Australian Naval History on 14 April 1941

HMAS SYDNEY embarked Australian delegates for the ABDA conference and departed for Singapore, arriving on the 19/4/41.
HMAS WATERHEN, (destroyer), rescued 430 patients and medical staff from the hospital ship VITA, bombed off Tobruk. A year later VITA was to rescue survivors from the destroyer’s sister-ship HMAS VAMPIRE.
LCDR T. K. Morrison, RAN, was awarded the OBE for gallantry while serving in HMAS HOBART during the evacuation of British Somaliland. After the Allied forces had withdrawn from the port of Berbera LCDR Morrison took the cruiser’s motor boat in close to the shore to rescue stragglers.