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The definition of "Australian waters" used throughout this article is, broadly speaking, the area which was designated the Australia Station prior to the outbreak of war. This vast area consisted of the waters around Australia and eastern New Guinea, and stretching south to Antarctica. From east to west, it stretched from 170° east in the Pacific Ocean to 80° east in the Indian Ocean, and from north to south it stretched from the Equator to the Antarctic.[1] While the eastern half of New Guinea was an Australian colonial possession during the Second World War and fell within the Australia Station, the Japanese operations in these waters formed part of the New Guinea and Solomon Islands Campaigns and were not directed at Australia. Two merchant navy seamen standing in front of a gun fitted to their ship The defence of the Australia Station was the Royal Australian Navy's main concern throughout the war.[2] While RAN ships frequently served outside Australian waters, escort vessels and minesweepers were available to protect shipping in the Australia Station at all times. These escorts were supported by a small number of larger warships, such as cruisers and armed merchant cruisers, for protection against surface raiders.[3] While important military shipping movements were escorted from the start of the war, convoys were not instituted in Australian waters until June 1942. The Australian naval authorities did, however, close ports to shipping at various times following real or suspected sightings of enemy warships or mines prior to June 1942. A troop convoy escorted by a RAAF Lockheed Hudson aircraft The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was also responsible for the protection of shipping within the Australia Station.[4] Throughout the war, RAAF aircraft escorted convoys and conducted reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols from bases around Australia. The main types of aircraft used for maritime patrol were Avro Ansons, Bristol Beauforts, Consolidated PBY Catalinas and Lockheed Hudsons. Following the outbreak of the Pacific War, RAAF fighter squadrons were also stationed to protect key Australian ports and escorted shipping in areas where air attack was feared. The Allied naval forces assigned to the Australia Station were considerably increased following Japan's entry into the war and the beginning of the United States military build-up in Australia. These naval forces were supported by a large increase in the RAAF's maritime patrol force and the arrival of United States Navy patrol aircraft. Following the initial Japanese submarine attacks, a convoy system was instituted between Australian ports, and by the end of the war the RAAF and RAN had escorted over 1,100 convoys along the Australian coastline.[5] As the battlefront moved to the north and attacks in Australian waters became less frequent, the number of ships and aircraft assigned to shipping protection duties within the Australia Station was considerably reduced.[6] Drummond Battery coastal defence gun emplacement near Port Kembla in 1944 In addition to the air and naval forces assigned to protect shipping in Australian waters, fixed defences were constructed to protect the major Australian ports. The Australian Army was responsible for developing and manning coastal defences to protect ports from attacks by enemy surface raiders. These defences commonly consisted of a number of fixed guns defended by anti-aircraft guns and infantry.[7] The Army's coastal defences were considerably expanded as the threat to Australia increased between 1940 and 1942, and reached their peak strength in 1944.[8] The Royal Australian Navy was responsible for developing and manning harbour defences in Australia's main ports.[9] These defences consisted of fixed anti-submarine booms and mines supported by small patrol craft, and were also greatly expanded as the threat to Australia increased.[10] The RAN also laid defensive minefields in Australian waters from August 1941.[11] While the naval and air forces available for the protection of shipping in Australian waters were never adequate to defeat a heavy or coordinated attack, they proved sufficient to mount defensive patrols against the sporadic and generally cautious attacks mounted by the Axis navies during the war.[12] 1939–1941 German surface raiders in 1940 The Italian liner Romolo being scuttled following her interception by HMAS Manoora. While German surface raiders operated in the western Indian Ocean in 1939 and early 1940, they did not enter Australian waters until the second half of 1940. The first Axis ships in Australian waters were the unarmed Italian ocean liners Remo and Romolo, which were in Australian waters when Fascist Italy entered the war on 11 June 1940, Eastern Australian Time. While Remo was docked at Fremantle and was easily captured, Romolo proved harder to catch, as she had left Brisbane on 5 June bound for Italy. Following an air and sea search, Romolo was intercepted by HMAS Manoora near Nauru on 12 June and was scuttled by her captain to avoid capture.[13] The German surface raider Orion was the first Axis warship to operate in Australian waters during World War II. After operating off the northern tip of New Zealand and the South Pacific, Orion entered Australian waters in the Coral Sea in August 1940 and closed to within 120 nmi (140 mi; 220 km) north-east of Brisbane on 11 August.[14] Following this, Orion headed east and operated off New Caledonia before proceeding south into the Tasman Sea, sinking the merchant ship Notou south-west of Noumea on 16 August and the British merchant ship Turakina in the Tasman Sea four days later. Orion sailed south-west after sinking Turakina, passing south of Tasmania, and operated without success in the Great Australian Bight in early September. While Orion laid four dummy mines off Albany, Western Australia on 2 September, she departed to the south-west after being spotted by an Australian aircraft the next day. After unsuccessfully patrolling in the Southern Ocean, Orion sailed for the Marshall Islands to refuel, arriving there on 10 October.[15] German attacks in Western Pacific, December 1940 to January 1941. Pinguin was the next raider to enter Australian waters. Pinguin entered the Indian Ocean from the South Atlantic in August 1940 and arrived off Western Australia in October. Pinguin captured the 8,998 long tons (9,142 t) Norwegian tanker Storstad[16] off North West Cape on 7 October and proceeded east with the captured ship. Pinguin laid mines between Sydney and Newcastle on 28 October, and Storstad laid mines off the Victorian coast on the nights of 29–31 October. Pinguin also laid further mines off Adelaide in early November. The two ships then sailed west for the Indian Ocean. Pinguin and Storstad were not detected during their operations off Australia's eastern and southern coasts, and succeeded in sinking three ships. Mines laid by Storstad sank two ships off Wilsons Promontory in early November, and the mines laid off Sydney by Pinguin sank one ship and a further merchant ship was damaged after striking a mine off Adelaide. Pinguin added to her tally of successes in Australian waters by sinking three merchant ships in the Indian Ocean during November.[17] On 7 December 1940, the German raiders Orion and Komet arrived off the Australian protectorate of Nauru. During the next 48 hours, the two ships sank four merchant ships off the undefended island.[18] Heavily loaded with survivors from their victims, the raiders departed for Emirau Island where they unloaded their prisoners. After an unsuccessful attempt to lay mines off Rabaul on 24 December, Komet made a second attack on Nauru on 27 December and shelled the island's phosphate plant and dock facilities.[19] This attack was the last Axis naval attack in Australian waters until November 1941.[20] Consequences of the raid on Nauru led to serious concern about the supply of phosphates from there and nearby Ocean Island, though the general situation with naval forces allowed only limited response to threats to the isolated islands.[21] There was some redeployment of warships and a proposal to deploy six inch naval guns to the islands despite provisions of the mandate prohibiting fortification but a shortage of such guns resulted in a change to a proposed two field guns for each island.[22] The most serious effect of the raid was the fall in phosphate output in 1941 though decisions as early as 1938 to increase stockpiles of raw rock in Australia mitigated that decline.[23] Another consequence was the institution of the first Trans-Tasman commercial convoys with Convoy VK.1 composed of Empire Star, Port Chalmers, Empress of Russia, and Maunganui leaving Sydney 30 December 1940 for Auckland escorted by HMNZS Achilles.[22] German surface raiders in 1941 Following the raids on Nauru, Komet and Orion sailed for the Indian Ocean, passing through the Southern Ocean well to the south of Australia in February and March 1941 respectively. Komet re-entered the Australia station in April en route to New Zealand, and Atlantis sailed east through the southern extreme of the Australia Station in August.[24] Until November, the only casualties from Axis ships on the Australia Station were caused by mines laid by Pinguin in 1940. The small trawler Millimumul was sunk with the loss of seven lives after striking a mine off the New South Wales coast on 26 March 1941, and two ratings from a Rendering Mines Safe party were killed while attempting to defuse a mine which had washed ashore in South Australia on 14 July.[20] On 19 November 1941, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney—which had been highly successful in the Battle of the Mediterranean— encountered the disguised German raider Kormoran, approximately 150 mi (130 nmi; 240 km) south west of Carnarvon, Western Australia. Sydney intercepted Kormoran and demanded that she prove her assumed identity as the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka. During the interception, Sydney's captain brought his ship dangerously close to Kormoran. As a result, when Kormoran was unable to prove her identity and avoid a battle she had little hope of surviving, the raider was able to use all her weaponry against Sydney. In the resulting battle, Kormoran and Sydney were both crippled, with Sydney sinking with the loss of all her 645 crew and 78 of Kormoran's crew being either killed in the battle or dying before they could be rescued by passing ships.[25] Kormoran was the only Axis ship to conduct attacks in Australian waters during 1941 and the last Axis surface raider to enter Australian waters until 1943. There is no evidence to support claims that a Japanese submarine participated in the sinking of HMAS Sydney.[26] The only German ship to enter the Australia Station during 1942 was the blockade runner and supply ship Ramses, which was sunk by HMAS Adelaide and HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerk on 26 November, shortly after Ramses left Batavia bound for France. All of Ramses' crew survived the sinking and were taken prisoner.[27] 1942 The Allied shipping lines between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand in July 1942. The Australian end of these shipping lines was targeted by Japanese submarines between May and August 1942. The naval threat to Australia increased dramatically following the outbreak of war in the Pacific. During the first half of 1942, the Japanese mounted a sustained campaign in Australian waters, with Japanese submarines attacking shipping and aircraft carriers conducting a devastating attack on the strategic port of Darwin. In response to these attacks the Allies increased the resources allocated to protecting shipping in Australian waters.[28] Early Japanese submarine patrols (January – March 1942) The first Japanese submarines to enter Australian waters were I-121, I-122, I-123 and I-124, from the Imperial Japanese Navy's (IJN's) Submarine Squadron 6. Acting in support of the Japanese offensive in the Netherlands East Indies these boats laid minefields in the approaches to Darwin and the Torres Strait between 12 and 18 January 1942. These mines did not sink or damage any Allied ships.[29] After completing their mine laying missions the four Japanese boats took station off Darwin to provide the Japanese fleet with warning of Allied naval movements. On 20 January 1942 the Australian Bathurst-class corvettes HMAS Deloraine, Katoomba and Lithgow sank I-124 near Darwin. This was the only full-sized submarine sunk by the Royal Australian Navy in Australian waters during World War II.[30] Being the first accessible ocean-going IJN submarine lost after Pearl Harbor, USN divers attempted to enter I-124 in order to obtain its code books, but were unsuccessful.[31] The Japanese submarine I-25. Following the conquest of the western Pacific the Japanese mounted a number of reconnaissance patrols into Australian waters. Three submarines (I-1, I-2 and I-3) operated off Western Australia in March 1942, sinking the merchant ships Parigi and Siantar on 1 and 3 March respectively. In addition, I-25 conducted a reconnaissance patrol down the Australian east coast in February and March. During this patrol Nobuo Fujita from the I-25 flew a Yokosuka E14Y1 floatplane over Sydney (17 February), Melbourne (26 February) and Hobart (1 March).[32] Following these reconnaissances, I-25 sailed for New Zealand and conducted overflights of Wellington and Auckland on 8 March and 13 March respectively.[33] Japanese naval aviation attacks (February 1942 – November 1943) A sunken ship and burnt-out wharf in Darwin Harbour following the first Japanese air raid. For more details on this topic, see Air raids on Australia, 1942–43. The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, was the heaviest single attack mounted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against mainland Australia. On 19 February, four Japanese aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū) launched a total of 188 aircraft from a position in the Timor Sea. The four carriers were escorted by four cruisers and nine destroyers.[34] These 188 naval aircraft inflicted heavy damage on Darwin and sank nine ships. A raid conducted by 54 land-based bombers later the same day resulted in further damage to the town and RAAF Base Darwin and the destruction of 20 Allied military aircraft. Allied casualties were 251 killed and between 300 and 400 wounded, the majority of whom were non-Australian Allied sailors. Only four Japanese aircraft were confirmed to have been destroyed by Darwin's defenders.[35] The bombing of Darwin was the first of many Japanese naval aviation attacks against targets in Australia. The carriers Shōhō, Shōkaku and Zuikaku—which escorted the invasion force dispatched against Port Moresby in May 1942—had the secondary role of attacking Allied bases in northern Queensland once Port Moresby was secured.[36] These attacks did not occur, however, as the landings at Port Moresby were cancelled when the Japanese carrier force was mauled in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japanese aircraft made almost 100 raids, most of them small, against northern Australia during 1942 and 1943. Land-based IJN aircraft took part in many of the 63 raids on Darwin which took place after the initial attack. The town of Broome, Western Australia experienced a devastating attack by IJN fighter planes on 3 March 1942, in which at least 88 people were killed. Long-range seaplanes operating from bases in the Solomon Islands made a number of small attacks on towns in Queensland.[37] Japanese naval aircraft operating from land bases also harassed coastal shipping in Australia's northern waters during 1942 and 1943. On 15 December 1942, four sailors were killed when the merchant ship Period was attacked off Cape Wessel. The small general purpose vessel HMAS Patricia Cam was sunk by a Japanese floatplane near the Wessel Islands on 22 January 1943 with the loss of nine sailors and civilians. Another civilian sailor was killed when the merchant ship Islander was attacked by a floatplane during May 1943.[38] Attacks on Sydney and Newcastle (May – June 1942) HMAS Kuttabul following the attack on Sydney. For more details on this topic, see Attack on Sydney Harbour. In March 1942, the Japanese military adopted a strategy of isolating Australia from the United States by capturing Port Moresby in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia.[39] This plan was frustrated by the Japanese defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea and was postponed indefinitely after the Battle of Midway.[40] Following the defeat of the Japanese surface fleet, the IJN submarines were deployed to disrupt Allied supply lines by attacking shipping off the Australian east coast. On 27 April 1942, the submarines I-21 and I-29 left the major Japanese naval base at Truk Lagoon in the Japanese territory of the Caroline Islands to conduct reconnaissance patrols of Allied ports in the South Pacific. The goal of these patrols was to find a suitable target for the force of midget submarines, designated the Eastern Detachment of the Second Special Attack Flotilla, which was available in the Pacific.[41] I-29 entered Australian waters in May and made an unsuccessful attack on the neutral Soviet freighter Wellen off Newcastle on 16 May. I-29's floatplane overflew Sydney on 23 May 1942, finding a large number of major Allied warships in Sydney Harbour.[42] I-21 reconnoitred Suva, Fiji and Auckland, New Zealand in late May but did not find worthwhile concentrations of shipping in either port.[43] On 18 May, the Eastern Detachment of the Second Special Attack Flotilla left Truk Lagoon under the command of Captain Hankyu Sasaki. Sasaki's force comprised I-22, I-24 and I-27. Each submarine was carrying a midget submarine.[44] After the intelligence gathered by I-21 and I-29 was assessed, the three submarines were ordered on 24 May to attack Sydney.[45] The three submarines of the Eastern Detachment rendezvoused with I-21 and I-29 35 mi (30 nmi; 56 km) off Sydney on 29 May.[46] In the early hours of 30 May, I-21's floatplane conducted a reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour that confirmed the concentration of Allied shipping sighted by I-29's floatplane was still present and was a worthwhile target for a midget submarine raid.[47] A Japanese midget submarine being raised from Sydney Harbour On the night of 31 May, three midget submarines were launched from the Japanese force outside the Sydney Heads. Although two of the submarines (Midget No. 22 and Midget A, also known as Midget 24) successfully penetrated the incomplete Sydney Harbour defences, only Midget A actually attacked Allied shipping in the harbour, firing two torpedoes at the American heavy cruiser USS Chicago. These torpedoes missed Chicago but sank the depot ship HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 seamen on board, and seriously damaged the Dutch submarine K IX. All of the Japanese midget submarines were lost during this operation (Midget No. 22 and Midget No. 27 were destroyed by the Australian defenders and Midget A was scuttled by her crew after leaving the Harbour).[48] Following this raid, the Japanese submarine force operated off Sydney and Newcastle, sinking the coaster Iron Chieftain off Sydney on 3 June. On the night of 8 June, I-24 conducted a bombardment of the eastern suburbs of Sydney and I-21 bombarded Newcastle. Fort Scratchley at Newcastle returned fire, but did not hit I-21. While these bombardments did not cause any casualties or serious damage, the bombardments generated concern over further attacks against the east coast.[49] Following the attacks on shipping in the Sydney region, the Royal Australian Navy instituted convoys between Brisbane and Adelaide. All ships of over 1,200 long tons (1,200 t) and with speeds of less than 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h) were required to sail in convoy when travelling between cities on the east coast.[49] The Japanese submarine force left Australian waters in late June 1942 having sunk a further two merchant ships.[50] The small number of sinkings achieved by the five Japanese submarines sent against the Australian east coast in May and June did not justify the commitment of so many submarines.[51] Further Japanese submarine patrols (July – August 1942) Damage to the merchant ship SS Allara after she was torpedoed off Newcastle in July 1942. The Australian authorities enjoyed only a brief break in the submarine threat. In July 1942, a division of three submarines (I-11, I-174 and I-175) from Japanese Submarine Squadron 3 commenced operations off the East Coast. These three submarines sank five ships (including a small fishing trawler) and damaged several others during July and August. In addition, I-32 conducted a patrol off the southern coast of Australia while en route from New Caledonia to Penang, though the submarine was not successful in sinking any ships in this area. Following the withdrawal of this force in August, no further submarine attacks were mounted against Australia until January 1943.[52] While Japanese submarines sank 17 ships in Australian waters in 1942 (14 of which were near the Australian coast) the submarine offensive did not have a serious impact on the Allied war effort in the South West Pacific or the Australian economy. Nevertheless, by forcing ships sailing along the east coast to travel in convoy the Japanese submarines were successful in reducing the efficiency of Australian coastal shipping. This lower efficiency translated into between 7.5% and 22% less tonnage being transported between Australian ports each month (no accurate figures are available and the estimated figure varied between months).[53] These convoys were effective, however, with no ship travelling as part of a convoy being sunk in Australian waters during 1942.[54] 1943 The U.S.-registered liberty ship Starr King sinking after being attacked near Port Macquarie on 10 February 1943. Japanese submarines returned to Australian waters in January 1943 and conducted a campaign against Australian shipping during the first half of the year. The IJN also conducted a diversionary bombardment of Port Gregory, a small West Australian town. Although Australia was remote from the main battlefronts, there was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during the Second World War. A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets. Among the best-known attacks are the sinking of HMAS Sydney by a German raider in November 1941, the bombing of Darwin by Japanese naval aircraft in February 1942, and the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in May 1942. In addition, many Allied merchant ships were damaged or sunk off the Australian coast by submarines and mines. Japanese submarines also shelled several Australian ports and submarine-based aircraft flew over several Australian capital cities. The Axis threat to Australia developed gradually and until 1942 was limited to sporadic attacks by German armed merchantmen. The level of Axis naval activity peaked in the first half of 1942 when Japanese submarines conducted anti-shipping patrols off Australia's coast, and Japanese naval aviation attacked several towns in northern Australia. The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia was renewed in the first half of 1943 but was broken off as the Allies pushed the Japanese onto the defensive. Few Axis naval vessels operated in Australian waters in 1944 and 1945, and those that did had only a limited impact. Due to the episodic nature of the Axis attacks and the relatively small number of ships and submarines committed, Germany and Japan were not successful in disrupting Australian shipping. While the Allies were forced to deploy substantial assets to defend shipping in Australian waters, this did not have a significant impact on the Australian war effort or American-led operations in the South West Pacific Area. |
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