Chapter 5 South West Pacific Area; Australia Builds Her Ships; Men Who Make the RAN

VIII. SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC AREA

FOLLOWING on their first attack on Malaya, Hawaii, and the Philippines-made without any declaration of war, and taking the United States of America and Britain by surprise-the Japanese advance to the southward during the first three months of 1942 was rapid and comparatively unchecked. An initial advantage is always gained by the one who gets in the first blow, and in this case the blow had been a heavy one. At the time of the Japanese attack, the United States, though working up to a strong war production effort, was by no means at full production. Australia, the main secondary producing country in the South-West Pacific Area, could not compare with either the United States or Japan in secondary production, though she had made great and commendable advances since the outbreak of the war with Germany in 1939

The war in Europe and the Middle East and Russia had made tremendous demands on British production, and also on American production for materials supplied to Britain under Lease-Lend. Britain had not only her own Home Front to supply-she had to start off from well-nigh scratch after the loss of all the equipment of the British Expeditionary Force in France-she had also main fronts to look after in Libya, Syria, Iran and Iraq, with potential fronts in India, Burma and Malaya, and Russia to supply with every ton of equipment that could be spared.

Australia, in common with the other Dominions, had given what help she could afford, with troops, with ships, and with equipment. But all the Democracies had a lot of leeway to make up on the start gained by the Totalitarian Powers, all of which had been preparing for war for years before it began in 1939. The result had been that the fighting generally in the west had been a series of delaying campaigns, in which the Democracies were holding to what they could and gaining what time was possible to build up production. The most serious factor was shipping, British and Allied merchant ship losses vitally affecting Britain's ability to reinforce her widely flung fronts as could have been desired.

The result was that the Democracies in the Eastern theatre were, at the time of Japan's attack, in much the same position as they were in the Western theatre when war broke out with Germany. They were suffering from a shortage of vital equipment -more particularly of aircraft, especially of fighter aircraft. Hence the rapid initial advance by Japan, aided materially by her stepping stones of "stationary aircraft carriers" supplied by the islands of Oceania to the east and the Malayan Archipelago to the west, through which her warships were able to operate with comparative immunity under air protection, which same air protection acted as additional artillery against the non-fighter-protected Allied ships operating in the same areas.

The time came, however, when much of the advantage of these "stationary aircraft carriers" was lost to Japan; when her advance brought her to the limits of the Malayan barrier in the west and the Solomon Islands in the east, she was faced with more or less open seas in which her fleets would have to operate on more equal terms with those of her enemies, and her wholesale advance was stayed.

Undoubtedly the fleets opposed to her were greater than she had hoped to be the case. The Pearl Harbour blow, although a heavy one, was in no way decisive. It did not-despite her oft repeated claims-give her control of the Pacific, even of the Western Pacific; nor did the capture of Singapore give her control of the Indian Ocean. Her opening blows did, however, speed up American production, and spur Australia to greater efforts in her own defence. The old story of sea power and its influence on history was being told again, and Japan's sea power, although sufficient to give her control of the Archipelago areas, was not enough to enable her to control the open oceans and cut the vital line, of communication linking her opponents. The reinforcement of the South-West Pacific Area began, and accelerated at an ever mounting pace.

One of the early moves was the establishment of a unified Allied command in the area. By arrangement between the Democratic Powers concerned, both Sea and Land Commands were vested in American naval and military leaders. These, in their respective spheres, were in supreme command, although Australian leaders retained control of the naval and military forces engaged in the local protection of the Commonwealth.

With the southward advance of the Japanese, the reinforcement of the Australian Mandated Territories had been undertaken by the Australian Government. In this work, in patrolling, in escorting troop transports and supply ships, the Royal Australian Navy in conjunction with the Royal Australian Air Force, played a major part. Much arduous, dangerous, and monotonous work was carried out by the ships and their crews, often in the face of enemy attack by intensive bombing. It was unspectacular work, which by its very nature had no public recognition, but it was work which the ships of the R.A.N.-the cruisers, A.M.S. vessels, minesweepers and others; the ships and men of the Australian Merchant Service; and those of our American, Dutch, Norwegian, and Free French Allies carried on by day and night and, in conjunction with the Allied Air Force, they have won for us our present immunity from direct attack.

It is such work that has received little or no publicity, and by its nature must largely be kept out of die public eye. But one of these days, when the full history of the war is told, the true value of the work of these ships and men will be known. It is inevitable that certain ships should, by taking part in spectacular operations that make world news, receive present publicity. But the work of the other and lesser known ships-that of such ships as the cruiser H.M.A.S. Adelaide, for instance, which has been continuous, monotonous, and exacting-has been every bit as valuable and deserving of recognition, as the story will one day show.

With the Japanese advance slowed down, and Allied strength in the South-West Pacific growing, the Allies began to hit back. Between May 4 and May 9, a series of engagements against the enemy was fought in the Coral Sea, where a major defeat was inflicted on the Japanese, in which they lost 15 ships, including the aircraft carrier Ryukaku, and three heavy cruisers, while the carrier Shokaku was severely damaged. The American naval forces-which fought the major action against the Japanese-lost three ships, the aircraft carrier Lexington, the destroyer Sims, and the tanker Neosho.

Australian naval forces took part in this battle, which was not a single clash, but a series of engagements fought over a period of days and covering a wide area. The main actions took part south of the Solomon Islands. To prevent, however, any enemy attempt against Port Moresby or north-eastern Australia, an Allied force under the command of Rear-Admiral J. G. Crace, C.B., Rear-Admiral Commanding the Australian Squadron, flying his flag in H.M.A.S. Australia (Captain H. B. Farncomb, M.V.0., R.A.N.), was operating in the western area of the Coral Sea, to the southward of New Guinea.

This force successfully withstood, without damage or loss of personnel, a fierce attack by enemy aircraft on the afternoon of May 7. The attack, which consisted of both torpedo attacks and high-level bombing, was delivered by eight Japanese twin-engined torpedo bombers, and 19 heavy bombers. The Allied force, which was without fighter protection, won the day through brilliant evasive action and the intensity and accuracy of the anti-aircraft barrage. Three of the enemy machines were shot down.

In May, and during June and July, the Japanese carried out a series of submarine attacks on merchant shipping off the east coast of Australia, and a number of ships was lost, with some loss of life. The attacks did not, however, go unavenged. On the night of May 31-June i, a determined but abortive attack by midget submarines, of the type used by the Japanese at Pearl Harbour, was made on shipping in Sydney Harbour.

The only dividend shown to the Japanese on this occasion was the torpedoing of an old ferry boat, being used as a naval depot ship, resulting in the deaths of and injuries to a small number of naval ratings. Apparently four submarines attempted the entry of the harbour. Of these at least three were destroyed by the naval defences, the wrecks of two of them subsequently being recovered from the harbour floor. In this incident, the Naval Auxiliary Patrol had its first real opportunity to display its paces, and it came out with a very fine showing.

The Japanese suffered another serious defeat during the first week in June, when a projected naval and air attack on Midway Island was beaten back with very severe losses to the enemy in both ships and aircraft, accompanied by heavy losses of personnel. This was a United States show, but two months later a most important operation was, carried out in which the Royal Australian Navy played a leading role.

The Battle of the Solomon Islands, which opened at dawn on August 7, is notable as being the first of the large scale aggressive operations carried out by the Allied forces against the Japanese. The object of the operation-in which a squadron of heavy and light cruisers of the Royal Australian Navy, under the command of Rear-Admiral V. A. C. Crutchley, V.C., D.S.C., participated-was to attack and capture the Japanese held islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

The attacking force consisted of United States naval units and an Australian cruiser squadron escorting a large fleet of transports carrying landing craft and the force of United States Marines who were to carry out the landing and subsequent operations ashore. Heavy air support, both bomber and fighter, was with the naval forces. The. operations were under the immediate command of Vice-Admiral Ghormley, U.S.N., commanding in the South Pacific Area.

The Japanese were taken completely by surprise. Australian heavy cruisers led the attacking forces assigned to both Tulagi and Guadalcanal, the attack on the two islands being made simultaneously. The landings were carried out successfully, and within a few hours the islands were in Allied hands, operations subsequently being extended to other islands in the group. Having recovered from their first surprise, the Japanese fought back heavily against the naval forces in a series of intensive air attacks on August 7 and August 8, but the only success they achieved in these efforts was on a United States transport, which was set on fire when a bomber crashed on it. That was on August 8, when the attack was carried out by torpedo bombers and practically the entire large force of Japanese aircraft was shot down.

In the early hours of the morning following, Australia suffered another naval loss when H.M.A.S. Canberra (Captain F. E. Getting, R.A.N.) was sunk during a night attack by Japanese naval forces off Guadalcanal, with 74 of her complement missing, believed killed, while 10-including the Commanding Officer - died of wounds. Once again the Royal Australian Navy had paid the price of admiralty, the price that has to be paid for sea power. It is a price that the British Navy, of which the Australian Navy is a proud part, has paid and is paying heavily in this war. To the total sum paid to date the Royal Australian Navy has given its contributions in ships and men in the Atlantic, the Indian, the Arctic, and the Pacific Oceans, during more than three years of war. The story is still unfolding.

When it is finally told, it will be shown that Australia's part in the naval war was not the least, nor her sacrifices thrown away.

IX. AUSTRALIA BUILDS HER SHIPS

"ROMANCE of shipbuilding" is a somewhat hackneyed phrase which, nevertheless, can be applied with every justification to the programme which is being implemented in Australia: a programme in which the term shipbuilding embraces the construction of new warships and merchant vessels, the fitting out of merchantmen taken over for naval use or as Hospital Ships, the equipping of merchant vessels with defensive armament, and the repairing and maintenance of craft of every description and size.

The achievements under this programme can be assessed correctly only when they are viewed in their true perspective. It has to be remembered that Australia has only some 7,000,000 inhabitants, her heavy secondary industries were, to a great extent, undeveloped until very recent years, and only one shipyard was building for the Navy before the war began. To-day there are at least seven yards turning out naval ships, while many others arc engaged in other construction and in repairs and maintenance. Every State in the Commonwealth is playing its part in the work, and much of the success of the programme is due to the policy of decentralization which has been followed. Many of the component parts are built at centres hundreds of miles from the coast.

New construction has been concentrated mainly on destroyers and Australian minesweepers, with emphasis on the latter. The destroyers selected for production in this country are "Tribal" class, the 187o-ton ships of the type which has proved so efficient in the Royal Navy's lists. The Australian minesweepers are of a type designed in Australia to fit them not only for minesweeping but for the thousand-and-one jobs which fall to the lot of escort-type sloops.

Before the war a few new ships-sloops and boom defence vessels-had been built in Australia, marking the first resumption of this activity since Adelaide, Albatross and others were completed some years earlier. When a war-time announcement made it known that 48 Australian minesweepers were to be built, there were critics who asserted that it was an impossible task. Not only has that gloomy forecast been proved incorrect, but more of this type of ship have been added to the programme, without affecting the construction of destroyers, boom defence ships, floating docks, and other categories.

Some time ago it was stated that naval vessels would be coming off the slips at the rate of two a month. To-day that average has been exceeded. A considerable proportion of the scheduled additions are already in commission. Some of them did yeoman service at Singapore and in the Netherlands East Indies, among other places, testifying to the worth of Australian design, Australian dockyard hands, and Australian crews. The fact that Australia also has built such vessels for the use of the Royal Indian Navy is a further tribute to the capacity and quality of her new-found shipbuilding prowess.

When it was announced, a few months ago, that a group of cargo vessels, of about 10,000 tons, would be built in Australia, there were those who feared that this would interfere with the programme of naval construction. But the expansion of the industry has been such that both undertakings are being put into effect without jeopardizing either.

Since the outbreak of the war, outstanding service in patrol and escort work has been rendered by former well-known passenger liners which have been converted, in Australian shipyards, into armed merchant cruisers. Other, less pretentious vessels, have been transformed into auxiliary minesweepers, and are going about their daily task of keeping coastal sea lanes free of enemy mines.

One aspect of maritime developments in Australia whose significance is not confined to any one Service has been the fitting out of three Hospital Ships. In May, ig4o, it was announced that the passenger ship Manunda (9115 tons) would be Australia's first Hospital Ship of the present war. After the necessary alterations had been made, she sailed on her first outward voyage about three months later. March of the following year provided an outstanding example of inter-Allied collaboration. Shortly before the war began, the world's largest motor ship, the 20,ooo-ton Oranje, pride of the Dutch mercantile marine, had made her maiden voyage. Now Holland had been overrun by the Nazis, but the Dutch and their colonial peoples fought on undeterred.

The announcement that the Netherlands Government had made Oranje available, for the duration of the war, for the transport of sick and wounded Australian and New Zealand servicemen, was a most tangible proof of the Dutch view as to the outcome of the conflict, and of their active membership of the United Nations. Oranjie was handed over to the Australian authorities in July, 1941, and made her first voyage to pick up wounded in the following month. In July, 1941, also, the third Hospital Ship, Wanganella (9576 tons) set out on her first trip with the red cross on her hull.

So far, Oranjie and Wanganella have gone unscathed on their errands of mercy; but the Red Cross symbol failed to protect Manunda as, with invalids on board, she lay in Darwin harbour when the Japanese made their first air raid on the port on February 19, 1942. She was considerably damaged by bombs, but made the trip southward under her own power.

In these days of total warfare, new construction and conversions are but two of many tasks confronting docks and shipyards. Mines mean paravanes and degaussing equipment for warships and merchantmen; bombers, submarines and surface raiders mean that merchant ships have to be provided with defensive armament; the wear and tear of long steaming, apart from inevitable damage by enemy action, means urgent and constant work on maintenance and repairs.

All this entails the functioning of an Australian dockyard service on a scale not visualized before the war. The strain has fallen on docks and slipways, factories and foundries, which, with few exceptions, have been called on to handle work which they had never encountered before. Their response has exceeded the most optimistic hopes; with their assistance, hundreds of merchant ships have been defensively armed, hundreds more have been fitted with anti-mining devices, and new feats of salvage and repair have been achieved.

X. MEN WHO MAKE THE R.A.N.

EVEN in this war of mechanization-and naval warfare, like every other branch, is mechanized as never before-the key to victory still lies, ultimately, in the men who wield the weapons. New ships coming into commission, existing ships to be kept at sea, shore bases to be staffed, new types of equipment to be operated-all require men, and more men.

By comparison with most of our Allies, and our enemies, the Australian Navy numerically is small, but its expansion since 1939 has far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of its founders. This, coupled with developments little short of astounding in the other Services and in war industries, has, for a country with only some 7,000,000 inhabitants, presented a problem of major proportions. But Australians, throughout the brief history of their sea-girt continent, have carried on the traditional British love of the sea; and, since the outbreak of the war, the flow of recruits to the R.A.N. has been maintained at a steady, satisfactory rate.

When the war broke out, the first step was to mobilize the members of the Reserve sections, a task which was immediately undertaken in accordance with carefully prepared plans. If there had been any fears that the number of Reservists available would not be sufficient to meet the demands of expansion-even as visualized in the very earliest days of the conflict-they must have been swept aside by the rush of volunteers from outside those ranks. To cope with this position, to balance the supply with the requirements which tended to increase gradually rather than fluctuate violently, a thoughtfully devised system of recruiting was introduced. From time to time, since then, this has been varied in certain details to meet changing circumstances and to allow for the fact that this is a war in which all sections of the community are now directly involved.

The nature of the task facing the recruiting officers, and the manner in which it has been faced, is indicated by the fact that, in September, 1942, enlistments represented an increase Of 400 per cent in the number of officers and ratings as compared with the total in April, 1939. This enlistment has not been haphazard, for, with ever-increasing specialization, every effort has been made to avoid placing square pegs in round holes, and to study the capabilities and the inclinations of individual volunteers, so that men may be allocated to the branches of the Service to which they are best adapted.

The earlier system of providing initial training for new entries at Depots in tile various States has now been abandoned in favour of a method which focuses this training at Flinders Naval Depot, Victoria. To this centre-now expanded almost beyond recognition as compared with pre-war days-go all the new entries from every State. Through courses varying according to branches, they are speedily taught the Navy's ways and prepared for drafting to ships or establishments.

Apart from a limited number of specialists, recruits now enter the Service through the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, being engaged for three years or for the duration of the war and six months thereafter. Flinders is used also for more advanced courses for officers and for serving ratings, and it continues to house the Royal Australian Naval College, where the future officers of the Permanent Naval Forces commence their studies at the age of thirteen.

Reservists mobilized to supplement the Permanent Force at and since the outbreak of the war included members of the Royal Australian Fleet Reserve, Royal Australian Naval Reserve (Seagoing), Royal Australian Naval Reserve, and Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. In addition, of course, there were officers who came in from the emergency and the retired lists. To these, more recently, have been added the members of the Naval Auxiliary Patrol, volunteers who, in every State, man the small craft which are contributing so efficiently to the policing of major ports.

Women, too, have been recruited into Australia's Navy, as members of the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service and as R.A.N. Nurses; the "WRANS", our counterpart of Britain's "Wrens", are doing valuable service, mostly as telegraphists. Recruited with the primary object of releasing male ratings for service afloat, their efficiency has enabled that aim to be attained in very considerable measure. Apart from the nurses, they are the only group of women who are officially "part and parcel of the Navy", and, before being accepted, they are required to have attained a specified, and appreciable, degree of efficiency.

To-day the majority of them staff the naval wireless station in the Federal Capital Territory. They are subject to the same discipline and conditions as men, and they do the same work. The more recently formed Nursing Service has its obvious duties to perform, and its members are now working at the naval hospitals at Flinders Depot and in Sydney.

But if initial training for new entries has been focused at one point, the whole war torn world is the field of operations for officers and men-new and old alike-of the Australian Navy. Press and radio have told the saga of the Australian ships in the Mediterranean zone: of Sydney's sinking of Bartolomeo Colleoni; of Matapan; of die campaigns in Greece and Crete and Syria; of the Somaliland action; of the Tobruk ferry and the bombardments of the Libyan coast. But this is only one aspect, though a most noteworthy one, of the work which our men and our ships have done and are doing far from our own shores.

Glance through a diary of this war at sea, and there are to be found a host of incidents, momentous and minor, in which Australians' deeds have enhanced the reputation of their young Service. There were Australians in H.M.S. Cossack to come to the rescue of other Australians in the prison-ship Altmark when the cry: "The Navy's here!" echoed from Norway's fiords to ring around the world. Australians served, too, in the two Narvik battles and throughout the campaign around Norway and Denmark. They were well to the fore in the grim fighting which preceded the overrunning of Holland, Belgium and France in May, 1940. They were in the assault on Dakar in September of that year.

Again, there were Australians in H.M.S. Hood when she was sunk in May, 1941, and there were more of them in the successful hunt which sent Bismarck to the bottom in the avenging engagement three days later. In convoys to Malta, in convoys to Russia, in the maelstrom of the Atlantic battle, Australians have played, and still arc playing, a distinguished part. They have turned up again in the combined operations which have supported the Commando raids on such enemy strongholds as Dieppe and St Nazaire.

In almost every major action, and on almost every sea, since Royal Oak was torpedoed in Scapa Flow a month after the war began, Australians have been fighting side by side with their comrades of the United Nations. Many are Reservists who, before the war, were in all manner of civilian occupations, others are Permanent Forces personnel who have not seen their home country since well before the outbreak. Broadly, they represent practically every rank and rating of the Service. In more recent months our men have been collaborating closely with their new Allies, the Americans, against the Pacific menace, but the emergence of this new theatre of war detracts not in the least from the importance of the work of those who still are fighting half a world away from their own shores, nor of those who happen to find themselves drafted to more prosaic jobs ashore.