Chapter 2 The Merchantmen Do Their Bit; With The RAN Overseas; WRANS Grows Up

The Merchantmen Do Their Bit

WHEN the story of this war can be told, the free peoples of the world will be given some inkling of their debt to the men and the ships of the Merchant Navy: the men to whose always hazardous calling have been added all the risks of submarines, surface raiders, mines .and aircraft; the ships diverted from passenger service to transport duties, or from the carriage of peacetime commodities to the more vital task of supplying front-line troops, war factories and factory workers.

In countless episodes of heroism-and in the mere fact that they have carried on with t e job-they have written a new chapter in the saga of the sea. The story of the White Ensign must remain closely interlinked with that of the Red Duster, for the world is the battlefront for these non-combatants, whose daily duties place their lives in constant jeopardy.

Until the Japanese commenced hostilities, comparatively few incidents had occurred in Australian waters to bring home to the public the hazards of the everyday life of merchant seamen in war. Certainly November and December 194o brought the sinking of three ships and the damaging of a fourth by enemy mines off the south-east and southern coasts. Public interest was revived by the occasional stranding of a drifting mine, and by the sinking of the trawler Millimumummal off the New South Wales coast in March 1941. The remarkably small toll of lives and ships claimed through enemy mines around our twelve thousand miles of coast is an eloquent tribute to the efficiency of the Royal Australian Navy's minesweepers in safeguarding merchant shipping.

On New Year's Day, 1941, survivors from ten merchant ships were landed in north Queensland after being picked up from Emirau Island (New Guinea) where they had been marooned by the enemy surface raiders to whom their ships had fallen victim. These sinkings had been carried out from August to December 1941 by the German manned ships Narvik, Manyo Maru and Tokyo Maru. Generally the prowlers worked together, and their operations covered a fairly wide section of the south-western and southern Pacific. The ships sunk were: Notou, Turakina, Ringwood, HoImwood, Rangitane, Triona, Vinni, Triadic, Triaster, and Komata. From these, four hundred and ninety-six survivors were landed on Emirau.

In the ensuing months, the tempo of events overseas, notably the achievements of Australian sailors and soldiers in the Middle East, served to distract attention from the Australian scene. Warnings from Britain emphasized the gravity of the Battle of the Atlantic; but the Atlantic was far away, and only those who knew that sea power, in its true sense, meant victory or defeat, realized the full import of that unremitting struggle.

The southward march of Japan through the Malay Peninsula to Singapore and the Netherlands East Indies brought the war into sharper focus for Australia, and awakened even the most complacent.

Then came the night of the 31st May, 1942, when the quiet of Sydney Harbour was shattered by the crash of depth charges and the thunder of gunfire. Japanese midget submarines had brought the war to Australia's principal port.

The frustration of this carefully planned attack testified to the efficiency of the local defences. The three intruders were destroyed -one without penetrating the outer defences. One succeeded in releasing two torpedoes, apparently aimed at the U.S. cruiser Chicago. Both missed their mark, but one sank the naval depot ship Kuttabul, a former Sydney ferry. Twenty-one ratings lost their lives and ten were injured. This was the sole damage inflicted, for the second torpedo ran ashore and failed to explode.

Two of the submarines were raised from the harbour bed, and, in each, the bodies of two Japanese (an officer and a rating) were found. Each submarine was eighty feet in length-five feet longer than the "midgets" which raided Pearl Harbour in December 1941

As was to be expected, Tokyo Radio made the most of the raid. Ignoring the failure of the attack, the voice of Tokyo announced that a cruiser had been sunk and a 31,000-ton battleship damaged.

Exactly a week later, on the night of the 7th June, Sydney and Newcastle were shelled by enemy submarines. To say that the two cities were "targets" for these marauders is to exaggerate what were well described in the official announcement as "nuisance raids". Shells fell in the eastern suburbs of Sydney shortly after midnight; only two exploded. Minor damage was done to property, and one civilian was injured. Damage at Newcastle was equally slight.

These raids - one a carefully planned attack on a vital harbour, the other a series of random shots at two cities - were the signal for the outbreak of a series of attacks on merchant shipping in Australian waters. Since that time, such attacks have recurred at irregular intervals and with varying intensity.

The attacks, in fact, commenced during the week which separated the midget submarine raid and the shellings; and during June it was obvious that the busy sea lanes of Australia's eastern coast had been singled out for attention. Thus, on the 4th June, it was announced that three Australian freighters had been attacked-two thirty-five miles east of Sydney, and the third two hundred and twenty-five miles south. Two of these escaped, but the third was torpedoed and sunk.

On the night of the 8th June, a distress message told of the shelling of a British ship by two enemy submarines off the south-east coast. She was hit twice, but after a five-hour duel, she eluded her attackers and reached port without casualties.

Two weeks later, the crew of a Russian freighter told of their ship's close-range running fight with a submarine off New South Wales. The enemy broke off the engagement after the ship had fired eight rounds, from which one hit was claimed. The freighter's bridge was considerably damaged, but she made port under her own steam.

These were grim encounters, bringing to the Australian scene for the first time deeds of bravery typical of those being enacted daily in the far away Atlantic.

But here, as overseas, the enemy paid the price of his intrusion. A communiqué issued by General Headquarters, South-west Pacific area, on the 5th June, announced that Allied aircraft, on reconnaissance over widely separated areas off the Australian east coast, had located three enemy submarines, of which two were destroyed and the third probably sunk. The attacking aircraft were units of one Netherlands Indies and two Australian squadrons.

Two days later a fresh communiqué stated that an Allied plane had bombed and destroyed another enemy submarine, again in the eastern sector. With the three midgets destroyed in Sydney Harbour on the night of the 31st May, this brought the enemy submarine losses to seven, or probably eight. To that tally, the damaging, and probable sinking, of yet another was added by the communiqué of the 11th June.

So long as the merchant ship remains the world's most important carrying -vehicle, any concentrated attack by enemy submarines is a serious matter. But, gauged in terms of tonnage, as well as numbers, the first Japanese underwater foray off the Australian coast could not have brought much gratification to Tokyo, particularly in view of the mileage which had to be covered and the losses as disclosed in the Allied Headquarters announcements.

Still, the respite which followed was only temporary, for in August there were two more attacks-both by gunfire. The first target was a trawler, operating off the east coast. But she survived the shelling and reached port with the loss of three of her personnel and with four others wounded.

Then the enemy showed that he was prepared to go farther afield in search of what he apparently presumed would be easier prey. Over a period of three and a half hours, off the southern coast of Australia, a well-known passenger ship was dogged and shelled by a submarine, operating farther south than any had yet been known to venture.

Opening fire at 7 p.m., at a range of three to four miles, the enemy fired a dozen rounds without effect. After half an hour she broke off the action, but apparently the quarry was stalked, for shortly after 9-30 p.m. the ship was under fire again, this time at about a thousand yards. Evasive action, possibly coupled with erratic marksmanship, once more thwarted her efforts, and seven more rounds whistled over the bridge or fell harmlessly astern. At point-blank range the ship's defensive armament retaliated; and, although the crew of a hundred and the eighty passengers feared that the attack might be resumed when the moon rose, nothing more was seen or heard of the submarine.

In an east coast attack in May, the ship involved also escaped, although she was damaged and five of her crew were killed and nine injured.

From then until the close of 1942, the prowlers apparently withdrew from coastal waters, but their return to the east coast in the middle of January was marked by the torpedoing of an Allied freighter about a hundred miles from shore. In the following month, two more cargo ships were lost within three days.

About the 13th April, ten of the crew of a small freighter were rescued. This proved to be the prelude to a fresh attack, of renewed intensity, for on the 7th May it was announced that, in the preceding few weeks, five Allied ships had been torpedoed and sunk -again off the eastern coast. These were three Australian, an American and a Norwegian freighter. Thanks to the efforts of naval vessels, the majority of the personnel were rescued.

Unlike the enemy, the Allied nations receive with revulsion the news of any unprovoked, unheralded attack on passenger or cargo ships; and these five vessels represented, in Australian waters, the biggest aggregate of sinkings within such a short period. But a week later the enemy carried out an attack which, more than any of its predecessors, emphasized to Australia, and to the rest of the world, the true ruthlessness of the underwater campaign.

Carrying, in addition to her Merchant Service crew, a staff of medical personnel and nurses, the Australian hospital ship Centaur was en route from Sydney to New Guinea, to embark wounded men. At 4-io a.m., on the i4th May, 1943, she was steaming, unescorted, forty miles east of Brisbane. Her white hull was fully illuminated and marked with Red Crosses. In every way she was complying with the provisions of International law governing hospital ships in time of war.

But the clear weather made her an easy target for an enemy submarine. Three minutes after the torpedo struck, Centaur capsized and sank. Of three hundred and thirty-two people on board, only sixty-four had time to reach the rafts. These sixty-four were able to gainsay any possibility of doubt as to the nature of the attack, for, from their rafts, they watched the submarine break surface shortly after the ship had gone down.

June brought the sinking of one Allied cargo ship, and the damaging of another, off the east coast. From the two, more than twenty men were killed.

A change of scene to the northern coast is a reminder that, in Australian waters as elsewhere, submarines are not the only menace to be faced by the men of the Merchant Navy.

In the first Japanese air raid on Darwin, on the 19th February, 1942, men of the Navy and the Merchant Navy, and wharf labourers, comprised a high percentage of the casualties. The story of that raid has been told in all its terrible detail, and to-day Darwin is a vastly different target-as the enemy has learned to his cost. Some of the ships which were regarded as total losses after that opening raid have since been sent to sea again, thanks to the initiative and efforts of the R.A.N., Commonwealth salvage experts, and American Army personnel. One of these ships alone was worth a quarter of a million pounds, and her cargo-also salvaged-was valued at a similar figure.

The vigorous treatment meted out to Japanese bombers on subsequent visits to Darwin has not brought immunity to shipping in adjacent Waters, and the Arafura Sea has been the scene of numerous short engagements between enemy aircraft and Allied convoys. Early in August 1943 the attackers were able to claim one victim, a small British freighter, three of whose personnel lost their lives. A few days later, north-east of Millingimbi they attempted to repeat the performance, but the two Japanese floatplanes involved were shot down by Allied fighters.

Farther afield, ships carrying supplies to the New Guinea area, naturally, have not been immune to enemy attack; and each of those attacks has been marked by the same dogged devotion to duty which characterizes the work of merchant seamen on all the world's oceans. Any of the attacks in New Guinea waters could be taken as typical, whether it be the loss of Macdhui after two successive air raids at Port Moresby in June 1942, or the saving of an Allied supply ship in the intensive enemy air attack on Milne Bay ten months later. In the latter engagement, seventy-five to a hundred enemy planes took part, and thirty of them were shot out of action. Three Allied vessels suffered damage and casualties. One of them, heavily afire, set a man-size task for an Australian minesweeper, which acted in turn as antiaircraft guard, fire float, hospital ship and tug. Side by side with the supply ship's crew, the men of the A.M.S. fought and extinguished the fire; then they towed the ship to the mainland for repairs.

Enemy surface raiders, too, have added to the hazards faced by the Merchant Navy in waters around Australia. There was the batch of ships which were lost in the Pacific in the closing months of 1940, and there have been other lonely actions in which merchant seamen and their naval gun layers have yielded their lives or their liberty only against overwhelming odds.

But the story has not always been one of loss or capture. Apparently seeking to emulate their Nazi associates, the Japanese have equipped and manned raiders to prey on merchantmen.

Two such marauders (one of 10,000 tons and the other of 6,863 tons) must have assumed that they had come upon easy victims when they closed with the Dutch tanker Ondina and her escort, the Australian-built Royal Indian Navy minesweeper Bengal in the Indian Ocean, about one thousand miles southwest of Java, on the 11th November, 1942. After all, the raiders mounted ten 6-inch guns, against which the Allied ships were able to muster only two 4-inch.

Even when the little ships showed signs of giving battle, the Japanese could be forgiven for dismissing the move as something in the nature of a suicide pact.

Bengal maneuvered to draw the enemy's fire away from the tanker, but Ondina spurned the opportunity of fleeing, and when the larger enemy opened fire, the minesweeper and her consort retaliated at eight thousand yards.

On board Ondina were Dutch and Chinese personnel, as well as R.N. and R.A.N. ratings, with Able Seaman B. A. G. Hammond, R.A.N.R., of South Australia, as gun-layer. Like his opposite number in Bengal, he quickly found the range, and both ships scored hits on the raider's stern. Badly damaged, she continued to fire her remaining guns, and the second raider then joined in. Hard pressed, the men in the Allied ships were heartened by a series of explosions on board the larger enemy ship, and still more by the spectacle of her crew taking to the boats.

Despite the efforts of Bengal -herself damaged- to draw the fire, the second raider scored hits on the tanker, but Ondina's gun stayed in action until the ammunition was exhausted. Even after the order to abandon ship had been given, the raider continued her attack, one round, from close range, striking the bridge and killing the captain.

From the lifeboats, the tanker's crew saw the first raider sink after another explosion. Her consort then machine-gunned the boats, killing the chief engineer and wounding several others. The Japanese then picked up their countrymen from the sunken raider, and returned to fire two torpedoes at the abandoned tanker before making off.

Although Ondina had developed a heavy list, her crew returned on board and worked day and night to get her under way, and they brought her to Australia under her own steam. Bengal, damaged, but without casualties, also reached port safely.

For his courage and devotion to duty, Able Seaman Hammond was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Dutch Bronze Medal.

This was an instance in which the fight against long odds was successful. In a war which, basically, is a war of the sea, any summary of the work of the Merchant Navy must fail to do justice to its theme. Just as inevitably, it must be largely a story of death and destruction; for the ships which are lost are those which attract public attention, while those which carry on month after month, year after year, faithfully braving the hazards of war and sea, go unnoticed.

V. WITH THE R.A.N. OVERSEAS

Ships and personnel of the Royal Australian Navy have served-and are still serving-in various theatres of war overseas. In the Mediterranean, H.M.A. ships participated in the campaigns of the Western Desert, Greece, Crete, Syria, North Africa, Sicily and Italy. They fought in the Battle for Malta, and the fleet engagements of Calabria and Matapan. H.M.A. ships are in the Mediterranean to-day. In the Persian Gulf H.M.A. ships saw action during the Iran episode in 1941, and they arc still represented there.

They have fought in the Atlantic Ocean, at Dakar and on the convoy routes. In the Indian Ocean they took part in the Madagascar campaign, and have hunted-and intercepted and sunk-enemy raiders and supply ships. And H.M.A. ships are on service now in the Indian Ocean. They fought at Singapore and through the Malay Archipelago, among the islands of the Netherlands East Indies and in the Java Sea battle. They took part in the initial attacks on Tulagi and Guadalcanal, and the first Solomon Islands battle.

Some of them, having been H.M.A. ships for three years, have not yet seen Australia the "N" Class destroyers, for instance, Napier, Nestor and Norman. Nestor will never see Australia, for she was sunk in the Mediterranean in June 1942. H.M.A.S. Quickmatch is so far a stranger to our shores, although her sister, Quiberon, 'was here for a brief visit some time ago. Others, such as the "corvettes" overseas, were built in Australia, but have spent most of their time in seas far removed from the Australian country towns whose names they carry. Routine reports arrive from them from time to time, such as tell of their activities on patrol in the Persian Gulf, or of being attacked by low-level bombers by the light of parachute flares off Syracuse one night during the Sicilian campaign. But details of their experiences are not yet known.

Of the "N" and "Q" destroyers, something has been told in earlier chapters of this book of their activities in the Mediterranean, and at Madagascar and North Africa. But all of these ships have had other duties interspersed with these "highlights"-H.M.A.S. Norman, for example. Her first job after commissioning in September 1941 and her "working up" period, was to carry Sir Walter Citrine and the British Trade Union Delegation to Archangel, and thence to return them to Great Britain. Later, with Napier, Nizam and Nestor, she was with Admiral Sir James Somerville's fleet which searched for the Japanese fleet which raided the Bay of Bengal in early April 1942.

This force was a strong one, reported as of at least three battleships, five carriers, heavy and light cruisers and destroyer flotillas, but it avoided contact with the British force. A main action had, however, appeared imminent, and on this occasion the British Admiral, having regard to some elderly vessels in his force, had made a general signal quoting, "There's many a good tune played on an old violin."

H.M.A.S. Napier also had an unusual assignment as her first duty after commissioning. She was detailed to a Scottish port to embark a party of people who turned out to be Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, Lord and Lady Halifax, and some war correspondents. Napier embarked them, and transported them to H.M.S. King George V, which ship took Lord and Lady Halifax to America while Mr. and Mrs. Churchill returned to Scotland in Napier.

Napier, Norman and Nizam were in the Madagascar operations in September 1942, and subsequently engaged in anti-submarine work off the South African coast, where for a while the enemy was very active. Returned personnel speak most highly of the hospitality extended to them by the people of South Africa, and report also that a well-known figure of the last war is still on deck - one who has a soft spot in her heart for Australians, and whom many last-war Diggers remember with affectionate regard.

That is Miss Ethel Campbell who, during the 1914-1918 war, met every Australian troopship entering Durban, and from a position on the northern arm of the breakwater semaphored a welcome to South Africa. She is still, in this war, carrying on as in the last, and, so far at any rate as she is concerned, Australians with experience of both wars find Durban unchanged.

H.M.A.S. Nepal is one of the "N" Class destroyers to have visited Australia, having come here some months ago for a brief spell. The latest of her class to appear in the Royal Australian Navy list, she has not had the wide experiences of her elder sisters, but she had a taste of elemental warfare on her way to Australia when she was for some hours in an Indian Ocean cyclone.

All of these ships, in their far-flung voyaging, extending in some cases from the Arctic Ocean to the seas off Cape Agulhas, and from the western longitudes of the North Atlantic to the eastern longitudes of the Indian Ocean, have covered considerable distances and have totaled up imposing records of mileage. Much of their steaming has been done at high speed, and often during extended periods at sea with opportunities for boiler cleans and refits necessarily limited and often delayed. An example of the circumstances giving rise to such a state of affairs is given in the story, "The 1493 Hour Firebrick", later in this book.

Even more widespread in their variety of activities are those of Royal Australian Naval personnel serving with the Royal Navy overseas. They number some thousands, and are scattered throughout the Seven Seas everywhere where flies the White Ensign.

Let us take a glance at some of the R.A.N. award citations, and we shall see that scarce a naval engagement in this war but has included R.A.N. officers and ratings.
- "For daring, resource, and devotion to duty at Namsos",
- "For good services in operations off the Dutch, Belgian and French coasts",
- "For good services in withdrawal from Crete",
- "For distinguished services in operations in the Persian Gulf",
- "For good services with the Somaliland Force",
- "For good service in operations against Bismarck",
- "For bravery and enterprise in the Battle of Matapan",
- "For great gallantry, daring and skill in an attack on St Nazaire",
- "For bravery in taking convoys to and from Murmansk",
- "For outstanding bravery and enterprise in action in the harbour of Oran",
- "For bravery in a daring attack on Tripoli harbour",
- "For distinguished services in the Pacific",
- "For daring, skill and seamanship in successful combined operations at Bruneval",
- "For daring and resolution in a daylight attack on German battle cruisers",
- "For extraordinary heroism in action in the South-West Pacific area"
. . . the list goes on.

Some of these citations refer to deeds performed in H.M.A. ships. Many others refer to deeds of personnel serving with the Royal Navy. They include both permanent service and Reserve officers and men. Many of them have been away from Australia for a number of years now, and they are to be found dispersed all over the seas, in all types of ship. Royal Australian Naval personnel have figured in events at sea from the opening of hostilities in 1939, having had representatives in such incidents as the loss of the Royal Oak, and the brief raiding career of the Graf Spee.

The full stories of the R.A.N. personnel who are serving overseas remain yet to be
told. But perhaps one record which has been received may be quoted at length here, as an R.A.N.V.R. officer, who had specialized in a particular executive branch.

"I left Sydney in June 1940 to take up an appointment on loan with the Royal Navy. Sub-Lieutenants Amott and Vaughan travelled with me in the Strathmore to Liverpool. We were looked after wonderfully there, and then sent off to London to Australia House. The N.L.O. had our papers so we were fixed. We were taken to the Admiralty and introduced to our Director who was very decent to us, gave us some leave and then fixed our appointments. He remarked that we were 'Aussies', therefore in his eyes fully trained general service officers as well as specialists. Vaughan was sent to a trawler, later took command of a Fairmile and served most of his time in West Africa. He has since been lost at sea. Arnott went to a trawler, later stood by a corvette in which he served in the Western Ocean, South Africa, Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. He was bombed and sunk in February 1943, and has since arrived typical of experiences gained. It is that of
in Australia.

"I had to toss with another Australian to have a pick between two yachts, one working as an instructional ship, the other fitting

out to go foreign. I won the foreign. My yacht was fitting out at Southampton. She was about 1400 tons, 275 feet long, 321 feet beam, 22 feet draft. We carried one 4-inch Q.F., two 12 -pounders, five sets of multiple machine guns, and were described as an Armed Boarding Vessel. I joined as W/K. and later became Number One. Commander Nash, D.S.C., R.N., the C.O., gave me a great welcome. He was kind enough to say that an 'Aussie' or two in the crew would brighten the ship up a bit. The navigator, Lieutenant Paul, R.N.R., christened me 'The Woolloomooloo Larrikin'.

"We went to Tobermory, Mull, to work up. After this we did patrol work. Our job took us to ports from Southampton along the south coast, and up the west to the Clyde. In our spare moments we did convoy work. I saw something of the '4o blitz on London while on week-end leaves. We sailed to Freetown via Ponta Delgada, Azores, in January 1941- Captain E. Stubbs, R.N., joined as C.O. previous to going foreign. He was with us until September 1941- Under his command we did sweeps, escorting, and general 'snooping' around the west coast of Africa. I found Australians were popular everywhere, and I was surprised to find how widely scattered we seem to be, both Service men and women and civilians.

"In February 1942, owing to a spot of bother, we lost the ship. I went into barracks ashore for a while and enjoyed it very much. Did a lot of sailing, and the Commodore of the local Yachting Club presented me with a pendant before leaving. I was mixed up in the capturing of an Italian ship, was sent to her as first lieutenant, and we then sailed her home to Greenock. I thus completed the convoy circle, having been in Naval Control Service at Newcastle, New South Wales; in convoy escort work in the yacht; and now part of the convoy in the Italian prize.

"Had leave in the U.K., and in July 1942 was appointed as Number One of a corvette working in the Med. I arrived in the Middle East in time to be put into khaki, and given a truck and a job on the Benghazi staff. We chased the Eighth Army across the desert via Bardia, Tobruk, Derna and Barce, arriving in Benghazi November 22nd, 1942, the day after the Army passed through. We established the base. Within two days South African minesweepers had been in and the merchant ships arrived. The harbour is quite small and was thick with wrecks. We were bombed around the clock, but within three weeks were discharging three thousand tons of cargo a day -until the Army got into Tripoli, and until they had established their naval base to do a similar job there.

"I left the Middle East to return to Australia in April 1943, sent home for leave. I travelled by an American transport to Aden, in a Danish ship from Aden to Durban, and from Durban to Australia in a Blue Funnel liner, thus completing an interesting thirty-nine months of foreign service. I would like to do it again. Always glad to be with the R.N. It's a fine firm to work for."

V1. THE R.A.N. IN TWO WARS

Comparison-;s, as Shakespeare's Dogberry said, are odorous, and the atmosphere of changed conditions is redolent in any comparison between the history of the Royal Australian Navy in the last~ war and in the four past years of this. Yet there are, among the points of difference, points of similarity. Then, as now, the ships of the R.A.N. spent much time overseas, and had "hunted down destroyers of commerce over five of the great oceans of the world". Then, as now, the R.A.N. figured in one of the outstanding cruiser duels of the war; took part in Malta convoy escort work; and was engaged in action against enemy aircraft. The points of difference lie rather in the larger scale of things. The larger size of the R.A.N. and the scope of its activities, the larger number and diversity of its actions against the enemy, the greater magnitude of its losses, both in ships and personnel

It was H.M.A.S. Sydney in this war, as in the last, that fought the cruiser duel, the one against the Emden and the other against the Italian cruisers Bartolomeo Colleoni and Giovanni delle Bande Nere. It was H.M.A.S. Sydney in the last war that fought actions against enemy aircraft, but they were tame affairs compared with the experiences of many H.M.A. ships in this war. In May 1917 she had an encounter with a Zeppelin in the North Sea. The Zeppelin (L 43) kept out of range of the Sydney's guns, and dropped several salvoes of bombs at her, but scored no hits. The action lasted for about two and a half hours, and was an outstanding event.

At certain periods in some areas during this war, it has been an outstanding, event when a day has passed without at least one enemy air attack. The events of two days, noted in an Australian destroyer in the Mediterranean during 1941, are typical of those experienced by many H.M.A. ships during the past four years, and illustrate one particular in which times have changed.

"April 25th. Anzac Day. 0300, embarking troops. 0400, last to leave Megara. Joined Carlisle, Wryneck, Vendetta and Thurland Castle at 0500. 0600, dive-bombing commences, screaming bombers make a terrific noise, continuous bombing until 1015 with short intervals. Many fairly near misses on all ships, no direct hits due to excellent shooting and escorting by Carlisle. Soldiers cheer loudly as bombers steadily miss. 1115, large air attack develops, convoy meets cruiser squadron and large force of destroyers proceeding northward, combined barrage causes bombers to miss, six bombers believed shot down. Soldiers cheer as attackers are dispersed. Arrive Suda Bay at 143o, disembark troops, fuel, and have a few drinks with Mr. Waldron, commissioned engineer of Wryneck. April 26th. o6oo, leave Suda Bay with Wryneck and Vendetta.

Steaming north at twenty-eight knots to join convoy. -- with large number of troops on board bombed and sunk, Wryneck picking up survivors. Wryneck hit by four bombs and sunk with six hundred troops on board. - bombed, attack renewed at 1430- -- bombed and sinking with large number of troops on board. Destroyers proceed alongside in succession and troops jump from sinking transport. Attack is renewed on -, enemy bomb empty ship with determination. Convoy proceeds to Alexandria."

Destroyers of the Royal Australian Navy were on Malta convoy escorts during the last war as in this. From a diary kept in H.M.A.S. Parramatta of those days, we get the following picture:

1917, August 12th. Parramatta, Yarra, Huon, Torrens left with convoy of five merchantmen across the Mediterranean. 13th. In the war zone now and in real earnest. The vigilance kept is almost extreme for fear of an enemy submarine taking a liking to a fat turkey of our convoy. 15th. Both Yarra and Torrens sighted a submarine. 16th. Shortly after going on afternoon watch a calm patch of water was observed. The day being with scarcely a ripple on all the sea, this patch excited suspicion . . . the patch was lengthening at about four knots and swerving to the left.

Parramatta was at general quarters and galloping at a little over twenty-seven knots. A moment after we were over the spot, and a little farther on the captain in his good judgment cried, 'Let go depth charge.' A great dome of boiling water was made by the explosion, and, easing the engines, we steamed over the spot. There was oil-though in no extra large quantity-and splotches of black stuff. The Yarra fired at an object rising to the surface. The Huon and Torrens were steaming hard and keeping with the convoy. ... Torrens and a Frenchman in rear of the ships fired at two submarines, and successfully beat off the attack. 7th. The convoy safe in the harbour of St Paul's, Malta."

Four H.M.A. destroyers were in that last war Malta convoy. Another four-H.M.A.Ss Napier, Nizam, Nestor and Norman, were in a Malta convoy during the present war. The intention was to relieve Malta by the simultaneous sailing of escorted convoys from Gibraltar and Alexandria. The four H.M.A. destroyers were included in the force which sailed from Alexandria. The Italians decided to concentrate on the Alexandria convoy, but by doing so enabled the Gibraltar section to get through, thus permitting the British to achieve their object. On the return journey, about 1800 on the 16th June, 1942, off the south-west corner of Crete, following three days and nights of almost ceaseless enemy air attack, H.M.A.S. Nestor was straddled by heavy high-explosive bombs. The ship seemed to be lifted bodily from the water, all light and power were cut off, and serious damage was done in the boiler-rooms, where four men were killed.

Two boiler-rooms were flooded, and it was not possible to restore light or power. As dusk came on, enemy torpedo bombers renewed their attacks, but were fought off by Nestor herself and two R.N. destroyers-the three other R.A.N. ships had been ordered to proceed with the convoy. One of the R.N. destroyers took Nestor in tow. More trouble developed with an outbreak of fire in the uptake of one of Nestor's boiler-rooms. This fire was suffocated by hammocks and blankets, saturated with water, being dropped on the flames through the funnel inspection hole, the work being accelerated by two ratings entering the funnel and trampling down the bedding. The struggle went on all night, punctuated by enemy air attacks. During one of these, an Oerlikon gunner in Nestor is believed to have shot down a bomber. During the night the towrope broke three times. Finally, the following morning, down by the head with the towline parted, Nestor was abandoned and sunk, her crew being taken aboard one of the R.N. destroyers and later landed at Alexandria.

H.M.A.S. Sydney of the last war refitted at Chatham during 1917. During her three months' stay there she witnessed, but did not suffer by, the air raid of the night of the 2nd September. The enemy's bombs missed the dockyard, but killed a hundred and thirty-two people, chiefly sailors in the barracks. H.M.A.S. Shropshire, refitting at Chatham during this war, reports: "The full moon brought the usual series of air raids. No bombs dropped in the vicinity of the ship," and remarks on the pleasure of seeing an enemy aircraft shot down by a night fighter. Part of the German aircraft's propeller, polished and mounted, is a "souvenir" on board to remind Shropshire's personnel of that incident.

H.M.A.S. Shropshire brings an innovation to the Royal Australian Navy in the cafeteria messing arrangements. This has simplified the important business of messing. Each man collects an aluminium tray which is recessed into a number of "plates", so that he can, on the one dish, be served with meat, vegetables, sweet, bread and so on, as he passes along a series of hot plates. Having collected his issue, he goes to his mess and has his meal, then takes the tray, knife, for~-. spoon and cup to an appointed spot where they are collected, and washed ready for the next meal. This latest edition of "Cooks to the galley" appears to have found favour.

Ships of the R.A.N. in the last war made their own amusements and recreations, with football, cricket, boxing, regattas, in the same way as they do to-day. Of H.M.A. destroyers in the Malayan Archipelago in 1916, it Is recorded: "Officers and men play football daily while the ships are in port. Each ship has now two teams, Australian and Association, and occasionally two games are played in one afternoon-which means that sixty men get one good hour's exercise and recreation." In May 1918 the Australian naval boxing tournament was held at Rosyth. A reminder of changed conditions is given in a photograph showing a huge Japanese Naval Ensign used as a backcloth and screen for the ring. The opportunities for amusement, even at sea when circumstances permit, differ today from those available to R.A.N. personnel 194-1918.

Newspaper correspondents who saw over H.M.A.S. Shropshire when she arrived in Australia this year have recorded that: "One of the spacious mess decks is a cinema. There is a talkie plant aboard, and radio equipment with loudspeakers. If radio fare is unacceptable at any time there is a switch-over to a panatrope which also operates through the loudspeaker apparatus. A library and recreation room are also provided. As I walked round the ship, loudspeakers were relaying light music interspersed with 'crooners'."

But, as was said earlier, the main points of difference between the Royal Australian Navy of last war and of this war lie in the larger scale of things. Everything in this war's effort of the Royal Australian Navy has been increased, as the R.A.N. itself has increased.

The Royal Australian Navy at the outbreak of war in 1914 consisted of sixteen ships in commission, comprising one battle cruiser, four light cruisers, three destroyers, two torpedo boats, three gunboats, two submarines and one training ship. They totaled 45,342 tons, and the permanent personnel of the Navy was three thousand eight hundred officers and men. This war the R.A.N. had fifteen ships in commission in September 1939, that number being made up of six cruisers, five destroyers, two sloops, one survey ship and one depot ship.

The total tonnage, approximately 6o,ooo, exceeded that of the last war Navy (in spite of the battle cruiser's 19,700 tons) and the permanent personnel of the Navy was greater, being in the neighbourhood of five thousand. It was, however, in the wartime expansion that the Navy of to-day leapt ahead of its predecessor.

By 1918 the Royal Australian Navy, after four years of war, had five thousand and fifty permanent personnel. During the war, approximately three thousand personnel of the Royal Australian Naval Brigade were employed in various services, by far the great majority on shore service - examination, naval control, etc. There was comparatively little minesweeping in Australian waters during the last war, no more than eighteen officers and one hundred and seventy men of the R.A.N. Brigade being at any time employed on that work while, at intervals during the war, nineteen officers and two hundred and fifty men of the R.A.N. Brigade were overseas, as gun crews in transports, and so on.

This war has presented a different picture. After four years of war the strength of the R.A.N. in personnel is almost sevenfold that of the permanent personnel in September 1939. The total strength to-day, permanent personnel and Reserves, is more than four times that of the total personnel employed including the Royal Australian Naval Brigade -at the end of the last war. Of that greatly increased total, a far larger proportion is on active service at sea, and has seen action-and plenty of it-in far more widely flung areas than their comrades of the last war.

Between 194 and 1918, four H.M.A. ships were built in Australia, and commissioned during the period. They were the cruiser H.M.A.S. Brisbane, and the destroyers H.M.A.Ss Huon, Torrens and Swan. Two more were built overseas and completed and commissioned during the war, H.M.A.Ss Kurumba and Platypus. During the present war, naval ships built in Australia, and commissioned, exceed in total tonnage the aggregate tonnage of the Australian Navy in 1914

Many of these are A.M.S. vessels. A number of these "corvettes", as they are popularly known, are now veterans in sea warfare. They have seen action in widely spaced areas. In Malaya, in the Netherlands East Indies, in New Guinea waters and the Arafura Sea, off Timor, in the Indian Ocean, and during the Allied invasion of Sicily. It is probably safe to say that a number of them have, individually, seen more enemy action than any one of H.M.A. ships during the last war. They have been, and are, most valuable additions to the Royal Australian Navy. Their work is continuous, and their total mileage must by now have reached an impressive figure.

A number of them have, in effect of distance, more than twice circumnavigated the globe. The distance figures of some are reaching up towards the hundred-thousand-mile mark. Built in Australian yards, they are the products of all States of the Commonwealth, for all have contributed in raw materials-if not in finished manufactures-to their building. They are named for towns throughout Australia, and manned by men from all over Australia, mostly Reservists. In themselves-and largely in their personnel-they are a wartime product.

It is a measure of Australia's effort in this present war, that she could, of her own materials and labour, and largely of her own young Reserve seamen, build and man such a fleet of efficient warships during the war, and that the ships of that fleet could, as so many of them have, build up creditable records of action against the enemy. "On a bright, calm October day in 1913," says the Introduction to The Official History of the Royal Australian Navy in the War of 1914-1918, "the Australia passed in between Port Jackson Heads."

She led the first Royal Australian Navy into its main home port. Following her came the cruisers Melbourne, Sydney and Encounter, the destroyers Parramatta, Warrego and Yarra. None of these had been built in Australia, although one of the destroyers had been re-assembled here. Who among those cheering crowds that watched Australia's own first fleet arrive would have thought that, within a few years and during the second war in which her Navy had fought, Australia would herself build a fleet of warships exceeding in total tonnage that of those ships steaming slowly past, and of which the onlookers were so justly proud?

But the A.M.S. vessels are not the largest type of warship to have been built in Australia during this present war. Since the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, two "Tribal" Class destroyers and one sloop have been built and commissioned-and have done valuable work. These are H.M.A.Ss Arunta, Warramunga and Warrego. In addition, a number of boom defence vessels has been built and they have been for some time in commission, together with a host of smaller vessels such as naval motor patrol boats.

Wartime additions to the Royal Australian Navy have not stopped short at new tonnage built in Australia. There has been a large expansion due to the local requisition and conversion of merchant tonnage for naval duty, as in the case of the armed merchant cruisers and auxiliary minesweepers and patrol vessels. Further to that, the Royal Australian Navy has received a considerable accession of strength in the ships made available by Britain. At present, seven such ships are in commission, and manned by R.A.N. personnel, the cruiser H.M.A.S. Shropshire, and the destroyers H.M.A.Ss Napier, Nizam, Norman, Nepal, Quiberon and Quickmatch-in all approximately twenty thousand tons.

During the four years of this war since the outbreak, the Royal Australian Navy has lost in enemy action approximately thirty thousand tons. But even allowing for those losses, the Navy to-day, in displacement tonnage, stands at a figure for ships in commission considerably in excess of twice the amount of the tonnage of the R.A.N. in September 1939- If numbers of ships are taken into account, the Navy of to-day-because of the large number of smaller-type vessels which has been added to its strength-is many times larger than at the outbreak of the present war, and many times larger than the Navy of the 1914-19r8 war.

One feature of this war at sea in which there is a noticeable difference from the war of 1914-1918, is the sea time put in by the ships. Certain ships during the last war had high steaming records, but low steaming records have been the exception rather than the rule in this war. In the last war, the Grand Fleet spent much of its time in its bases at Scapa Flow and Rosyth, and the larger units of the R.A.N. spent much of their time with the Grand Fleet. Sweeps were largely confined to the North Sea. But this time the ships of the R.A.N. have ranged far and wide over the earth's seas. Certainly they have seen service in six of the Seven Seas-in the North and South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Indian Oceans-to say nothing of such minor seas as the Mediterranean.

And they have been on the go most of the time. Some of the cruisers at this stage of the war have as individuals some two hundred thousands miles or more to their credit as wartime steaming. The older destroyers have each amassed an imposing total. A few of the "corvettes" are reaching up towards six figures, and many of them have passed the fifty thousand mark. As one example of hard work at high speeds, H.M.A.S. Norman, with a total mileage of 81,557 covered at an average speed of seventeen knots during 1942, suggests that this "may be considered a possible record".

These figures speak tellingly for the efficiency and hard work of the engine-room staffs. Much of the steaming has been done over protracted periods with little time in harbour. Much of it has been done at high speeds. And much of it has been done in climatic conditions which have added to the discomfort of boiler-room and engine-room work. The results justify the appreciative remarks, so often seen in ships' reports, on the records put up by the men who steam the ships.

In the last war, the Royal Australian Navy lost two ships, one in action, and one through causes unknown. Both were submarines. The AE1 left Blanche Bay, New Britain, at 0700 on the 14th September, 1914, to patrol off Cape Gazelle. She has not been seen or heard of since 1530 on that day, and no clue to her loss has been found. The AE2, which went to the Mediterranean with the Second Convoy in December 1914, was sunk by the Turks in the Sea of Marmora on the 3oth April, 1915

In four years of this war, the Royal Australian Navy has lost nine ships through enemy action, the three cruisers Sydney, Perth and Canberra, the two sloops Parramatta and Yarra, the destroyers Waterhen, Vampire and Nestor, and the "corvette" Armidale. Losses occurred in the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Sunda Straits, the Bay of Bengal, the Timor Sea and the Solomons.

Losses of R.A.N. personnel in the last wax were even lower in proportion. Of the three officers and thirty-two ratings missing in the submarine AE1, approximately half were R.A.N. personnel, the remainder being Royal Navy men. None of the personnel of AE1 was lost when she sank, all of them being taken prisoner by the Turks. Other losses in action in H.M.A. ships during the whole war were very few. One officer and some ratings were killed in action in the attack on the German colony at Rabaul on the 11th September, 1914; and four ratings were killed in H.M.A.S. Sydney when that ship destroyed the German Emden in the action off Cocos Island on the 9th November, 1914.

For the four years of this present war up to the 31st August, 1943, the Royal Australian Navy has lost, killed in action, 1043 officers and men, while an additional 14 subsequently died of wounds. Others wounded in action total 227, and 742 personnel are missing, while 134 R.A.N. personnel are prisoners of war in enemy hands - a total of 2160 casualties - almost half the total of seagoing personnel in the last war.

A number of H.M.A. ships in the last war were not at any time engaged with the enemy. Few of the ships of the R.A.N. overseas in this war but have records of many occasions on which they have been in action, and to a degree the same applies to ships nearer home -as in New Guinea and North Australian waters. The actions in which H.M.A. ships in this war have participated include large scale engagements, as the Battles of Calabria, Matapan, and the Java Sea, and important offensive operations such as the Allied invasions of North Africa, the Solomons, Madagascar, and Sicily. In fact, in this war, H.M.A. ships have fought in many seas, and the R.A.N. sailor is as the sailor in the song:

"All over the place,
- The north and the south, the east and the west,
  - The map of the world tattooed on his chest,
    - He's all over the place."

On the Australian coast itself a much different picture has been seen in this war compared with that of the last. There was some enemy action in Australian waters during 1914-1918, but it was confined to mine-laying, and resulted in the loss of one ship, the British steamer Cumberland, which struck a mine off Gabo Island on the 6th July, 1917. Minesweeping was not carried out on a very large scale, and the sweepers used were not continuously in commission. In this war, one of the first naval moves in Australian waters was the establishment of a Minesweeping Service, which soon had a number of flotillas sweeping continuously at strategic points around the Australian coast.

The number of sweepers employed has been progressively increased since the outbreak of war, and a large number of ships and personnel are continuously employed on this work. Their value has been well illustrated in the number of mines which have, from time to time, been cleared and destroyed by them.

Australia during the last war was free from one form of enemy attack which has occurred ~)n the Australian coast since hostilities opened with Japan. This is enemy submarine attack, in which a number of casualties in ships and personnel have been suffered. All the victims have been of the Merchant Service, and this phase of the war has been covered in the chapter, "The Merchantmen Do Their Bit".

The work carried out by Australian dockyards in this war far and away exceeds that of the last war. Between 1914 and 1918 the main dockyards where refits and dockings could be carried out were in Sydney. During that period sixteen warships were dry-docked at Cockatoo Island, where also fifty transports were fitted or refitted, while forty-two transports and one hospital ship were fitted out at Garden Island, where also sixty-seven refits were carried out. At Williamstown, Victoria, work on ships was mainly confined to the arming of defensively equipped merchant ships.

During this war, apart from the naval building programme, a large number of merchant vessels has been taken up for naval duty, and converted into minesweepers and coastal patrol ships. Some hundreds of merchant ships have been defensively equipped with guns and paravane gear. Repairs and maintenance have been done on a scale that would not have been considered possible a few years ago, and facilities are increasing all the time. As an instance of the scale of dockyard operations, during the first four months of 1943, 1090 ships, of an aggregate gross tonnage of 4,262,273, were repaired or underwent refits in Australian yards, while during the same period 135 ships, of an aggregate gross tonnage of 439,663, were dry-docked. The foregoing figures do not include naval vessels.

Naval bases and shore establishments in Australia and the nearby territories are more numerous and on a much larger scale than they were during the last war, and we find major shore establishments at such places as Darwin, Port Moresby, Milne Bay, and in other areas where previously none existed. These establishments are largely manned by Reserve personnel. Their existence, and scope, and the greatly increased traffic between the mainland ports and the northern islands, has meant a great increase in all naval services such as naval control, examination service, port war signal stations, communications, minesweeping, and administration activities generally.

Last but not least, the Royal Australian Navy in this war differs from that of the last in its having uniformed women personnel, the members of the W.R.A.N.S.-the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service-and the Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service. The W.R.A.N.S., first formed in April 1941, by Aug6st 1943 had a strength of over fifteen hundred officers and ratings, and its members are now serving at naval shore ' establishments in every State. The first W.R.A.N.S. joined as wireless telegraphists, but to-day the Service includes telegraphists, visual signallers, motor drivers, sick-berth attendants, dental mechanics, dental attendants, writers, supply assistants, cooks, assistant cooks, stewardesses, telephonists, and messengers.

The Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service is one year younger than the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service, having been established in April 1942, and it had a membership of thirty-three at August of this year. Most of the nurses are at Flinders Naval Depot, and at naval hospitals in Sydney, but one is at a naval shore wireless station.

And, in this extension to the Royal Australian Navy, for the first time in this war, of the part women played in the Royal Navy during the last war, we have symbolized the greater, wider effort of the Royal Australian Navy generally. It is an effort of some magnitude, and an effort that has achieved some good results, and is one which can be viewed, both by the Royal Australian Navy and Australia at large, with not unjustified satisfaction.

THE W.R.A.N.S. GROWS UP

The Women's Royal Australian Naval Service was brought into being so that men might be relieved for duty at sea and the shore establishments still maintained at their full strength.

It was not without some misgivings that the Navy made such a decision and at first the duties which it was thought the W.R.A.N.S. ratings might perform were few in number. They were mainly in the Communications Branch.

In April 1941 twelve girls who, in a voluntary capacity, had received instruction in wireless telegraphy at the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps in Sydney, were enrolled as members of the W.R.A.N.S. and drafted to a shore establishment for duty. These twelve girls acquitted themselves so well that gradually that number was increased and at the present time they are in very large numbers in the Communications Branch. Their entry into the Service was so unobtrusive that it was a considerable time before any one other than those immediately connected with them knew of their existence as part of the Navy.

It was not until the middle of 1942 that it was decided to extend their activities into other phases of the Navy's work. Then with great reluctance naval officers in charge of ship's offices, central stores, victualling stores, galleys, garages, sick bays and wardrooms admitted that they might possibly be able to use a few women to replace men who were urgently needed at sea.

On the 1st October, 1942, girls were enlisted as writers, supply assistants, cooks, motor transport drivers, sick-berth attendants, messengers and stewardesses. On the same date those who had previously been enrolled in the Communications Branch became enlisted. They were all, old and new alike, asked whether they wished to serve only in Australia, or both in and beyond Australia if they
should be required for service abroad. An overwhelming majority wished to serve wherever the need for them might arise, even if it meant leaving Australia.

It was not long before the efficiency, keenness and willingness to serve which the girls displayed earned the regard and respect of the Navy personnel, and those who had thought of their entry into the Navy with trepidation asked for more and still more members of the W.R.A.N.S. Once again the scope of their activities was enlarged, teleprinter operators, visual signallers, telephonists, seamstresses, tracers, draughtswomen, dental attendants, range-markers, and regulating ratings. In each rating the girls have acquitted themselves well.

In January 1943 it seemed that the time had come when it was desirable for W.R.A.N.S. ratings to have officers to look after their well being and to do the administrative work entailed in their existence in what was by this time a considerable body.

The first W.R.A.N.S. Officers' Training School commenced at Flinders Naval Depot early in January 1943, and its members were eight W.R.A.N.S. ratings and eight women entered directly from the shore. All the members of this first Officers' Training Course were appointed as officers on the '5th February, 1943 , some for administrative work in connection with the W.R.A.N.S. and others, as an experiment, in appointments such as confidential books. Once again they showed that they could ably relieve naval personnel. There have been five Officers' Training Courses since that first one and their successful members have spread out into wider fields, such as secretarial and similar appointments, and in special cases, where the appointees have had scientific qualifications, into one of the technical sides of the Navy.

As each girl enters the Navy she is given a New Entry Course which usually extends over a fortnight. She learns how the Navy is administered; the naval ranks and ratings and their equivalents in the Army and Air Force; naval customs and traditions. She is instructed in field training so that she may know how to bear herself in true naval fashion. She learns the customary marks of respect due to officers of her own and other Services. She is taught what discipline means in the Navy and how it is maintained; the organization of ships and shore establishments; times and watches. She is shown her rights and obligations as a member of the Naval Service.

She learns about the W.R.A.N.S. as part of the Naval Forces; how she may obtain leave and how to behave on leave; how to dress and so conduct herself that she may be a credit to the Service; rules of hygiene; how to clean ship, and the standards of cleanliness required when a large number of persons live and work together.

When she has passed out of her New Entry Course, if the branch for which she has enlisted requires special training, she commences that training. Telegraphists, visual signallers, motor ,transport drivers, cooks, stewardesses, sick berth attendants, all go through a course of special training. They take the same examinations as their male equivalents before they are qualified to do the particular work for which they are required. The mere fact that they are being asked for in ever increasing numbers, and that the range of their duties is still expanding, is evidence that they do that work well.

That is all that the girls ask in return for their services-that they do the work which is needed of them. They have left their homes and the amenities of their previous lives. They experience little agonies of adjustment as they make the change from civilian to Service conditions. They have voluntarily and most eagerly taken on their shoulders their share of this country's burden in this war. They would not be rid of that burden until they have seen their self-imposed task through to its conclusion.

As between themselves there is a spirit of comradeship which is in true keeping with the spirit of the men of the Navy. Regardless of their previous stations or occupations in life, they pull together as one whole, each in some way depending on, and in yet another way, helping the other. They feel that they are part of the Navy in spirit as well as in fact. The Navy's traditions of gallantry and selfless service are their traditions now, and they guard them jealously.

SECOND OFFICER S. MCC.