HMAS Bataan, 1952: An Australian Warship in the Korean War

This book tells the story of the Australian Tribal Class destroyer HMAS Bataan's 1952 tour of duty, partly through the perspective of the 'lower deck' seaman who served aboard the ship during the Korean War, and partly through the perspective of its 'upper deck' commander. It is peppered with intimate insights from the unpublished notebooks, letters and photographs of the author's father, Able Seaman (AB) Geoff Cooper. It also draws on a wide range of other archival sources including the monthly ship's log written by Commander Warwick Bracegirdle RAN, and several poems written by Bracegirdle and an anonymous 'lower deck' seaman. Readers will be transported to a decade in which the British Empire still existed, when the RAN still had intimate connections with the Royal Navy, when ships were still driven by steam, when Australia still had to formulate its role in the region, and when the United States was only just starting to mobilise the Free World against Communism. They form a connection to this forgotten era from which contemporary Australia has sprung. The book thus salutes a generation of servicemen and offers fresh insight into Australia's involvement in the Korean War, about which little has been written. Mainly though, it is a tremendous story of a ship and its crew.