HMA Ships VAMPIRE and VENDETTA, (destroyers), and BURNIE, GOULBURN, BENDIGO, and MARYBOROUGH, (corvettes), were at Singapore when Japan mounted her first air raid at 0300. MANOORA was also at Singapore, and KANIMBLA was on passage from Penang to Singapore.
The siege of Tobruk ended.
The nine RAN ships employed on the Tobruk Ferry were HMA Ships STUART, VAMPIRE, VENDETTA, VOYAGER, WATERHEN, (destroyers, the ‘Scrap Iron Flotilla’), NAPIER, NIZAM, PARRAMATTA, and YARRA. WATERHEN and PARRAMATTA were lost in the operation. Australian ships were credited with making 139 individual passages, with 39 by VENDETTA being a record number of runs of any ship in the Tobruk Ferry.
HMAS VAMPIRE, (destroyer), put to sea that evening with ships commanded by the British naval commander, ADML Sir Tom Phillips, RN, HM Ships PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE, (battleships), TENEDOS, ELECTRA, and EXPRESS,(destroyers).
The war signal, ‘Commence hostilities against Japan,’ was received at 7.43 am.
The auxiliary patrol vessel HMAS KURU, was commissioned. KURU was laid down in Sydney in 1938. She was requisitioned for the RAN, from her owners, the Northern Territory Administration, in December 1941.
The auxiliary patrol boat HMAS LARRAKIA, was commissioned.