Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recommended the Victoria Cross be posthumously awarded to World War II hero Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean.

18-year-old Sheean was an Ordinary Seaman on the minesweeper HMAS Armidale when it came under heavy attack from Japanese aircraft in 1942.

An expert panel found Sheean helped launch life rafts and ignored orders to abandon ship, returning to fire at enemy aircraft that were strafing his shipmates in the water.

Witness accounts recall the Tasmanian firing and going down with the sinking ship.

Veteran Affairs Minister Darren Chester told Deborah Knight it’s “extraordinarily rare” for a VC to be awarded 77 years later.

“There is an institutional reluctance within Defence, for example, to change its mind, to suggest that they somehow may have got it wrong.

“There’s nothing ordinary about what Teddy did on that day.”

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Listener Steve’s father was one of the people who were saved by Teddy Sheean’s brave actions.

“It’s fantastic news.”

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Image: Australian War Memorial