An overview of the Royal Australian Navy ww2

[spidge]

From: WW2 Nominal Roll

Australian naval personnel served literally in every corner of the world during World War Two. Indeed, the light cruiser HMAS Perth was in the Atlantic Ocean when war broke out and served for the first six months in the Caribbean.

Many sailors were members of the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR), most of whom had signed up as reservists before the war. Some were members of programs like the Yachtsmen's Scheme, devised to give men the opportunity to train in seamanship before the war and then to receive specialist naval training when they were called up.

The RAN had a large onshore requirement to support the hundreds of vessels used during the war, ranging from cruisers to small Fairmile launches used for patrol and liaison duties. Many sailors were required to serve ashore, either for periods between postings at sea or for all of their service. Shore service included signals, training, administrative, intelligence, stores and repair work. In 1941, the first recruits for the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) were accepted.

At sea, it was not uncommon for a sailor to serve in more than one warship or small vessel - indeed, there were men who saw service on three or four (or more!) warships during six years of service. In 1939-41, the main area for operations of Australian warships was the Mediterranean where several made their combat 'debut', with the HMAS Sydney sinking the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in June 1940, others serving off Greece and Crete, and some older ships joining the 'Scrap Iron Flotilla' taking part in the 'Tobruk Ferry'. Another important role was escort duties, particularly across the Indian Ocean where German armed merchant cruisers, or 'raiders', were active. It was in the Indian Ocean that the German raider Kormoran sank HMAS Sydney in November 1941, the worst Australian naval loss of the war.

From early 1942, the main area of operations was the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Most Australians who served at sea would have seen action in these theatres, though others continued serving overseas, with several corvettes sent back into the Mediterranean to take part in the invasion of Sicily in 1943. For most, naval service meant days of mundane anti-submarine or patrol duties interspersed, occasionally, by a few minutes or hours of excitement when there was the 'ping' of a submarine on the ship's Asdic set or the approach of an enemy aircraft. But several warships were lost, such as HMAS Vampire in the Bay of Bengal and HMAS Armidale off Timor, and some others, including HMAS Australia, were damaged (in Australia's case by Kamikaze aircraft) with resulting loss of life.

HMAS Perth was the only Australian warship sunk in enemy waters whose survivors were taken prisoner. However, some other Australian sailors who served in British warships and merchant ships (on which they served as gunners) ended up in Japanese, German or Italian prisoner of war camps.

Hundreds of men, particularly RANVR personnel, were seconded to the Royal Navy (RN) and served in British shore establishments and warships all over the world. These men performed a variety of operational roles, with many receiving specialist training such as mine disposals officers who defused enemy mines and bombs in England, the Middle East and Europe; anti-submarine warfare officers who specialised in the tactics and electronic equipment used in hunting enemy submarines; landing craft skippers who landed troops and supplies in the invasions of Italy and France; and midget submariners who made daring raids on German and Japanese ports. The men seconded to the RN were among the highest decorated Australian servicemen of the war.

[Andy in West Oz]

A recent search for Vampire. Watched the TV show as well and, I guess it was the way the show was edited, they seemed to come to the conclusion too quickly.

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collecti...iLanka2005.pdf