Submarine Bases in Australia WW2

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Submarine bases in Australia WW2:

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When the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> entered the war, their Asiatic Submarine Fleet consisted of 29 boats based in <st1:city w:st="on">Manila</st1:city> in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1>Philippines</st1></st1:country-region>. The submarines were based at <st1:city w:st="on">Cavite</st1:city> on <st1><st1>Luzon</st1><st1>Island</st1></st1>.

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The intensity of Japanese aircraft activity led to the need to find safe anchorage and repair facilities. Whilst attempts were made to stay close to the fighting a site at Soerabaja was chosen in Java and an attempt to use <st1:city w:st="on">Darwin</st1:city> in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1>Australia</st1></st1:country-region> which proved unsuccessful due to the high tides and ease of mining the port by the Japanese.<o></o>
With the Japanese taking Java, a site at Exmouth in North of Western Australia was chosen however it too proved inadequate.
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A base site at Fremantle just south of <st1:city w:st="on">Perth</st1:city> was chosen in March 1942 with an Auxiliary base at <st1><st1:city w:st="on">Albany</st1:city></st1> 600 kms South by sea at the bottom of the Australian coastline.

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An allied force of 170 submarines, of which (31) were British and (11) Dutch carried out over 400 war patrols from Fremantle.
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Another base was on the east coast of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region> at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1>Brisbane</st1></st1:city> where 70 plus US subs, and 4 British subs either operated from or were dry docked for urgent repairs.<o></o>

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Submarines do not come off too well when rammed by Japanese surface vessels.

This is the result for USS Growler.

Attachment 182

This is the repair job done in Brisbane.

Attachment 183

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Early in the war, the US submarines encountered all sorts of problems with their torpedoes running deep and there were even two own goals from boomerang torpedoes.

While they did tests in Australia to prove the torpedoes were performing poorly, the munitions people would have none of it.

Some tests showed them running more than 18 feet too deep. It took quite a while before this ignorance to the faults were finally corrected.

In 1942, this was the norm. These submariners would patrol enemy infested waters, get off 3-4 fish on a beautiful target and they would all miss. They would then get a barrage of depth charges from the destroyers.

Read about it here:

WWII U.S. Submarine Service Torpedoes

[Andy in West Oz]

One of these days I have to get myself to the sub memorial in Fremantle. There is nothing obvious in "Freo" that can be recognised from those days except for a slip on which an ex-RAN "O" boat is sitting as part of the WA Maritime Museum.

Will do some digging and see if I can turn up any landmarks that may still exist. There would have to be a few things around still.

Cheers

Andy