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Occasional Paper 87: Disposition and Employment of Royal Australian Navy Ships following Cessation of Hostilities 15 August 1945

August 26, 2020

By David Stratton, Hugh Farmer and Dennis Weatherall

At the end of the War in the Pacific in August 1945 the strength of the Royal Australian Navy was 36,976 men and women and 337 vessels ranging in size from cruisers to motor launches. During the course of the War it had grown from less than 5,000 personnel in December 1938 and 16 major ships. Of the 337 in service in August 1945, 57 ships were deployed in the archipelagos of the Western Pacific Ocean north of Australia.

As hostilities concluded these ships were assigned a variety of tasks which included; ferrying participants to or conducting surrender ceremonies, internee and POW repatriation, transporting troops and stores, landing occupation forces and mine sweeping operations. The following table records the location of individual ships and their employment during the weeks immediately before and after the formal Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

Disposition and Employment of Royal Australian Navy Ships
following Cessation of Hostilities 15 August 1945

Disposition and Employment of Royal Australian Navy Ships: September 1945

Town

Date

RAN Ships

Notes

Tokyo, Japan

2/9/1945

Task Group 70-9

Shropshire

Hobart

Bataan

Warramunga

Ipswich

Ballarat

Cessnock

Napier

Nizam

Gascoyne

Pirie

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on board the battleship USS Missouri. There was a total of 258 warships of all types from all the Allied nations which had been at war with Japan.

RAN ships entered Tokyo Bay on 29 August as Task Group 70.9 within the Third Fleet.

Commodore John Collins was one of the Australian representatives at the ceremony on USS Missouri.

Following the ceremony RAN ships assisted with the repatriation of Allied prisoners or war. Hobart and Warramunga then sailed for Sydney while Shropshireand Bataan remained in Japanese waters until November. It was during this period that the Commanding Officer of HMAS Bataan learned of the existence of HMAS Perth survivors taken from Tokushima Camp.

Video: Japanese Surrender on USS Missouri

Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

6/9/1945

Vendetta

Dubbo

Lithgow

Townsville

The Instrument of Surrender for the Japanese South East Area Forces was signed on board the aircraft Carrier HMS Glory.

AWM Video: Surrender ceremony on board HMS Glory

HMAS Vendetta embarked Brigadier Sheehan and his staff, and the Naval Officer-in-Charge, New Guinea, and his staff on 2 September before proceeding Rabaul to meet envoys from General Imamura to arrange details of the formal surrender. Vendetta remained in New Britain waters until 11 September when she proceeded for New Guinea. On return to Sydney 3 October was decommissioned on 5 October.

HMAS Dubbo was employed in preliminary minesweeping operations returned in the Solomons area prior to the surrender and later in New Britain waters. She returned to Australia in October to begin a long refit at Brisbane.

HMAS Lithgow had earlier supported land operations in the Solomons before conducting minesweeping operations until the end of September. Her active war career ended on return to Sydney 1 November 1945.

HMAS Townsville was among RAN ships which supported the Japanese surrender aboard HMS Glory. She later joined the 20^th Minesweeping Flotilla clearing minefields laid in Australian coastal waters and the New Guinea /Solomons region.

Dutch Borneo

8/9/1945

Burdekin

Gascoyne

HMAS Burdekin was the venue for the surrender of all Japanese forces in Dutch Borneo to Major General Milford, G.O.C., 7^th Australia Division. She arriving at Balikpapan on the 8^thto embarked General Milford and his staff, and a number of Army, RAAF and US Navy officers. A surrender table had been arranged on the starboard side of Burdekin’s quarterdeck.

Surrender Ceremony on HMAS Burdekin 8 September 1945_RAN image

HMAS Gascoyneserved in New Guinea waters from June 1945 until her eventual return to Sydney on 5 January 1946. During this time Gascoyne was engaged in escort duties and the seizure by Australian forces of the Balikpapan area in Borneo, including bombardment support for the troops ashore. In September she took part in the surrender of Japanese forces in Borneo. She was used to transport the Commanding General of the Japanese 2nd Armyfrom the Celebes to Balikpapan on the first stage of his journey to Morotai to surrender to General Blamey. The remainder of 1945 was spent transporting troops and stores, a service which took the frigate into the Moluccas, Halmaheras, Borneo and Timor.

Kuching, Borneo

9/9/1945

Bundaberg

Kapunda

HMAS Bundaberg, following the cessation of hostilities, from 16 August was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to contact the Japanese at Ambon with the object of obtaining the release of Allied war prisoners. These men were liberated some three weeks later.

On 9 September Bundaberg, was at Labuan, North Borneo, with a force of RAN vessels including HMAS Kapunda for the surrender of Japanese forces in the North Borneo area.

The Japanese surrender of the was signed on board Kapunda at Kuching on 11 September 1945. After the Surrender Bundaberg participated in the landing of occupation forces at Kuching, and in the evacuation of prisoners of war from that port to Labuan. On return to Australia Bundaberg was paid off.

HMAS Kapunda assisted with the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war from Kuching following the end of the hostilities. As the headquarters ship at Kuching she provided the venue for the official surrender ceremony of the Japanese forces in the area with Major General Yamamura signing the instrument of surrender for Japanese forces in East Borneo. The surrender instrument was signed in the presence of Brigadier Eastlick, AIF.

Kapunda returning to Sydney on 17 November 1945 and was paid off into Reserve on 14 January 1946.

Torokina, Bougainville

Nauru

Ocean Island, Kiribati

8 /9/1945

1/9/1945

1/10/1945

Diamantina

HMAS Diamantina, after completion in April 1945 commissioning and workup operated in New Guinea and adjacent waters. After the conclusion of hostilities, it was involved in transporting Japanese senior officers to from South Bougainville to Torokina where the surrender ceremony for Bougainville was conducted on 8 September 1945.

Diamantina then proceeded to Nauru where she hosted the surrender of Nauru onboard and a that of Ocean Island on 1 October 1945. Australian, British and New Zealand officials were embarked for both ceremonies. She returned to Sydney in December.

Koepang, Timor

11/9/1945

Moresby

Horsham

Benalla

Echuca

Parkes

Katoomba

Kangaroo

Bombo

HDML 1322,

HDML 1324

HDML 1329

HMAS Moresby departed Darwin on 7 September 1945 in support of Operation TOFO, the surrender for all Japanese Forces in Timor. Embarked in Moresby were the Senior Naval Officer of the operation Commander GL Cant, RAN, and Brigadier LGH Dyke, CBE, DSO, who had been appointed to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Timor or controlled from Timor. Sailing in company with Moresby were HMA Ships Horsham, Benalla, Echuca, Parkes, Katoomba, Kangaroo, Bombo and the Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDML) 1322, 1324 and 1329. In the convoy also were the Dutch minesweeper Abraham Crijnssen and the transport Van den Bosch.

Enroute to Timor the convoy was joined by the corvettes HMAS Warrnambool and Gladstone increasing the RAN presence. On 11 September the convoy arrived at the appointed rendezvous off Koepang and two Japanese officers boarded Moresby for interrogation regarding the location of minefields and underwater obstructions. On completion of the interrogation the convoy entered harbour in column with Abraham Crijnssen sweeping ahead of the line of ships all of which were closed up at action stations. After all ships anchored off Koepang the Japanese army and navy commanders boarded Moresby and were escorted to the quarterdeck for the surrender ceremony.

HMAS Moresby was again present on 3 October 1945 for another surrender ceremony which took place ashore at Koepang. On this occasion Lt. General Yamada surrendered a force of about 36,000 men who made up the Japanese forces in the entire Lesser Sunda Islands.

Hong Kong	16/9/1945	Task Force 111.2 Mildura Castlemaine Bathurst Broome Fremantle Strahan Wagga Stawell 21^st Minesweeping Flotilla Ballarat Bendigo Whyalla Maryborough Burnie 22nd Minesweeping Flotilla Cessnock Geraldton Gawler Woolongong Tamworth Pirie Launceston	In mid-August 1945 eight RAN Corvettes assigned to British Task Force 111.2 under the command of Rear Admiral Harcourt worked up as minesweeping flotilla between 21 and 26 August at Subic Bay. Unfortunately for HMAS Stawell which had recently sunk a Japanese barge was denied the Hong Kong operation and remained in Subic Bay as the British Naval Liaison Officer for the port. The task group sailed for Hong Kong on 27 August and commenced sweeping operations on 29 August. The British Naval Squadron entered Hong Kong on 30^th August 1945. During succeeding days more RAN corvettes arrived in Hong Kong to carry out minesweeping, anti-piracy, anti-piracy and other duties. These were the, the 21^st and 22^nd Minesweeping Flotillas. The Japanese surrender in Hong Kong took place at Government House, Hong Kong on 16 September 1945. Senior Japanese officers surrendered the territory to British officers led by Rear Admiral Jepson and witnessed by Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. The Japanese representatives were Major General Unekichi Okada and Vice Admiral Uitaaro Fujita. Video: Japanese Surrender of Hong Kong
New Ireland, Papua New Guinea	18/9/1945	Swan	HMAS Swan was undergoing its third refit of the war when Japan capitulated on 15 August 1945. In September 1945 Swan proceeded to New Ireland and there on 18 September 1945 embarked General Eather, General Officer Commanding the Australian 11th Division, and his staff. On board on the same day at Namatani, General Eather accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in New Ireland from General Ito, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief. From 16 October 1945 the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla was reformed with Swan as Flotilla Leader for mine clearance operations in Australian, New Guinea and Solomon Islands waters. This vital post war work kept Swan almost constantly at sea until 16 August 1948.
Manado, Celebes Ambon	22/9/1945	Cootamundra Glenelg Rockhampton Junee Bowen	After the capitulation of Japan these ships were involved in the recovery of internees and prisoners of war and the landing of an occupation force on Ambon on 22 September 1945.
Singapore	3/10/1945	Hawkesbury	HMAS Hawkesbury, after supporting landings in Borneo, escort duties in the Netherlands East Indies and the bombardment of Japanese occupied islands she undertook a short refit in Sydney. She then escorted the repatriation transport MV Duntroon to Singapore and was present for the surrender of Singapore on 3 October 1945. She remained in Singapore until 20 September awaiting the embarkation of Australian prisoners of war.

References:

Hermon Gill, Royal Australian Navy 1942-1945, Collins in Association with the AWM, 1968

John Bastock, Australia’s Ships of War, Anngus and Robertson, 1975

Sea Power Centre Australia, Ship Histories, available at https://www.navy.gov.au/fleet/ships-boats-craft/available-ship-histories, accessed 22 July 2020

Reports of Proceedings, HMA Ships, Australian War memorial, available at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM78/, accessed 28 July 2020Occasiona

Occasional Paper 84: Operation Musketeer – the 1956 Suez Crisis, RAN Members’ Involvement

July 27, 2020

This paper was written by Society volunteer, Commander Martin Linsley RAN Rtd. Its genesis was a list of the RAN participants in the Suez Crisis compiled by Mike Fogarty a former RAN officer and diplomat. Contributions were also received from participants; Commodore Kelvin Gulliver AM RAN Rtd and Captain Nick Bailey RAN Rtd who were served as junior officers in HMS Newfoundland at the time.

One chronicler called it ‘the shortest and silliest war in history’[i], but Operation Musketeer, better known as the 1956 Suez Crisis, signified the end of an era and the beginning of a new world order. The conflict focused on the Egyptian owned Suez Canal, and involving a conspiracy orchestrated by France, the UK and Israel. At least 13 members of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) were involved.[ii]

Following the end of WWII, the RAN maintained close links with the UK’s Royal Navy (RN), its parent service. It was common for RAN members, particularly officers, to be posted to the RN for ‘service, training and promotion courses’. The posting was welcomed by many. It began and ended with a 4/5 week’s sea passage travelling first class on a passenger liner. The overseas allowances were good and RAN personnel were the envy of their RN contemporaries. More than one young officer found his future wife during his time in the UK.

Four other RAN members serving with the RN in 1956 had been commissioned from the ranks. Two of them, Graham (Spider) Currie and Leonard Peterson had been conscripted for service in WWII, after which they were accepted into permanent service and undertook officer and specialist training. By September 1965 SBLT Special Duties (the SD designation first being used that year) Currie was serving as a Communications Officer in HMS Woodbridge Haven, the command/depot ship of a Coastal Minesweeping Group. SBLT SD Peterson was a Boatswain Officer in the aircraft carrier HMS Albion. Fellow SD officers Charles Goodwin and Norman (Bruce) MacRae also undertook their officer training in the UK. SBLT Goodwin’s first sea-posting as an Ordinance Engineer officer was to HMS Tyne, a depot/headquarters ship; and for Communications Officer SBLT MacRae it was to the destroyer HMS Cavendish.

In August 1956 another six Australian officers were on their second or third postings with the RN. LCDR Ian Burnside, a navigation specialist, undertook long-course training during his first posting, and was sent to a destroyer HMS Duchess for his second. Rory Burnett was the Torpedo and Anti-Submarine officer in HMS Jamaica, a light cruiser. Onboard another light cruiser, HMS Ceylon, LEUT Ian Macgregor was the Assistant Gunnery Officer. Aged just 27, he had already served six years in UK. Subsequently, he lost his life in the Melbourne/Voyager collision. LEUT Edmund Melzer was a communications specialist in HMS Woodbbridge Haven assisted by Graham Currie. Donald (Weary) Weil joined the RAN in January 1949 and just eight months later was sent to UK for 3½ years of RN training and service. In March 1956 he was back in UK, and by October he was onboard HMS Bulwark, an aircraft carrier. LEUT Ian Nicholson undertook the RN Long Communications Course in 1954. On completion he was posted to sea and in October 1956 he was serving in the destroyer HMS Daring.

RN service was the first overseas posting for three young Supply Cadet midshipmen; Brian Bigelow, Keith Denton, and Kelvin Gulliver who were 15-year-old classmates when they joined the Naval College in 1953. After initial training they were sent to the UK in 1955 to join their RN contemporaries in the training carrier HMS Triumph for further Cadet training. They were promoted to Midshipman on 1 Jan 1956 and posted to sea for 12 months to complete their sea training. This was followed by Supply specialist training ashore in UK for 16 months before returning to Australia in May 1958. In September 1956, on the outbreak of the Suez crisis, Brian was serving in HMS Eagle an aircraft carrier,Keith in another carrier, HMS Albion, and Kelvin in HMS Newfoundland, a Singapore based light cruiser. In Newfoundland also was Nick Bailey an RN Midshipman who subsequently joined the RAN and became a Captain.

All these British ships were part of the RN’s Mediterranean Fleet for Operation Musketeer. Newfoundlandaccompanied by Diana, Modeste and Crane had been transferred from the Far East Fleet to patrol at the southern end of the Canal. Australia’s then Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, was not supportive of the Australians being onboard RN ships during a conflict in which Australia was not directly involved. While he could do nothing to prevent it, his concerns were evident in the requirement for the 13 Australians to conceal their nationality. This entailed changing the only marks at the time that distinguished their uniforms from the RN by replacing the Australia inscribed brass buttons with RN ones. It is doubtful whether many carried out this direction because of the late notice and that they were in tropical rig or Action Working Dress (AWD).

The Suez Canal, stretching 193.3 km between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, was completed in 1869. It was built by the Suez Canal Company. The enterprise began with mostly French private investors and a significant Egyptian shareholding, but by 1890 it was 44% British owned. The canal slowly became very profitable, but for Britain it had strategic significance because it shortened the time taken for the country to reach India and its eastern colonies.

In response to an anti-European riot in 1882 Britain landed an army, seized the Suez Canal and developed a protectorate over Egypt. After WWII the company’s profits grew rapidly as oil shipments increased. In 1952 developing nationalism in Egypt resulted in a military coup led by Colonel Nasser that overthrew King Farouk. To invigorate Egypt’s economy Nasser undertook to dam the river Nile at Aswan. In 1956 the World Bank denied a loan for the project. To gain the funds necessary for the dam Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company in July 1956, promising to fairly compensate its shareholders.

Britain, wishing to retain its influence over the canal and the Middle East, considered Nasser a threat against which it was prepared to use force. So did France, which was fighting an Egyptian-supported rebellion against its rule in Algeria. Israel was also anti-Egypt. Since its formation in 1948 it had consistently and increasingly been harassed by Egypt, including denial of its use of the Suez Canal. Egypt was also sponsoring raids by fedayeen guerillas that resulted in Israeli civilian casualties. While understanding these issues, the USA and other countries opposed the use of force for their resolution.

Five Nations led by Sir Robert Menzies were chosen in September 1956 to negotiate with Nasser. Menzies proposed the “establishment of principles” for the future use of the canal. This was to ensure that it would “continue to be an international waterway operated free of politics or national discrimination and with a secure financial structure and international confidence”. He envisaged that increased confidence would expand Canal use and guarantee a secure future. The proposal also included a convention to recognise Egyptian sovereignty of the Canal, and the establishment of an international body to run it. Nasser rejected these proposals. As Menzies negotiating skills on the international scene were limited, he was unable to reach an understanding with Nasser.

In October 1956 France convened a secret meeting with Britain and Israel. Under the Protocol of Sèvres the parties agreed that Israel would invade the Sinai. Britain and France would then intervene – supposedly to separate the warring Israeli and Egyptian forces – and set a 24-hour deadline for the forces to withdraw 16 kilometres from either side of the Suez Canal. Assuming Egypt would not accept the ultimatum, Britain and France would then argue that Egypt’s control of the Suez Canal was too fragile and that it needed Anglo-French management. A pretext for invasion was set, so too was the start date for invasion.

Originally planned and prepared as an Anglo-French operation for early September 1956, Operation Musketeer had to be delayed because of the need to coordinate with Israel. The Operation had no clear goal beyond seizing the Suez Canal zone by capturing Port Said at the northern end of the waterway, and then moving south.

Since August 1956 the Anglo-French air-sea-ground force had been concentrating in the Eastern Mediterranean, planning and training. It consisted of approximately 45,000 Britons and 34,000 Frenchmen, 200 British and 30 French warships (including seven aircraft carriers), more than 70 merchant vessels, hundreds of landing craft, and 12,000 British and 9,000 French vehicles. One New Zealand vessel, the cruiser HMNZS Royalist was also present, as a carrier group radar picket, ‘but was ordered not to take part in any operations’[iii]. Of this force, only the cruiser HMS Newfoundland and her 3 escort vessels were located south of the canal.

The Suez Canal invasion – October November 1956

The conflict began on 29 October when Israeli aircraft attacked Egyptian positions throughout the Sinai. Paratroopers were dropped and ground forces headed south and west, routing Egyptian opposition within five days.

On 30 October Britain and France sent the ultimatum to Egypt and Israel. As planned, Israel accepted and, as expected, Egypt rejected it. Egypt’s response was to continue fighting, sink all 40 ships that were then in the Suez Canal and thereby deny the conspirator nations their purpose of keeping the waterway open. Operation Musketeer commenced. On 31 October a land- and carrier-based air strike neutralized much of Egypt’s air forces.

With Egypt having a small and comparatively ineffectual navy, the major roles for the British and French navies were to support and protect an amphibious landing, and to provide aircraft for ground attack. During the night of October 31-November 1 the Anglo-French invasion armada sailed from Malta and Algeria. Shortly after, a smaller force loaded at Cyprus, which was closer.

On the night 31Oct/1 Nov at the southern end of the canal, the cruiser HMS Newfoundland, (a Crown Colony Class light cruiser of 9000 tons, 3 x 6” guns, 14 bofors) encountered and ordered the Egyptian frigate Domiat to “heave to”. Domiat refused and opened fire and caused some damage and casualties with several 4” shells. (1 killed, 5 wounded). Newfoundland and the accompanying destroyer, HMS Diana returned fire and sank the Domiat. (38 killed, 69 Survivors). Domiat was a British built River Class Frigate (1590 tons, 2x QF 4 in /40 Mk.XIX single mounts CP Mk.XXIII) (similar to HMAS Barcoo) and had been sold to the Egyptian Navy in 1948. Midshipman Gulliver’s Action Station in Newfoundland was in the Emergency Crypto team deciphering and transmitting the multitude of highly classified signals. This provided him with a unique insight into the many factors involved in the conduct of the War. Before the commencement of hostilities, he had been working in the Pay Office which suffered a direct hit from the Domiat. Nick Bailey was on the GDP on the Port side of the Bridge and witnessed the whole engagement.

HMS Newfoundland Pay Office_Shell damage 1956

The Australian officers in the ships in the East Mediterranean were involved in supporting activities in their respective ships[iv]. They would have witnessed carrier aircraft and helicopters taking off and landing from their operations against Egypt. They would also have been aware that the British and French ships were being shadowed and harassed by ships of the US 6^th Fleet.

World reaction to the attacks, led by the USA, was near immediate and almost uniformly negative. President Eisenhauer was distracted by the forth coming election in USA and John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State was completely opposed to it. Lord Mountbatten, the First Sea Lord, had opposed the invasion but reluctantly accepted his Government’s decision. A further distraction was Russia’s brutal invasion of Hungary at that time. On 2 November a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire was passed[v]. Only the three conspirators together with Australia and New Zealand voted against it[vi]. Egypt accepted the direction, but the fighting continued regardless.

First RN Ship HMS Theseus_to enter Port Said Harbour (PA Images Getty Images)

Early on November 5 British and French paratroopers landed at strategic points surrounding Port Said. Despite spirited resistance, they soon achieved their objectives.

Musketeer’s amphibious phase began on November 6. Following limited gunfire support and mine-sweeping activities, landing craft and amphibious tracked vehicles left the ships lined-up five miles offshore. Shortly afterwards British commandos left the British carriers Theseus and Ocean for the first helicopter-borne assault landing in history. With Egyptian resistance becoming increasingly disorganized, the attackers won control of Port Said and the area surrounding the northern end of the Suez Canal.

In the afternoon of November 6, the British government succumbed to intense internal, diplomatic and economic pressure and, after advising France, ordered a cease-fire from midnight. By interpreting ‘midnight’ to mean local time. the Anglo/French advance continued for 6 ½ hours, meaning that Musketeer’s ground war came to an end after less than 43 hours. Instead of displacing Nasser and controlling the entire length of the Suez Canal, just a quarter of its length was under Anglo/French control.

Following the cease-fire, British and French forces were to withdraw and Israel was to leave the Sinai. Israel only agreed when the United Nations undertook to employ an Emergency Force to occupy the canal zone as a buffer between itself and Egypt. The evacuation of Anglo-French forces was completed on 22 December when a United Nations Peacekeeping Force, proposed by Lester Pearson (future Prime Minister of Canada), was implemented to patrol the Canal. Under the auspices of the United Nations, a fleet of salvage vessels raised approximately 40 ships sunk by the Egyptians to block navigation in the canal. It was reopened in April 1957.

Although tactically a success, both in the amphibious and airborne assaults, Musketeer proved to the world that Britain and France were no longer superpowers. It left a power vacuum in the Middle East. Only Israel achieved its objectives. It gained access to the Canal when it reopened after five months closure, and a dangerous and hostile neighbor was weakened. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was also diminished; there was animosity and suspicion between Britain and France and both these countries were displeased with the lack of support from USA.

Egypt and the Soviet Union fared best from the conflict. Nasser emerged as a hero of the Muslim world and Egypt’s ownership of the Suez Canal was affirmed. The Soviet Union was now considered to be friendly to Arab interests and the Canal was opened to its use for the first time since WWI.

British military and RAN participants in Operation Musketeer were awarded the Naval General Service Medal (1915-1962) – clasp Near East. As Australia had not allotted any of its personnel for duty in the Suez Operational Area medal recipients were precluded from repatriation benefits.

It was one of the last occasions that Australian servicemen received combat honours for service in the military operations of another country for which they had not been allotted for duty. Current regulations preclude this practice.

[i] Suez Crisis: Operation Musketeer. Deac WP Military History, accessed April 2001

[ii] The members listed in this article were identified by Mike Fogarty, former RAN officer, diplomat, and historian, through a search of RAN files at the National Archives collection in Melbourne circa 1990. It is unofficial, and more RAN members might have been present.

[iii] Operation Musketeer. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Musketeer_(1956), accessed April 20

[iv] Royal Navy aircraft carriers in which Australian officers were embarked included Eagle, Bulwark and Albion.

[v] The first ever emergency special session of the United Nation’s General Assembly’s convened on 1 November 1956 after Security Council resolutions involving the belligerent parties failed on 30 October. The General Assembly adopted the proposal of the United States calling for: an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of all forces behind the armistice lines, and the reopening of the Canal. The resolution was adopted by 64 votes to 5, with 6 abstentions.

[vi] A detailed analysis can be read in Australia, Menzies and Suez. Australian Policymaking in the Middle East Before, During and After the Suez Crisis. Bowker, Dr R. Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, 2019. It is not commercially available, but can be bought at the National Library of Australia bookshop

Occasional Paper 80: The Early Years (1970-1971) of HMAS Brisbane (DDG-41)

June 24, 2020

The following paper was delivered by Captain Ralph T Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) at a reunion (mostly of commissioning crew members and those who deployed to the Vietnam War in the ship in 1969 and 1971). His address was made on 9 May 2018 at Maroochydore, Queensland. It describes a mix of personal experience and memorable anecdotes about his time in the ship.

NUSHIP Brisbane is presently undergoing post-construction trials and is scheduled to be commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 27 October 2018. She will be the third ship to bear the name BRISBANE in the history of the RAN.

NUSHIP Brisbane at sea during builders trials viewed from her sister ship, HMAS Hobart.

Her namesake, HMAS Brisbane II (DDG-41), pictured below was commissioned in Boston, USA on 16 December 1967, de-commissioned in Sydney on 19 October 2001 and sunk as a dive site to seaward of Maroochydore on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on 31 July 2005. Her Battle Honours were Vietnam 1969 and 1971 and Kuwait 1991. One of her 5-inch/54 gun mounts and her bridge are preserved at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as an interactive display, part of the Conflicts 1945 to Today exhibition. Her mast forms the centrepiece of an impressive memorial at Alexander Headland overlooking the dive site.

You could always tell a DDG commissioning crew-cum-Vietnam War sailor – but you couldn’t tell him much. They were good, and they knew it. There aren’t that many of the breed around anymore – witness tonight. And that goes for the ships they served in. All said and done, they were destroyers and neither we nor anybody else are building steam driven destroyers the way they used to.

HMAS BRISBANE (2) CHARLES F. ADAMS CLASS DDG 1967-2001-SPC-0026

Do not be deluded – the RAN’s new DDGs, including NUSHIP Brisbane, can be viewed almost as cruisers, bigger than the light cruisers of WW 2 and, of course, able to deliver much more of a bang for the buck.

And what really defines a destroyer? Let me remind you. It was not always fair winds and a following sea. Nothing short of an iron stomach was sufficient for withstanding a destroyer’s motion. Destroyers could list 45 degrees off keel. The motion of a destroyer at sea is not just up and down but more like a corkscrew churning through water. Our Brisbane could do that, usually at meal hours!

I have been called upon to deliver formal speeches concerning our beloved DDG-41 on a number of occasions – at the sinking of the ship as a dive-wreck to seaward nearby, at the dedication of the splendid mast memorial also near at hand and more recently at the moving plaque dedication ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Our ship features also in a lecture I have given frequently on the RAN in the Vietnam War. Some may view this as a bit odd for I did not command the ship. I was simply the Gunnery Officer through 1970 and 1971.

I really wasn’t intended to serve in that role at all. Previously, I had been the Gunnery Officer of four ships, Anzac, Quiberon, HMS Llandaff while on exchange with the RN, and Vampire – all with British systems and 4-inch or 4.5-inch ammunition and none missile armed, but I knew my stuff. I was serving in Vampire on the screen in the South China Sea in 1969 when Melbourne collided with the USS Evans. Brisbane at this time was on her first Vietnam deployment. One outcome of the collision was an eventual shuffling around of RAN ship commanding officers. Vampire’s CO was shifted to Stalwart, the Executive Officer took over command and I found myself as both Gunnery Officer and the First Lieutenant of D-11 that was soon to undergo a major half-life modernisation.

Then came the unexpected – a pierhead jump to Brisbane in early 1970 because of the resignation around the same period of six RAN gunnery officers, the names of which some of you may recall – Atkins*, Bartlett, Brett-Young, Marrable, Mellish and Playford. This left Officers’ Postings with few options.

I wasn’t too impressed, having been at sea for most of the 1960s, recently married while serving in Vampire and looking forward to some long-overdue shore time. Moreover, I had had no DDG training or experience but was told I could handle it and to get on with it. And so, while Brisbane and Vampire were in maintenance periods, it was into the Tartar missile system books and hardware with David Kitchen and Peter Flynn* and out to HMAS Watson for advice from John McDermott on the Mk 68 gunnery system and 5-inch ammunition.

I managed to get in some brief sea-riding in Perth out of Sydney. On leaving harbour, I sensed things were going to be different when I heard the pipe, “Able Seaman Bloggs report to the wild cat flat!” I turned, puzzled, to the newly joined Chief Boatswains Mate, the legendary Warrant Officer QMG ‘Butch’ Berry*, who explained, “That’s the cable locker. I’m trying to weed out all of this American stuff but I don’t think I will have much joy with turrets instead of gun mounts!”

Enough of this pre-amble – rather than continue in a ‘boots-and-braces’ mode, I have chosen to recall for you some memorable anecdotes about my time in the ship. And, dear ladies, be forewarned – the still handsome hunk of a man here tonight on your arm may not have been the saint you always thought him to be. I will conceal the names of the guilty where relevant in order to protect the innocent. Sadly, in both cases, and others identified in this narrative, many have crossed the bar.

I moved my goods and chattels from Vampire into Brisbane, joining mid-week in Garden Island Dockyard in that summer of 1970 and taking up residence in Cabin 4 forward with Ian MacDougall, the Operations Officer. I was told there was not much sleep left in the bunk vacated by John McDermott. The CO then was the admirable Captain John D Stevens*[i], he having recently relieved Captain Alan A Willis*.

I was the overnight Duty Executive Officer on the Friday night of that first week onboard and aware I was to attend with my wife with other guests a dinner party on the following night in the Wardroom, to be hosted by Captain Stevens and his wife.

On the Saturday morning, well before ‘Call the Hands’, I was abruptly shaken by a very agitated Duty Petty Officer who blurted out, “They’ve broken into the Beer Store!”.

Still half-asleep, I asked “Who, what, where, when?” not having any idea where the Beer Store was at the time.

“The Stokers!” he replied.

I dressed quickly and followed the PO down to the after Stokers’ Mess where I found duty watch bodies and others in all states of undress, asleep in all manner of positions and places and many snoring loudly. Empty beer cans and plates were strewn everywhere. On further inspection, it was discovered that, during the night, the bolts of the hinges to the adjacent heavy steel door giving access to the redundant Tartar missile maintenance barbette (used as the Beer Store) had been knocked out and the door swung open on its large padlock. Nirvana lay ahead for the burglars.

But wait, there’s more to come, and it got worse. The beer was warm.

“There’s ice in the ice-cream room,” said one of the ring-leaders. The ice cream room lock was duly forced and, once inside, the perpetrators couldn’t believe their luck. There, laid out on a bench, was more than a dozen plates with a delectable sweet dish on each. What a treat, and something to be washed down with the soon to be chilled beer.

The subsequent revelry apparently went on long into the silent hours until most fell into a paralytic slumber. The revellers did not know it at the time, but the consumed sweet dishes had been carefully prepared by the chefs on the Friday and placed in the locked ice cream room overnight, to be served up as desserts at the impending Captain’s dinner party.

The revellers also did not know that they were in the process of ruining my whole day for the resultant investigation, with Naval Dockyard Police assistance, went on well into the Saturday afternoon. Moreover, I had to arrange for a local catering firm to provide replacement desserts for the dinner party. At the subsequent assizes, when the Captain was very lenient overall, the guilty showed little contrition for purloining the beer but were most remorseful over misappropriating the Captain’s desserts.

For a while there onboard, the Stokers were not top of my hit parade but a few G & Ts from the then MEOs, the irrepressible Warwick Robinson* and the laconic Ian Watson, placated me and all was soon forgiven.

And so the ship sailed for a shakedown in the East Australia Exercise Area (EAXA) at the end of the maintenance period, with many new personnel embarked following the return from the 1969 Vietnam deployment. A busy year lay ahead in Australian waters. At the end of 1970, Captain Stevens was relieved by Captain R Geoffrey Loosli* during a maintenance period. At the same time, there was another sizeable change of personnel. By this time, the ship’s company knew that Brisbane would be returning to Vietnam and the Gunline from March to October of 1971.

Work-up for the deployment began early in the new year. During the first run of the first AA practice firing under Captain Loosli’s command, the aircraft towed sleeve target was quickly destroyed in spectacular fashion early in the first run by one of the automatically fired salvo of shells. On the horizon, shortly after, could be seen a number of exploding shells followed by the sound of muffled explosions. The Captain, quite pleased by the target destruction, nonetheless queried the source of the horizon explosions. I replied that there must be another ship in the exercise area perhaps firing HE shells at a surface target.

The Captain seemingly bought this at the time. The aircraft, minus target, was released to return to base and the serial terminated. There was little left to do but return to the magazines unexpended shells from the gun mounts. I looked down from the Gun Direction Platform to observe shells being unloaded from Mount 51 and stacked on the forecastle shot mats. They bore the wrong colour coding for the firing. Horror of horrors – it was HEVT ammunition and not VT Prac shells. Despite the Firing Orders for the practice and my preliminary policy broadcast, the magazine crew had fed the wrong ammo to Mount 51. I looked the other way, said nothing to the Captain as the shells were carried below, and months later wrote off the ammo in a Gunline mission off Vietnam. This mistake was never repeated, and a good thing too, for the crew of target towing aircraft are not at all keen on the idea!

The Captain might have guessed for there is a cartoon titled Workup 71 – First AA Shoot that appears on page 35 of the HMAS BRISBANE 25th Anniversary commemorative book published in 1992.

The cartoon unmistakably depicts me reporting to the equally recognisable Captain Loosli sitting in his chair on the bridge after the shoot. The included caption has me stating, “Oh it’s easy to tell they’re not live rounds, Sir. We’d be wearing steel helmets if they were!”

The workup proceeded smoothly and the last box to be ticked was a successful Overall Readiness Evaluation. The Navigation Officer, Colin Bartlett, and I felt sure we would get a counter battery call for fire while bombarding Beecroft at night during the Final Battle Problem. So, beforehand, and by devious means, we had obtained the grid co-ordinates of just about every likely target (old tram cars and vehicles etc) on the peninsular range. These were printed, given alphabetical designators and a copy provided to Gun Plot for pre-loading into the surface gunnery system.

Sure enough, such a call came through from ashore at which point I requested the Captain to put the wheel hard over, increase to full speed and head due east to seaward while I simultaneously initiated counter battery fire. As the ship heeled over and gathered speed, I got the nod from the NO and CO, barked into the mike to Gun Plot, “Counter battery – Target Delta – Mount 52, six rounds HEPD, fire for effect – engage”. This all happened quite quickly, which was the whole point of the exercise.

With the rounds in the air, a startled Fleet Training Group observer burst into the Operations Room and screamed, “Who said anything about firing live rounds?” Moments later, over the shore bombardment net, the spotter reported loud and clear, “Good shooting. Target destroyed. Bravo Zulu!” Nothing further was said by the FTG observer, at least not to me!

And so, the ship subsequently sailed north from Sydney, acquitted herself well on the seven months Vietnam deployment while firing some 7,000 rounds on the Gunline and returned home in October to be the last RAN ship to be so deployed in that war. Early in the new year, the ship was awarded the Gloucester Cup for 1971 and I finally had my shore time at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, USA. And the rest, they say, is history.

Maybe, but not quite. For not forgotten by some was Cebu City in the southern Philippines where the ship made a two day port call towards the end of the deployment prior to a final period on the Gunline. The legacy of that so-called goodwill visit could have been disastrous for the ship and her reputation. Common sense prevailed and the bad news was kept in-house and out of the official record.

The impending drama began on the first day with the ship berthed portside to at a large godown with no perimeter fence and little local external security. That afternoon, prior to an official reception onboard, the city Police Chief visited and asked to see the Gunnery Officer. I offered him tea and sandwiches in the Wardroom during the course of which he asked me if I would like to go flying with him in his private aircraft the next day. Then came the catch – in return I might provide him with some small arms ammunition, both pistol and rifle. He explained that the paranoid President Marcos, fearing a coup, had emasculated the nation’s police force by denying them ammunition for their weapons. As diplomatically adept as could be, I thanked him for his flying invitation, told him I was required onboard for duty the next day and declined firmly his bid for ammunition. He persisted but eventually accepted my stand and I farewelled him at the gangway.

During both nights in port, better notice might have been taken by more senior duty personnel of small waterborne craft in the vicinity of the ship and sailors casually, and apparently innocently, fishing over the outboard starboard side with rods and handlines.

Senior management was no doubt relieved to be free of Cebu City when course was set for Vietnam across the South China Sea. The aforementioned drama unfolded on that first evening on passage when the Coxswain got an anonymous phone call that suggested there was a number of illegal pistols in the ship. The caller revealed the concealed location of one of them. It was duly found – a cheap .38 ‘Saturday-night special’. The XO, Ted Keane*, was informed who in turn advised the CO. Captain Loosli was under no illusions about the adverse impact this would have if such a weapon was uncovered by Customs or another authority on return to Australia. He immediately ordered Clear Lower Deck and a locker search of all junior personnel. A number of pistols came to light, primarily because an amnesty was declared – hand them in or ditch them over the side and there will be no repercussions. By the following day, the CO and XO were reasonably confident the menace no longer existed.

Several days later, during a lull in Gunline missions, the Petty Officer in charge of the Gunner’s Party reported to me that a quantity of small arms ammunition was missing from the magazine. The Cebu City Police Chief apparently had found his man. I consulted with the XO and we both agreed that the CO should be spared another heart-stopping report.

I had the greatest respect and admiration for the hard-working Gunner’s Party throughout the deployment but I suspected that one of them had to be the culprit. The team members had ready access to the magazine keys. All of the party members were stared down and grilled at length in turn by the XO, me and the Coxswain but we were unsuccessful in extracting a confession. In the absence of any incriminating hard evidence, the matter was put on the back-burner and eventually dropped, the Captain was left in peace and we got on with the business at hand with the main armament. After detaching from the Gunline for the last time, the Gunnery Log recorded the conduct of several recreational small arms firings during the fortnight’s passage home.

In a moment we will hear a replaying of our RAS song, Proud Mary, after which I will ask you to stand and join me in a toast to our ship and absent and departed shipmates, of whom there are many.

There was always some conjecture about how the ship adopted the song. I remember quite clearly. It came about during a Wardroom run ashore with the Captain to one of the naval base clubs following our first arrival at Subic Bay for the turn-over with Perth. A Filipino band was playing the Credence Clearwater Revival version of the song which many of us at the club that night had not heard before. Hal Thomsett turned to the Captain and excitedly declared, “That should be our RAS song!” We all agreed and the Captain said, “Make it so!”

Further Reading

Naval Operations in Vietnam, by Jozef Straczek, Sea Power Centre-Australia, available at https://www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/naval-operations-vietnam

Crew List HMAS Brisbane 1st & 2nd Deployments: 1969 and 1971 available at http://www.gunplot.net/main/content/crew-list-hmas-brisbane-1st-2nd-deployments

Video of Interest

Royal Australian Navy: HMAS BRISBANE RAS and Breakaway featuring Proud Mary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbLHS7Z6Tic

[i] * All deceased

Occasional Paper 78: Two Proud Ships: HMAS Brisbane (I) and HMAS Brisbane (II)

May 21, 2020

The following is an address given by Captain Ralph T. Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) on Monday 19 October 2015 at the Australian War Memorial. The occasion was the dedication of a commemorative plaque honouring two ships of Her Majesty’s Australian Fleet that bore the name HMAS Brisbane, and all who crewed them. The purpose of the address was not to describe the two ships in any great detail but to provide a picture and understanding of the people who manned them.

The two ships served the nation for a combined total of 53 years but their initial commissioning dates were separated by almost as many years. They were both steam driven and of near same size. As an aside, the de-commissioning in 2001 of HMAS Brisbane (II) marked the end of steam propulsion for the Royal Australian Navy.

Each ship earned wartime battle honours but their appearances, fit outs and capabilities were vastly different. Similarity amounted to little more than the grey paint that covered their hulls. The one common denominator, as it has always been, was the calibre and competence of the all-male crews of those years that manned them. They were good, those men; they knew it and you could not tell them much!

The replacement in 1913 of the Royal Navy’s Australian Squadron by a purpose-built Australian Fleet, led by the then modern battle cruiser HMAS Australia, did not happen overnight or without the expenditure of significant national treasure. Moreover, determined political will was vital to the process.

That process led to the addition to the Fleet in 1916 of the Town Class cruiser HMAS Brisbane (I), built here in Australia. She was a credit to the skills and resourcefulness of the fledgling major warship construction team assembled at the then Cockatoo Island Naval Dockyard in Sydney. Poignantly, reminders of the ship, her personnel and the dockyard have been consigned to the pages of history.

HMAS Brisbane (I) Departing Sydney on 2 May 1935. RAN image

We might be forgiven for focussing hereafter in some detail on her namesake, HMAS Brisbane (II), for her legacy is still firmly in the minds of many of us here. Furthermore, substantial and significant traces of her are to be found on and off-shore in south-east Queensland, and proudly on display here in this hallowed place. She was built in the United States of America and commissioned there in 1967, the third of three Perth Class guided missile destroyers built to the design of the United States Navy’s very successful Charles F Adams Class, but with some modifications.

She and her sister ships, Perth and Hobart, brought to the Royal Australian Navy new technologies of automation and computerisation and, for the first time, a real and potent surface-to-air missile system and, to be personally parochial, a medium-range gunnery system that worked. She was destined to give 34 years of remarkable service to the nation and the memory of her found a place of genuine and deep affection within the hearts of all who served in her.

Soon after commissioning, she was to be tested in the Vietnam War where her extremely professional and effective contributions in two seven-month deployments in 1969 and 1971 to that troubled theatre drew high praise. A measure of that involvement was that she fired some 14,000 rounds (or 435 tonnes) of high explosive 5-inch ammunition from her two gun mounts while operating on what was known as the Vietnam Gunline. In that war, her tactical call-sign aptly was Flamboyant and she concluded replenishment at sea evolutions from supply ships with an appropriate, loud-speaker blaring, replaying of the Credence Clearwater Revival hit-song Proud Mary. In this context, I am pleased to acknowledge the presence with us today of my commanding officer at the time of the second deployment to Vietnam 44 years ago, the then Captain Geoffrey Loosli CBE, now Rear Admiral (Retired)[1].

The ship again would be committed to combat operations twenty years later in the First Gulf War where she served once more with distinction. I pay homage to her commanding officer in that conflict, the now retired Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie AO and former Chief of Navy. He also is with us today. By this time, the ship was well known in, and beyond the Fleet, as The Steel Cat. Towards the end of her working life, still bristling with pride, she remained a unique operationally capable unit of the Royal Australian Navy with an unmatched weapons suite and associated command, control and communications combat data system. That capability, and much more, will be returned to the Royal Australian Navy when a newly-named HMAS Brisbane (III) is commissioned within the next few years. She will be one of three large and powerful air-warfare destroyers being built here in Australia.

Allow me to close on a somewhat sombre note, but with uplifting undertones. All sailors die; some in the red flash of battle, some in the white cold of a nursing home. In the vigour of youth, or the infirmity of age, all will eventually die. But the Royal Australian Navy lives on, and every sailor who ever lived, and served in that navy, is living still within its heritage.

We sailors here understand this, for we are the progeny of that navy and thus the custodians, if you will, of the memory of the two fine ships about to be honoured in the grounds of this venerated place. It is that link which gives us a sense of belonging to something that will outlive our own mortality.

The experiences and camaraderie we once shared afloat remain manifest, here and now, but one day, all of us will get separated from each other; we will miss our conversations of everything and nothing; the dreams that we had. Days will pass by, months, years, until this contact becomes rare. Eventually, our children and grandchildren will see our navy photographs and ask, “Who are these people?”

Then, because our hearts have been touched, we will smile with invisible tears, and we will say quietly: “It was with them that I had the best days of my life.”

Further Reading

HMAS Brisbane (I) History published by Sea Power Centre-Australia, available at https://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-brisbane-i

HMAS Brisbane (II) History published by Sea Power Centre-Australia, available at https://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-brisbane-ii

HMAS Brisbane in the Far East 1925, by Greg Swinden, first published in the Naval Historical Review 2016, available at https://www.navyhistory.org.au/hmas-brisbane-in-the-far-east-1925/

[1] Rear Admiral R Geoffrey Loosli CBE RAN (Retired) passed away on 5 September 2016, aged 90 years

The Royal Australian Navy in World War One

April 22, 2020

The following note was provided by Captain Sean Andrews, RAN Director of the Sea Power Centre -Australia. Thanks also for the link to a short film made by the Sea Power Centre – Australia’s history team on our Navy in WWI. It was made for ANZAC Day 2020 which is being commemorated by Australian in a very non-traditional manner due to the pandemic gripping the World. The mission of the SPC-A, like the Naval Historical Society of Australia, is the preservation and promotion of the Royal Australian Navy’s history and heritage. Supporting this mission is an official YouTube Channel which provides a wonderful collection of Navy’s great stories.

On 4 August 1914 when Britain declared war on Germany the ships of the Royal Australian Navy were at sea and proceeding to their war stations. The Navy’s immediate tasks were to seize Germany’s regional possessions and counter the threat posed by the German East Asiatic Cruiser Squadron based in China. The presence of the RAN’s new battle cruiser HMAS Australia (I) was sufficient to convince the German Squadron Commander, Vice Admiral Maximillian von Spee, to relocate his squadron to the Eastern Pacific where it defeated a British naval force before itself being destroyed by Royal Navy ships in the South Atlantic.

On 11 September 1914 the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force landed at New Britain where, in a brisk action against German colonial forces, a predominantly naval landing force defeated the enemy and captured the Bitapaka wireless station. During that action Able Seaman William Williams became the first Australian serviceman to be killed during World War 1. Further tragedy followed when HMA Submarine AE1 failed to return from a patrol outside Rabaul. A succession of searches revealed no trace of the vessel or her 35 man crew. The RAN had nevertheless proven to be an effective instrument of national power establishing maritime security in the immediate region and securing important lines of communication.

In November 1914 the light cruiser HMAS Sydney (I) won for the RAN its first single ship battle honour when it engaged and defeated the German cruiser SMS Emden in a fierce action off the Cocos Keeling Island group in the Indian Ocean. That action cleared the way for Anzac troop convoys to traverse the Indian Ocean, without loss, for the duration of the war.

HMAS Sydney (1) steaming out of Sydney Heads following the outbreak of World War 1. RAN Heritage Collection

At the time of the Anzac’s landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, HMA Submarine AE2 had penetrated the Dardanelles and entered the Sea of Marmara where it executed orders to ‘run amok’. The submarine spent the next five days operating as widely as possible giving the impression that more than one submarine was active. She fell victim to a Turkish gunboat on 30 April and the vessel was abandoned without loss of life. Her crew was taken prisoner and four of its number died in captivity.

The Australian Submarine AE2. RAN image.

Ashore at Gallipoli on Suvla Bay, engineers of the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train provided valuable service building pontoon piers on the beaches enabling vital supplies to be landed from the sea and the wounded to be evacuated. They also undertook a wide variety of additional tasking including salvage work and maintaining water supplies. To them went the distinction of being the last men to be evacuated from the peninsular when the campaign was abandoned in December 1915.

Naval Ratings of the 1st RANBT at Domain Camp, Melbourne 1915, prior to embarkation for overseas service.

In the years that followed, RAN cruisers and destroyers variously assisted with the blockade of German East Africa, patrolled North American and Far Eastern waters and performed anti-submarine duties in the Mediterranean. From 1915 the RAN Flagship, HMAS Australia (I) operated with the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea. She was later joined by the cruisers HMAS Sydney (I) and HMAS Melbourne (I).

On 11 November 1918 the signing of the Armistice brought the fighting in Europe to an end. When the German High Seas Fleet steamed across the North Sea to surrender, HMA Ships Australia, Sydney and Melbourne were present. On leaving England to return to Australia the Admiralty expressed its appreciation of Australia’s contribution as follows:

Their Lordships state that Australia may well feel pride in the record of its navy newly created in the years prior to 1914, but shown by the test of war to be in all respects ready to render valuable service to the Empire in the hour of need.

Book reviews

Video: The RAN in World War 1 – Anzac Day 2020 Tribute.

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