Henry Rosen was born on 27 June 1910 in Redfern, Sydney, the second youngest of six sons and three daughters of Rebecca (née Isaacs) and Samuel Rosen, a dealer. Henry worked as a commercial traveller and married Mignon Sheba (née Benjamin) in February 1933. The couple were living in Coogee when their daughter, Naomi, was born later that year.

In 1935, Henry followed his eldest brother Jack into the Merchant Navy, sailing as a steward from Sydney to the South Pacific each month. In July 1939, Henry joined the 77-man crew of MV Macdhui: a 104m long, 4,500 ton, passenger and cargo flagship of BPL. Even then, her voyages were being recorded by Japanese spies. In December 1941, the Macdhui was one of the ships that transported women and children evacuees from New Guinea, Papua and Darwin to safer Australian ports. By this time another three of Henry’s brothers were in service: Alf reportedly with the British Army; Albert in the AIF at Tobruk; and Emanuel in the RAAF. On 19 February 1942 - the day after the sixth brother, Woolfe, enlisted in the AIF - Henry was in Sydney when news of the Japanese attack on Darwin was received, with their brother Jack among 36 crew killed as a result of the bombing and sinking of the MV Neptuna (see separate entry).

Promoted to Chief Saloon Waiter, Henry Rosen re-joined Macdhui when she sailed for New Guinea on 4 April 1942 and was paid a bonus of sixpence a day to man her 12 pounder gun or one of her four Bren guns. Macdhui returned to Townsville the troops who had escaped from Rabaul, including the four surviving Jewish soldiers of the eight in Lark Force. She made another treacherous, unescorted trip to Port Moresby in May, reaching port in spite of Japanese submarine intelligence that she was carrying vital aviation spirits. Although attacked by enemy bombers on arrival, Captain Campbell managed to manoeuvre her and avoid disaster, but it was a portent of things to come. Soon after returning to Australia, the Macdhui was one of dozens of ships in Sydney Harbour when three Japanese midget submarines entered on 31 May. One attacked, sinking HMAS Kuttabul which lost 21 sailors, including Stoker John Asher (see separate entry): Macdhui’s and Henry Rosen’s last voyage was delayed a week.

Carrying 213 troops, aviation fuel, ammunition and other supplies, she reached Port Moresby on 15 June 1942. Two days later, the Japanese launched their 61st raid on Port Moresby. Captain Campbell later said: "We had unloaded most of our cargo and had anchored in the stream. The alarm sounded and at 9:45 a.m. about 18 Japanese planes came at us from about 18,000 feet. Near-misses lifted the ship out of the water like giant hands and dropped it back again. We were holed several times from these. The last Japanese bomb for the day struck the bridge 14 feet away from me. It cut through three steel decks and exploded in the saloon, killing the ship's doctor and two stewards. We put into the wharf that night to land the killed and wounded,“ and to plug holes in the ship’s sides. It seems Henry had just missed death.

The next morning, 18 June, Macdhui was still being unloaded when warned of another air raid. Once more, Captain Campbell cast off her lines and tried to manoeuvre the still-crippled ship, hoping the Japanese would be off-target from their great height, while Henry Rosen and his similarly ineffectual gun crew searched the sky for the Betty bombers. But now with practised precision, eighteen bombers attacked Macdhui and: “she was engulfed with near-misses, each bomb spewing water a hundred feet high.” Campbell described how: “The Japanese came at us again, and made two direct hits on No. 3 hold, setting fire to the ship. Another direct hit wiped out the gun crew of five men. The next one got us on the bridge, and I was blown to the deck below.” The bomb had landed on the ammunition magazine causing a huge explosion, and Benjamin Allen saw: “Henry Rosen … blown from the poop deck into the water … and [subsequently] picked up dead” by an RAAF tender launch.

Fires then broke out in the remaining 1900 drums of aircraft benzene, sending sheets of flame 50 feet into the air and, without rudder control, Captain Campbell gave the order to abandon ship. Over those last two days, ten crew were killed and another ten wounded, including Captain Campbell. It had taken four battles over five weeks for the Japanese to sink the valiant MV Macdhui.

Aged 31, Chief Saloon Waiter Henry Rosen was ‘Killed in Action’ defending MV Macdhui on 18 June 1942. He was buried in Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea, and his headstone is inscribed:
A DEVOTED SON, HUSBAND AND FATHER, HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR VICTORY

The loss of the Macdhui went unreported for some time due to wartime restrictions on news. More than nine months later, on 25 March 1943, the Hebrew Standard of Australasia noted the death of the second of the six Rosen brothers: “What makes this family record of service and sacrifice all the finer is the fact that the majority of the Rosen's are, or were of an age, which to lesser mortals, would seem too old for the rigour of active service. Both as Britishers and as Jews we pay homage to the high patriotic flame of the Rosen men.”

It was reported that Alf went missing in Europe. While three brothers returned from the war, one - Woolfe - who had contracted malaria and dysentery serving in New Guinea as a commando, tragically passed away in 1947. Thus, four of the six Rosen brothers likely made the supreme sacrifice. After Albert was accidentally killed in 1952, Manny was the only surviving brother until his death in 1967.

By the end of WWII, 44 Australian and Allied merchant ships had been sunk by enemy action in waters off Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Nauru. 

Henry Rosen was born on 27 June 1910 in Redfern, Sydney, the second youngest of six sons and three daughters of Rebecca (née Isaacs) and Samuel Rosen, a dealer. [It seems that the middle initial ‘J’ ascribed to Henry may be an error.] Eldest son Jacob, known as Jack, was born in 1891, married in 1918 and then worked on merchant ships, whilst Ephraim (aka Alfred or Alf) Rosen allegedly had been awarded a DSO serving with the British Army in WWI.

Henry worked as a Commercial Traveller and married Mignon Sheba (née Benjamin, aged 21) on 11 February 1933. The couple were living at Mount Street Coogee, when their daughter, Naomi, was born the following 17 April. The family then lived at nearby Kurrdura Ave in 1935, when Henry joined the Merchant Navy - following his eldest brother into the Burns Philp Line. Henry sailed twelve return trips from Sydney in twelve months on the MV Niagara, probably as a steward, then joined the Kanimbla, Macdhui and Bulolo for nine round-trips over the next eighteen months. In July 1939, Henry re-joined the Macdhui for all but one of his subsequent voyages. She was a 104m long, 4,500 ton, passenger and cargo ship built in Scotland in 1930, and was used almost exclusively for monthly services between her home port of Sydney and Papua New Guinea, battling cyclones each summer. Henry had one to two weeks home leave between each two to three week round trip. Coastal ships were the lifeblood of the South Sea Islands and with an average speed of 13 to 14 knots, Macdhui became identified as the flagship of the Burns Philp islands fleet, setting a standard for luxury and efficiency that endeared her to plantation owners, commercial and private travellers. Apparently, even as Japan geared up for warfare in the South Pacific, the voyages of the Macdhui especially were recorded by a spy network of agents, and the information was sent back to Japan.

In December of 1941, with the Japanese threatening islands to the north, the war was on Australia’s doorstep and the Australian government decided to begin evacuating women and children from New Guinea, Papua, and Darwin. Henry was on the MV Macdhui which, along with MVs Katoomba, Neptuna and Zealandia, transported the evacuees to ports in Australia that were out of immediate danger. Five of the Rosen brothers were now on active service: Jack was still in the Merchant Navy; Alf was reportedly again with the British Army fighting in Europe, but went missing that year; Albert, who had previously held a commission with the Militia, enlisted with the AIF, including seven months at Tobruk, rising to Lieutenant; and Emanuel was a sergeant in the RAAF. By February 1942, Henry had completed 21 round trips on Macdhui, and on 18th of that month the sixth brother, Woolfe, enlisted in the AIF. But it was Jack Rosen, eldest brother and lifelong Merchant Seaman, who was the first of them to die, the following day (see his separate entry). Mark Dapin elaborates further in Jewish Anzacs, “On 19 February 1942, the Japanese launched a massive air raid on Darwin, sinking [eight and crippling fifteen] US and Australian ships in the harbour, damaging the RAAF base, wrecking the infrastructure of the town and killing at least 243 people.” Chief Steward on the MV Neptuna that morning, Jack was one of 36 crew members still on the ship when her cargo of ammunition detonated in a huge explosion, killing them all.

The Macdhui was in Sydney when news of the attack on Darwin and Jack’s death was received. It seems that Henry then stayed with Mignon and Naomi in their Onslow St, Rose Bay home for a relatively long eight weeks, and supported his bereaved parents, who were in their seventies and living in nearby Gould St, Bondi. It is also likely that during that period, Henry learned to operate ship’s guns under a maritime-union deal, which eventually had merchant seamen paid a bonus of sixpence a day for defending their vessels. He was then appointed Chief Saloon Waiter on MV Macdhui when she again sailed for New Guinea on 4 April 1942, requisitioned by the Army in the vital task of replenishing the Australian forces. The Japanese were well aware that the aviation spirits she carried were the lifeblood of the Australian and American fighter aircraft that were trying to stem the tide of enemy Zeros and bombers operating over Papua New Guinea. Macdhui also returned troops to Townsville, after they had been evacuated to Port Moresby on HMAS Laurabada from New Britain. Amongst those 156 members of Lark Force and civilians, who had escaped Rabaul following the Japanese landing on 23 January, were up to four Jewish soldiers: Lt David Selby, Gnr David Bloomfield, Signaller Issacher Weingott and L/Sgt Keith Levy. Some detail of their terrible ordeal can be found in the separate entries of the other four Jewish soldiers from the 1200 members of Lark Force that did not return alive from Rabaul: Captain Herbert Nathan Silverman, L/Cpl Leslie Pearlman, Pte Harry Bernstein and Pte Albert Fernandez.

The MV Macdhui made another three-week round trip in May, again without escort. These voyages were treacherous, as Japanese submarines began hunting ships up and down the east coast of Australia, and Port Moresby was being repeatedly attacked by Japanese aircraft, their intelligence aware that she was carrying vital aviation spirits. But this visit in particular proved to be a portent of things to come. The day after arriving in Port Moresby, 14 May 1942, she was the target of enemy bombers: however, the forewarned skipper, Captain Campbell, had cannily slipped from the wharf and steamed away in a zig-zag pattern to confuse the enemy as to which destination the ship was heading. With her token armaments vainly firing, he manoeuvred Macdhui under the protection of a heavy battery of anti-aircraft guns operating from a hill overlooking the harbour and so avoided disaster. She left two days later with 80 military personnel, who disembarked in Cairns, and Macdhui berthed at Walsh Bay in Sydney on 27 May. Campbell and another Burns Philp Captain wrote reports highly critical of the lack of protection offered to Australian cargo vessels – but their concerns were dismissed by the Army.

Macdhui was now one of dozens of merchant ships and over 30 allied warships in Sydney Harbour, when three Japanese midget submarines attempted to enter on 31 May-1 June and one attacked, sinking HMAS Kuttabul, a depot ship which lost 21 sailors, including a Jewish sailor, Stoker John Asher (see his separate entry). Unlike many people in the eastern suburbs who fled to outer Sydney in fear of further Japanese attacks, Henry’s family remained there. Meanwhile, the consequent closure of the port for several days delayed Macdhui’s departure until 6 June: her 97th voyage and Henry’s 41st with Burns Philp. Her 77-man crew, of whom one-third were hospitality staff, averaged 40 years of age. Despite being escorted by two corvettes this time, Campbell grew more apprehensive, as Macdhui was armed with only one 12 pounder (3 inch) gun and four Bren guns, and moreover, he understood that the Japanese were expecting her. She left Sydney carrying 58 Australian troops, a load of aviation fuel, ammunition and other supplies, then picked up another 155 troops from Townsville, the bulk attached to 9th Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Battery. When she reached Port Moresby’s Fairfax Harbour at 8pm on 15 June, Campbell was told he had less than ten hours to unload, as the wharf was needed for another vessel the following morning. So the next day Macdhui had moved to a harbour anchorage to continue discharging her cargo, when six Japanese Zero fighters swept in low, circling around her, but did not fire a shot: they were on reconnaissance. That night, Captain Campbell’s feelings of trepidation about Macdhui’s vulnerability must have increased.

The following day, 17 June, the Japanese launched their 61st raid on Port Moresby, described by Francis Ravel Harvey in gripping detail (see Postscript). Flying “in perfect V-formations,” some 27 Japanese twin-engined Mitsubishi G4M Rikko Navy Type 1 (aka ‘Betty’) attack bombers with Zero fighter escorts, again singled out the Macdhui, which took evasive action similar to the encounter on her previous visit. But as the enemy bombers were higher than the anti-aircraft fire and Macdhui’s guns especially, just a few of their 70 bombs caused some damage, and a few casualties. The Purser, Benjamin Allen of Sydney, said that shrapnel cut legs off the dining tables in the saloon and pierced the sides of the ship. Captain Campbell later said: "We had unloaded most of our cargo and had anchored in the stream. The alarm sounded and at 9:45 a.m. about 18 Japanese planes came at us from about 18,000 to 20,000 feet. Near-misses lifted the ship out of the water like giant hands and dropped it back again. We were holed several times from these. The last Japanese bomb for the day struck the bridge 14 feet away from me. It cut through three steel decks and exploded in the saloon, killing the ship's doctor [Dr C. Tunstall aged 74] and two stewards. We put into the wharf that night to land the killed and wounded,“ and to plug holes in the ship’s sides. AIF Bombardier Geoffrey Calnan, who had witnessed the attack from the verandah of his billet in town, later wrote that: “All day long truckloads of wrecked furniture fittings and stores were being carted away and all day long legs, arms, heads and pieces of bodies were being taken from the wreckage.” In a 1988 interview by the AWM, Pte Jack Stevens described how: “We had to work that night to get the stores off it, but some of the bulkheads had been buckled. I worked for some hours in the freezer to get all the food out. You worked knee deep in ice-water … chipping away at all these carcasses of meat and so forth and … it was [after] about half an hour that you had to go up and thaw your legs out. The chaps working in the hold, they had great difficulty because some of the bulkheads and beams had buckled and were forced down onto the cases of food and so forth and it wasn't - you know - just pick 'em up. You had to lever them out and force them out and so we worked … double shift right through the night to try and unload it. They wanted to get away before daybreak. Unfortunately it wasn't completely unloaded, and we were still working when the air raid started in the morning.”

That next morning, 18 June 1942, the same Japanese bombers from the 4th Kokutai, led by Lt Renpei Egawa, took off from Vunakanau Airfield near Rabaul, New Britain, on another bombing mission against Port Moresby. Cargo was still being taken ashore from the Macdhui when the air-raid sirens sounded at 10:00 am. Once more, Captain Campbell cast off her lines and tried to manoeuvre the still-crippled ship, hoping the Japanese bombers would be off-target from their great height, while Henry Rosen and his similarly ineffectual gun crew searched the sky for them. Twenty minutes later, with cover from the escorting Zero fighters, eighteen Betty bombers were flying over Fairfax Harbour, again targeting Macdhui, but now with practised precision, and: “she was engulfed with near-misses, each bomb spewing water a hundred feet high.” Witness, Bombardier Calnan, recalled: “It was pattern bombing to the best degree and the bombers dropped a path of bombs. The Macdhui was right in the middle of the path and was doomed. Suddenly there was a blinding flash followed by another. A gun being manned by a gun crew on the aft end of the ship disappeared with the first hit. The second bomb hit just forward of the bridge. The ship was burning fiercely and almost immediately began to list to the starboard side. The Ack Ack once again failed to bring down any of the enemy and their mission was successful.” Captain Campbell’s description elaborates: “The Japanese came at us again, and made two direct hits on No. 3 hold, setting fire to the ship. Another direct hit wiped out the gun crew of five men. The next one got us on the bridge, and I was blown to the deck below.” Henry Rosen was one of that gun crew killed when a bomb landed on the ammunition magazine, causing a huge explosion. Benjamin Allen saw how: “Rosen was blown from the poop deck into the water and [subsequently] picked up dead” by an RAAF tender launch. A total of some 68 bombs were dropped, four hitting home.

Fires broke out in the 1900 drums of aircraft benzene that remained unloaded, sending sheets of flame 50 feet into the air and, without rudder control, Captain Campbell gave the order to abandon ship. Some of the crew took to the lifeboats and the rest were evacuated with the help of three RAAF medical officers who had been watching the attack from the shore. Still burning fiercely, the Macdhui drifted to the shallows where she grounded on a reef and eventually became a total wreck.

From a nearby hilltop, Australian war photographer Damien Parer recorded 16mm cine film and photographs of the bombing raid and sinking (see Postscript). Over the two successive days, eight crew were killed outright and two fatally injured. Of the 62 survivors, ten of the crew were wounded, including Captain Campbell, who remained in hospital for 16 days with shrapnel wounds to his arms and burns on the face and body. But it had taken four battles over five weeks for the Japanese to sink the valiant merchant ship, MV Macdhui.

Bombardier Calnan said: “Even though the ship was lying on the bottom about a quarter of it was out of the water at high tide. For three weeks it and its cargo burnt and sometimes the flames would rise 50 feet in the air. At night time it made a very impressive sight.” Calnan concluded: “After that day I never wanted to see another bombing raid again, but I did about thirty five more and each one wrought death and havoc.”

Aged 31, Chief Saloon Waiter Henry Rosen was ‘Killed in Action’ defending MV Macdhui on 18 June 1942. He was buried in Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea, and his headstone is inscribed:
A DEVOTED SON, HUSBAND AND FATHER, HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR VICTORY

In August 1942, Rebecca Rosen applied for a ‘Mothers and Widow’s Badge’ to recognise her two slain sons. The loss of Macdhui went unreported in the Australian media for some time, due to the wartime restriction on news. So it was not until nine months later, on 25 March 1943, that the Hebrew Standard of Australasia noted the death of a second of the six Rosen brothers: “What makes this family record of service and sacrifice all the finer is the fact that the majority of the Rosen's are, or were of an age, which to lesser mortals, would seem too old for the rigour of active service. Both as Britishers and as Jews we pay homage to the high patriotic flame of the Rosen men.” It was reported that Alf went missing in Europe in WWII, but no confirmation regarding that or his death has been found to date. The three other brothers returned from the war, however on 4 October 1947, Woolfe tragically died from malaria and dysentery contracted whilst serving as a commando in New Guinea. That date was just three months beyond the eligibility period (i.e. 30 June 1947: deaths as a result of WWII) for commemoration on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour, which is also a criterion for inclusion on the Australian Jewish War Memorial in the ACTJC Centre, Canberra. He was buried in a CWGC grave in the newly-established, Jewish ex-services section of Rookwood Jewish Cemetery. Thus - rather than two brothers lost as a result of the war - it seems that three if not four of the six Rosen brothers made the supreme sacrifice. Samuel died on 8 July 1948 - predeceased by four of his six sons - and Albert was killed in a tram accident in Brisbane on 19 February 1952, leaving one surviving son, Emmanuel, and two of three daughters, Kitty and Vera (Rae aka Rose d. 1951). Mother, Rebecca died in 1955, and ‘Manny’ was the last of the six Rosen brothers surviving until his death in 1967, at the age of 63.

By the end of WWII, 44 Australian and Allied merchant ships had been sunk by enemy action in waters off Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Nauru, including the Motor Vessels Niagara and Zealandia, as well as the Neptuna and Macdhui.

POSTSCRIPT

A brief video ‘Macdhui meets her end’ [Fox Movietone News Vol. 13 No. 33. AWM F00355] can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/as2E_pi_5oM?list=PLKfFVbmmE6iwsrtCCZyUStzitrPpp87D-
from footage by Damien Parer, taken on 17 and 18 June 1942, 2½ minutes highlight of which can be viewed at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C188816

In the Last Voyage of the “Macdhui” 6-18 June, 1942 – Unrecognised Sacrifice by Merchant Fleets during World War II (2000 The Great Circle, 22(1), 17-31) Francis Ravel Harvey claims that the destruction of the MV Macdhui was a classic example of the “inevitable outcome of internecine rivalry between civilian, military and naval authorities, who failed to provide adequate protection for a vessel known to be earmarked for annihilation by the enemy. The incident reflects little credit on the government of the day, nor on the major Australian company that owned the vessel, for in addition to sending it virtually unarmed into a perilous war zone, neither the government nor the company appeared to accept responsibility for a disaster which may have been avoided, nor was adequate compensation ever provided for the survivors of its valiant crew.” Harvey ruminates: “In fact there was no aircraft cover provided, and again, the guns of the heavy ack-ack battery – useless against the high-flying, pattern-bombing attack by the experienced Japanese pilots – was brief and pointless.” Sadly, the survivors were poorly compensated, and Captain Campbell did not receive any public commendation.

Henry and Mignon’s daughter, Naomi Rosen, married George Wilkinson in March 1952 at St Clements Church of England, Mosman, subsequently divorced and married Desmond Good in June 1962 at the NSW Registrar General’s Office, Sydney. With her application in 1988 for her late father’s medals (and held by the NAA) Naomi included a copy of his service log, thus providing details of Henry’s voyages used in the above narrative.