LADY luck attached itself to Bob Evans when he enlisted in World War II.
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He missed being on two ships that were involved in unusual but devastating incidents that killed Royal Australian Navy personnel.
Now living in Busselton, Bob, who turned 90 just over a week ago, was due to be on the HMAS Kuttabul, a former ferry that was used to accommodate Allied sailors in Sydney while they were waiting to join a ship, which was sunk by a torpedo from a midget Japanese submarine.
Bob, was scheduled to be on it, after basic training in Melbourne. On arrival in Sydney he was informed that he had been selected to do a radar course and was therefore billeted out on shore instead of the HMAS Kuttabul, so was not on the vessel when one of three midget subs snuck into Sydney Harbour on the night of May 31- June 1, 1942, to sink Allied warships.
Two were detected, but the other one tried to torpedo the American cruiser USS Chicago, but sank the Kuttabul instead, killing 21 sailors.
“It was pretty scary,” Bob said of the sinking of the Kuttabul. “By the grace of God, I was spared with a few others. I would normally have been sleeping on it.
“From the time we were drafted from Melbourne to the time we got to Sydney, I was going to be on the Kuttabul. But when I got to Sydney an officer said I and two or three others had been selected to be billeted, because there was no space on the Kuttabul,” Bob said.
“I was going to be living on the Kuttabul until I joined a ship, which was to be either the (heavy cruisers) Australia or Canberra.”
He joined HMAS Australia – ironically, the Canberra went down in the Battle of Savo Island.
Bob said he injured his knee when he fell, going up a ladder, while at sea and was recuperating on shore when the Australia was struck by a kamikaze aircraft during the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines in October 1944.
It was the first Allied ship to be struck by a kamikaze plane.
“From what I gather the kamikaze came straight for the bridge. It was wiped out. That’s probably where I would have been. One of my mates who enlisted with me was killed,” Bob reflected.
Tomorrow he will join other veterans in Busselton to commemorate Anzac Day.
