On This Day
1945 > WW2
On This Day - 1945
- March 3, 1945
HMAS MACQUARIE, (River class frigate), was launched at Mort’s Dock, Sydney.
- March 2, 1945
HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, (aircraft carrier), became the first ship to enter the Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island, Sydney. ILLUSTRIOUS was heavily damaged in operations off Okinawa.
HMAS WARREGO, (sloop), completed a survey of Japanese-held Subic Bay, Philippines, in preparation for an assault by US amphibious forces.
- March 1, 1945
The air/sea rescue vessel, (search and rescue craft), HMAS AIR SENSE, (SBLT J. R. Young, RANVR), was commissioned.
- February 28, 1945
The air/sea rescue vessels, (search and rescue craft), HMA Ships AIR MERCY, (SBLT E.J. Johnson, RANVR), and AIR SPEED, (SBLT J.C. Williams, RANVR), were commissioned.
HMS MAJESTIC, (aircraft carrier), later renamed HMAS MELBOURNE, was launched by Lady Anderson, wife of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, at Barrow, England.
- February 25, 1945
HMAS SWAN engaged enemy troop concentrations in the Wewak-Aitape area of New Guinea with gunfire.
HMAS Adelaide (I) paid off in Sydney.
- February 24, 1945
The service reconnaissance department (SRD) craft HMAS GRASS SNAKE, (SBLT Bromley), was commissioned.
Egypt became the last nation to declare war on the Axis Powers. Turkey, Iceland, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Syria, Lebanon, Uruguay, and Venezuela, also joined the Allies in this period.
HMAS SWAN, (sloop), supported the advance of the 6th Australian Division along the New Guinea coast with close support gunfire. The sloop silenced enemy batteries and destroyed a wireless station east of Aitape.
- February 22, 1945
Garden Island Naval Dockyard was formally acquired by the Commonwealth of Australia.
- February 21, 1945
HMAS NAPIER, serving with the 7th Destroyer Flotilla, bombarded Japanese positions on the Burma coast in support of Allied land advances.
- February 20, 1945
Fremantle-based US Submarines GUAVINA and PARGO sank a Japanese tanker and a destroyer. GUAVINA torpedoed the tanker EIYO MARU off Malaya, and PARGO torpedoed the destroyer NOKAZE off the east coast of lndo China. NOKAZE was the 126th and last Japanese destroyer sunk during the Second World War.
- February 19, 1945
The services reconnaissance department (SRD) craft HMAS RIVER SNAKE, (LEUT J. P. Gowling, RAN), was commissioned at Fremantle.
HMAS WARREGO, (sloop), completed a survey of Lingayen Gulf in preparation for the landing.