1919, two minutes' silence was instituted as part of the main commemorative ceremony at the new Cenotaph in London. The silence was proposed by an Australian journalist working in Fleet Street, Edward Honey. At about the same time, a South African statesman made a similar proposal to the British Cabinet, which endorsed it. King George V personally requested all the people of the British Empire to suspend normal activities for two minutes on the hour of the armistice to mark the victory of Right and Freedom over the world wide carnage of the four preceding years.
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. This first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them with no known grave.
Later the allied nations chose this day and time for the commemoration of all war dead and at the end of World War II the Australian and British governments renamed Armistice Day as Remembrance Day. In November 1997, the then Governor-General Sir William Deane formally proclaimed the 11th of November as Remembrance Day, in recognition that it has long been a day of special significance to Australia.
The Last Post is closely associated with Remembrance Day and we shall pause for it to be played shortly. All over Western Australia and elsewhere it will be played in public and is our tribute to those who have fallen. It is a simple yet hauntingly beautiful tune; it invokes our solemn respect and eternal appreciation for those who have made the supreme sacrifice. The Last Post is played in many countries on Remembrance Day. It transcends all boundaries and serves to unite us in our desire for peace, harmony and the ability to avoid the conflict of war with its inevitable tragedy and suffering.
During World War 1, the poppy was one of the first signs of regrowth to sprout from the war-devastated countryside of France and Belgium. There is a clear association with the blood red colour of the poppy and the spilt blood of those who fell in battle. The poppy has become a simple but evocative and strikingly vivid symbol of human sacrifice in adversity; it is now recognised by many nations as the Flower of Remembrance to our war dead. We wear it here today as a personal sign of respect, honour and gratitude for all of those who have fallen in battle.
It was the same humble red poppy that inspired the Canadian Army Medical Officer Lt Col John McCrae to write his immortal poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ on 3rd May 1915, after taking part in the 2nd battle of Ypres in the Flanders district of Western Belgium. Col McCrae was himself killed in the last year of World War 1 and many have since added their own verses to his original poem. Here is one verse penned by Col McCrae:
‘We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.’
On Remembrance Day we also turn our thoughts to those currently serving abroad in our armed forces. We pray for their safety and protection throughout their posting and for a speedy return to their families and loved ones.
Today we join our fellow Australians and other nations in solemn, silent reflection on the tragedy of war and the supreme sacrifice made by the countless men and women who gave their lives for the freedom and peace that we now enjoy. Although they may now lie in the seven seas or the fields of foreign lands, they are very much with us in spirit and we shall never forget them.
In conclusion, we are gathered here today to ensure that we neither forget nor repeat the losses and wrongs perpetrated in the horrors of war. Nor must we ever allow the mists of time to dim the immortal memory of all, including our submariners, who fell for our freedom.
Lest we forget.
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Commander Gavin Reeves RANR
