ON a flawless winter's day, the sea looked so peaceful from Fort Scratchley.
"It's beautiful, magnificent," said Grahame Pricter, just as a whale breached off the coast.
Grahame Pricter wasn't here to take in the scenery but to look back exactly 80 years, to a tense night during World War II, when his father, Edward, was manning the number two gun at the fort.
"When you're under the threat of war, you wouldn't see much other than looking for who was firing on you," Mr Pricter said.
In the early hours of June 8, 1942, war landed in the heart of Newcastle with a bang.
The Japanese submarine I-21 surfaced in Stockton Bight and fired at the industrial city, initially lighting up the night with star shells. Then came a succession of high explosive shells aimed at the BHP steelworks and the port.
Remarkably there was little damage and no deaths, but the shelling shook the city to its core.
Grahame Pricter recalled his father telling him how the battery commander wondered why there was firing, since no orders had been given, "until he realised it was the Japanese sub firing".
At the nearby number one gun that night was 19-year-old Lance Bombadier Richard Robinson. As he would later tell his son, Neil, a fellow gun crew member asked, "Cor! Is this fair dinkum?"
Young Richard Robinson replied, "I don't know, but there are shells coming over our heads, so I think so!"
Neil Robinson and Grahame Pricter were among the crowd who had gathered at Fort Scratchley on Wednesday afternoon to remember history - and to see history repeating.
On that night in 1942, the fort's six-inch Mark VII guns were fired in anger for the first and only time. Four rounds were fired at the submarine, before it slipped under the surface and cruised off.
Back then, the guns were fired at 2.17am. Eighty years on, the Fort Scratchley Historical Society decided to stretch time a little, not wanting to shock the residents of inner Newcastle.
At 2.17pm, four rounds were fired from number one gun. Number two gun is currently not working, which, as historical society president Frank Carter pointed out, was also history repeating; it jammed on the night of the Japanese shelling.
"So in keeping with the anniversary of the attack, number two gun was out of action," Mr Carter said.
Attending the commemorative ceremony was Minako Tateno, the Japanese vice-consul.
"It's a great honour to be here today, to learn about the history and the reconciliation between Australia and Japan, especially Newcastle, Ms Tateno said.
For what is believed to be the first time in the fort's history, the Japanese flag was flown, flapping in the strong westerly.
Frank Carter said he was delighted to have a representative of the Japanese people at the commemorative event.
"They're our partners now, they're not our enemy," Mr Carter said. "Going forward, it's important we continue this."
The Pricter family did more than attend the ceremony to honour their loved one. They are donating pieces of history to the fort: two small primer shells.
After he had helped fire number two gun on June 8, 1942, Bombadier Edward Pricter grabbed the primer shells and put them in his trouser pocket. Yet Ted Pricter had more than those shells as a souvenir of the night.
"One of the shells was extremely hot and it burnt his leg, and he had that scar until the day he died," said his grandson, Roger Pricter, who was at the commemorative gun-firing.
Roger Pricter has crafted a wooden mount for the shells from a floorboard from his grandfather's house.
Ted Pricter's son and grandson said their loved one would be pleased the shells were in the fort.
"I think he'd be proud for not only himself, but for what he and the other guys on the guns did that night for Newcastle," said Grahame Pricter, who was wearing his father's service medals.
"It's a good feeling to know that he was here as one of the defenders."
Frank Carter said the shells would be a valuable addition to the fort's collection.
"It's another link to that whole night, and to the history of the fort," he said.
Neil Robinson, who visited the fort as a child with his veteran father in the early 1960s, is a volunteer and member of the historical society these days. He was given the honour of firing the gun.
"It means a lot to me," Mr Robinson said. "You don't often get a chance to be involved in something that your parents were involved with 80 years ago."
Read and watch more: When Newcastle came under fire
