Navy Battles Off Australia's Coast

[Dave Homewood]

This is not specifically an aviation topic, though patrol bombers were certainly involved, but it is worth mentioning. I wonder if many people remember these days that the Japanese were attacking Allied ships just off the coast of Australia during WWII?

TORPEDOED SHIPS

COAST OF AUSTRALIA

SURVIVORS' EXPERIENCES

(Special Australian Correspondent) (Recd. 5.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 8

The recent sinkings bring the total of Allied ships announced as being destroyed by Japanese submarines off the east coast of Australia to 10. Submarine attacks have been made on at least seven other vessels.

It is presumed that valuable cargoes were lost with the ships. Three of the masters went down with their ships, on all of which the loss of life was fairly heavy.

Only two members of the crew are missing from the one Australian vessel which stayed afloat some hours after being torpedoed, while the entire complement of the American freighters was saved. It is believed this vessel was intercepted by a submarine some time before the attack. The submarine is thought to have followed the vessel, submerging and creeping up unobserved to fire a torpedo at close range.

Survivors of the sinkings spent up to 13 hours clinging to wreckage or drifting on rafts before they were rescued. Several were naked. Sharks swam among two groups of survivors floating in the water, but did not attack.

New Zealand Seamen
Several New Zealanders were in the crew of one large Australian vessel. The first warning of this attack came from the look-out man, William Jenkins, aged 27, of Opunake, who saw the wake of a torpedo. After the torpedo struck many of the crew of 70 dived overboard and clung to rafts and wreckage until rescued. Survivors say they owe their lives to the blowing of whistles attached to their lifejackets to draw the attention of the night rescue ship.

William Shand, of Greymouth, was 21 on the day his ship was sunk. "I was in my bunk and immediately rushed on deck," he said. "I dived 40 feet off the bow into the water, but was picked up in about 15 minutes. It was a wet birthday party."

The youngest member of the crew, Murray Brown, aged 16, of Wellington, said a patrol ship nearly cut him in two. "I pushed myself off its bows," he said, "and as I swished along its side I grabbed a line and was hauled on board."

Boy's Lucky Escape
His lifejacket saved a 15-year-old Sydney boy, one of the three Australian survivors from the Norwegian freighter. He fell down a hold and was knocked unconscious as the vessel was sinking. "The next thing I remember I was in the water and a Dane was slapping my face," he said. "I had gone down with the ship, but my lifejacket had floated me out of the hold and brought me to the surface."

The most annoyed man rescued is Chong Kai Gong, a Chinese steward on the American freighter. He was taking a shower when the torpedo struck, and be had no time to dress, but ran naked from the shower to a lifeboat. Chong is already planning his revenge.

The American occupation of Guadalcanal is generally conceded to have frustrated the enemy's first attempts to dominate the sea route between the United States and the Southern Pacific, compelling the inauguration of the under-sea campaign, which is expected to ho maintained and intensified.


NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 10 MAY 1943

[Dave Homewood]

Were any of the Japanese submarines attacked by RAAF Beauforts, Hudsons, etc., off the Australian coastline?

[davidd]

According to Official History of RAAF "Air War Against Japan 1943 - 1945" by George Odgers, Chapter 9 ("Anti-submarine Operations in 1943"), the ships sunk in this period included KOWARRA (Aust, small cargo ship, 24 lives lost) on 24 April, LIMERICK (UK, large cargo ship, 8,724 tons) on 26 April, LYDIA M CHILDS (USA, large cargo ship, 7,176 tons) 27 April, WOLLONGBAR (Aust, small cargo ship) on 29 April, FINGAL (Norway, samll cargo ship) on 5 May), ORMISTON (Aust, large cargo ship, 5,832 tons, damaged only) on 12 May, CARADALE (UK, small cargo ship, minor damage only, hit by torpedo, but this did not explode, ship was leaking but she made port safely) on 12 May, and Hospital Ship CENTAUR (UK) on 14 May, tragically total of 268 lives were lost, she had been torpedoed without warning off Cape Moreton @ 4 AM in morning (in the dark). Next attacks occurred during period 29 May to 6 June, but none of these four ships (all American) were damaged. All other ships mentioned above were sunk by torpedos, and all these sinkings were along south eastern seaboard of Australia between Bundaberg (Queensland) and south to Mallacoota (Victoria). Extensive use of RAAF aircraft during this period were employed in an attempt to provide cover for all shipping; types included Ansons, Hudsons, Beauforts,Catalinas, and even one Fairey Battle trainer on travel flight over sea near Newcastle, which spotted an explosion (Japanese torpedo) aboard an Allied ship some 12 miles ahead! On 1st May 1943, one Catalina crew accidentally attacked an Allied vessel (an American tanker, arriving in area from Los Angeles with full load of fuel and diesel oil!) but fortunately their depth charges missed it. This attack provoked the American crew into shoot back on the RAAF aircraft with 20 mm cannon and 0.5" MG's. No Japanese submarines seem to have been lost in these operations, but the RAAF lost a number of their Beauforts, although there seemed to be no common causes for these losses.

In late April 1943, more Hudsons and Catalinas were added to the anti-sub forces protecting Allied shipping along south east coast of Australia, and by 5th May there were no fewer than 46 aircraft patrolling this very large area of ocean, including 5 Vought Sikorsky Kingfisher floatplanes, 7 Beauforts, 20 Ansons (still by far the most numerous type, despite their small load, short range and obsolesense), 9 Hudsons, and 5 Catalinas.

I recommend Odger's book to anyone interested in this subject, and the RAN official histories might also be worth looking up.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks very much for that David.

[davidd]

I hasten to add that other Allied ships were sunk or attacked off Australia's South East coastline by Japan's submarines in WW2, both previous to, and after the ships I listed in last post. Only the ones relevant to the first post in this thread are included in my first post. As can be seen, Australia was having quite a scary time in early 1943, a period which followed the withdrawal of all Japanese forces from Guadalcanal a couple of months earlier.

[Mustang51]

As I am want to say sometimes when the Huddie is flying at Temora, Australia Station as it was known, covered a huge area of operations by airborne patrols from the Equator to the Antarctic and was 110 degrees east to west....almost one third of the southern hemisphere The patrols were in the most part by the RAAF however there were patrols by Australian based American aircraft. During the war a total of six German and three Japanese surface raiders, four Japanese aircraft carriers, nine Japanese destroyers and 29 Japanese and German submarines operated in Australian waters. Only one Axis submarine (full size) and two of three midget submarines were sunk. 48 cargo ships were lost with a total tonnage of over 293,000 tons. Of the Axis submarines 1 German U-Boat and 28 Japanese submarines were in Australian waters between 1942 and 1945 with the U.862 becoming the only U-Boat to operate in and sink Allied ships in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It should also be remembered that the Australian coastline itself covers 22,292 miles or 35,876 km....one hell of a patrol area in itself forgetting anything off the coast.

Six German and three Japanese raiders operated in Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 sinking 18 ships with losses over 140,000 tonnes.

The RAAF lost 23 aircraft and 104 airmen mostly to flying accidents during these anti-submarine patrols........nothing from what I can find during actual combat.

Very sobering when you think about it. Supposedly "behind" the combat areas.

[Dave Homewood]

Absolutely staggering figures there Ando. Just wow.

New Zealand had a lot less aircraft and naval vessels covering our approximately 15,000 km coastline and seaways, and keeping watch over the convoys. We also had raider ships and at least two submarines in our waters, one being Japanese and the other a U-boat. And several ships were attacked by raiders and sunk too. But nothing on the scale that Australia faced.

[pepe]

Aug 28, 2023 22:52:47 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Absolutely staggering figures there Ando. Just wow.

New Zealand had a lot less aircraft and naval vessels covering our approximately 15,000 km coastline and seaways, and keeping watch over the convoys. We also had raider ships and at least two submarines in our waters, one being Japanese and the other a U-boat. And several ships were attacked by raiders and sunk too. But nothing on the scale that Australia faced.

U-862 was also the same German submarine that visited New Zealand in January 1945. It patrolled the North Island (Gisborne and Auckland approaches) before returning to the Australian coast. The very good U-Boat.net website has details of its patrol history:

uboat.net/boats/patrols/details.php?boat=862&date=1945-01-09

The U-boat was transferred to the Japanese in May 1945 and survived to be surrended in Singapore in August 1945.

[tbf2504]

And we must also remember the battle of the Coral Sea off the Queensland coast which change the tide of the Japanese advancement to the South Pacific.

[richard1098]

Aug 28, 2023 22:52:47 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Absolutely staggering figures there Ando. Just wow.

New Zealand had a lot less aircraft and naval vessels covering our approximately 15,000 km coastline and seaways, and keeping watch over the convoys. We also had raider ships and at least two submarines in our waters, one being Japanese and the other a U-boat. And several ships were attacked by raiders and sunk too. But nothing on the scale that Australia faced.

I suspect the "length" of any coastline depends a lot on how precisely it's measured. More data points equals longer distance.

I find this site to be pretty good at presenting the comparative sizes of countries, or distances at different lattitudes, on a like for like basis. www.thetruesize.com

New Zealand certainly had an "advantage" in that an aircraft or ship could protect both east and west coasts comparatively easily compared to their Aus counterparts.

[tbf2504]

While there is an advantage because of our small size, it has to be remembered that NZ was woefully short of ships and aircraft that could respond to enemy forces approaching our coast. The two modern navy cruisers Achilles and Leander were deployed overseas during most of those critical times, we had no long range reconnaissance aircraft, and resorted to using the TEAL Empire flying boats for attempts to track the German surface raiders (without success). There were no torpedo bombers in country and attacks on enemy shipping would have been by at the best by Hudsons using iron dumb bombs. At one stage plans were in place to position Harvard's at Norfolk Island to act as "divebombers" against any approaching Japanese fleet, and a trial with a Bren Gun mounted over the front cockpit of a Tiger Moth. Desperate times indeed!

[Antonio]

Aug 29, 2023 13:24:38 GMT 12 tbf2504 said:

And we must also remember the battle of the Coral Sea off the Queensland coast which change the tide of the Japanese advancement to the South Pacific.

I have always been fascinated that, given the Japanese Banzai attitude, that they did not press forward with their invasion fleet.
Had they done so.........

[planecrazy]

Below is an interesting article on the reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour
before the famous midget sub attack. I have always thought it amazing that the
Japanese had submarine launched seaplanes, the I400 subs that launched these
were massive. Many would know the shelled Sydney and Newcastle as well I am
pretty sure. I am a bit surprised the Australian War Memorial weren't interested
in the engine from the Glen a fair piece of history there?

www.ozatwar.com/japrecce/recce21.htm

[planecrazy]

Just dug a bit deeper, overflew a number of Australian cities as well as Auckland and Wellington,
be interested if there are any more New Zealand stories about the flights over those two cities?
Would imagine it would have been kept on the hush, hush for fear of frightening the residents?
Couple of articles below sustanciating the New Zealand flights.

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91939629

navyhistory.au/watchers-of-the-sea-and-sky-13th-radar/

[Dave Homewood]

I am sure if you have a search you will find more on the Japanese and the German subs that visited NZ waters here on the forum. One of them fired a torpedo at the interisland ferry. The RNZAF and Navy spent days hunting the sub after reports from the public of seeing it. They officially never spotted any of the subs they were chasing, though one veteran told me that No. 2 Squadron supposedly sank something after a frantic sub scare and they believed it was a sub. Whether they sank or damaged a sub in NZ waters, or they hit something else, I have not seen any other evidence to back up his story.