The 102 men who survived the initial attack were left scattered across the ocean, covered in black engine oil with only a beer bottle of water, six tins of condensed milk and two tins of corned beef.

Repeatedly attacked by gunfire and bombs from above, they clung to life in the roaring sea. Some survived the harrowing experience, some disappeared without a trace.

It was 3:15pm on December 1, 1942. Seventy five years ago to the day.

“You’re in the tropics, it’s rough seas, the men are probably thirsty and hungry and a lot of them still are injured and in shock from the sinking of the ship,” David Stevens, from the Australian War Memorial’s Official History Project, told news.com.au.

“They may well have swallowed oil and been covered in it. There was hardly any time to abandon ship so therefore you’re not going with much equipment.”

Bombed by 13 Japanese aircraft in an aerial attack off Betano Bay, south of East Timor, the HMAS Armidale finally succumbed to the ocean deep.

But the story of the HMAS Armidale and its brave soldiers is one of the most neglected stories of WWII, despite the incredible sea survival story of 49 of its men.

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According to the Australian War Memorial, 1942 was the “most perilous year” for Australians after “a series of victories brought Japanese forces into Australian territory in New Guinea and within a few miles of the Australian mainland.”

Japan’s growing advance into South-East Asia at the beginning of the year brought the enemy a few hundred kilometres from Australia. The Japanese bombed Darwin on February 19 that year before invading Timor a day later.

Commissioned in June 1942, the Armidale was one of 60 Australian Minesweepers built during WWII and operated between Australia and New Guinea throughout the war.

The Minesweepers were the smallest of Australia’s warships and performed wideranging service in the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the South-West Pacific, and in Australian waters. Overcrowded and light on ammunition, the ship was the perfect target.

After leaving Darwin in late November as part of an operation known as “HAMBURGER”, she had only been at sea for six months and was en route to rescue Australian and Dutch soldiers at the time it was attacked.

Spotted by Japanese aircraft after leaving Darwin, the ship had already survived numerous aerial attacks when on December 1 she floated into enemy waters.

At around 1pm that day the Armidale was between Timor and Darwin when she came under fierce aerial attack from enemy forces; five dive bombers attacked from above. An hour later another five Zero fighters — long-range fighter aircraft — distracted the Armidale while nine torpedo bombers made attacks from the sea. The soldiers on the ship valiantly fought back.

It wasn’t until 3.10pm that the ship was hit on the port side by two torpedoes, forcing the Australian seamen to abandon ship. The first hit the mess deck, killing numerous soldiers. The second hit the ship’s engine room.

“Planes roared just above us, blazing away with cannon and machine guns,” leading Seaman Leigh Bool, who survived, later recalled.

“Seven or eight of us were on the quarterdeck when we saw another bomber coming from the starboard quarter. It hit us with another torpedo an we were thrown in a heap.

“We could feel the Armidale going beneath us, so we dived over the side and swam about 50 yards astern as fast as we could. Then we stopped swimming and looked back at our old ship. She was sliding under, the stern high in the air, the propellers still turning.”

Seaman Edward “Teddy” Sheean strapped himself to an Oerlikon cannon and fired at the enemy aircraft. He shot down two planes as the ship sunk beneath him.

As the ship disappeared into the sea the Japanese Zeroes moved their attack from the ship to the survivors, flying low and shooting dozens of rounds at the Aussies using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. No less than 45 bombs were dropped into the ocean.

Low on fuel the Japanese headed home, giving the remaining survivors time to regroup. They broke into three groups; two on small, damaged motor boats that survived the sinking — and a raft made from various pieces of debris.

The group clung together floating for 24 hours but when they realised no one was coming to rescue them, one of the boats set out to Darwin to get help. They were spotted three days later, on December 5 and 22 men were eventually rescued and taken aboard the HMAS Kalgoorlie. That same day, the second boat, still floating in the water, broke away from the raft and headed towards Darwin.

A sea search was organised for the remaining survivors and on the afternoon of December 8, a flying boat spotted both the second boat and the raft. Rough seas meant the boat was unable to land but photographed the raft with its survivors and directed Kalgoorlie to the second boat.

The raft couldn’t be located again — and the picture became the survivors’ haunting last image.

“It’s impossible to say how close they were to the searching ships. By the time the ship got there the raft had drifted away somewhere else and couldn’t be found.

The men were never seen again.

“If there’s any sort of a swell going it’s easy for a small raft to be missed, you have to be virtually on top of it. You may miss them even as you’re going past.”

The search was called off on December 13.

“They presumably died a prolonged and unhappy demise based on the fact they didn’t have much water or food,” said Doctor Stevens.

“They were in the hot sun without cover in the tropics. The guys were trapped and would have gradually passed away, one by one.”

Only 49 of the 149 men on board survived.