Leapin Lena

A Small Ship at war, 1942-45

De: Allan A. Murray

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The logistics support of the Small Ships Section was vital to success in the New Guinea Campaign of World War II.

This book is the story of the ketch, Forbes Brothers, built in 1912 by Allan's great-great-grandfather, John Ernest Forbes, and two of his brothers.

She was built on Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. Unlike the other ships and vessels in the Series, Forbes Brothers was primarily powered by sail. The ketch is included in the Series because thirty years later she served with the United States Army Small Ships Section in support of land operations in New Guinea against the Japanese. By now renamed Leprena, she occasionally encountered at Milne Bay the heavy cruiser, HMAS Australia (II), including when Allan's great-uncle, Able Seaman Bobby Forbes, was aboard the warship.

The book explores the family connection with Forbes Brothers; provides some detail on her halcyon days in the Spencer Gulf of South Australia; describes her transition to being the Leprena and her service as a Small Ship in World War II; and then her final years in Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean. In doing, it provides insights to the Disruption phase and Final phase of the Australian Campaign.

As the Forbes Brothers she was fortunate to be captained by Clyde Harvey, who took many photographs to record her working life. As the Leprena, serving with the Small Ships Section, one of her First Mates, Clarrie Dawes, survived the War and gave numerous media interviews on his service with the Small Ships leaving many documented recollections of the Leprena. These have enabled the story of this fine ketch to be comprehensively told.

This book also briefly tells the broader story of the Small Ships Section and introduces an indigenous Australian flavour to the Series, the word ‘Leprena’ is of Tasmanian Aboriginal origin.