 |
|
|||
|
|
||||
 |
The Royal Australian Navy |
|
in the Great War 1914 - 1918 |
|
|
On 10 July 1911, King
George V received a Memorandum which stated:
It is humbly submitted to Your Majesty that the Naval Forces of Australia should, in accordance with their wishes, have the prefix Royal attached to the official title of those forces, the Ships of War of the Dominion being called His Majesty's Australian Ships. |
|
To this, King George V replied:
Thus the Royal Australian Navy came into being. Although young in years at the outbreak of war in 1914, the Royal Australian Navy was already developing into a formidable fighting force. At the commencement of hostilities it boasted a front line fleet of one battle cruiser, four light cruisers, three destroyers and two submarines. Also a Naval Board was functioning, a Naval College was operating at Jervis Bay (NSW), a training ship (Tingira) had been acquired, the building yard at Cockatoo Island had been taken over by the Commonwealth and work had started on naval bases at Western Port (VIC) and Fremantle (WA). Within six days of war being declared HMAS Australia, Sydney, Warrego, Yarra and Parramatta had arrived in New Guinea in search of the German Navy Pacific Squadron. This search proved fruitless as the squadron was heading east towards South America. On September 14, 1914 the Royal Australian Navy suffered its first major loss of the War when AE1 failed to return from a routine patrol near Rabaul. Despite searches being conducted at the time and continuing to the present, the submarine has never been found and its fate remains unknown. In late October the AIF sailed from Albany with 38 transports under the watchful escort of Australian, British and Japanese warships. It was during this voyage that the navy was to score its biggest victory of the war. The German raider Emden had been operating in the Indian Ocean and had claimed 27 Allied ships. When it attacked the wireless station at Cocos Island, the fleet was only 50 miles away. HMAS Sydney was dispatched and in a classic running battle drove the Emden ashore. Australian losses during the battle were negligible. On April 25 1915 the men of the AIF stormed the heights at Gallipoli. While not involved in the actual landing, an Australian Submarine wrote another brilliant chapter into the history of the Royal Australian Navy. AE2 had been ordered to do what no other Allied craft had been able to do, penetrate the Dardanelles and enter the Sea of Marmara. Against all odds AE2 succeeded but was scuttled a few days later by the crew after being damaged. The crew of 34 escaped the sinking and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of the Turks. By this stage new ships were being added to the Naval Strength of Australia. Three torpedo boat destroyers and two light cruisers were built in Australia. They were soon dispatched to join their sister ships fighting around the world. The rest of the war was really uneventful for the Royal Australian Navy. Anti-submarine patrols, searching for enemy raiders and convoy escort filled the orders of the day for the remainder of the war. All important duties carried out in a professional manner. Considering how small and young the Royal Australian Navy was during World War One, its achievements were really something that the people of Australia could have and were proud of.
Besides these ships the Commonwealth also owned or controlled the light cruiser Encounter, the small cruiser Pioneer, the gunboats Protector and Gayundah and the torpedo-boats Childers and Countess of Hopetoun (remnants from the old colonial flotillas) |
Sub category index
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
